Makeover Magic (5 page)

“Aly has an idea for a special promotion for boys in Sparkle Spa. I think it might work in True Colors, too.”

“Even if they don't want their nails polished, we can try to get them to have clean fingers,” Aly explained.

“We can call them
man
-icures!” Brooke said with a laugh.

Mom smiled. A genuine big smile. “Fantastic!” she said. “Joan, when you and the girls are done with your pizza, let's figure out a plan. Princess Polish won't know what hit 'em.”

O
n Monday, Aly made sure to find Jenica before the first bell. She told her the boy plan for Sparkle Spa. Jenica loved it. “I'll spread the word,” she said. “Don't worry, we'll have your salon filled with guys in no time. Man-icures it is.”

By recess, Aly couldn't believe how quickly Jenica and her friends had relayed the message. Everyone at Auden Elementary knew about the man-icures. Some sixth-grade boys wouldn't set foot in anything that had the word “sparkle” in it, but three of them
came up to Aly at recess, asking for appointments. They started with “Jenica told me . . .” or “Mia told me . . .” or “Anjuli told me . . . ,” and they finished by asking about a “thumbs-up man-icure,” stressing the “man” part.

Aly was standing against the fence that surrounded the soccer field, talking to Charlotte and Lily, when Lucas walked up to her.

“You're Aly, right?” he said.

Aly nodded. But she couldn't squeak out any words.

“So Jenica told me,” he said, “that all guys should get man-icures for the ball. So I was thinking maybe I should book one.”

Aly nodded again.

Then Lily elbowed her, which seemed to fix whatever had happened to her mouth.

“Okay,” Aly said. “That'd be great.” She pulled
the little Sparkle Spa appointment book out of the pocket of her jean shorts—the one that she brought to school so she could transfer appointments into the bigger one later—and opened it up. “Do you want the special thumbs-up man-icure or just a regular man-icure?”

“Thumbs-up means a color?” Lucas asked.

“Yes,” Aly said. “Like black or green or gold or blue or really anything you want. Just on your thumbs, though.”

Lucas looked down at his fingers, then back up at Aly. “I think just regular,” he said. “No offense, I've just never had polish on my fingernails, you know?”

“Sure,” Aly said, even though she wanted to explain to him that Caleb had looked really cool with his thumbs-up man-icure. “How's Saturday at one thirty?”

“That works for me.” Lucas put his hand out to
shake Aly's. She stuck her pen in her pocket and stuck her hand out too. She couldn't believe she was actually touching Cute Lucas's skin.

“See you Saturday,” Lucas said. And then he left to go join a soccer game on the field.

“Oh my gosh, Cute Lucas is coming!” Charlotte said. “I'm so glad I'm braiding hair so I can see him there.”

“I think maybe I have to come in and string some more beads,” Lily said. “You need more, right?”

Aly laughed. “Absolutely,” she said.

After Lucas made his appointment, two more sixth-grade boys came by asking about man-icures, followed by a couple of fifth graders.

“I know I'm not going to the dance,” said Garrett, who sat next to Aly in class, “but I want a man-icure anyway—one like Caleb's.”

Cameron, who was also in Aly's class, made a face, but Caleb high-fived Garrett while Aly opened
her appointment book again. “No problem,” she said. “Let's pick a time.”

By the end of the school day, Aly was thrilled with the success of the man-icure promotion—at least seven boys were coming. A few girls had booked nail appointments too, along with sparkle braids. Even though Sparkle Spa was closed on Mondays, Aly asked Brooke if she wanted to stop by True Colors to tell Mom about all the appointments and new customers.

“Definitely,” Brooke said. “And then we can get Sparkly from the salon and take him to the park.”

The two girls took their usual route from school to True Colors, walking slowly, not worrying about how long it took them to get there. The sun was shining, they had tons of customers, and nothing could ruin their happy mood. Not even Princess Polish.

When they got to the salon, they saw a couple of
new signs in the window. One was for man-icures. In midnight blue lettering, the sign read:

Mom had added a hand-drawn illustration to the poster. The girls had only recently learned how good an artist their mother was, and Aly was amazed by how realistic the hands looked.

Next to the man-icure poster was another one that Aly and Brooke weren't expecting:

On this poster, Mom had drawn feet at the bottom and decorated the border with images of math equations, alphabet letters, an apple, a ruler, and various other school supplies.

Aly stopped in her tracks. “Brooke, do you see what I see?” she asked.

“The half-price offer for teachers?” Brooke asked back.

“Yes,” Aly said, looking away from the sign and over at her sister.

“Does that mean . . . Mrs. Fishman?” Brooke asked in horror. Mrs. Fishman was Brooke's third-grade teacher. She and Brooke didn't get along very well. Well, they got along fine when Brooke stopped jabbering all day long, but that didn't happen too often.

Aly nodded. “I think it could. And Mrs. Glass and Mrs. Roberts.”

Brooke's eyes were enormous behind her glasses.
“If all those teachers come in and we have to see their bare feet . . . I don't think I can do this.”

Aly felt the same way as Brooke—teachers should stay in school. They shouldn't become customers of your mother's nail salon. But then Aly glanced back across the street at Princess Polish.

“It's for business, I guess,” Aly said.

Brooke shook her head. “Teacher feet! What's next?”

Aly laughed. “I don't know, Brookster. Principal Rogers's toes?”

Princess Polish was making their lives more interesting, that was for sure.

T
he girls opened Sparkle Spa on Tuesday and Thursday that week—taking care of as many advance Fall Ball appointments as they could before Saturday's rush—so on Friday afternoon, Aly was free to focus on decorating the school gym for the dance.

“I'm
soooo
excited,” Charlotte said as she and Lily walked down the hall with Aly. “Did you sign up for balloons, Lily?”

“I did,” Lily said.

When the girls got to the gym, they checked in
with Miss Gonzales, who was the newest sixth-grade teacher and was in charge of the dance. “Balloons are in the back corner, girls,” she said, looking at the list on her clipboard. Then she added, “Can you please tie the ribbons on for the boys? They're over by the helium tank.”

“But—” Lily began.

Aly gave her a look that said,
Shush.
“No problem,” she told Miss Gonzales.

“We'll ask the boys to switch later,” she whispered to Lily. “Don't worry.”

As the girls walked through the gym, they couldn't believe how busy it was everywhere.

One group of fifth graders was coloring posters with glitter markers. Another was laying out tablecloths on the folding tables and sprinkling glitter on top. There were kids twisting purple and gold streamers—Auden's colors—and handing them to teachers who were up on ladders, attaching them to walls and
rafters. The gym was definitely starting to look less like a place for PE and more like a place where people would wear fancy clothes and beads in their hair.

Caleb and Garrett were filling balloons with helium, then handing them to Daniel and Bennett, who knotted them closed.

Aly, Charlotte, and Lily took the balloons and tied long purple and gold ribbons to each one. They started chatting as they worked.

“Are we all set with customers tomorrow?” Charlotte asked. “I'm still doing braids, right?”

Aly nodded. “Absolutely. I think it will be crowded . . . though the schedule isn't completely filled yet.”

Aly was disappointed that some of the girls from the soccer team—Bethany, Maxie, Valentina, and Joelle—hadn't signed up for appointments. It could mean that they weren't going to the ball or that they
just didn't want to get their hair or nails done, but Aly suspected it meant they'd chosen to go to Princess Polish instead. It wouldn't be so bad if sixth graders Aly didn't know very well did that, but it upset her to think some of her regulars might.

“It's okay, Aly,” Charlotte said, seeming to read her thoughts. “We don't need
all
the sixth-grade girls who are going to the ball there. We just need enough of them to keep us busy all day.”

“And enough so that we make money to help out True Colors,” Aly said, because that was really the point of this. “As long as my mom agrees to take it, that is. It's going to be a big surprise.”

“We're going to make so much money,” Lily said as she tied a golden string tightly to the bottom of a balloon. “I can help too, right?”

“You can be the organizer and donations collector,” Aly said. During the polish-a-thon that raised
money for Paws for Love, Aly and Brooke had organizers, and it had really helped the day go smoothly. “You can make sure everyone knows when their appointments are and remind them to make a donation before they leave. And you can keep an eye on the boys so they don't get too . . . boyish.”

Lily laughed. “I'll make sure to tell them about the suggested donation of three dollars. I'll keep saying it, so everyone really understands.” She and Aly had come up with the idea of suggested donation amounts during lunch that day, figuring it would be a good way to guide customers toward fair donations for True Colors.

Lily tied another ribbon to another balloon and then let it float up to join all the others they'd already finished. The ceiling was starting to look really cool, with the lights shining through the balloons casting purple and gold spots all over the gym floor. “Do you
think we can trade places with the boys at the helium tank now?”

Charlotte nodded. Lily went to talk to Caleb and the rest of the boys, who had started playing keep-away with a purple balloon. Mr. Mehta, the music teacher, who was in charge of the helium tank, didn't look too happy.

But the person walking toward them looked
really
happy. It was Aly's least favorite person in the whole school: Suzy Davis. She'd been mean for as long as Aly could remember, and she'd been especially mean to Aly since Sparkle Spa had opened.

“Hey, Aly,” Suzy said, holding a box of markers and smiling the biggest smile Aly had ever seen on her. “So I heard Princess Polish is taking all your customers. I mean, I understand why. Who would want to come to your silly little back room when they can go to a real, grown-up spa and be treated like a princess? For free.”

Aly swallowed. Whenever Suzy said something like that to her, Aly didn't know how to respond. Mostly because what Suzy said always sounded like it might be true. Who
would
want to come to Sparkle Spa when there was a real spa that welcomed kids right across the street?

Charlotte walked a few steps closer to Aly and snapped a knot in a Plum Delicious–colored balloon. “For your information,” she said to Suzy, “Sparkle Spa has a packed schedule tomorrow. And
I'm
braiding hair.”

“Well, Heather and I,” Suzy said, “are going to Princess Polish to get ready for our parents' anniversary party. I'm sure that their braiders are better than you.”