Flower Feud Read Free Page A

fast. You never know what will come up.”
    “When do we start designing arrangements?” Rose asked.
    I sighed. “We have more work to do. One of you can clean the bottom of the cooler of any leaves, petals, and stems, and the other can clean the buckets out.”
    “I’ll take the buckets,” said Rose quickly. She gets cold easily and wanted to spend as little time in the cooler as necessary.
    Ten minutes later Rose was kneeling over a bucket andgiving me a very dirty look. “You didn’t tell me this would involve a
toilet brush,”
she said. I laughed. It’s the easiest way to clean the flower buckets, along with a squirt of soap and some bleach. But it’s not one of my favorite tasks, either.
    When the cooler was cleaned and the buckets were scrubbed, Rose and Aster looked at me eagerly.
    “Step three,” I said. “The fun part! Our supply of premade bouquets is pretty low. We need to arrange them.”
    Aster and Rose cheered. “What are premade bouquets?” asked Rose.
    “For people who are in a rush,” I replied. “Who don’t have the time or the money for an arrangement to be made especially for them.”
    Rose smiled. “A man rushing to meet his long-lost love at the bus station,” she said dreamily.
    “A mourner on their way to the cemetery,” said Aster.
    “Someone running late to a birthday party,” I said, bringing them both down to earth.
    Rose made a face at me. “Bo-ring.”
    Aster laughed.
    We made an assembly line and ended up with thesebright, springtime bouquets of purples and yellows, and cute round yellow flowers called billy balls for an accent. Mom nodded her approval as she put the finishing touches on Mrs. Stanley’s arrangement. “Nice work, girls!” she called. Rose and Aster both grinned.
    Aster wrapped the bouquets in colorful tissue paper and cellophane, and Rose was on ribbon duty. We made short work of the task. I blinked. Maybe having some help around here wasn’t such a bad idea after all.
    “Look at my girls working together!” cried Dad. We looked up. We hadn’t even heard him come in the back door. Poppy, her favorite velvet evening bag looped over her shoulder, sat high up on his shoulders, eating a very large muffin and getting crumbs in Dad’s hair. She waved merrily from her perch.
    Dad deposited my littlest sister on the far end of the counter, where she finished her muffin, happily kicking her feet. Dad kissed Mom hello and rested his elbows on the counter, Saturday’s paper fanned out in front of him. Poppy fished her new doll, Blanche, out of her evening bag and started grabbing leftover floral, tissue, and ribbon odds and ends to make a tiny bouquet for her.
    “Blanche is getting married today,” she said out loud, to no one in particular.
    I was going to say something about how unprofessional it was to have Poppy sitting on the counter, but I held my tongue. I had more important things to focus on. Finally, everyone was there, together, and I could share my news!
    I cleared my throat. “Guess what?” I began, and my family swiveled around to face me. “My school is having a prom. It’s called A Night in the Tropics.”
    “Sounds like fun, Del!” said Mom.
    “OMG, what?” Rose shrieked. “You’re going to get your
very
own prom? You’re so lucky!” She reminded me of Heather and Amy.
    Aster rolled her eyes. I was glad
one
Bloom sister was being sensible.
    “Um, not really,” I replied. “I mean, Ashley is in charge of the whole thing, so you can imagine how annoying it’s going to be. But,” I added, glancing around at my family, “
Petal Pushers
is lucky. Because now we’ll get twice as much business!”
    “That’s true!” Mom said, beaming at me. “We’ll havekids from the high school
and
the middle school coming in for corsages and boutonnieres.”
    Dad let out a low whistle. “That’s great!”
    “I know,” I said. “How many prom orders have we gotten so far?”
    Mom wrinkled her nose. “Two or three, I think,” she