Cupcake Girl Read Online Free

lose her. I didn’t want to change things or make them feel all awkward and weird because I got lightheaded when she smiled. So I pretended nothing had ever happened, which I guess was the truth, and tried to hide the way I felt every time she looked my way.

3
    The Power of
X
    For the most part, I did a pretty good job of concealing my feelings for Lexie and only had occasional relapses. One of these took place just a few months into our junior year, at our last home race for the cross-country season. I was warming up when I saw her walk over to the field, carrying a bakery box to the refreshment table for our potluck party after the race. When she popped open the lid and started arranging frosted cupcakes on a plate, I couldn’t suppress a grin. Memories of superhero comic books and endless summer days of playtime washed over me.
    About the time Lexie and I learned how to read, we discovered we were bound together by the letter
X
. We were the only two kids in our entire class, and possibly the entire school, that had an
X
in our names. We were convinced the letter gave us special powers. We spent the whole summer after first grade pretending we were X-Class superheroes. We ran around yelling, “We stand for truth, justice, and the power of X!”
    Our game was a shameless rip-off of the X-Men comics, though at the time we thought we were totally original. It gave me good teasing material over the years, since Lexie was Cupcake Girl. Yep, Cupcake Girl, which meant she could shoot frosting from one hand—really sticky frosting that could turn a person into a statue when it hardened. She could make small cupcakes that contained healing powers, which always came in handy when we were wounded by imaginary villains. She also made big hollow cupcakes that could be a shield for her or a trap for her enemies.
    I’ve teased Lexie about being Cupcake Girl many times over the years, but I usually have to shut up when she reminds me that I was Strong Man. Yes, I did come up with that name myself, but hey, we were like seven years old.
    Anytime we weren’t playing out at the lake, we were inside creating our own X-Class comic books. Lexie is an amazing artist, so she drew the illustrations while I did the writing. Whenever we finished a comic, instead of high-fiving, we made an
X
with our index fingers.
    It had been a while since I’d bugged her about being Cupcake Girl, but I couldn’t resist that day at the cross-country meet. I caught her attention with a quick wave and she smiled back. I did my best to keep a straight face as I limped toward her, hopping a little as I went.
    “Max! Are you okay? Did you twist your ankle?” Her face was creased with worry, but I still grimaced as I approached her. “Don’t worry, it’s okay. At least I
will
be okay, if I can just get—”
    “Ibuprofen?” Lexie suggested. “Or I can go grab an ice pack from the coach . . .” Her voice trailed off as her eyes scanned the field, no doubt looking for the first-aid kit and cooler.
    “No, don’t leave. What I actually need is . . .” I bent down and massaged my ankle. “A cupcake.”
    Her eyes widened and her jaw dropped slightly before she smirked. “Oh, really?”
    “Come on, Cupcake Girl—one bite of that enticing cupcake and my ankle will be good as new.”
    Lexie narrowed her eyes. “But how do I know you’re the real Strong Man? I mean, Strong Man would never limp—he’s much too powerful for that. How do I know you’re not the evil Dr. X-Out, trying to destroy the powers of truth, justice, and the power of X?”
    “Oh, I’m definitely Strong Man,” I boasted, reaching both arms behind my head and flexing my biceps obnoxiously.
    She rolled her eyes. “Then prove it.” She moved the cupcake from hand to hand in an obvious invitation to play keep away. We laughed as I followed her movements, swiping at the cupcake until she hid it behind her back.
    My arm circled around her waist. “Only Strong Man would be able to do