Alice Fleck's Recipes for Disaster by Rachelle Delaney

Author:Rachelle Delaney [Delaney, Rachelle]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: PRH Canada Young Readers
Published: 2021-05-11T00:00:00+00:00

Alice awoke the next morning cocooned in a big, cozy hoodie. She was in Tavi’s room, still wearing Tavi’s clothes. Which could only mean one thing.

She had survived a sleepover.

Not only that, she’d fallen asleep immediately after they’d returned from the ballroom and hadn’t even woken during the night, let alone had to sneak back to her father’s room and sleep in her own bed. It was cause for celebration!

Or it would have been had her phone not buzzed with a text.

I don’t see you in the dining room — have you eaten already? We have to be at the Great Hall at 8!

She blinked at the message from her father, then remembered the competition. The clock on her phone read 7:45.

She bolted out of bed and wriggled out of Tavi’s hoodie. Underneath, she was wearing the same clothes she’d worn the day before, and there appeared to be a stain on her T-shirt. Hopefully her apron would cover it.

She folded the hoodie and left it on her pillow. In the bed beside hers, Tavi was still asleep, her hair a red-velvet nest on her pillow, her mouth wide open. As quickly as possible, Alice braided her hair, grabbed her backpack and slipped out the door.

She jogged down the stairs and across the lobby just as Richard came through the front door with Roslyn, who was dressed in a red coat with a fur-lined hood. The whippet yapped as Alice ran past, and Alice avoided eye contact.

When she reached the Great Hall, she found all the contestants standing outside the door. According to her phone, it was 8:05. They ought to be inside, preparing for the challenge.

“Alice!” James popped out of the huddle, looking as though he too had slept in his clothes. He started toward her, arms wide, and the sight made her weak with relief. Maybe they could pretend yesterday hadn’t happened. Maybe everything could just go back to normal.

Suddenly he stopped, and his arms fell to his sides. “Um, how are you?” he asked. “Everything all right?”

So much for normal. “I’m fine,” she said stiffly. “I just slept in.”

“Right.” He nodded. After an awkward pause, he asked, “Did you have breakfast?”

She shook her head.

“Alice —”

“I’m fine,” she insisted, though now that he’d mentioned it, she actually was hungry. “What’s going on? Why are we out here?”

“We’re not sure,” said Tina. “They won’t let us in.”

“They’re probably deciding what kind of torture to inflict on us today,” Toni added.

“We missed you last night, Alice.” Tina smiled at her. “We all went stargazing under the full moon!”

“It was very romantic.” Samir smiled at Sven.

Had Hana gone with them? Alice decided that she didn’t want to know.

“What did you get up to?” asked Tina.

She paused, recalling everything she, Tavi and Henry had done the previous night. “I went to bed early,” she lied.

“They should have let us in by now,” Phyllis grumbled at the door. “All this secrecy is unnerving.”

Everyone agreed. Alice rubbed her goosebumped arms, wishing she’d kept Tavi’s hoodie.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.