My Sweet Escape

~Chapter 1~

I wasn't sure if I should cheer him on or just sit quietly in the stands.

It was a gorgeous Saturday afternoon and I was stuck at my older brother's soccer practice. He just had to be the captain of my high school's boys' senior team. I didn't want to complain too much because, after all, they were good looking guys. I knew I never would have a chance with any of them but I could still dream, right? I was gazing at the assistant captain, Owen, when I heard someone yelling my name.

I whipped my head around to find the person. It turned out to be my best friend, Abigail who was running towards me. Abby happened to be the complete opposite of me; she had gorgeous, long blond hair that was perfectly highlighted by the sun, emerald green eyes, she was 5'10", she was slim and athletic. We had known each other since she moved to Kauai; it's been around 8 years. I still don't know why she picked me out of all people to become best friends with.

I have medium-length dark brown hair, plain brown eyes, glasses, braces; I'm 5'4" and medium build. Not that I'm not glad that we're friends but sometimes I just have to wonder. "Jessie! Did you forget that we have that banquet to cater for?!' She was pretty hysterical at times, one of those times right now. I checked my watch just to find out that it was already 3:00. I was supposed to already be at the bakery getting ready to start baking 300 cupcakes. I swore loudly and the guys looked over at me, noticing I was there for the first time.

"Oh my gosh, I didn't even know it was that late! Crap, Judy is going to kill me!" Judy was our boss and she hated it when one of us showed up late to work. "Don't worry right now, she called in sick luckily." Abby always had a way to cheer me up. We were forced to run through the boys to get to my jeep if we wanted to have enough time to bake.

We were so lucky that there was hardly any traffic on the roads. I screeched into the parking lot of Cupcakes Galore and we ran into the store. The customers were staring at us but they were slowly getting used to our rushing into the kitchen. I always try my best to be presentable to my customers but sometimes it doesn't work out that easily. Throwing on our chef's coats and hats, we got to organize the ingredients. Abby was making Pina Colada cupcakes and I was making my famous S'mores cupcake. My cupcake was the most complicated one the store has ever served. We usually stick to the traditional, easy to make cupcakes. On a normal day, I usually sell around 5 dozen S'mores cupcakes. Today, I needed to make 12 and a half dozen.

The banquet was for the kickoff of our annual Surf Fest. It's a big deal to be asked to make the dessert of the banquet. There are so many surfers who attend and lots of locals too. It was great advertisement for Cupcakes Galore and also for Abby and I. We had exactly 6 hours to make 25 dozen cupcakes and transport them in the light pink delivery van. It would be a close call but deep down, I knew we would make it. We rushed around the kitchen like crazed maniacs, trying to find all of our ingredients and mixing everything together. It was slowly getting closer to 8:00 which was when we had to leave. Finally, after stressing out a whole bunch, my cupcakes were perfectly done. Abby's had finished 10 minutes ago and were busy getting icing on them. I quickly torched the tops of the marshmallows and started packing them away. It was supposed to be a 15 minute drive to the beach, but it felt like 30 minutes with all the careful driving I had to do.

When we go to the beach, I saw that it was beautiful, there was flowers scattered around, a huge table made just for our cupcakes and also a tent which I assumed was for the main meal. I walked up to the table which was similar to a chocolate fondue thing and ran my hand across the smooth dark wood. I noticed that it had a cool feeling to it, way too cool for sitting outside. I looked under the table and found out that there was a cooling device. I was so thankful for that because the cupcakes would have to sit outside for at least an hour and a half.