On the Back Burner by Diane Muldrow

going to happen will happen. There’s no sense fighting it.”
    “You sound like Sonia,” Molly said, smiling.
    “Sonia was the one who said I’d feel like I was losing my best friend,” Amanda reminded her. “Boy, was she right.” Amanda looked to Mom. “Would you help me write a better message to Shawn?” she requested. “If this friendship is going to end, I don’t want to be the one who ended it.”
    “Sure,” Mom agreed. “I’ll help you do it right now.”
    Amanda thought a moment about what Mom had said about forming new friendships. “After we’re done with the letter, I’m going to call Tessa, that girl I met when I was in the play last fall. Maybe we can go to a movie next weekend or something.”
    After about thirty minutes, Mom and Amanda had an e-mail ready to send to Shawn.
     
    To : qtpie490
    From: mooretimes2
    Re: sorry
    Dear Shawn,
    First, I wanna tell you I’m sorry for sending you that e-mail when I was really, really mad. I didn’t want to hurt your feelings or anything. But I was so upset that I just wrote it really fast and didn’t think about making you upset. Obviously you got upset from my e-mail and I didn’t want that to happen. I don’t think you’re mean or nasty. You’re my best friend, Shawn.
    That’s why I get so upset about Angie. She is always saying really mean things to me—right in front of you. And it hurts my feelings that you don’t stick up for me or even tell her to stop. I feel like I’m losing you as my best friend, which makes me sad.
    Anyway, that’s how I feel. I never meant to hurt your feelings with that e-mail. I hope you forgive me.
    Your friend (I hope),
    Amanda
    “Should I wait three days before sending this?” Amanda asked. “I really don’t want to. I want to get things back on track with Shawn as soon as I can.”
    Mom smiled at her. “Go ahead and send it, honey. I think you did a good job.”
    “ No , we did,” said Amanda. “Thanks, Mom.”

    On Saturday afternoon, Molly sat at the kitchen table and stared down at the menu they’d created for their big job for the Kramers. Everything about it was great. There was now only one problem—a really major problem. Where are we ever gonna get the money to pay for this? she wondered.
    Back when they’d first started Dish, Peichi’s mom had talked to them about investing their earnings into the business. That meant they should take some of the money they earned and buy the things they needed to run Dish instead of spending all the money on themselves. This had turned out to be a good idea and, for the most part, they’d calculated how much money they’d need pretty well. But now they had a bigger job than they’d ever had before, and there just wasn’t enough money in their treasury to pay for it.
    Mr. Moore came into the kitchen with Matthew. He opened the refrigerator and stared into it, running his fingers through his graying black hair. “You girls haven’t been cooking lately,” he noted. “I don’t see the usual selection of wonderful things to snack on in here.”
    “Yeah, no brownies, no chocolate chip cookies.” Matthew added. “What’s up with that?”
    “We’ll be real busy soon,” she told them. “Dad, could I talk to you about a little business loan?” She explained to him the situation with the Kramers. “I don’t think we should make everything ahead, she said. ”We don’t have enough room in the freezer to store it all. But we do want to make two meals ahead of time and freeze them. That way, as soon as we get the call that Mrs. Kramer’s sister has had the baby, we’ll only have three dinners to cook. We’ll be under a lot less pressure. And we can pay back the loan completely as soon as we deliver the food to the Kramers.”
    “I’m impressed, Molly,” her dad said. “You’re thinking like a real businesswoman.”
    “Thanks,” Molly said. “You know we paid Shawn’s Grandma Ruthie back the money she lent us for the refrigerator. We