Slightly Less Badass

~Chapter Sixteen~

Eliza and I ride in silence to the bakery. Somehow, I'm not really sure if I want to know, Cameron got my car fixed while I was away. The accident was entirely his fault so it's not like the insurance company was going to fix it but it was waiting for me in the my usual parking spot next to the apartment building. So I picked up Eliza at Jacob's place and then headed to the bakery. There was no music on, just stupid commercials, so we sat in silence until we arrived. As we get out of the car, Eliza looks up at the bakery sign with a look of satisfaction.
"Why did you call it Pastry Pages?" she asks.
"I have two small bookshelves set up so that people can buy books. My original idea was to have a bookstore with a bakery attached but I didn't have enough money to buy a bigger space," I explain. She doesn't say anything else as we walk into the place. Since I'm hardly paying attention, I nearly run into a small table. I look around in surprise at the new tables placed in the middle of the room. We had a total of two very small tables before but Cameron moved those over and somehow crammed a comfy looking couch against the wall next to the bookshelf.
"Welcome home Count Dorkula," he says from behind the counter. He was too focused on icing a cupcake to look up at me.
"Stop right there!" I yell at him. He drops his bag of icing in surprise. "Those cupcakes deserve to be in the trash and so do you. Did I give you my consent to ruin my recipes while I was gone?"
"Oh they're terrible, I know. That was Dad and Della's creation. They've been experimenting ever since you got into the car. He was watching excitedly over my shoulder when your friends came and bought them so I felt kinda forced to sell them. Don't worry I threw those away and made a new batch as soon as he left. Hey, aren't you that girl that came in yesterday with Jacob?" he asks and squints suspiciously at Eliza.
"Ya this is Eliza. She's Jacob's cousin and she's going to work here now. Eliza this is my weirdo little brother Cameron."
"I'm not weird," Cameron mutters before going back to work on his cupcake. Once again he stops though and looks up at me.
"I almost forgot. Dad texted right before you got here and said he's got another creation he wants to test. He'll be here around noon."
"Super duper. Cameron give me that cupcake. Go teach Eliza the basics."
He doesn't look happy about this but does it anyway. I smirk. I enjoy being the boss of my little brother.
///////
At noon exactly, my father and little sister come strolling through the door with wide smiles. When they see me smiling back from behind the counter, their steps falter.
"Hiya Dad. Hello Della."
"Back to work so soon? You just got home," Dad says slightly nervously. I notice Della try to hide a box behind her back. They both glance around, clearly hoping Cameron was here since apparently he just tells them they can do whatever they want.
"It's been two days, Dad. So, Cameron tells me you have some new recipes for me? Well let's see it. I've asked some of my friends here to test it for us. If more then half of them like it then we'll discuss selling it. If not then you need to stop making gross suggestions. Oh look, here they are now," I say brightly. Jacob, Jay, and David walk single file into the bakery. Rina was missing. Cameron and Eliza come out from the stock room. Della knows right then and there that they've been defeated but Dad just looks more hopeful.
"Don't you people have jobs?" Della demands as she looks around at all of us.
"I'm on lunch," Jay and Jacob say.
"I don't work until 1," says David.
"So what have you brought us today?"
Dad takes the large box from Della and sets it on the counter. He hands Della his car keys and sends her to get more boxes out of the car. She returns a few minutes later with three boxes stacked up in her arms.
"Damn Dad. How much did you bring?" Cameron asks from behind me.
"Language," is all Dad has to say to this. He sets all of the boxes neatly on the counter and opens them. Each box was filled with something different; cupcakes, donuts, chocolate chip cookies, and muffins. I lead the line of testers and one by one we each taste something out of every box. I have to admit, the muffins were pretty dang good. The cupcakes were terrible, though. After everyone's finished, we're all trying to hide our looks of disgust. We must not hide it well enough because Dad look highly disappointed. I sigh loudly and prepare to deliver the bad news.
"I feel like I'm on a tv show," Dad says with a nervous laugh.
"Dad, I regret to inform you that only your muffins made the cut. Perhaps with a little more work those cookies might be good enough. They had some potential."
It takes him a few seconds to process what I said. He looks so dramatically sad and defeated that I roll amy eyes. His glare turns into a goofy grin and he says, "You like the muffins?"
"I like almost all of your food," I say with another roll of my eyes. I make sure to put strong emphasis on the word almost. My dad is cluelessly weird sometimes.
"Mira, Eliza is being a butthead!" Cameron suddenly yells. Eliza is smirking but shrugs when I catch her eye. People need to stop being obnoxious.
"My family is annoying," I groan.
"Oh!" Dad exclaims. "I almost forgot. Mom wants to have a family dinner on Friday night."
All of us groan except for Eliza. She just looks confused.
"I hate when Mom wants to bond. It's stupid,"  Della whines.
"Fine but I'm bringing Rina with me," I say.
"Bring me where?"
I turn around and of course Rina was walking into the store. Cameron grumbles something and stomps out of the room, returning back to the storage. Eliza quickly follows with an evil glint in her eye. I make a mental note to recruit her later; she looks like she's devious enough to include in our war.
"What's going on?" asks Rina. She grabs one of Dad's cookies and I try to discreetly shake my head. She doesn't see me, though, and takes a giant bite out of it. She looks around to make sure Dad isn't looking then quickly spits it out into a napkin.
"We're tasting Dad's new food. Where have you been?"
"Yummy. Uh, I wasn't informed of this," she says.
"You said you don't have your lunch break until 12:30 so I didn't bother telling you," David interjects.
"Actually, needed to talk to you about that," she mutters embarrassedly. She's quiet when she says it, making sure only I could hear her. She quickly changes the subject before I can question her. "So why were you talking about me? Gossiping about how awesome I am?"
"You're coming with me to family dinner on Friday."
"Ugh no. Force Jay to go instead. I've been to every single one of those stupid things," she replies.
"Oh right. I kinda forgot about Jay. I still am bringing you though. Pretty please? With a cherry on top?"
"Ugggggggggghhhhhhhhhh."
"Is that a yes?"
"Whatever. I suppose I'll go," she grumbles.
"Yay. Friday at- what time Dad?"
"Um I think she said to be there by 5:30. Well I better get going. I'll see you Friday and I'll have more cookies for you."
"Can't wait. Bye Dad. Bye Della."
-------
"You what!!" I yell, making Rina and a customer jump in surprise.
"Shhhh."
"You quit your job? When? How? Why?"
"What is this, twenty questions?" Rina grumbles. She was avoiding my questions with attempts of humor. It's something I would do- something I have done. But she wasn't avoiding these questions.
"Rina what happened?" I say in a much calmer voice. She bites her lip and sighs loudly.
"I quit. They treated me like trash and I couldn't take it anymore. So, before we left for Europe, I gave my notice and walked out the door. I've been trying to find other work but nobody is hiring. Well, nobody decent is hiring. So now I'm asking you if I can work here. I understand if you say no but it would only be temporary. Just until I find something else. Please."
"Well..." I'm hesitant to say yes. I really, really, really wanted to say yes but I couldn't help but think of all of the reasons I shouldn't. I just hired Eliza and apparently I'm going to have to start paying for the ingredients to make those muffins which will cost me enough as it is. But I don't know if I have enough money to hire a third person. Plus, honestly, would any work get done if both of us worked here? Most likely we would mess around and eat all of the food. But the pleading look that Rina was giving me made me feel so guilty.
"I-I suppose. But I can only pay you minimum wage. I know at your other job they paid you much-"
"That's perfectly fine. That's great. Thank you so much Mira. I promise I'll try not to get in the way too much. I owe you for the rest of our lives. Thank goodness, now I can just tell David that you begged me to come work for you and he doesn't need to know what happened." She talking more to herself than me at this point. The relief is evident on her expression and in her voice.
"Wait, David didn't know?" I question. Her relief turns to a guilty look.
"Well, uh, not- not exactly. He knew I was having issues there but I never told him I quit."
"That's going to bite you in the ass. Lies always come back. But I'm bored with talking about serious stuff so onto a happier topic. We need to reunite, stop pranking each other, and focus on our original target. We also need to do some recruiting. I think Eliza would be a great member to add to our pranking team. She has that devious glint in her eyes," I say. Rina looks thankful for the change in topic and jumps eagerly into the conversation.
"I was thinking the same thing when I was watching her last night, which sounded kinda creepy. I meant that her and Jacob definitely didn't get along and I think she would gladly grab at the reason to prank them. Plus it'll make us even- three girls against three boys."
"Ugh you're doing that again? Why? Haven't you run out of pranks yet?" Cameron asks as he comes into to room with Eliza following behind. She was carrying a heavy looking box and glaring at him.
"What are you talking about?" she asks, directing her question towards Rina and I.
"They're in this stupid prank war with Jacob and Jay. They did it in high school too," Cameron replies.
"Wanna join our team?" I ask her. She considers it for a moment.
"On one condition- we prank someone else that deserves it. They're not exactly a friend of mine but they're not necessarily an enemy. Yet, at least. We just have to prank them once and I'll join."
"Deal. Welcome to the team."
Rina and I look at each other and smile before we both start singing "Welcome to the club! Welcome to the club! Welcome Squidward, welcome Squidward, welcome Squidward!"
"Am I gonna regret this?" Eliza mutters to Cameron.
"Probably."
"Great."