Read Online Julia’s Kitchen by Brenda A. Ferber - Free Book Online Page B

excited when everyone wanted to know who had made the giant, delicious, heart-shaped cookies.
    That very night, we talked Mom into starting Julia’s Kitchen. We sat around the dinner table, all four of us, coming up with names for the business. “That’s the Way the Cookie Crumbles” was Dad’s suggestion. We cracked up over that one. We thought of “Cookies and More,” “Cookies Galore,” “Segal’s Sweets,” and “Just Desserts.” Then I came up with “Julia’s Kitchen.” Mom said she liked it because it sounded “sophisticated, sweet, and homey.”
    I had pictured Mom as the next Mrs. Field or Famous Amos. Not dead within a year. I crumpled the flyer and tossed it into the trash with the rest of my papers. Taking off Mom’s necklace, I stared at the picture of her on the raft in Florida, and went to sleep.

seven
    The day before our Valentine’s Day celebration at school, Marlee and I signed valentines for the class party at her kitchen table. Personally, I thought we were too old to pass out those silly valentines, but Mr. Temby said that signing valentines was our homework assignment that night. The cards I’d bought at Snyder’s weren’t too cutesy. No little teddy bears or ducks or anything. And no hearts or lovey-dovey things either. They were just plain cards with a tie-dyed design that said, Happy Valentine’s Day, Friend! Marlee’s valentines were the kind you stick a lollipop through.
    While we worked, the stuffed pasta shells Mrs. Rosen was making for dinner bubbled and baked in the oven, and we breathed in the smells of garlic and melted mozzarella. I was halfway through the class list, going alphabetically. Marlee didn’t look at the list. She just wrote out the cards as she thought of the kids in our class.
    Max came into the kitchen and swiped a lollipop off the table.
    â€œHey, give it!” Marlee said.
    Max ripped open the plastic and shoved the lollipop into his mouth. “Oops! Too late,” he said, grinning. “Unless you want it now.” He held the wet candy in front of Marlee’s face.
    â€œYou’re disgusting,” she said.
    I tried not to smile. Max was funny even if he was annoying. He pulled out a chair, turned it around, and sat on it backwards. “So, you’re getting all ready for the annual Foster Valentine’s party? I remember it like it was yesterday.”
    â€œDuh, Max. You’re just one year ahead of us,” Marlee said. She rolled her eyes at me.
    â€œYeah, but junior high is another world. You’ll see.”
    â€œWhatever.” Marlee stuck another lollipop through a valentine. “Don’t you have any homework, Mr. Cool Junior High Student? Or maybe you should practice for your Bar Mitzvah. Just be sure you put any glass away before you start singing.”
    Max ignored Marlee’s last comment. “I’m taking a break,” he said. “I wanted to know what you guys are baking for the bake sale. Wondering when there will be a spoon to lick.”
    Marlee looked at me. I stared at my valentines and picked my nails. Marlee and I had already discussed the bake sale. I’d told her I wasn’t baking, and she had seemed to understand. But now I thought maybe she wanted to bake and felt I wasn’t letting her.
    â€œWhat?” Max asked. “They still have the bake sale, don’t they?”
    â€œYes,” Marlee said, glaring at Max. “They still have the bake sale.”
    â€œSo what are you making?”
    â€œI don’t know!” Marlee shouted.
    I noticed she hadn’t said, Nothing.
    â€œJeez. Calm down,” Max said, getting up from the table. “I was just asking.”
    Max left the room and whispered under his breath, “Brownies are always a good choice.”
    Marlee blew her bangs out of her eyes. “We don’t have to bake anything,” she said to