Caged

Chapter 12

Today is Joseph's birthday. I got Ryder to speak to Joseph's guard about keeping him away from the quiet room and kitchen from 10-11:30. I also asked Ryder to wake me up as soon as he started his shift. Like he promised, I was woken up very early in the morning by a groggy looking Ryder. "Get up! You wanted to be woke up early for decoration time and stuff." He shook me gently and my eyes slowly opened, then slowly shut. "Oh no you don't!" He lifts me over his shoulder and I don't fight it, too tired to wail around and beg to be put down.

I'm carried to the washroom where Ryder places me on my feet and I go brush my teeth and fix my hair, I put on deodorant and almost fall asleep against the mirror. I pull myself together and splash water on my face and make my way out the door. I step outside and Ryder greets me with a smile. He's too happy in the mornings. "Where to first?" He asked.

"The kitchen." I mumbled and we walked down the hallway towards my destination. I passed Taylor who was practically falling asleep as she walked and her guard constantly shaking her. I gave her a smile but she was too tired to see.

We got to the kitchen and I pulled everything out of the fridge and freezer for today. Cake, pizza, crackers and sausage, chips and salsa. I dig around a little longer to see if I should pull something else out to cook. I pushed things around and pulled out two frozen waffles for me to have for breakfast, and spotted Joseph's favourite snack. Chocolate and strawberries. He loves chocolate covered strawberries.

I sorted out everything and evaluated which would take the longest to cook whilst putting my waffles in the toaster. I preheated the over and took off all the plastic from the pizza and stuck it on a large cookie pan. I then located a small pan and put it on a burner and stuck the chocolate in it, and started washing the strawberries. My waffles popped and I waved Ryder over. "I wanted to do this on my own but I need to make too many things..." I admit. "Could you help me?"

"Yes ma'am! Just tell me what I need to do and how to do it." Ryder grabbed an apron and put it on.

"Wash your hands and stir the chocolate until it melts." I point to the pot the chocolate is in. He did as I said and I pinned back loose hairs, then continued on washing the rest of the strawberries. The oven beard, meaning it was done preheating, so I asked ryder to cook the pizza, then grabbed a knife and began cutting off the small yucky parts. I set all the strawberries in the container I took them from and ate my waffles quickly before moving into decorating the cake.

I grabbed purple and red icing, red was my favourite colour. I did random swirls around the boarder and by the time I finished that the chocolate had melted. I grabbed a large plate and some wax paper, placed the wax paper on the plate and asked Ryder to dip the strawberries. The timer went off and I put on oven mots and pulled out the pizza, setting it on top of the stove then returning to decorating the cake.

"So what have you planned today?" Ryder asked me.

"Well Joseph's brother is coming, and you, Big W and I are the only ones that know about that. Don't tell anyone. I'm putting more decorations up in the quiet room and we're getting a table to put all this food on it. Big W is finding me some music and I think that's about it..." I trail off. "We can only use things in the storage so the music will be pretty old." I add. "Also Big W is letting Joseph go into the storage to find more stuff for his room."

"You're a good friend, Kristy." Ryder smiles and puts the full plate if chocolate covered strawberries into the fridge.

"Can you finish writing 'Happy Birthday Joe' with a heart?" I ask Ryder and he nods. I hand him the icing and move onto making Joseph breakfast. I search for bacon and pancake batter and wing how to make bacon pancakes.

The first attempt didn't turn out too good, but I knew what I needed to fix. I tried again and they turned out edible, but not very good. I tried another time and it worked. I made five using all the measurements and steps I did with my most successful attempt and Joseph walked in. "Happy Birthday my boi!" I shouted at him through the gap in the wall and he smiled.