Alexis and the Perfect Recipe Read Online Free Page A

see who she was talking to, and it was Matt and his friend!
    Callie was pink and she was grinning from ear to ear. What was going on? In confusion, I looked back and forth between the two pairs of friends.
    Matt and his friend smiled at Callie and Sydney and nodded in greeting. Matt’s friend said something quietly to Matt and Matt nodded again, laughing.
    I opened my mouth to say hi to Matt, but thought better of it. I snapped it shut and put my head back down. I couldn’t tell if he had seen me. I wondered if either of the boys was the one that Callie liked from camp, and crossed my fingers that it wasn’t Matt. Talk about variables! I definitely didn’t factor that into my experiment!
    Okay, calm down, I told myself. Deep breaths, Alexis. This was excellent data to collect. I didn’t say hi first and he didn’t say hi either. But if I said hi first, he certainly would have said hi back. And, maybe next time, he would say hi first. I mean, maybe he didn’t even see me, right? And if he didn’t see me, how would he know I was wearing a skirt?
    How utterly humiliating.
    Later, at lunch, I tried to casually grill Emma for information on Matt. I wanted to see if I could piece together whether Callie liked him, or the friend he was with in the hall. But I had to do allthis without making Emma suspicious—and that was not easy.
    I peeled off the top of my yogurt container and as casually as I could, I asked, “What are you guys thinking of for next summer?”
    Mia sighed. “I’d really like to do a fashion design camp in the city,” she said. “It’s almost like summer school. The only problem is that it’s expensive and my mom’s also not wild about me sitting indoors under fluorescent lights all summer. I think I have Eddie on my side though, so we’ll see.” Eddie is her stepfather, and he is awesome.
    â€œI think I might go to the camp that my mom went to when she was a girl,” Katie said. “You know, the one she went to with Callie’s mom?”
    Bingo! “Oh,” I said. “Is that the camp where Callie went last summer?”
    Katie nodded as she unwrapped her sandwich. “It’s supposed to be really fun.”
    â€œRight, I was at the same camp,” I reminded her. “It was fun. You got to try all different kinds of sports and activities.”
    Emma nodded, swallowing a gulp of chocolate milk. “Matt went last year too, and he loved it. He was a lifeguard so it was, like, half-price.”
    What? Matt was at the same camp as me lastsummer? Why didn’t I remember this? I sputtered and almost choked.
    â€œWhoa! Hands up in the air!” said Mia, patting my back.
    Mortified, I looked around the lunchroom to make sure no one else had seen me. I coughed and cleared my throat.
    â€œThat’s cool,” I said in a froggy voice. “Did he . . .  ahem! ” I cleared my throat again. “Did he go with friends?” I asked as innocently as possible.
    Emma looked quizzically at me, then slowly said, “Why, yes. He went with Joe Fraser.”
    â€œOh!” I nodded and quickly looked down, pretending to scrape the bottom of my yogurt cup. So there was hope! Maybe that guy today was Joe Fraser! “Anyway, maybe you’ll be in my bunk,” I suggested to Katie.
    â€œThat would be great!” said Katie enthusiastically.
    Emma was still looking at me, so I shrugged and added, “Or maybe I’ll go to math camp . . . or this cool business camp I read about.”
    Katie looked puzzled, but didn’t say anything.
    â€œOh, Alexis!” said Mia playfully. “Leave it to you to find a business camp for kids!”
    â€œSpeaking of which, are we meeting today?”Emma asked, finally turning her attention away from me. Whew! There would be no more fishing for information about Matt today. Emma was definitely suspicious, and I knew in my