The Icing on the Cake Read Online Free Page A

time,” she says, wiggling her slender digits with their evenly filed, perfectly clean nails. Then she smiles. “That’s not going to happen again.”
    Wow. Lillian isn’t kidding. Katie is hardcore. Butstill, she’s so cool. She points to the table, littered with dumpling scraps and blobs of sauce.
    â€œYou guys quite finished, are you? I think maybe you missed a piece of cabbage.”
    Lillian is irritated. “We were really hungry, and these are really good.”
    Dr. Wong comes to our defense. “Katie, leave the girls alone. We cannot all exist on citrus and tea.” Lillian’s mom is an amazing cook, and she’s not a pushover, either. Until very recently, I was a little afraid of her because she doesn’t seem to approve of very much. But she started to actually like a few things, including cooking class after a bumpy start, so maybe she’s not so scary after all.
    Katie shrugs at her mother again. “No, no, no. Carbs and oil, so much better for you . . . ”
    Dr. Wong clicks her tongue at Katie, who stops talking immediately. Okay, so she still is a little scary. But Lillian is really getting annoyed. “Katie, nobody asked you. And don’t start on yoursoccer-training routine again. I’m sure real athletes eat real food.”
    Katie pours the water into a pretty little teapot and swirls it around. “Sure, athletes eat real food—emphasis on the word ‘real.’ I just choose to put something in my body that’s not going to weigh me down.” She shrugs. “But that’s just me . . .”
    Really? Then why do I feel like she has a point . . . ?
    Katie gives her mother a peck on the cheek as she wafts out of the room with her tea, scooping up her totally hip messenger bag on the way.
    *  *  *
    On the way home I keep thinking about Katie, sipping tea, playing soccer, and solving the world’s problems at the Model UN. I have ambitions too, don’t I? I played soccer in elementary school and I was pretty good. Who says I can’t just transfer that talent to a spring sport, like track? I may not have gotten around to it yet, but why not start now?
    Picturing myself sprinting around a track with a flawless ponytail bouncing against my back and my parents cheering from the sidelines makes me smile. Oh, and look who’s behind them—none other than some cute boy, yelling out my name (hey, it’s a fantasy, right?). If Katie can do it all, why couldn’t I make the track team and the honor roll this semester? And give rousing speeches at seventh-grade assemblies on the need for compostable plates and cups in the cafeteria! Who says I can’t be supersmart, righteous, and freakishly fast, too? Maybe I’ll brew myself an elegant little cup of tea and retire to my room to plot my ambitions. Color-code a few notebooks and highlighters and index cards, just to help me juggle all the activities. How does she do it all? people will say—and I’ll just smile modestly and wave them off. Keep calm and reshape the world to my exacting specifications. . . .
    I open our front door, still thinking about the new me. When I step inside, my little brother Nicky and his friend Julian practically mow me down as they bash ateach other with cardboard swords. My older brothers Leo and Joey, known as The Goons, are in the living room with a couple of other hairy teenage meatheads, trying to figure out the chords to some song on their bashed-up guitars. There’s a pile of boat-size shoes right by the door. I stumble over them and practically choke from the nasty smell. Mom yells up from the basement at one brother or another—or maybe all three—and suddenly I just can’t stand it. I race up the stairs and slam the door of my room. I need to get myself some feng shui right now!

CHAPTER 5
Liza

    For the first time ever, we’re not running late to