The Backup Girlfriend (Grove Valley High #2) - Emma Doherty Page 0,46
your mom without supplies, will it?”
She shakes her head. “She’s doing a big order this week. She’ll just add more on to that.”
“What about caramel slices?” Sophie jumps in. “I love them.”
Livy nods agreeably. “How much do you think we’ll need?”
“Uh…quite a bit?”
Sophie snorts, and when I look over at her, she laughs. “Did you give this any thought before you came here?”
Fair point.
“Okay, how many kids go to our school?” Livy asks, grabbing a notepad and pen. She’s clearly not about to chastise me like Sophie and instead is wanting to help solve the problem of my lack of plan.
“Fifteen hundred?” Sophie says, looking at me for confirmation, which she won’t get. “Two thousand?”
I have no idea.
“Well, say one in every two students buys something, we’re gonna need at least 750 items,” Livy muses.
My jaw drops. “We can’t make that much stuff.”
She shrugs. “Maybe 500 then?”
“That’s still an insane amount.”
Livy smiles at me. “We have big ovens and baking trays—you’d be surprised. We could get pretty close.”
“Whatever we make will sell out,” Sophie says with total confidence.
I’m not so sure, and she must be able to read my mind.
“The cafeteria food sucks in the morning, and everywhere else decent is a car ride away. They’ll have nowhere else to go, so they’ll buy from us.”
I guess that makes sense, but it still seems like an awful lot of baked goods.
“But girls won’t be eating this stuff,” I say. There’s no way I’ll be eating any of it. I’d pile on five pounds in one morning if I had only three items.
Livy looks confused, and Sophie laughs again. “There are some girls who eat, Abigail. Not everyone’s like the cheerleaders.”
I glare at her as Livy looks between us. “She’s right. The soccer team would eat at least two each.”
Well now I feel ridiculous.
“Let’s get started.”
I look at the time: it’s already nearly 4:30pm. “Will we have time to make that much?” I wave my hand in the general direction of the ovens.
“If we get started soon,” Livy says, glancing at the clock and not looking particularly concerned.
I’m not convinced, and I don’t particularly want to be any more indebted to Livy than I already am. I’ll feel awful if we’re here for hours.
“What first?” Sophie asks, and Livy starts doling out instructions, showing me a side to her that I’ve never seen before. Most of the time, she’s kind of a worrier. She’s definitely always been anxious and stressed but seems to have gotten so much better lately. Now that I think about it, that’s probably because of Chase.
We spend the next hour weighing things out, melting butter, mixing ingredients, adding extra sugar, distributing the dough and batter into cookie shapes and baking trays, and before I know it, we have trays upon trays in the oven baking away. We tidy up, washing up the things we’ve used then getting ready for the next batch of things we’re making.
Sophie’s been blasting music from her phone and keeping up a steady stream of chatter, which I’ve even been joining in on.
It’s actually really funny seeing Livy and Sophie together like this. They’re like chalk and cheese, but seeing them in such close proximity, I can understand why they’ve always been inseparable. They just work together as best friends, and I can’t help feeling slightly jealous that I don’t have a friend like that.
“Oh, I forgot to tell you,” Sophie tells Livy as she stretches. “I found the perfect Father’s Day present—I’m buying my dad tickets to that cheesy Oasis tribute band he likes.”
She glances over at me.
“My dad thinks he’s some British emo kid. It’s embarrassing.”
I smile back at her. I always knew Sophie was popular, but now that we’ve been in each other’s company so much more where we’re not just bitching at each other, it’s easy to see why. She’s just so easy to like.
God, I wouldn’t have said that a couple of weeks ago.
“Isn’t it a bit early for Father’s Day presents?” Livy asks. “It’s months away.”
“Nah, this is perfect.”
“I haven’t even thought about it.”
“You’ll get Ray something, right?”
She nods.
“Who’s Ray?” I ask.
“My stepdad.”
“And what about your real dad?”
Both Livy and Sophie fall silent at that.
I’ve obviously said something wrong.
“Um…well…I don’t speak to my dad. He moved away.”
“Oh. Right.”
“It’s okay. He just didn’t want to know me, I guess. My stepdad is great.”
“Maybe you’re lucky he’s not here,” I say before I can think.