As Olivia spent the lunch hour slopping out the dismal excuse for a school lunch, she offered each student a small regretful smile at having to serve it to them. The library was closed and she had been ordered by Nero to replace the cafeteria worker, who she had seen being carried out of the cafeteria by a rather handsome man, and fulfil the needs for the cafeteria meal times. It wasn't too loud in here but she still found herself missing the quiet atmosphere of her library. She had been standing at the serving station for a good ten minutes before the loud obnoxious tip tapping of tap shoes breached the noise level of the room and her attention was drawn from the slop in front of her to the bouncing pink mass that was Carmelita Spats.
Letting out a small groan before erecting her shield of resilience that she could only hope would work against the girl, Olivia straightened her back and stared at Carmelita and her annoying bouncy ringlets. Normally ringlets were adorable whenever Olivia saw them, but somehow Carmelita Spats had managed to permanently ruin the sight of them for Olivia.
"Awe, look at the lonely cake sniffer orphaned librarian? Working in the cafeteria. You're right where you should be…..SERVING ME!"
"Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind." Olivia said heavily. Because here, now, in this moment, she felt as if she might actually throw a book in anger. And at a particular target.
Carmelita looked at Olivia with a black expression on her face that showed that she had no idea what Olivia had just recited.
"Don Quixote said that. It Lameman's terms, it means you are driving me crazy Carmelita Spats." Olivia said, picking up the ladle and serving another student.
"how does he know who I am?" Carmelita replied and bounced away in the direction of the Baudelaire's and Quagmire's. Olivia watched the girl as she tapped away and shook her head.
"Please open a book." Olivia said quietly.
Olivia watched as Carmelita approached the table the Baudelaire's and Quagmire's were sitting at. With a sadness overcoming her heart she noted that while the Quagmires looked just as downtrodden as usual, the Baudelaire's were looking like they were about to pass out in their dinner trays. Poor Sunny was just a toddler and there was no way she was getting the hours of sleep she needed per day to develop at a healthy rate.
Olivia felt hopeless. There was nothing she could do to help them in their circumstance, no way she would be taken seriously by Nero to affect any kind of change that would benefit the children. She wasn't even allowed to have them in the library for ten minutes anymore. It was at this time, watching the plight the children were experiencing at the hands of the school, the nasty new gym teacher and the abrasiveness that is Carmelita Spats, that Olivia remembered what the stranger had said as he walked through the door and past her as she reached the cafeteria last night to make sure everything was in order.
Last night-
Olivia walked towards the cafeteria, apron and hairnet in a firmly grasped fist, muttering about how bad a principle Nero was when she heard a voice coming towards the cafeteria doors.
"This man here is my friend, and I don't appreciate anyone mistreating my friends, no matter what age they are." A man's voice said. Olivia raised an eyebrow. "Oh, and by the way, I believe it takes one to know one. Cake-sniffer." At this a wide grin spread over Olivia's face. Hearing the footsteps come closer again, Olivia moved over so that the door would hide here when it opened.
The door swung open softly and Olivia saw a man walk out of the cafeteria holding a very pale looking version of the man who had knocked over her book cart earlier. The man took three steps forward and stopped. Olivia's gaze ran over the man as he listened to the sound of Carmelita's tap shoes get softer. He was strong Olivia noted, evident by the way he was carrying the frozen man without strain. Olivia could only see a silhouette of the man but she noticed in seconds details about the man. He had a jacket with a woollen collar that remined her of the type of jackets men used to wear while piloting Biplanes. It seemed as though every hair on his head was slicked smoothly in place. His posture, even while carrying the frozen man was remarkable.
There was silence again and Olivia was standing with her back pressed to the wall and was trying her very best to be quiet, still unsure about the man and why he was here and carrying a mostly frozen man. The man's face turned the slightest bit in the direction of Olivia's hiding place. Olivia could now see that the man had a moustache, not to extravagant, but fashionable. Olivia stood holding her breath, certain she had been made.
"it's a shame the cake displays are empty. They were always full when I attended this academy." The man said before the frozen man, teeth chattering, added "A l-lot has c-c-changed s-since then. the new p-principle spends m-more t-time and m-money on himself then o-on the c-children that n-need it"
"Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change." Olivia straighten up more at this literary reference. Olivia mouthed 'Mary Shelley said that' as the man spoke again
"M. Shelly said that. It does wonders for the soul, the smell of freshly baked goods." The man said before turning his head forward again and continuing his path down the hallway and around the corner.
Olivia, heart beating rapidly, stepped forward watching the corner the man had just disappeared around. Shaking her head, she turned and entered the cafeteria.
The present-
A cake. She would bake a cake for the children. That was sure to make their day tomorrow the slightest bit more bearable to know that someone cares about them enough to bake them a cake.
Later that night after the evening meal, Olivia stayed behind and baked a cake. She then though that the children might like to select a slice of cake from a few different cakes. So Olivia stayed for three hours after the evening meal and baked and baked and baked. By the time Olivia was finished baking, she had five different cakes baked, cream filled and iced or dusted. She placed them on top of the food serving station on stands and covered by domes.
Olivia left and headed for her, frankly insulting and nothing more than an equipment cupboard, room where she intended to read for thirty minutes and then sleep a restful night sleep.
She didn't. Olivia could hear the Baudelaire's running around the field. Olivia had never felt quite so helpless and decided to get up and sneak into the library to search for information about the book the children were so determined to locate.
So, there she spent the night, occasionally looking out the window and sighing at the sight of the Baudelaire's running in a circle on the field. Poor Sunny, or what she could see of her was looking so stiff and lifeless as she ran around the field with her siblings in the dark of night when she should be in a big comfortable warm cot, fast asleep and dreaming pleasant dreams.
Olivia spent the half the night in the library before falling asleep at her desk.
The next morning, she woke up earlier than normal and headed towards the kitchen to open the cafeteria for the morning meal. Olivia turned on the lights, put the chairs down from the tables and walked towards the kitchen to star the preparation for breakfast. She stopped as she walked past on of the cakes, a lovely lemon sponge cake with passionfruit flavoured cream filling and heavily dusted with icing sugar. Olivia stepped backwards twice before turning towards the cake and lifting the dome.
Olivia's jaw dropped at the sight of the top of the cake. There in the icing was a very obvious sign that someone had put their mouth and nose right against the surface of the cake and inhaled. Olivia was baffled. Someone had leant down and sniffed the cake.
"who sniffs a cake? Honestly, who snif-" Olivia paused. Her memories of every time she had heard the words 'cake sniffer' come from Carmelita's mouth played before her eyes.
"SPAAAATS" Olivia spat in frustration and annoyance. An actually cake sniffer!