On the Back Burner Read online

  “How was I supposed to know that we’d have a pop quiz on the British rule in India?” Peichi complained to her friends the next day at lunch. “And even if I had known, I didn’t mean to fall asleep. It just kind of happened. My parents should have woken me up, but they thought I was exhausted from the party and they wanted me to get my sleep for Monday.”

  “Did you get any of the questions right?” asked Molly.

  “I don’t know. I just guessed at the answers as best as I could,” Peichi said. She stared down at her lunch. Somehow, she wasn’t very hungry.

  “Hey, guys, ask me what I’m planning to do next month,” Molly said, changing the subject.

  “What are you going to do?” Shawn asked.

  “I’m going to try out for softball,” Molly answered.

  “Softball? You are?” Natasha questioned. “I didn’t know you were interested in softball! When did you decide to try out?”

  “The other day when Athena suggested it,” Molly told her. In the beginning of the school year, Molly had struggled with math, so she had started getting weekly tutoring from Athena Vardalos, a seventh-grader. “Last night Athena called and asked me if we could switch the regular afternoons when we work together because softball practice is starting in a month and she’s on the team. She’s been on the team since sixth grade.”

  “She talked you into trying out?” Shawn asked.

  “Well, she suggested it, since she knows I like sports,” Molly answered. “It sounds fun. I’ve always liked to play, but we never had a team in elementary school.”

  “Molly can really hit the ball,” Amanda said. “I just jump back when I see that ball fly at my face!”

  “Softball won’t interfere with you coming to Chinese New Year, will it, Molly?” Peichi asked. “That’s next month, too.”

  “I don’t think so,” Molly said. “I don’t know what the tryout or practice schedule will be yet, but don’t worry. I’ll make sure I’m around.”

  “Good,” Peichi said, smiling. “There’s so much to do! I’ve already started making plans.”

  “Isn’t it a little soon to start?” Amanda asked.

  “No way! This is a huge event in my family. When all my relatives get together, there are fifty of them. Then my parents have, like, a zillion friends who come over, too. My whole house is packed with people on that day, wearing red for good luck. It’s like a huge party.”

  “Cool!” said Amanda. She couldn’t really imagine Peichi’s large house completely filled with people.

  “So, who wants to come over today?” Peichi asked.

  “Sorry,” Shawn said, shaking her head. “I have cheerleading practice. And I have to study for the big English test tomorrow. I love A Tree Crows in Brooklyn. I think it’s my new favorite book.”

  “I really liked it, too,” Amanda agreed. “But I still need to study my notes. Did you like it, Peichi?”

  Peichi shrugged. “I haven’t really finished it yet. But the first chapter was pretty good. A little slow, maybe, but good.”

  Shawn’s mouth dropped open. “You haven’t finished it? Peichi, that book is, like, four hundred pages! You’d better stay home and read tonight.”

  “I took really good notes in class,” Peichi retorted. But inside, she knew Shawn was right.

  That night, Peichi’s copy of A Tree Crows in Brooklyn lay open on the bed. She had read up to Chapter Nine. Her notes were spread out over the book. Peichi sighed and looked around her room. I’m sick of reading, she thought. I’ve been reading for two hours already! I need a little break.

  Slamming the book shut, Peichi went downstairs and turned on the computer. Right now it was really important to get going on plans for Chinese New Year. Everything had to be just right. Maybe there’s something I can do to gel the rest of the Chef Girls excited about Chinese New Year, she thought. But what? Peichi logged on to the Internet and typed in the address of a website that featured free e-cards.

  Scanning down the list of available cards, she found a card for Chinese New Year. She clicked on it and previewed the card. A small burst of red appeared in the middle of the screen. Yellow streamers began shooting from its center. In the next few seconds, the entire screen looked alive with fireworks. Then the words Happy New Year began scrolling across the bottom of the screen. Awesome, Peichi thought, smiling. That’s perfect!

  She typed in her friends’ e-mail addresses, then hit SEND.

  “Are you ready for bed?” Mr. Cheng asked from the doorway of the den. “It’s getting late.”

  “I’m not ready, but I’ll do that now,” she replied as she shut down the computer. “Night, Dad.” Peichi hugged her father as she went past him on her way out. She ran back up the stairs to her room and read over her notes twice, then packed up her bag. She felt a pang of guilt for not finishing the book. Oh well, I tried, she thought as she tried to brush it away. I read the notes really well. I’m sure the test will focus on the notes. Mrs. Weyn always goes over the important things in class.

  The next day Peichi took her English test. She wasn’t sure of some of the answers, but she tried her best to guess at them. She was surprised at how much of the book Mrs. Weyn hadn’t talked about in class. As the girls dropped their heavy backpacks on the cafeteria table at lunch, Shawn and Amanda groaned.

  “That test was tough!” Shawn said.

  “No way,” Peichi said. “You probably aced it. You worry too much.”

  “Easy for you to say,” Amanda commented. “You always get straight As, Peichi.”

  But this time, Peichi wasn’t so sure.

  Chapter 4

  On Tuesday night, Molly and Amanda sat at the kitchen table doing homework. The phone rang and they both jumped up to get it. As always, Amanda managed to grab it first. “Hello? Yes, this is Dish.”

  Molly watched Amanda’s eyes go wide with surprise. Whoever was on the other end was doing a lot of talking. Amanda just kept listening and looking more and more amazed. “How many kids?” she asked at one point. “Wow!”

  Molly couldn’t take it anymore. “What’s going on?” she asked.

  Amanda mouthed her reply: big job! She listened some more and then finally spoke. “I’m pretty sure we can help you. But I couldn’t take a job this large without consulting with my business partners first!”

  Way to go, Manda! Molly silently cheered. Last month Amanda had agreed to have Dish cater a big Christmas party for one of their teachers, Brenda Barlow, before she had even asked the rest of the Chef Girls. They’d made her promise not to do that again—and she’d remembered. This was a big step for Amanda, who was trying to be less impulsive and selfish, and to think more about others.

  “All right,” Amanda continued talking. “I’ll get back to you tomorrow. Thanks for thinking of Dish.”

  “What was that?” Molly wanted to know the moment Amanda hung up the phone. “What was that person saying? You should have seen your face. It was halfway between shock and disbelief.”

  Amanda sat down, her eyes sparkling excitedly. “We’ve just been offered a job and it’s huge. I mean huge! The woman, Mrs. Kramer, is a friend of Ms. Barlow. She was at the Christmas party. She was so impressed with us that she wants us to make some food for her.”

  “What’s so huge about that?” Molly asked. “That’s what we do all the time.”

  “No, listen,” Amanda said. “This woman has seven kids!”

  “Seven kids!” Molly gasped.

  “Mrs. Kramers sister lives in Kansas City and she’s expecting a baby next month. She wants to go be with her sister for five days after the new baby is born, so she’s leaving her seven kids with their father, but he’s not a very good cook.” Amanda giggled. “She told me that one time he tried to make spaghetti for the whole family and forgot that he put the pasta in the boiling water, and he boiled it for almost an hour! She said it was a big pot of mush.”

  “Gross!” Molly exclaimed. “I guess that’s where we come in.

  “Exactly,” Amand
a agreed. “She wants us to cook eight dinners a night for all five nights she’s away.”

  “Can we handle that?” Molly wondered.

  “I don’t know,” Amanda said. “We’d better have an emergency meeting with everyone to figure out if we can take this job. I said I’d get back to her by tomorrow. Let’s send an e-mail to everyone right now.”

  They went to the computer in the den and logged on to the Internet, both of them wiggling into the same chair. Checking their Buddy List, they saw that all the Chef Girls happened to be online. “Excellent!” Amanda said as she began to type.

  To: happyface, qtpie490, BrooklynNatasha

  From: mooretimes2

  Re: BIGGEST JOB EVER!!!

  Hi all,

  Big news! Dish just landed a gigantic cooking job. 8 people x 5 dinners = cooking dinners for 40 people! Can we do it? We think so but want to hear what you think. This will happen sometime next month. We set up a Chef Girls chat room so come on and let’s talk!!! We have to let the woman know by tomorrow. If yes, we need to schedule a meeting ASAP.

  M & A

  Amanda hit SEND and opened up the Chef Girls’ Chat Room window. Peichi was already there.

  happyface: Will this get in the way of Chinese New Year preparations?

  mooretimes2: Don’t think so but we will b bzzzE.

  BrooklynNatasha: We have a week off starting on the monday of president’s day, so we will have x-tra time there. When x-actly is this happening?

  mooretimes2: Don’t know, x-actly. We’re waiting for a baby to be born.That’s when the mom is leaving and the rest of the family needs to be fed. Will try to find out more when we call back.

  qtpie490: Let’s do it. I want $ for new clothes even though Dad says I have enuf and he won’t buy me more until spring.

  mooretimes2: Peichi? Natasha?

  happyface: thumzup

  BrooklynNatasha: me2

  mooretimes2: yay! Can we meet tomorrow after school?

  qtpie490: cheerleading practice.

  happyface: flute lessons.

  BrooklynNatasha: staff meeting for school paper

  moore2times: Thurs?

  BrooklynNatasha: OK

  qtpie490: OK

  happyface : OK

  mooretimes2: it’s a date. Thurs. right after school. G2G. Big social studies test tomorrow. b-b

  happyface : C-ya

  BrooklynNatasha: TTFN

  qtpie490: L8R

  The next day, Molly, Amanda, and Peichi walked home from school together. They took their usual route along the stone wall that bordered Prospect Park, the huge park that sat at the very top of the sloping hill above Park Terrace.

  “How did you do on the social studies test?” Amanda asked Peichi. “I think I did okay. I studied hard for it.”

  Peichi sighed. “I meant to study last night after we got off the Internet, but before I logged off I did a search for Chinese New Year and came up with a ton of sites.”

  “Did you read every one of them?” Molly asked, laughing.

  “Almost,” Peichi admitted.

  The twins waved good-bye to Peichi as they turned down Taft Street and headed toward their house. “Do you get the feeling Peichi isn’t doing so well in school all of a sudden?” Amanda asked.

  “I know what you mean,” Molly replied. “It’s like she’s so excited about Chinese New Year that she cant think of anything else.”

  When the twins got home, Amanda called Mrs. Kramer to let her know that Dish was available for the cooking job.

  “Oh, that’s fabulous!” Mrs. Kramer exclaimed. “I’m so relieved! You girls are lifesavers! My sisters baby isn’t due until February twenty-third, so there’s still plenty of time, but I just feel so much better about going away now that you girls are signed up! Now, I just want to talk to you a little bit about the menu.”

  “Okay,” said Amanda, grabbing a pen and a piece of paper.

  “Three of my kids are very, very picky. Basically, all they’ll eat is pasta! So it would be great if you would make a pasta dish every night.”

  “Pasta every night,” Amanda repeated as she wrote it down. “That’s pretty easy.”

  “Of course, that’s in addition to the regular dish you’ll be making for everyone else,” Mrs. Kramer continued. “My husband refuses to even touch pasta anymore, he’s so sick of it! But then again, sometimes the other kids decide they want pasta, too, once they see it. And sometimes the pasta kids want the regular meal. So you’d better make regular meals for eight people, and then enough pasta for four people.”

  “For every night?” Amanda asked.

  “Yes, that way there will be enough flexibility for everyone to pick what they want. And I know the leftovers will be eaten right up!” said Mrs. Kramer quickly. “But they won’t eat pasta with tomato sauce every night. So it needs to be simple, but varied. You know?”

  “Actually, Mrs. Kramer,” Amanda began. This job sounds like much more work than we agreed to! Amanda thought. She knew she had to talk to the other girls about all of this extra work before things got any more out of control! But before she could continue, Mrs. Kramer interrupted her.

  “You know, on second thought, the kids might get sick of pasta and want something else. So you’d probably better make some sandwiches, too ... yes, let’s say three sandwiches for each night. Peanut butter and jelly...that’s creamy peanut butter with seedless strawberry jelly. It has to be seedless or they won’t eat it. On white bread. Oh, and don’t forget to cut off the crusts! And cut one of the sandwiches into triangles—that’s for my youngest, Mikey. It’s fine to cut the other sandwiches into rectangles.”

  Amanda felt as if her head was spinning as she wrote down all these instructions. “Mrs. Kramer, wait,” she finally broke in. “This sounds like a lot more work—”

  “Oh, nonsense!” said Mrs. Kramer lightly. “It might sound like a lot, but it’s not that bad! After all, I do it every day! You girls will be fantastic. I know every—oh, no! Mikey’s about to give himself a haircut! Sweetie, put the scissors down now! Gotta run, Amanda. Call me if you have any questions!” And with that, she hung up.

  Amanda sighed heavily as she put down the phone. Oh, this is just great! she thought to herself. Everyone will flip when they see how much work this is! Why do I always get stuck with the complicated clients?

  The next day, all the Chef Girls met in the Moores’ kitchen to start preparing for their big job. “I called last night to tell Mrs. Kramer we’d take the job, and she told me her sister’s baby isn’t due until the twenty-third of February, so that gives us some time,” Amanda told them.

  “Excellent—that’s after Chinese New Year,” Peichi said.

  “It’s during our winter vacation, too,” Natasha added. “That will be perfect. We’ll have entire days free to prepare meals.”

  And we’ll need them, loo, thought Amanda grimly. She cleared her throat. “Listen, guys,” she began. “Things with the menu got a little...complicated when I called Mrs. Kramer back,”

  “Complicated how?” Shawn asked.

  “Well, for starters, we have to make full meals for eight people for each night.”

  “Right, that’s what you told us yesterday,” Shawn said.

  “But some of the kids will, like, only eat pasta. So we also have to make pasta dishes for four people for each night. Just in case some kids want pasta. And it can’t be spaghetti with tomato sauce every night—it has to be different pasta dishes. Different, but simple.” Amanda looked at her friends. They were all staring at her with wide eyes. “There’s one other thing,” Amanda finished in a rush. “We also have to make three peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for each day. Creamy peanut butter, seedless strawberry jelly, white bread, crusts cut off, two sandwiches cut into rectangles, one sandwich cut into triangles. That’s it, though. That’s all she wants.”

  “That’s all she wants?” shrieked Shawn. “That’s all?”

  “Amanda, what did you tell her?” exclaimed Peichi
. “You told her no, right?”

  Amanda bit her lip. “Well, I tried to,” she said. “But she wouldn’t let me! She kept interrupting!”

  “Why can’t we just make pasta for everybody for every night?” Natasha asked.

  “Well, the other kids get tired of pasta. And the dad won’t even eat it any more, he’s so sick of it,” Amanda replied.

  “We can’t do this,” Shawn said flatly. “This woman is crazy! That is, like, so much extra work! We have to cancel.”

  Finally, Molly spoke. “I know it sounds bad, guys, but we can’t cancel,” she said. “First, it would be bad for business. We could get a bad reputation if we cancel a job this big. Second, I think it sounds worse than it is.

  Basically, it’s the regular job we signed up for—plus a little extra. Simple pasta dishes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? We can totally do that!”

  “I think Molly’s right,” Natasha said. “But listen, maybe this should be the last time we cook for Ms. Barlow or any of her friends. They always get seriously complicated.”

  “Yeah, but they pay really well,” Peichi pointed out.

  “This one will just take some extra planning,” Molly said. “Like, we can have some meals frozen ahead of time so we don’t fall behind. If we make lasagna, and something else that freezes well, this job will feel more like a regular job when we have to prepare the rest of the meals.”

  “How much money will we need to buy all these ingredients?” Shawn asked. “We’d better not let the refrigerator get too full between now and then, or we won’t have room for it all.”

  “Right,” said Molly. “We’ll need to go on a big shopping trip, but not too soon because we don’t want the fresh foods to go bad.”

  “We have to think about what we’re going to make, too,” Natasha said.