Everyone gathers at their stations, waiting for instructions from the sensei. The students are talking amongst each other, many of them about current pop stars and others gossiping…except for one.
Ichigo is staring blankly at the utensils set on the counter. The spoons, spatulas, and whisks are sitting in a tall, steel container in the shape of a cylinder, the metal utensils glimmering as the sun shines in from the long and vast windows. A large,blue bowl holds many smaller white bowls within it, tossed and crooked. And a set of plastic measuring cups and spoons, all held on a giant ring that seems to fit a naval orange, sits on the cutting board.
What was that just now? I can't seem to get things straight in my head.- Ichigo is still thinking about what happened with Johnny, although it's almost routine.
How could I ever think that I like Johnny? He's just a really good friend. That's it! Just a friend.
"Ichigo," says a high voice.
I mean he's cute and all, but I like Kashino. No. I LOVE Kashino and there's no way that I could get in a relationship with Johnny.- Ichigo shakes her head.- Nope. No way. Uh-uh!
"Ichigo," repeats the voice.
But thinking about it, he's not bad. He doesn't yell at me like Kashino and his eyes are blue. Who doesn't love blue eyes? - Ichigo pauses for a second and quickly reflects on what she just thought.- What are you thinking? -Ichigo starts to hit her forehead with the sketchbook she had brought in, her group looking at her with confusion.- I don't like him!
"Ichigo!"
But then again…no! NO! NO! NO! This isn't right!
"Ichigo!"
But…
"ICHIGO!"
"Vanilla?" says Ichigo.
"Are you paying attention to sensei?" Vanilla asks, still looking at Ichigo with confusion.
"Eh…uh…no," says Ichigo with her head down.
"Then you should!" she yelled "And what were you thinking about anyways?"
"Eh…to…" whispers Ichigo, face blushing. She looks at Johnny from the corner of her eye.
Ichigo doesn't dare tell Vanilla about what she had thought. She can't. Not now, atleast. Vanilla knows that Ichigo has liked Kashino for a long time and Ichigo knows that Vanilla isn't exactly Johnny's biggest fan. She may tell Vanilla later on, but not now, not at this very moment where she herself doesn't even know her exact feelings towards Johnny.
Hopefully this is just one of those one time, short term "likes" towards someone, like a crush on a famous actor or singer. Hopefully.
"How come we have to make an angel food cake? It's easy," Johnny says in a cocky tone with his hands on his sides. "I could do it with a blind fold on!"
Johnny reaches over for a wipe cloth to put over his eyes.
"Let's not get carried away," Ichigo says with a sweat drop on her forehead.
"I just don't understand why," says Johnny.
"Although it may be easy, we can still makemistakes if we are rash about what we do just because we know how to make it. Remember that the major part about making this cake is about doing it delicately so that it may come out moist and light. That's why they call it an 'angel' food cake," says Lemon-chan.
"Yeah. If we practice as if it were new to us, we could make it better than if we made it like we know," says Ichigo with a grin.
"So basically, practice makes perfect, yes?" asks Johnny.
"Yes," answers Lemon-chan with a smile.
"Okay," says Rumi.
The sensei calls the students attention to the front of the room by clapping her hands twice. She points at the giant timer above the chalkboard that reads 1:20. On the chalkboard, she has written the ingredients needed and the measurements required. In big, bold letters she wrote "Everything else is up to you!" right below the list of ingredients.
"Students, you have an hour and twenty minutes to prepare four platers of angel food cake," says the sensei. "You will be graded on texture, sweetness, and overall appearance of the platers. Use the different varieties of sweets and fruits that are already provided for you. Ready…Go!"
She clicks the single-button remote that she has in her hand to start the timer.
"We should separate the jobs to prepare the batter to save time and have more time to focus on texture of the cake and the decoration."
"Good idea, Rumi-san," says Ichigo.
The group quickly get to work. Ichigo starts to separate the whites in the eggs, Rumi sifts the flour, Johnny pours the white sugar in a measuring cup, and Lemon-chan grabs the salt, cream of tartar, vanilla extract, and almond extract. Johnny mixes the ingredients. 1 ¼ cups cake flour, 1 ¾ cups white sugar, ¼ teaspoon salt, 1 ½ cups egg whites, 1 teaspoon cream of tartar, ½ teaspoon vanilla extract, and ½ teaspoon almond extract.
The rest of the group watches as Johnny pours the angel cake into an aluminum container that will bake the angel food cake. As Johnny grabs the container, Ichigo comes and takes it from him. She feels that her hand brushes against his and blushes a little bit. She looks at his eyes. He smiles. She quickly turns away, spilling some of the cake batter, and slips.
"Ah!" she screams.
Before she could reach the floor, Johnny quickly picks her up and makes her stand. Ichigo looks down at the floor and sees the angel food cake batter on the floor, the container that is turned over on the floor, and looks at Johnny.
"I'm so sorry! I'll clean it up and make another batch," says Ichigo to the group.
"It's okay, Ichigo. We'll make it again. We still have plenty time," Rumi tells her.
"Thank you, but I don't if we can come up with another batch and still have time to make platers," Ichigo says with a worried look.
"It's okay, princess. I'll make the batter again," says Johnny with a big smile on his face.
"Thank you," says Ichigo, blushing.
Vanilla looks at Ichigo's cheeks, noticing the blush, and wonders why she's blushing.
"Be a 'new man' and clean up the mess, too," says Maize.
"You mean 'gentleman'?" correct Vanilla and Mint.
"Oh, yes. BE A 'GENTLEMAN'!" screams Maize.
"Okay," says Johnny relunctantly.
As Johnny cleans up the mess and makes another batch, the rest of the group prepares the fruits and sweets that they are going to use for the plater. Johnny puts the batter to bake and helps the rest of the group prepare them. The group finishes the preparation as soon as the cake finishes baking. Ichigo runs to pull the cake out of the oven and lets it cool. Lemon-chan is still working on making her sauce while everyone else watches. When the cake finished cooling, Rumi turns it over and lets it slide onto a large serving plate. Rumi cuts four even slices out of the cake and puts it on four plates. The team starts to decorate the cake. Ichigo uses a combination of berries, every berry cut diagonally, strawberry jam, and covers her berries with powder sugar to serve her platter. Lemon-chan uses white chocolate on top of the slice of cake with a bit of mint, using caramel sauce to cover it a bit and decorate the edges of the plate. Johnny goes tropical with diced pineapple and slices of banana next to the slice of cake, with coconut shavings on the cake, all drizzled with chocolate. Rumi went with peach slices with some lemon sauce and candy art. As soon as they finish up, the timer goes off.
"Everyone please stop and I will come by to evaluate, starting with group A," says the sensei.
She comes by and evaluates the group's work and gives everyone an A.
"Yay!" yell Ichigo and Lemon-chan as they high-five each other.
After all the evaluations are finished, the bell rings to dismiss everyone. The group leaves to go to the gazebo near the garden towards the back of the school.
"Now that the day is over, we can talk about what we're going to do this weekend," says Johnny.
"Oh yeah. Christmas is coming up, isn't it?" asks Ichigo.
"Yeah!"
"That should be fun if we could all enjoy Christmas together, but I have to spend it with my family. I leave tomorrow evening," says Rumi-san.
"Awe. Well how about you, Ichigo-chan?" asks Johnny.
"Eh?" replies Ichigo.
"Can you spend Christmas with me?"
"I-I'm not sure. My family didn't tell me ahead of time, but I'd have to make sure."
"Okay, well how about you Lemon-chan?"
"I have to fly back to Paris for three days. My sister already paid for the flight, so there's no going back. I'm sorry," says Lemon-chan with a saddened face.
"No problem. I understand," says Johnny. He looks at Ichigo. "I guess it's just you and me then."
"Eh…uh…okay," says Ichigo blushing.
Johnny just smiles.
TO BE CONTINUED IN CHAPTER 3: A MIXED-UP CHRISTMAS!
Sorry for the late chapters. My laptop had to be fixed. As for the Christmas chapter, it will go up December 27th or 28th. Stay tuned for the New Years episode. It will be coming out the 31st. I promise! :D