Life is Sweet

Chapter 1

You know when you eat a sour candy and the back of your mouth gets all tingly?  The sour juice dripping on the back of your tongue, while a burst of flavors explode around your mouth like tiny fireworks?

Story of my life right now.

As a sweet and sour aroma drifts around the bakery, my mouth waters profusely just thinking about the lemon-lime cupcakes with a creamy, lemon-lime buttercream.  The timer beeps and I gratefully pull the cupcakes out of the oven.   They look amazing.  

Baked to perfection.

I can’t wait to try one of these!  I think to myself.

I turn my head and spot two figures coming in from the corner of my eye.

“What’s in the oven this time?”

“Yeah, it smells so good in here!”

Tiffany and Khloe smile at me, each reaching for their aprons on the hook by the door.  Tiffany and Khloe are my best friends, and my assistant bakers.  We’ve all been best friends since kindergarten.  Our relationship pretty much sums up one of many cheesy tumblr posts saying something like, ‘Best friends?  More like sisters.’  Ever since we were little, we all shared the dream of working at a magical, fairy tree house bakery together.  We made our dream come true...except for the magical fairy part.  We realized that was a little childish by the sixth grade, (because when you’re in sixth grade you “know” you’re so grown up) so we never brought it up to anyone who asked about it.

“Hey guys!  I thought you two said you weren’t coming until 8:00,” I say, smiling.

“We thought you might want some company, and I couldn’t stand being around my mom for a minute longer,” Tiffany says.

“Is everything-?”

“Don’t ask, she’s just having one of those days.”

“Midlife crisis, those are the years,” I say nodding understandingly.

“Anyway, you probably need help, right?” Khloe asks.

“I always need help, I always feel like I’m behind, it's a struggle getting all of the orders in!  You guys know how it is,” I say.

“Yeah, we get a good amount of those early birds coming in.  It gets pretty crazy here sometimes!” Khloe exclaims, dragging out the ‘pretty’ and widening her big, Asian eyes, outlined with tons of perfectly winged eyeliner.

“Sometimes? Klo, all the time,” Tiffany says shaking her head.  Her black bangs bounce around her dark, oval face.

Khloe nods and shrugs.

“Alright then!  No time to waste, let’s get busy! Could you guys help me frost these?” I say pointing toward the now cooled lemon-lime cupcakes.

“Sure!” They say simultaneously.

“For the cupcakes, you can choose from these decorating tips.  They work the best for this type of cupcake,” I announce motioning to a small stack of tips.  

Tiffany picks up a white plastic pastry bag and inserts her decorating tip of choice.  She chooses the sophisticated, elegant tip that makes a beautiful, long design.  The graceful design reminds me of something that would be in an old French castle.  She squeezes the pastry bag lightly and starts making long green swirls of frosting on top of the perfectly domed cupcakes. Tiffany is such a pro at decorating.  Why can’t I be as good at decorating as her?

The world may never know.

I sigh then look over at Khloe, she grabs another pastry bag and picks up her decorating tip.  She’s going to go for the flower design, I know it’s gonna be the flower one. Khloe picks up the flower tip and places it into the bag.