1. Patty's Bakery


Patty's always liked a good cake. It's in her genes, she supposes—at least, that's what her mother would say as she ran the bakery. Patty is something of a perfectionist but the new girl (everyone just calls her Sam—she seems to get bored before she finishes saying her name), well, in all of her years of running this bakery since her mother died, Patty has never had an employee who is so sleight of hand. The little desiccated coconut sheep on Sam's farmyard cupcakes are absolutely divine, and everyone asks her to do the groom's buttons on the wedding cakes now.

Patty likes to think that she's a laid-back boss—she's down in the kitchen with everyone else with the company apron on, hands buried in the mixing bowl—but Sam's making her wonder if she should start implementing some new workplace rules. While she bakes, Sam likes to help herself to some samples. Patty's been watching her—no one person, especially one so slender, could possibly eat that much cake in one day. Patty should probably confront her about that, but there's something about Sam that leads Patty to think she'd get her head bitten off if she got on Sam's wrong side, so for now she keeps quiet.

On day one Patty learned the hard way to keep Sam away from the customers—she's too blunt, too impatient and she doesn't smile at them. She just stares at them piercingly until they hand over the bills and get the hell out. If that stare was directed at her Patty's sure she would throw the money and run.

Then there's the cream gun. Sylvia made it for Patty and her bakers to use last year and it's saved a lot of cleaning up ever since. On day two of her banishment to the kitchen Sam found it. She could stand three feet away from a cake and squirt the cream accurately. And, one morning when a bride-to-be was becoming hysterical to the point of violence over the issue of whether to have strawberries or raspberries on her wedding cake, it was found that Sam could also accurately fire cream from six feet. The bride-to-be shrieked at the streak of cream that started in her hair and ended at her feet.

Georgia, who'd been just a little bit scared, has hero-worshipped Sam ever since.

Patty watches Sam now as she samples some of her cookie dough mix and nods in satisfaction before continuing to stir. She's a hero, really, Patty thinks, so who am I to begrudge her a few free samples?

The next day when Sam comes into the kitchen everyone's lying in wait with party-poppers. Sam doesn't jump—a part of Patty didn't expect her to—and she's not very excited by the photo on the wall that has 'EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH' written underneath it.

The celebratory booze, however, does disappear rather quickly, which is strange—Patty was sure she'd bought enough for everyone.


Author's Note: I might write some more of these for the other characters—after all, you do have to wonder what sort of jobs Root had planned for them... Thanks for reading! :)