Purple Nails and Puppy Tails by Jill Santopolo

one
Shake It Up Silver
    A ly Tanner leaned forward with the Shake It Up Silver brush in her hand. She was about to put the second coat of nail polish on her friend Charlotte Cane’s pinkie.
    â€œWhat do you think?” she asked. “Should Shake It Up Silver be our Color of the Week?”
    It was a new idea Aly had—picking a Color of the Week so that everyone who came to the Sparkle Spa would get to know all the nail polish choices one by one.
    â€œI like it,” Charlotte said. “Nice and sparkly. My fingers look like little fairy wands.”
    Aly’s younger sister, Brooke, put down the nail file she was using for her best friend Sophie Chu’s pedicure. “I need to take a break, Sophie,” she said. “Just for a second. This is Very Important Polish Business.” Brooke walked over to look at Charlotte’s nails.
    â€œOooh, it’s so shiny! I love it, Aly,” Brooke said. “Maybe we’ll get to paint everyone’s nails with silver glitter.”
    â€œSilver glitter? Let me see,” Jenica Posner called from the sitting area. Jenica was the captain of the Auden Elementary girls’ soccer team. She already had a special rainbow sparkle soccer team pedicure, which Aly had done three days ago.
    Aly topped Charlotte’s nails with clear polish to seal in the sparkles and sent her over to thewaiting area to dry—and to show Jenica the color.
    â€œCan you give me a quick manicure too, Aly?” Jenica asked after seeing Charlotte’s nails. “Before my nana’s done out there?”
    Aly smiled to herself. She couldn’t believe that Jenica Posner, the most popular sixth grader in their school, was begging her for a manicure.
    Just a few weeks ago Alyand Brooke had given Jenica a rainbow sparkle pedicure, which was how the Sparkle Spa began in the first place. In her next soccer game Jenica scored five goals, and then the rest of the team wanted matching pedicures for good luck. It was pretty unbelievable, but ever since they started getting rainbow pedicures, the team hadn’t lost one game. Now Jenica liked to visit and would stop in whenever her grandmother came to True Colors to get her nails done.
    The Sparkle Spa was really just a back room of Aly and Brooke’s mom’s nail salon. The sisters had opened it and decorated it with paintings and rainbow-colored pillows to sit on. There were some old pedicure chairs and manicure stations for them to use. And the best part was that their mom let them polish kids’ nails there three days a week—two days after school and one day on the weekend.
    Aly opened the door and looked into the True Colors salon, where all the grown-ups were having their nails done. It was Friday afternoon, always a busy time.
    Joan—Aly and Brooke’s favorite True Colors manicurist—was taking polish off Jenica’s nana’s nails. Aly figured she could do a manicure almost as fast as Joan could, so the timing might work out perfectly. She waved to Mrs. Franklin, a True Colors regular who had a tiny dog named Sadie that she sometimes brought to the salon with her. Sadie wassitting on Mrs. Franklin’s lap, so Aly waved to her, too. Then she slipped back into the Sparkle Spa.
    â€œSure,” Aly told Jenica. “I can do it.”
    As Aly started on Jenica and Brooke finished up Sophie, Lily Myers walked in the door. Lily was Aly’s best school friend, along with Charlotte.
    â€œHey, guys,” Lily said as she climbed into the second pedicure chair, next to Sophie. “Can someone do my toes?”
    Brooke looked at Aly with a Secret Sister Eye Message that involved scrunched-up eyebrows. It meant: Our friends need to start making appointments! But she leaned over anyway and turned on the water in a pedicure basin for Lily.
    â€œI’m almost done with Sophie. Then it’s your turn,” Brooke said. “Did you pick a color? If not, I think you might