Lisa Clark - Cupcakes and Glitter Shakes

“B, I am loving that totally-of-the-moment look you’ve got going on right there!”

Bella, who gives Angel a big bear hug, is now accustomed to Angel talking like she’s an actual page from a swanky fashion magazine, and responds accordingly.

“Why thank you, Miss Angel, this is what I like to call my Minnie Mouse-inspired outfit—frilly skirt from Topshop, a vintage halter and a faux diamond watch I won in a art competition!”

Angel nods in approval, pleased that Bella at least entertains her passion for the fashion deets.

“Yay—glitter shakes!” Bella exclaims, turning her attention from fashion reports to the pink and purple container sat on the kitchen table. She empties the edible sparkliness into the palm of her hand.

“I freakin’ love this stuff!” she says pushing and poking it around her hand with the tip of her tongue.

“Me too,” Sadie agrees and does exactly the same. “In fact, when I become a hugely successful fashion designer, I’m going to call my customised collection, Glitter Shakes by Sadie —what d’ya think? “We all nod with approval and give Sadie an enthusiastic thumbs up. We’d express our excitement through words, except we’ve all got our mouths full with either glitter shakes, cake mix or in my case, pink frosting.

This stuff is just too, too good.

“So, Lo,” Angel says swallowing the remainder of an unfrosted cupcake (which in my opinion is a complete waste of a cupcake). “I want to hear all about this internship of yours!”

As I add far too much pink colouring to the frosting I’m whipping up, my belly does a full 180 flip of excitement as I tell her all the plans for tomorrow’s all-about-me adventure.

Tori Frankel, ed-girl of fabulousness, had emailed me back with directions to the office—it was literally a minute’s walk from the train station, a starting time of 10am and had signed off the email with ‘You’re adorable Lola Love, see you Monday!’

Eep. She seriously makes me do silent squeals of filled-to-the-brim joy. A total doll.

In the meantime, Aunt Lullah had made sure I had all Skye’s details—mobile number, email address, home address—which made me swell with complete happiness too, because even though Lullah was super-busy and super-important doing all things costume on film sets in NYC, she still made time, no matter what, to look out for me.

“I can’t believe you’ve actually made this happen—you’re amazing!” Angel says reaching out to touch my arm.

“Well technically, Miss Angel,” I say, still mixing hard at the frosting and doing everything within my power not to lick it all up in one gulp, “Aunt Lullah made it happen, she’s totally magic!”

“Okay, hold up Lola Love,” Angel holds out her palm in front of my face. “Sure, Lullah rocks, that’s f’sure, and she might well have hooked you up with somewhere to stay, but you’re the one that created a kick-ass zine, you’re the one that made sure it got into the hands of your very own inspir-o-girl, you’re the one that knocked her very-expensive-I’m-sure socks off. YOU, Lola Love.”

Wow.

I did, didn’t I?

“What’s that saying you’ve got pinned to your mirror, Lo?” Angel asks, “Something like, ‘we are our thoughts, make them good ones’, isn’t it?” She was close, and I really didn’t realise that anyone else had ever really noticed them.

“Well, you thought about being a journo-girl, you, Lola Love and with the help of the people who dig you, you’ve made it happen, and that’s totally kick-ass—high five!”

We slap hands, and all do a collective high five while we sing and dance along to The Pipettes, an official Cupcake Bake soundtrack staple.

Seriously, who knew there was more than one six o’clock in the day? Not me.

I guess that’s why alarm clocks were invented. Luckily, I don’t need an alarm clock because I have a Bella, who is sat on the end of my bed looking every inch the tangerine orange-cream dream. How she has managed to colour co-ordinate so efficiently at such an unearthly hour is truly beyond me.

“Lo-Lo, wake up!” Bella says shaking me, but my body is still in sleep mode, as it should be at this time of the day, and is not entirely receptive to this method of wake up call.

“Lo!” Bella is shouting now. “Dude, you should be up and dressed by now, anyone would think you weren’t excited about going to work at the glossy magazine of your dreams!” she tugs at the duvet, but I hold on tight.

“Of course I am!” I reply trying desperately hard to keep my eyes open, “Why do you think I’m so tired now? I’ve been up all night trying to contain the belly flips—they’re relentless, just like you!” I pull the duvet over my head, trying to escape from the Bella noise, but she is much quicker than me and is pulling me feet first from the sheet and duvet cocoon I’d created.

“Okay, okay, I’m up already!” I say, looking up at her from my just-been-dumped position on the bedroom floor.

“Right you’ve got five minutes, missy!” she says tapping her watch. “I’ll see you downstairs—c’mon, I’m counting!” Who needs a Mothership when you have a Bella?

It’s okay, I can totally do this.

F’sure, fabulousness deffo takes time but being aware of both my inability to ever be able to get up and my big time love of all things sleep, preparing ensembles the night before has become something of a much-needed routine in the land of Lola.

Now, I’m not a total fashion-obsess-o fashionista like my fellow Pink Ladies, but I do love to channel my favourite era icons to create my own Lola Love stylin’—sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t—but that’s okay, because Lola stylin’ isn’t meant to be serious, it’s all about having fun. Y’see, Aunt Lullah left me a ton of stuff she couldn’t take to NYC and ever since, getting dressed each day has been like one big game of dress-up with my very own treasure chest filled with era-inspired treasures.

My first-day-at-work-at-a-glossy-magazine outfit is super-cute even if I do say so myself.

It consists of a white vest top, a denim pencil skirt, a thick shocking pink patent belt, my brand-new white gym pumps that really need to be kicked in, pink frilly ankle socks a la reception class, and a Sadie-made oversized pink and turquoise corsage with lots of glitter and ribbon. It’s a total convo-maker.

“It’s something that will make people stop and want to talk to you, Lola!” Sadie had said as she gave me the hand-wrapped package last night before I left. “It will be just perfect-o for making new friends at Missy magazine!”

Sadie really is the cutest bundle of goodness you will ever meet.

As well as a convo maker, we’d also agreed that it was mucho important that I made a good impression on the Missy team, Angel especially, as she thought it was by far the best way for me to score her a pair of designer shoes. We all umm-ed and ahh-ed as to how I’d do it without coming across like a super suck-up, until mid-way through my third pink frosted cupcake, I realised the most perfect way to impress my potential employers would be to rock up on the first day with yummy treats. Everyone loved yummy treats.

Fact.

We whipped up a batch of very special Think Pink cupcakes, sprinkled them with glitter shakes, put them in a pink box—natch, and wrapped it with a big silver and pink ribbon from Sadie’s craft box.

Think Pink cupcakes really are the very best kind.

Do you wanna know why?

Because they have a shhh-it’s-a-secret ingredient.

When you make Think Pink cupcakes you have to whisper lots of love and pink thinkin’ thoughts of fabulousness as you mix—it makes them taste extra sweet.