I´ve finally overcome my writers block! Sorry for the long wait
Anyway, enjoy the story. I do not own the tigers, however Sheela and Kamala are my creation
Edit: I finally found the time to fix a little problem with the story, now it should be readable again. Sorry for the long wait everybody.
That is a pretty dress..
„Could you remind me why we agreed on doing this?", Kelsey asked, her face still bright read from blushing. Niliman on the other hand seemed absolutely content with their current situation. "We wanted to help out a friend of mine, remember? You yourself claimed that this would be a brilliant idea and we could even gather some awesome experiences for the future."
"Are you two ready?", another voice called from the other side of the door. "Just a minute!", Nilima shouted as an answer. "Come on Kelsey, you look really sweet in that outfit and we will have lots of fun today. Besides, the boys are not here, so you do not have to worry about them." The young woman let out a sigh. "It is a mystery to me how we managed to sneak out of the house without them catching us. Even Mr. Kadam has no idea about it. I hope the tigers won´t do anything stupid as soon as they find out we are missing." Nilima couldn´t stop herself from giggling. "They will, I´m sure about that. However I left them a note, saying that we´ll stay with a friend of mine to help her out, so grandfather will probably stop them from being too overdramatic."
"Hopefully."
Looking into a mirror, Kelsey eyed her new attire suspiciously. "What did you expect?", Nilima asked next to her, looking at her own outfit, almost identical to the other one. "This is a maid café, of course you have to wear a cute dress and an apron. Such cafés are quite rare here, but popular nevertheless. You just have to find one."
"And we ended up here.", Kelsey stated drily. "Like I said, this will be fun in no time, come on, Sheela is waiting for us."
Together they left the room to meet up with the waiting friend and shop owner. Sheela was a beautiful like Nilima, tall with long dark hair, shining brown eyes and soft hazelnut colored skin. She too wore a skirt and an apron, though hers looked a bit different. Absentmindedly Kelsey pulled at her dress, hoping it would magically get longer. The black material was slightly wavy and beneath it a frilled petticoat, a white apron she wore was held by a big ribbon. Soft black sleeves only reached slightly over her shoulders and she silky gloves she wore were unfamiliar to her. Kelsey could not deny that the whole outfit was cute, it just wasn´t her style. Sheela and Nilima on the other hand seemed more relaxed, as if they ran around in such attire all day long.
"Now come over, I´ll show you what you have to do today. It´s really simple, as soon as someone arrives here, you offer them a table and ask them if they want to see the menu. Till they decided on something, you can look after other customers or serve some food. When they picked out what they want, you´ll write it down here", Sheela handed each of them a small electronic device, "and come over to the kitchen. There the food and drinks will be prepared, so you just have to bring them back to the table. The key to everything is to be nice and smile all the time. Ask from time to time if they wish for something and if they want to pay and go, you´ll say goodbye to them. That´s basically all. Oh, and if you like to sing you can do it too or hum a melody, it makes everything more lively. Any questions, anything you want to do before we start?"
"Could we practice the whole procedure once on each other?", Kelsey asked. "And I want to try out those things" Nilima pointed at their small computers. "Sure. I´ll be your guest, and remember, smiling is the key."
The girls only needed some minutes to get everything and soon even Kelsey had to admit, that this day was going to be fun. As it was still a bit too early for them to open, the café only served food starting at lunchtime, they had time left to admire the café. The room was filled with round tables, each large enough to fit four to six persons. On top of each stood an elegant vase filled with all kinds of different flowers. The walls were painted in a soft green, the floor was covered in dark brown wood and everything was illuminated in a smooth warm light, coming from round lamps at the ceiling. Kelsey could see shelves decorated with painted plates, vases and tea pots, pictures of colorful landscapes on each wall and large flower pots in the corners of the room. The air was filled with a scent of sweets and cake.
"Hey girls", Sheela called them over. "The others will be here soon, let´s have some cake before we start and then we'll get to know each other. As two of my employees fell ill, you´ll only have one colleague today and the two cooks in the kitchen. Don´t worry, they are all nice and love to have some fun. You´ll like them in no time, I´m positive.
Half a sweet cake with peaches and cream later, a girl with short black hair and bright blue eyes arrived. " Hey, I´m Kamala, you must be Kelsey and Nilima?", she greeted them all. Sheela gave her a hug and introduced everybody, repeating their plans for today. "Now then let´s work hard together. I have a feeling the next hours will be extremely busy!"
As soon as the maid café had opened, a lot of guests arrived. Sheela told them that most of them were regular customers, who were quiet surprised about two new faces in the staff. Kelsey tried to give her best, smiling every time and quickly realized, that it was indeed fun to talk with all the guest and serve deliciously looking sweets, fruits, drinks and smaller meals. When Nilima and the other two girls started to sing something in their own language, she was at first puzzled, as she understood only a few words, but they soon changed into English, allowing her to join them.
After some hours, Sheela offered Nilima and Kelsey to take a small break and eat something, while she and Kamala would take their guests too. The kitchen staff fed them a delicious tomato soup with cream and fresh herbs and a small strawberry cake as a bonus. As Kelsey observed Nilima and the cooks joke around, she tried to remember the last time she had some fun with her own friends. It must have been ages since she had done something fun with friends from her school, she hardly even remembered some faces. It made her rather sad to think about her old life.
"What's with the long face?", Nilima asked her surprised. Kelsey shook her head to force away her depressing thoughts. "I just tried to remember some good times with my friends, it turns out I never really had some real good ones you could remember forever." The woman crossed her arms over her chest. "So I am not your friend?"
"Of course you are!", Kelsey tried to defend herself quickly. Nilima smiled at her. "Then cheer up, you and I have some work to do and as soon as we are finished, I´ll drag you into town for some serious shopping, got that." Both girls laughed. "Sounds like a plan."
With a curious expression, Sheela appeared inside the kitchen. "Girls, there are two handsome looking boys and a real gentleman looking for you, did you forget to tell someone you were here?" Nilima groaned. "They found us!" Immediately Kelsey started to blush, as she remembered her attire. "We can´t go out there in those outfits!", she whispered towards her friend. Said girl just grinned. "I think we should, I want to see their faces."
"I don´t think that this would be a good …hey wait!"
Kelsey never finished her sentence, as Nilima simply grabbed her hand and forced her to leave the kitchen. On the way out she grabbed a tray for each of them. "Just act as if you had no idea they were here and serve some guest. Let them make the first step!" Still blushing, the girl nodded, pulled her shoulders back and forced a smile on her face. She could do that!
Kamala had already offered them a seat. Mr. Kadam was ordering something for all of them while the boys eyed their surroundings suspiciously. Or rather Ren was, as Kishan seemed to enjoy being served by a pretty girl in a maid´s outfit. Just as Kelsey felt safe and started to relax, deep blue eyes caught hers, making her unable to move. A second later, golden ones were fixed on her too. She could feel her head heat up, as Kishan took his time looking at her, while Ren continued staring through her eyes into her soul.
Mr. Kadam had finished ordering something, now focusing on her as well. Right before the white tiger managed to jump up and the black one following him, he caught the arms of both boys, preventing them from doing something very stupid. Gulping down her nervousness, Kelsey walked over to them.
"What are you wearing?", Ren growled, while his younger brother just grinned. Nilima suddenly appeared out of nowhere, causing Kelsey to jump a little. "We are helping out a friend, I already told you so in my message."
"As maids?", the white tiger asked sharply. "Why not", Kishan interrupted him. "I think this is an interesting job, would you two gorgeous girls play my maids someday?" He received an angry glare from both Kadam and Ren. "Just asking", he mumbled. "We are only helping Sheela, otherwise you´d never see us in anything like that", Kelsey told him, still blushing. "Why do you only dress up for her like that?"
"Because she is our friend, Kishan!" Said man started looking both girls up and down again. "But I am also your friend, can´t you both help me out too? I´m sure there is something you could do for me, or if you are busy Nilima, I´d be equally happy to share some time with Kelsey alone." The girl blushed in an even deeper crimson. Ren jumped up. "No, she won´t!" The whole café started to look at them, as the hands of the angry man hit the desk loudly.
Kadam rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Could you both stop acting like children, people are already starting to watch us and I sincerely do not want to be thrown out of this café!" The boys mumbled something, while Nilima giggled. "Excuse me while I´ll crawl under a rock or something."
"Don't be embarrassed, Kelsey, you look really cute in a skirt."
"We got that!", Ren growled.
"Boys!"
"Sorry Mr. Kadam", they both said in union. "Come on, we´ll get their food", Nilima cheered as she dragged Kelsey with her. "As long as I get out of here…"
After some cake the boys insisted the girls to change back and come home. "Sorry, but we have to stay here until our shift is over, otherwise Sheela will be upset. But we promise as soon as we are free, we´ll come."
"That would be nice of you. We´ll be waiting with your dinner." With that, Kadam paid and dragged the boys with him out of the café. Sheela and Kamala had watched the girl the whole time and could not stop giggling. "Someone seems to be pretty popular among them."
"Say Nilima?"
"Mh?"
"Didn´t you promise me to go shopping afterwards?" The woman winked at her friend. "I never said we´ll go straight home, I only told them that as soon as we are finished, we´ll come back, which means we can shop to our heart's content too."
Outside, Kadam had to suppress the urge to hit both boys upside their heads. "You both acted like little children in there. Was that really necessary?"
Riddle:
"Something that is very important to Ren and Kelsey made an appearance, however not in its "usual" form, but still edible. What is it?
"Stories so far:
1 The Lord of the kitchen
2 The tale of the handsome commander
3 Miroku's wish list
4 Dream beaches
5 How to not freeze to death
6 Surprise surprise
7 I'm going into town, Tomoe
8 No one ever calls me to simply drink coffee
9 Tigers and Badminton
10 Geography with Myoga
11 Preparations
12 The other way to fight
13 Meeting Tomoe
14 That's not an emergency, Foaly
15 Hn
16 For my dearest friend
17 Magical Folders
18 That is a pretty dress...
19 soon
