Turning Up the Heat Read online

  The girls had arranged with Mrs. Freeman to make enough food for six dinners. They had to do it all in one day, because Mrs. Freeman asked if they could bring the food over a day earlier than she’d originally needed it. And Mom wasn’t around to help! Dad would be around, but he’d already committed to playing golf and wouldn’t be back until the afternoon. Luckily, he let the girls start cooking without him, since he was beginning to feel more comfortable about them using the kitchen by themselves.

  The girls weren’t as talkative as usual, and no one turned the radio on for a while. Amanda finally brought up what everyone else was thinking. “Where’s Natasha? Why hasn’t she called?”

  “Don’t worry, Manda, she’ll be here,” said Molly as she chopped some herbs, but she didn’t sound very confident.

  “How do you know?” retorted Amanda. “This business isn’t going to happen if we have to rely on her!”

  Peichi and Shawn sneaked each other a glance that said, Uh-oh!

  “I’m tired of always wondering what’s going on with Natasha, Natasha, Natasha!” said Amanda crossly. “We never really know if she’s going to show up or not, and something’s always weird about her.”

  “That’s not very nice,” retorted Molly. She set down her knife and put her hands on her hips.

  Shawn and Peichi tried to look as though they were completely fascinated with washing vegetables and spinning them dry in the salad spinner.

  With a loud clatter, Amanda threw some metal measuring spoons on the counter, walked out of the kitchen, and stomped upstairs.

  No one said anything. The kitchen suddenly seemed huge to Peichi. The whirring salad spinner seemed too loud.

  Shawn cleared her throat. She hadn’t seen the twins argue in a long time, and she wasn’t sure what to do.

  Molly sighed. “She’ll be back,” she said, and went to turn on the radio. The music helped.

  Sure enough, a few minutes later, Amanda came back downstairs. “Shawn,” she said in a low voice, “can you ask Molly where she put the chocolate chips?”

  Shawn looked at her for a moment, surprised. She shrugged as if to say, Why don’t you justask her yourself? But Amanda just looked steadily at her as if to say, Do it!

  “Um, Molly. Amanda wants to know where you put the chocolate chips,” said Shawn.

  Molly didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she leaned down, pulled the bag of chocolate chips out of the cupboard, and set them on the counter. Shawn picked up the bag and took it over to Amanda.

  A little while later, Molly said, “Peichi? Would you please get the mustard out of the refrigerator?”

  Peichi looked up, surprised. She was the farthest away from the fridge. Amanda was working next to it.

  “Oh, sure,” said Peichi, walking quickly over to the fridge. “Um, excuse me, Amanda, I need to just—get—in here. Thanks.” She practically trotted the mustard over to Molly, who primly said, “Thank you.”

  Shawn rolled her eyes. Boy, was it a pain when the twins weren’t getting along.

  Dad was a big help with the lasagna when he got home, and everyone was glad he was in the kitchen. Dad was always a little bit in his own world, so he didn’t even notice that the twins weren’t speaking to each other. This was a good thing. It helped make everything seem a bit more normal.

  Finally, after what seemed like two days instead of one, all the food was ready, and everyone began to pack it up and put it into boxes. Luckily, at the store Shawn had thought to buy inexpensive plastic food storage boxes that Mrs. Freeman could keep.

  Dad offered to drive the girls over to the freemans’, who lived just a few blocks away, on his way to pick up Matthew from soccer practice. The girls carefully set the boxes in the trunk. Amanda phoned Mrs. Freeman to tell her they were on their way, and then everyone piled in the car.

  It took only a few minutes to get to Second Street.

  “You go first, Dad, said Molly, handing him a box.

  Dad shook his head. “Uh-uh, Molly. This is your business, not mine.”

  Molly marched up the stairs and rang the bell. Mrs. Freeman answered the door with a friendly smile. Her short, stylish black hair was streaked with gray, and she wore jeans and a glittery T-shirt just like the girls did.

  “Hi!” said Mrs. Freeman. “I’m Carol!”

  “Hello, I’m Molly. And this is Amanda, Peichi and Shawn. And my dad.”

  The girls had fun showing Mrs. Freeman everything they’d made.

  “It all looks great,” she said. “I know my husband and daughters will love it. Thank you. Here’s your money. I’ll give it to you, dear.” She handed a big wad of bills to Shawn.

  Shawn almost began to count the money, but decided that it might look rude, as if she didn’t trust Mrs. Freeman. So she stuffed it in the pocket of her orange board shorts.

  “Thank you!” chorused the girls. And that was it. They followed Dad out the door, said good-bye to Mrs. Freeman, and turned to walk home.

  “Do you want me to drive you back?” asked Dad.

  “No, that’s okay,” said Molly. “It’s good to be outside.”

  “Okay, see you in a few minutes.” Dad got in the car and headed off to pick up Matthew.

  “We did it! Peichi cried jumping up and down. ”Our first. I mean, second job!

  “Let’s divvy up the money,” Molly said, poking Shawn. “I can’t wait to get my hands on it!”

  Amanda stopped walking. “Shawn, will you please tell my sister that it’s not a good idea to count your money in the middle of the street!”

  Molly rolled her eyes. Amanda was still mad at her.

  “Oh my gosh!” cried Peichi. “It’s Natasha!”

  “Where?” asked Shawn.

  “See? Way up the street? She’s walking her dog.”

  “No way! Forget about her! I’m not in the mood to see her right now,” Amanda snapped.

  “Me neither,” said Shawn. “Let’s turn around and go up Third Street instead.”

  “Well, I want to talk to her!” Molly said. “I want to find out what’s going on!”

  “Me too,” said Peichi. “I’ll go with you, Molly.”

  “We’ll see you guys back at the house,” Molly told Amanda and Shawn. They looked at each other and shrugged. “Okay,” they said, and turned down the street.

  Molly and Peichi walked quickly to catch up to Natasha.

  “Hey, Natasha,” called Peichi. Natasha stopped walking, her back to Molly. She slowly turned around to face her.

  “Hi, Natasha,” said Molly. “Hi, Willy!” Willy began to jump up excitedly.

  “Hi,” said Natasha. She looked almost afraid.

  “What’s up? How come you didn’t return our calls?” asked Molly. She hoped her voice didn’t sound too mean.

  “Sorry,” said Natasha. “Um—sorry.”

  “Is everything okay?” asked Peichi.

  “Um, yeah. Well, it’s just that I can’t bring the capital now. Okay?”

  “O—kay,” said Molly slowly.

  “I’ll talk to you later,” said Natasha.

  “Bye,” said Molly and Peichi as they watched Natasha turn around. But then Molly began to feel really angry.

  “Natasha? Wait a minute. Did your dad change his mind?” asked Molly.

  Natasha stopped and said, “No, not really.”

  “Come on, Natasha. We’re your friends. If you want friends, you have to be honest with them!” Molly said. “You completely blew us off today, and we’re not sure if you’re in this cooking thing with us or not.”

  “You can tell us,” added Peichi.

  Natasha looked up. Willy waited and panted, staring at Molly and Peichi with his big, round eyes. Finally, Natasha looked at the two of them and said, “My dad lost his job, okay? So there’s no capital now. He probably would’ve still given it to me, but I didn’t want to take it. Okay? That’s it. Blame me, not him. I’m sorry. Come on, Willy.” She turned away.

  “It’s okay, Natasha!” called Molly.
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  “Do you still want to cook with us?” called Peichi, but Natasha never looked back.

  chapter 13

  When Molly and Peichi got back to the Moore’s, they told Amanda and Shawn what had happened.

  “That’s sad,” said Shawn. “It must be kind of scary when your dad loses his job.”

  “I feel sorry for her and all,” Amanda said, “but give me a break—why are we spending so much time thinking about Natasha?”

  No one said anything.

  “Well!” said Peichi, finally. “Um, Shawn, do you have something to give us?”

  Everyone giggled as Shawn took the money out of her pocket. “I sure do!” she said. She passed out all the money.

  “Let’s see,” said Peichi, doing math in her head. “We definitely made a profit, because this is more than we spent on the groceries. Woo-hoo!”

  “I think we should celebrate!” said Molly. “Let’s do something fun with this money.”

  “Like what?” asked Amanda. It was the first time she’d really spoken to Molly in hours.

  “How about having a party at my house? I’ll ask my mom if we can do it tomorrow night,” suggested Peichi. “We’ll have a sleepover! And you’ll get to see the pool at night, all lit up. It’s so pretty!”

  “We could order a gigantic hero,” added Shawn. “You know, one of those three-foot long things.”

  “That sounds like fun,” said Molly.

  “Listen guys,” Amanda said. “Sorry I was in such a bad mood today. It’s just that I was worried we couldn’t do everything. But it all turned out okay!”

  “That’s right,” said Molly. “Because we all worked together, and because Dad was nice enough to help us.” She giggled. “Our house is going to be quiet tomorrow night! It’ll just be Dad and Matthew here.”

  The next evening, the twins and Shawn walked over to Peichi’s together.

  They had just dumped their stuff in Peichi’s room when the doorbell rang.

  “Oh, that’s probably the food!” said Peichi. The girls followed her to the front door.

  “DiMaggio’s Heroes. You ordered a six-foot hero?” asked the pimple-faced delivery boy.

  Peichi’s eyes opened wide, and inside the living room the other girls began to giggle.

  “Six feet!” she cried. “No, we ordered a three-foot hero!” she cried. “Oh, no! You guys got it wrong!”

  The boy looked confused and checked the receipt.

  “I’ll have to get my mom—” began Peichi.

  “That’s okay,” said the boy. “Our mistake. This does say “Three feet.” I’ll just charge you for the three-foot sub, okay? But you can keep the whole thing. Plus all the sides that come with it.”

  “The whole thing!” exclaimed the girls. What were they going to do with a six-foot long hero?

  “Well, bring it in!” said Peichi. “I’ll help you!”

  The friends couldn’t stop laughing as they watched Peichi help the boy haul in a hero that looked as if it could feed a hundred people.

  “Thanks,” said Peichi to the boy as he left. “And here’s a tip.”

  “Thank you!” said the boy. “Good luck with that hero!”

  “I think we should call some more people!” said Peichi. She went to find her mom.

  Mrs. Cheng came in from the garden. “Oh, no!” she cried. “It’s huge! Well, I’ll forget about cooking dinner! Your dad and I will help you eat this. Girls, call your parents and let’s have a bigger party!”

  That’s what everybody did. Soon all the girls’ parents were on their way, plus Matthew and Ben!

  The girls went out to the pool to wait for everyone to come.

  “Okay!” said Shawn, jumping to her feet. “I can’t wait any longer!” Shawri was usually so cool, but right now she looked as if she had a huge secret. “I got an e-mail from Grandma Ruthie today,” she said. “Grandma Ruthie with a capital R!”

  The friends looked at each other, confused.

  “Grandma Ruthie with a capital R!” repeated Shawn. “Don’t you get it? Capilal?”

  “Oh!” cried Amanda. “Does this mean—”

  “That your grandma is going to give us capital?” Peichi broke in.

  Shawn nodded, her eyes bright.

  “Yes!” said Molly. “Oh, now our parents have to let us, Manda!”

  “You know that my grandma loves to cook, and she’s excited that I’m learning to cook now. She offered the money. I didn’t even ask her!” Shawn explained.

  “All right!” exclaimed Molly. She high-fived Shawn. The girls were psyched!

  Soon everyone’s parents were there. The girls helped Mr. and Mrs. Cheng bring out ice, soft drinks, and paper plates.

  After a while, Molly and Amanda cornered Dad.

  ...and so Grandma Ruthie has come up with the capital,” Molly explained. “Dad, we really want to try this. Can we just see how it goes? Please? Everybody else is allowed! And Peichi thinks we can store the food in their extra fridge, but we won’t even have to worry about that for a while!

  “Well,” said Dad after he swallowed a big bite of his hero, “you girls did very well yesterday. And it would be a good way to learn about managing money. You still haven’t worked out all the details, and your mom’s not here to put in her vote. but I think she’ll agree with me that for now, we’ll look at it as a summer job. You just can’t get behind on your piano lessons, okay?”

  “Yessss!” cried Molly and Amanda, high-fiving each other. They ran off to tell the others.

  Everyone was really getting along well at the party. Molly and Amanda looked around at their friends and everyone’s parents. They were all standing around the glowing blue pool, chatting away while they balanced soggy paper plates. The warm evening went on and on, but it seemed to Molly and Amanda as if their summer had just begun. And what a summer it was going to be!

  cooking tips from the chef girls!

  The Chef Girls are looking out for you! Here are some things you should know if you want to cook. (Remember to ask your parents if you can use knives and the stove!)

  1. Tie back long hair so that it won’t get into the food or in the way as you work.

  2. Don’t wear loose-fitting clothing that could drag in the food or on the stove burners.

  3. Never cook in bare feet or open-toed shoes. Something sharp or hot could drop on your feet.

  4. Always wash your hands before you handle food.

  5. Read through the recipe before you start. Gather your ingredients together and measure them before you begin.

  6. Turn pot handles in so that they won’t get knocked off the stove.

  7. Use wooden spoons to stir hot liquids. Metal spoons can become very hot.

  8. When cutting or peeling food, cut away from your hands.

  9. Cut food on a cutting board, not the countertop.

  10. Hand someone a knife with the knifepoint pointing to the floor.

  11. Clean up as you go. It’s safer and neater.

  12. Always use a dry pot holder to remove something hot from the oven. You could get burned with a wet one, since wet ones retain heat.

  13. Make sure that any spills on the floor are cleaned up right away, so that you don’t slip and fall.

  14. Don’t put knives in clean-up water. You could reach into the water and cut yourself.

  15. Use a wire rack to cool hot baking dishes to avoid scorch marks on the countertop.

  An Imortant Message form the Chef Girls!

  Some foods can carry bacteria, such as salmonella, that can make you sick. To avoid salmonella, always cook poultry, ground beef, and eggs thoroughly before eating. Don’t eat or drink foods containing raw eggs. And wash hands, kitchen work surfaces, and utensils with soap and water immediately after they have been in contact with raw meat or poultry.

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