He loves me, he loves me not…Alexis leaves a Valentine’s Day surprise for her crush. Does he like her back? Despite objections from her Cupcake Club pals, Alexis makes a special valentine cupcake for her crush, Emma’s older brother Matt, and leaves it for him next to his computer. Alexis is secretly hoping Matt will get the hint and give her a valentine, too. But ever since Alexis left the cupcake, Matt’s been acting really uncomfortable around her. Does Matt want to be her valentine or doesn’t he? With no certain valentine in sight, Alexis ends up leaving a surprise valentine’s gift on Emma’s desk, because, after all, crushes may come and go, but BFFs are forever! From cupcakes to ice cream and donuts! When she’s not daydreaming about yummy snacks, Coco Simon edits children’s books and has written close to one hundred books for children, tweens, and young adults, which is a lot less than the number of cupcakes, ice cream cones, and donuts she’s eaten. She is the author of the Cupcake Diaries, the Sprinkle Sundays, and the Donut Dreams series. Her newest series is Cupcake Diaries: The New Batch. Alexis’s Cupcake Cupid CHAPTER 1 Table 4 Two Pink sparkly sugar?” Katie peered into her shopping basket. “Check.” “Red food coloring?” I continued. “Check.” “Heart-shaped Red Hots?” “Check.” “Red-and-white–striped cupcake wrappers?” “Check.” “Red gel frosting?” “Check.” “Yay! Time to check out!” I said cheerfully. I led the way to the register at Baker’s Hollow, the baking supplies store at the mall, and the Cupcake Club’s home away from home. We had just been asked by a friend of Emma’s mom—somewhat last minute—to bake two dozen cupcakes for a ladies’ Valentine’s Day luncheon tomorrow. Today is Saturday and the real Valentine’s Day is Monday, so we had decided to shop for the supplies together, just for fun. Since I run the finances for our baking club (with the other members’ skills as follows: Mia is in charge of style and appearance, Emma is in charge of marketing and publicity, and Katie is in charge of recipes), I had the money and was in charge of paying and then logging the purchase into my newly automated Excel spreadsheet on my tablet. (It replaced my leatherbound accounts ledger, which was running out of pages, anyway.) The plan today was to get supplies for our Valentine’s cupcakes, buy Valentine’s Day cards for our families, head back to Emma’s to whip up cupcakes, and then maybe a sleepover. But first we needed lunch. In the food court, a new Asian street-food place had just opened, and we had to check it out. Emma loves spicy Asian food, and so does Mia. Katie likes all types of cuisines, and I don’t like spicy food at all, but Emma and Mia begged us, so we agreed to try it. The menu was awesome, and it had so many choices: dumplings, both steamed and pan-fried; marinated skewers of chicken and beef; scallion pancakes loaded with barbecued pork; and noodles with shrimp and mushrooms, and every kind of topping you could imagine! I was studying the menu when Mia interrupted my thoughts. “Hey! I heard that the theme for the middle school Family Skating Party this year is Chinese New Year! Won’t that be cool?” I was dreading the Family Skating Party more than maybe I had ever dreaded anything. Clearly, I was alone in this. “Awesome!” Katie agreed with Mia. “They could do such pretty red party decor with that theme, and it kind of ties in with Valentine’s Day.” “Great food options with the Chinese theme, too. Much better than the Wild West theme last year,” said Emma. “I hate eating ribs in public. So messy.” She shook her head and laughed. The other girls laughed too, and I imagined chasing the butterflies in my stomach around with a net and then whacking them! “Alexis, is something wrong? You’re being very quiet,” Mia said. “Yes,” I answered grimly. “Don’t you remember that I can’t skate?” “Wait, I thought you were going to take lessons!” said Emma. I shook my head. “Didn’t have time. I still stink. I think I might not go.” I hated to miss a social opportunity where I might get to interact “in the real world” with Matt Taylor, Emma’s brother and the crush of my life. But that was the primary reason I wasn’t going. I couldn’t stand the idea of being mortified in front of Matt. What if he saw that I was a bad skater? He’s such a jock—he’d totally lose respect for me. “Wait, whaaaat? What do you mean you might not go? You have to go!” said Emma just as we reached the front of the line. “I don’t want to discuss it,” I said. “Let’s order.” We pooled our money and ordered a bunch of different stuff to mix and match and share. The place was really busy, and it only had these long communal tables, so while we waited for our food to be ready, we split up and got busy scouting for people who were leaving. Katie found a very tight spot for us after a few minutes, and Mia and Emma went to help save the seats while I returned to the counter to wait for our