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make pasta for everybody for every night?” Natasha asked.
    “Well, the other kids get tired of pasta. And the dad won’t even eat it any more, he’s so sick of it,” Amanda replied.
    “We can’t do this,” Shawn said flatly. “This woman is crazy! That is, like, so much extra work! We have to cancel.”
    Finally, Molly spoke. “I know it sounds bad, guys, but we can’t cancel,” she said. “First, it would be bad for business. We could get a bad reputation if we cancel a job this big. Second, I think it sounds worse than it is.
    Basically, it’s the regular job we signed up for—plus a little extra. Simple pasta dishes and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches? We can totally do that!”

    “I think Molly’s right,” Natasha said. “But listen, maybe this should be the last time we cook for Ms. Barlow or any of her friends. They always get seriously complicated.”
    “Yeah, but they pay really well,” Peichi pointed out.
    “This one will just take some extra planning,” Molly said. “Like, we can have some meals frozen ahead of time so we don’t fall behind. If we make lasagna, and something else that freezes well, this job will feel more like a regular job when we have to prepare the rest of the meals.”
    “How much money will we need to buy all these ingredients?” Shawn asked. “We’d better not let the refrigerator get too full between now and then, or we won’t have room for it all.”
    “Right,” said Molly. “We’ll need to go on a big shopping trip, but not too soon because we don’t want the fresh foods to go bad.”
    “We have to think about what we’re going to make, too,” Natasha said.
    “That’s why we’re having this meeting,” Molly reminded them. They sat together and planned their menu, trying to estimate the expenses. It took more than an hour before they could finally agree on what to serve. The girls were finally—after lots and lots of discussion—able to come up with a menu. Molly wrote it in her notebook.

    Molly looked down at the menu they’d decided to make and smiled. “I think the Kramers will be really happy with this menu,” she said.
    Amanda looked over Molly’s shoulder and also read it. “Where are we going to get the money to buy the ingredients for all this? Peichi, how’s the treasury doing?”
    Peichi was the treasurer of Dish. She looked at the list of meals while Molly started another list of ingredients the girls would need to buy. “I don’t know, guys,” Peichi said slowly. “I’m not sure we have enough in the treasury to pay for this. Does anybody have some money they can chip in?”
    “I dont,” said Amanda sadly. “I’m totally broke.”
    “Me, too,” said Shawn, scrunching up her nose.
    “Uh-oh,” said Natasha, looking concerned.
    Molly looked up from her list. “Don’t worry, guys,” she said. “I’ll figure something out.”
    I hope, she thought.

Chapter 5
    “ I love Chinatown!” Amanda said when all the girls went shopping with Peichi’s dad and grandmother on Sunday. “It’s so exciting.”
    “Haven’t you ever been here before?” Mr. Cheng asked. He was loaded with packages that Ah-mah had filled with all kinds of interesting ingredients like chili bean paste, dried tiger lily buds, and hua chiao, a kind of mild peppercorn. Although it didn’t look as though Mr. Cheng would be able to carry one more bag, Ah-mah didn’t seem ready to stop shopping. The group was waiting for Shawn and Natasha to come out of a gift shop.
    “I’ve been here for dinner with our parents, but I didn’t come that time that Molly and Peichi went by themselves!” Amanda replied with a grin. Molly and Peichi smiled sheepishly at each other, remembering the time they’d gone to Chinatown by themselves last summer—and had gotten grounded.
    “Look what I bought!” Shawn said as she came out of the store carrying a plain brown bag. She pulled out a sleeveless red silk shirt with a mandarin collar that sat low on the neck