Love & War | Brad Simpson ✔️

23. "Ella, don't hyperventilate but Brad Simpson is stood in your room"

Thank you for all the comments on the last chapter, I honestly love reading you guys' comments, they make my day :D

When I get up for work the next morning, the house is quiet. I can hear snores coming from Tris's room so I assume that neither him or Brad are even close to being awake yet. I find my mum in the kitchen unloading the dishwasher.

"Morning" I say, going over to the cupboard to make some breakfast.

"Oh, Ella sweetheart" my mum chirps, turning her attention to me, "I've got a job for you today"

"Doing what?"

"I want you to use your artistic talents" she smiles, "to design a new cupcake for the shop"

"I thought you were going with that raspberry one with the white chocolate"

"I want something that appeals to kids" she explains, "to bring more families into the cafe"

"Okay" I nod. Sounds like it will be quite a fun task.

"So Phil and Brittany are gonna help me with the cafe so could you stay here and keep an eye on Millie whilst you work? I don't trust Tris and Brad to keep her out of trouble, you know what they're like when they're together"

"Sure"

"Just play around with some ideas, see what you come up with"

When everyone leaves to go to the cafe, I grab my sketchbook and take it to the kitchen to start brainstorming. My initial ones include glitter and rainbows and popping candy, which I then sketch up a few prototype designs with. Then I get a bit carried away and start thinking of extravagant designs with galaxy-fied buttercream and unicorn horns made out of ice creams cones; my sketchbook looks like a stereotypical teenage girl's tumblr page. I mean, they look pretty cute but I'm not sure if practically they'd work, given that we'd have to make them from scratch and they need a lot of time and effort. And so I decide to consult Millie.

"Millie, what kind of cupcake would you like Mum to sell?"

"A rainbow one, with glitter!" She exclaims, "or a unicorn one!"

I sigh, "yeah, no, they're a bit over-aspirational, what do kids like?"

She gives me a few good starting points like Pokemon and Star Wars and Marvel so I create a few designs based off of those with her help. Then I have a nosy through her room to see if I can get any more inspiration. I don't really find much until I discover a box of her old toys underneath my bed. There's a lot of crap in there; Barbie dolls with missing arms and lone pieces of Lego. However, I do come across a set of small Disney dolls, one of each princess and it gives me an amazing idea of how I can incorporate them into the cupcakes. I grab all of them and then take them into the kitchen to start working on the designs.

I get so engrossed in my work that three hours later, the kitchen is a mess of mixing bowls, ingredients and baking trays filled with cupcakes, and I'm partway through icing my creations. I've made a hole in the top of each cupcake, pushed one of the little dolls in it and then iced the top of the cupcake to look like a dress. They look pretty cute and I'm proud of my work so far.

"Woah, what happened in here?"

I look up to see Tris and Brad stood in the doorway as they take in the mess of the kitchen. I glance and realise just how much mess I've made. There's a plethora of kitchenware just scattered about the countertops. There's approximately six bowls of buttercream that are filling the table in front of me, each containing a different coloured buttercream for each doll's 'dress'.