Bling It On! (2 page)

“Yes!” Brooke cheered, and sat down. Then she
popped up. “Thank you!” she squeaked, and sat down once more.

“Brooke and Sophie can help,” Charlotte said, clapping. “That's perfect. Then our booth will have three manicurists, just like the salon.”

Since Aly and Brooke were co-CEOs of the Sparkle Spa—initials that stood for chief executive officer and meant they were in charge of their business together—Aly figured Brooke would probably want to be co-CEO of the carnival booth, even if she wasn't a fifth or sixth grader. And Aly thought that was okay.

But would a Sparkle Spa booth actually make enough money for the carnival, especially since such a great prize—and Charlotte's cookie bet—was on the line? And then, just like that, Aly had a worse worry: What if their proposal for a Sparkle Spa booth
wasn't
chosen? What would they do then to win the prize?

A
ly and Brooke's mom had lots of rules for the Sparkle Spa:

1. It could be open three days a week (Tuesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays—unless a special event was scheduled).

2. They could offer four services to their customers (manicures, pedicures, hair braiding, bracelet making, but no makeup or tattoos).

And the most important one to Mom:

3. The girls had to finish homework before polishing nails.

Since it was Tuesday, the girls headed over to the Sparkle Spa after school.

Tuesday was the sisters' favorite day at the salon. That was when every single girl on the Auden Elementary soccer team—the Auden Angels—came to the spa. Jenica Posner, the captain of the team and also the coolest sixth grader, had really been the reason Aly and Brooke started the Sparkle Spa in the first place.

A few months ago when all the True Colors manicurists were busy, Mom allowed Aly to give Jenica a rainbow sparkle pedicure, and then Jenica played really well in her soccer game. After that, the entire soccer team wanted rainbow sparkle pedicures every
week—they were sure it gave them sparkle power. Their sparkle power took them all the way to the state finals, where they won!

Now the Angels were playing indoor soccer for the winter season and wanted to keep up their sparkle power, which meant pedicures every Tuesday.

“So,” Jenica said as she climbed into one of the two pedicure chairs. “Are you going to have a Sparkle Spa booth at the carnival?”

Aly and Brooke had talked about it on the walk from school to the salon. Aly still wasn't convinced it was the best idea. And she hadn't mentioned a word about the Cameron and Charlotte Cookie Bet. Aly had made Charlotte promise not to say anything to anyone, just in case it somehow got back to her mother and Joan that they'd promised a batch of Joan's cookies without asking her first.

“Maybe,” Brooke said. She turned on the faucet
in the pedicure basin, filling it with soapy water to soak Jenica's feet. “I think it's a good idea. Aly sort of does. But she's a little worried we won't make enough money at the carnival because of how long it takes us to do manicures.”

“Right,” Aly said. She was giving Anjuli Jones, the Angels' goalie, a pedicure. Anjuli always had her fingers polished as well as her toes. She switched up her colors each week, and this time she handed Aly a bottle of Red-y, Set, Go for her nails.

Brooke took a towel to dry off Jenica's feet. “Do you think any of the Angels would want to learn how to do manicures?” she asked. “If we had more people polishing, we could make more money at the booth.”

Aly looked around at the Angels. Mia crinkled her nose. Bethany's face was scrunched up like she'd just sucked on an extra-sour piece of candy.

“Probably not,” Jenica answered. “I think we should stick to what we're good at.”

“Plus, we want to run a goalie booth,” Mia added from the bracelet-making area. She was stringing blue and white beads onto a piece of wire. “People can pay a dollar to try and score a goal off Anjuli. If they do, we'll give them a prize.”

“I don't think we'll need that many prizes,” Bethany said, handing Mia a blue bead. “Hardly anyone ever scores off Anjuli.”

Anjuli smiled as she dipped her toes into the basin in front of her. “Maybe I'll let some of the kindergarteners score on purpose, so they can get the prizes.”

“And me,” Brooke said. “You should let me score so
I
can get a prize.”

Everyone in the salon laughed.

“That's a great idea for a booth,” Lily said. She was standing at her favorite spot in the Sparkle Spa,
between the teal strawberry-shaped donation jar and the polish wall. She liked to help people pick out colors if they weren't sure which ones they wanted. And when they were done, she reminded customers to make a donation before they left.

Another one of Mom's rules was that the girls couldn't charge for their services, but they could ask for donations. The Sparkle Spa donated the money they got to whatever local charity they agreed could use the help.

“Hey, everyone, don't forget your donations on the way out!” Lily said, pointing to the sparkly teal strawberry.

“Have you ever given the Sparkle Spa donations to the Community Chest?” Jenica asked.

Aly hadn't thought about that, but it wasn't a bad idea. She gave Brooke a Secret Sister Eye Message:
What do you think?

Brooke nodded.

“That's a great thought,” Aly said. “I wonder . . .” She paused. “I wonder if we can have it count toward the girls' money at the carnival?”

Charlotte was standing at the appointment wall, where the Sparkle Spa schedule was taped up. “Probably not,” she said. “The rules were about who raises the most money at the carnival, not just who donates the most.”

“That's a good point,” Brooke said. “Maybe we can ask some younger kids if they want to learn how to give manicures. Principal Rogers said they're allowed to help at the booth.”

Aly shuddered at the thought of trying to teach kindergarteners how to polish nails. But then again, she'd first learned in kindergarten. “Maybe,” she said.

“Maybe what?”

Aly turned around as her mom walked into the
Sparkle Spa, went over to the mini-fridge, and took out a bottle of water.

“Maybe we'll have a Sparkle Spa booth at the school carnival and train other kids to do manicures,” Brooke told her. “Because we want the girls to win so we can go to Water World for free.”

Mom took a sip of water. “It sounds like there's a lot more to this story that I need to hear later.”

“There is, Mrs. Tanner,” Lily said.

“We can talk at dinner,” Mom said to Aly and Brooke.

Aly wondered what her mom would think about training kindergarteners. Since Mom was the CEO of True Colors, Aly and Brooke asked her their business questions all the time, and she almost always knew the right answers.

Mom left the salon, and Aly returned to Anjuli's toes.

The afternoon went quickly, especially after Sophie arrived and started to help. She was the Sparkle Spa's third manicurist but had to come late that day.

“Sorry,” she said. “Dentist.”

The Angels nodded in sympathy.

*  *  *

Once the Auden Angels had their toes done and Lily and Charlotte and Sophie had gone home, Aly and Brooke were alone in the Sparkle Spa, straightening up. Brooke was reorganizing the bottles on the polish wall, arranging them in color order. Aly was putting all the trash in one big bag so they could take it to the Dumpster outside.

All of a sudden, Brooke stopped, a bottle of Starlight Starbright in her hand. “I've got it!” she yelped. “We can add a fast treatment to the Sparkle Spa booth!”

Aly tied the trash bag. “Fast treatment?”

Brooke pushed her glasses up on her nose. “We shouldn't
just
do manicures. You and Charlotte are both really good at hair braiding, and it's really quick to do. We can do ‘slow' manicures and ‘fast' hair braiding, and then we'll make a lot more money.”

Aly thought it through. “Yes!” she said to Brooke. “That's perfect!”

Then she thought for a second more. “What if you and Sophie braided too, and we just had a
braiding
booth?”

Brooke tugged on her own braid—a fishbone one that Aly had done that morning—and said, “Well, I think our customers are expecting a Sparkle Spa manicure booth. After the assembly, everyone was talking about it—so I think we have to have one. Right?”

“I guess so,” Aly said. “And maybe Principal Rogers is more likely to pick our idea if we have both.
I'll call Lily and Charlotte tonight, and we can all work on the application tomorrow after school.”

“Yesss!” Brooke said. “I can't wait to tell Sophie.”

Aly found herself smiling as she went to toss the trash bag into the Dumpster. Brooke always came up with the best ideas. For the first time since Lily suggested the booth, Aly felt like they had a really good shot at making money for the girls' team. Hopefully, Principal Rogers would feel the same way!

T
he next day at lunch, Aly, Lily and Charlotte were hanging out on the monkey bars. Lily was dangling from the first bar, trying to do a pull-up. But her left arm was a little bit stronger than her right, so she could only do it partway. She jumped down to the ground and Charlotte climbed up. Charlotte couldn't do a pull-up at all, but she did have a good view of the rest of the playground.

“Suzy Davis Alert!” Charlotte blurted, and jumped down. “She's on her way over.”

About thirty seconds later, Suzy Davis showed up. Lately, it seemed that Aly and her friends couldn't escape Suzy. She
always
showed up at recess when they were together: They couldn't be at the monkey bars or the tire swing or the hopscotch court without Suzy butting in.

Aly and Suzy Davis used to not like each other at all. But a few weeks ago, for School Picture Day, Suzy had started her own business, which she called Suzy's Spectacular Makeup. She put fairy dust and shimmer lip gloss on anyone who was willing to pay a dollar. The business had almost been a disaster until Aly, Lily, and Charlotte helped her out. After that, Suzy wasn't as mean to Aly as she used to be, and Aly liked Suzy a little bit more, but they still were definitely not friends.

“So are you going to have a Sparkle Spa booth for the carnival?” Suzy asked.

“That's our plan,” Aly said. “But we still have to write our proposal.”

“I finished my proposal already,” Suzy said, leaning against the metal pole that held up the monkey bars. “It's going to be Suzy's Spectacular Makeup, just like on Picture Day, but even better because now I also have perfume. Everyone will get fairy dust and shimmer lip gloss and a spritz of perfume. It'll be the best booth at the whole carnival. The girls' side will win because of me.”

“That sounds great,” Aly said. “Are you going to ask younger kids to work the booth with you?”

“Good question,” Lily said as she climbed back up onto the first monkey bar. “Because last time we had to help you, remember? You couldn't do it fast enough all by yourself.”

“Whatever,” Suzy said, pushing herself off the pole. “I bet Principal Rogers isn't going to pick your
booth anyway, even if you have a million people working there. No one wants to sit for a manicure in the middle of a carnival.”

She started walking away, and Charlotte yelled after her. “We're doing hair braiding, too!”

Lily finally pulled herself up and got her chin up over the bar. “I did it!” she said, and then jumped off the bar.

“Nice!” Charlotte said.

Aly gave Lily a hug. She'd been trying to do a chin-up on the monkey bars for at least a month now. But even while she was hugging Lily, Aly was worrying about what Suzy Davis had said. Even with the braiding, would people want to come to their booth?

*  *  *