From the Desk of Zoe Washington(31)

“Ohh, I get it,” Sean said. “She’s your girlfriend now.”

Lincoln burst out laughing.

My face got really hot, and I buried it in my hands.

“What? No,” Trevor said. “It’s not like that.”

“You totally like her!” Lincoln said.

“No!” Trevor said.

I looked up at the wall. Should I run back to the kitchen? Will they hear me if I do?

“I like her as a friend,” Trevor said. “You guys have to shut up about her. Okay?”

“Okaaay,” Sean said.

“Yeah, whatever,” Lincoln said. “So you can’t hang out?”

“I’ll catch up with you later,” Trevor said.

“Later,” Lincoln and Sean said at the same time.

Trevor’s storm door creaked open and shut, and I turned around and jetted back into the kitchen. I picked up a box of cereal and pretended to focus on reading it.

A couple of seconds later, Trevor walked in. “So you heard that.”

“Heard what?”

“I saw you run back into the kitchen when I came inside.”

“Oh,” I said.

“I’m sorry they’re such jerks,” Trevor said.

I didn’t know what to say, so I picked up my cereal bowl from before and took a bite of the Froot Loops. They’d turned totally soggy. Gross. But then I dipped my spoon back into the milk, to wash down the soggy cereal. By itself, the milk was actually pretty yummy. The cereal sweetened it up, so it wasn’t as sweet as the cereal itself, but almost. I took another sip, and the wheels in my brain started turning.

I smiled at Trevor. “I think I know what cupcakes I’m gonna bake.”

I wouldn’t just make cereal cupcakes. I’d make cereal milk cupcakes. I’d made vanilla cupcakes so many times; I had that recipe memorized already. All I’d have to do was swap out the regular milk for the Froot Loops–flavored milk. Then I could use food coloring to make the cupcakes tie-dye to match the cereal. Last, I could crumble some of the Froot Loops on top of the vanilla icing, for some extra pizazz.

After dinner a few days later, Mom and Dad were cuddled together on the couch, watching some documentary. I wished I could start baking without having to tell them first, but I didn’t want to get in trouble. I stood in the doorway and asked, “Can I use the oven?”

They both glanced up from the television. “What are you baking?” Dad asked.

“Cupcakes.”

“As long as you save one for me,” Dad said. “And don’t forget to use the oven mitts.”

“Thanks.” I ran back to the kitchen before one of them could offer to be my sous-chef.

First, I had to make the cereal milk. I poured one and a half cups of milk into a stainless-steel mixing bowl and added Froot Loops to it. I wasn’t sure how much to add, or how long the cereal would have to sit in the milk to flavor it. At Trevor’s house, it’d only been around ten minutes, so I tried that.

Then I turned the oven on to preheat to 350 degrees and started on my vanilla cupcake recipe. This was my favorite part, because I got to use my stand mixer, which I’d gotten for Christmas the previous year. It was yellow, the color of butter and sunshine. Looking at it made me happy.

I added the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt to the mixer and turned it on. Once it was all mixed up, I started combining the wet ingredients into a separate bowl. When it was time to add milk, I dipped a clean spoon into the Froot Loops milk and tasted it. It could taste a little stronger, so I left it for another ten minutes before I added the cereal milk to my cupcake batter.

I decided not to bother with the food coloring this time. I wanted to make sure I got the recipe right first.

Once everything was all mixed up, I scooped the batter into my cupcake pan and put it in the oven, setting the timer for twenty minutes.

While I waited, I started thinking about talking on the phone with Marcus. I wondered what he’d sound like. Would he have a really deep voice? Would he sound nice, or scary?

I had to make sure I asked Marcus for his alibi witness’s name, since he didn’t give it to me in his last letter. He may have wanted to leave the past behind him, but I was only getting started. When he heard how much it meant to me, he’d have to give me the name.

When the timer went off, I stuck toothpicks into a couple of the cupcakes to make sure they were done. The toothpicks came out a bit wet, so I added two more minutes to the timer and put them back in the oven.

When they were finally done, I took them out to let them cool. And then I grabbed a cupcake and broke off a piece.

Please taste good.

I took a bite, and then almost spit it out. Way too sweet! Guess the extra sugar in the milk was too much. I’d probably have to add less sugar to the next batch to even it out. Maybe I could ask Ariana or Vincent for their advice. No—I wanted to figure this out on my own. I could do what Ariana did—bake a couple of small batches with different amounts of sugar, so I could see which one tasted the best.

On the plus side, the cupcake did sort of taste like Froot Loops. My recipe was on the right track, and I wouldn’t stop trying until I nailed it.

I put the leftover cupcakes in a Tupperware container so Dad could bring them to work the next day. He once told me that his coworkers would eat any treats that he put in the office pantry.