Made With Love ✔

Chapter 4: All-Nighters & Chocolate-Covered Strawberry Cupcakes

The next day at work, I tried to tell Richard that I was going to have to extend my lunch break a few minutes, and I would be in the restaurant just in case. But the championship game for some sport-or-the-other was on and we were flooded because we were the only on-campus food place that had rights to televise it.

All morning people were reserving tables left and right. Alice was so busy answering the phone, that every time I tried to tell her about last night, the phone rang. By the time Lance and Hamilton walked in for our meeting, Richard thought I was taking my regular lunch break, Alice didn't know my roommates-to-be were Brown Eyes and Hamilton, and the cheerleader table was shooting daggers at me for talking to the two.

"Hey, Richard! I'm taking an extra 5. I'll be in the front." I yelled from the kitchen doorway. He nodded, so I hurried to their table with our order of 3 Hoagies.

"Okay, so I drew up the existing schedules for Lance and me. For you, I filled in the spots I could from the course schedules you gave me yesterday. Here they are." I started, directing my voice towards Hamilton.

"Um, well. I was thinking that if you guys don't mind...I'd be fine with doing dishes for all 7 weeks." Hamilton told us.

"Are you sure? That's gonna get kind of boring." Lance advised, looking puzzled.

"Um, well I can't really cook as far as my kitchen abilities. And the last time I dusted, I missed my finals in High School because I was in bed with severe allergies." Hamilton confessed, fiddling with his hands.

"Well, I'm already teaching Lance to cook, so you can join us. Lance can dust, you can do dishes, and I can simultaneously teach you guys and make dinner. Does that work with all of you?" I proposed, my hand hovering over the typed up schedules, pen in hand to make the changes. They nodded yes and I made the necessary changes while hurriedly eating the Hoagie I had prepared.

"Vanessa, we need you back in here. Someone just ordered 4 plates of cupcakes and we have no idea how to hold a pastry bag!" Danny yelled from the kitchen doorway. I excused myself and walked into the chaos of the kitchen.

Stephanie had burned the Apple Cinnamon cupcakes and was frantically trying to find the recipe and Danny was attempting to fill a pastry bag with the wrong frosting. I ran over to Stephanie and started mixing the batter and chopping apples while Danny came over with a new pastry bag and I taught him how to fit a pastry bag with a 2D tip.

      When the batter was done, I scooped it into a pastry bag and filled the cupcake trays, placing a pinch of seasoned apples into the center. When those were in the oven, I fixed up the proper frosting and filled the pastry bag. As soon as the timer went off, I took them out and stuck them into the fridge so they would cool faster. Five minutes later, I came back after waiting a few tables and pulled them out.
      Quickly, I frosted them with a simple swirl of cinnamon vanilla buttercream and topped it off with a split stick of cinnamon and an apple slice. Plating 8 of the cupcakes, I hurried outside to Table 3, where a group of 4 jocks were sitting, loudly talking about a new playbook or something of the sort. I placed the plates down, hoping to get away without any comments. Unfortunately, jocks will be jocks.

"Hey, cupcake girl. Why don't you frost your cupcake top!" one of them shouted as I finished clearing away the rest of the plates.

I hurried back to the safety of the kitchen where no one would comment on my appearance. After grabbing an extra 3 cupcakes for Lance, Hamilton, and myself. Walking back to our table, I set down the cupcakes and finished making the necessary changes.

------Lance's POV:

I didn't know how to broach the subject of her constant teasing, so I grabbed a cupcake and waited for her to say something. But it was clear after 3 minutes of scratching something on the blank notepad, she wasn't going to say anything.