Katie and the Cupcake War Read Online Free Page A

first day of school?”
    â€œWell,” I said, unsure of how much I wanted to tell her about Callie, “mostly it was pretty good.”
    â€œGreat!” she said. “Can’t wait to hear all about it when I get home. Now please begin your homework, okay? I’ll be home to start dinner soon.”
    I hung up. The house was quiet and empty, so I decided to go to my room and blast my iPod while I did my homework.
    My room is kind of small, but it has everything I need in it. The furniture is this white bedroom set that was my mom’s when she was a little girl, and Grandma Carole and Grandpa Chuck saved it in case Mom ever had a little girl of her own—me! A few years ago I started putting stickers on everything, and Mom got a little mad, but then Grandma Carole told her it was my set now, and it should reflect my personality. My grandma is pretty cool that way.
    During the summer I used some of my Cupcake Club earnings to get stuff for my room that I sawin a catalog. Over my desk there’s a big cupcake-shaped bulletin board that I can stick pictures on. There are two pink cupcake-shaped pillows on top of my purple-and-green bedspread too.
    I try to keep my room neat, but mostly I end up sticking things in the closet. Then when I can’t shut the door, I have to clean everything up before Mom sees it. Luckily, I had just done that before school started, so things were looking pretty nice.
    I opened my backpack, put all my books on top of my desk, and then turned on the laptop Grandma Carole and Grandpa Chuck got me for my last birthday. Then I plugged my iPod into the dock on the nightstand next to my bed and turned it all the way up.
    Mom never would have let me play music so loud during homework time, so it felt pretty daring. I didn’t really have much to do anyway, since it was the first day of school. Ms. Harmeyer’s assignment was to write a poem about one thing you did this summer. I think my poems always end up sounding corny, so I decided to wait until Mom came home to help me. She was really good at writing stuff. Instead I went online to look up some cupcake ideas for the fund-raiser.
    I got distracted by all the ads for cupcake supplies that kept popping up, and before I knew it, it was five forty-five. I thought that was weird, because Mom always gets home by five thirty on the dot.
    A few minutes later I heard Mom’s voice calling up the stairs.
    â€œKatie! Turn that down!”
    I quickly ran to shut off the iPod and then bounded down the steps. Mom was at the bottom wearing jeans and a white blouse, which was also weird because she always wears her scrubs home.
    â€œHey, you’re late,” I said. “Did you have an emergency at work?”
    â€œKatie, I told you, I didn’t go to work today,” Mom said. “I had to take Grandma Carole to the doctor again.”
    â€œUm, no, you did not tell me that,” I said. “Is she okay?”
    â€œWe’ll talk about it at dinner, Katie,” Mom replied. “I ordered us a pizza. It’ll be here soon.”
    I couldn’t believe it. Mom and I had pizza last night. Normally, Mom won’t even let us order pizza. She makes it herself, including the crust. And when we do order it in, she makes us get veggies ontop of it. So delivery pizza two nights in a row was totally out of the ordinary.
    â€œBut we just had pizza last night,” I reminded her.
    Mom sighed. “I’m sorry, Katie. I forgot.”
    â€œHow could you forget?” I asked. “Remember, we got eggplant and black olives for the very first time, and you said it was the best pizza yet.”
    Mom motioned me over to the couch. “Katie, let’s talk now. You should know what’s going on,” she said. She sounded superserious, and I felt a little scared.
    I sat down next to her.
    â€œKatie, it looks like Grandma Carole is going to have surgery for her heart,” Mom said. “The