Kashino: Where have you-
Me: I'M SO SORRY EVERYONE! Dx
Ichigo: Woah. What's up?
Me: I'm so sorry to everyone following this story for not updating on Monday/Tuesday. I was actually super upset myself.
Kashino: Thanks for cutting me off. Where have you been all week?
Me: Well... I started high school on Tuesday. Let me tell you, high school is a LOT different than elementary. There's homework like, everyday. I'd only get like an hour on my laptop every other day. Finishing a chapter of My Journey, My Story takes at least 3 hours.
So everyone, I'm extremely sorry for not updating. Is it okay with everyone if I move this story's update day to Saturday?
Sorry for the inconvenience. :(
Anyway, as usual, I don't own Yumeiro Patissiere.
My Journey, My Story
Chapter 11: Prove it, First Grand Prix Match!
Soon after, the sweet spirits wake up and fly over to us. They each sample a bit of our pie and agree that it is ready to make for the grand prix.
Time is going way faster than I would like it to. We only have 3 more hours left. As much as I'd like to let Himoto sleep, we have to wake him up now.
I go around the table and beside Himoto. "Himoto..." I whisper softly, shaking him by the shoulders, "Y-you have to wake up now..."
I feel awful about having to wake him up when he's so tired. But someone's got to do it.
He grumbles softly and shies away from me. It makes me feel guilty, but I continue, leaning closer to his ear. "Come on... I know you're tired, b-but, you have to wake up..."
"5 more minutes..." He mutters softly, turning his head around. He's so stubborn.
"No, come on, we have a grand prix match today. You have to get up," I'm getting a little flustered now. This is just awkward, "Come on Himoto..."
He slowly opens one eye and sighs, "Of course it would be you Kashino, always having to bother me."
"What's that supposed to mean?" I huff exasperatedly, "Get up!" I shove him off to the right and it catches him off guard.
"Ah!" He gasps. Himoto loses his balance and reaches forward to grab something to keep him anchored. It happens to be my wrist.
I tumble forward over the stool and land on top of him. "AHH!" I screech loudly. Pushing him down, I scream, "What are you doing?!"
His face is red. I think it's because he can't breathe. "What am I doing? What are you doing? GET OFF!"
I roll over, my face feeling warm. My gosh, that's the second time I've fallen on him. That's just incredibly awkward.
"What was that for?" Himoto demands. He stands up, still red, "I was going to wake up already!"
I scoff, "Was not. Plus, you were making fun of me. I had the total right to push you!"
"That's enough-desu!" Raspberry interrupts our argument. She looks to be near tears, though she usually looks like that. "No fighting! Today is an important day!"
I huff and cross my arms as does Himoto. "It's his fault," I grumble softly.
Himoto whispers, "It's her fault," at the same time.
I'm starting to wonder about us saying sentences together. It's a little weird. It's like we're always thinking the same thing.
Isho-kun sighs, "Come on guys, we have a grand prix match in 3 hours. We've got to get going."
I open my mouth to reply, but Komanda-kun speaks first, "He's right you know. Come on, we have to get going."
I'm done with arguing, we need the energy for the match, "Fine," I agree begrudgingly.
"Let's hurry up and get ready," Isho-kun instructs. He's acting more of a team leader than I am, "We'll meet back here in an hour."
XxXxX
Now's the time. We met up about half an hour ago and now, me and the sweet princes are waiting in the locker room for the match to start.
Our grand prix uniform is simple, as it's only the middle school grand prix. It pretty much looks like our baking uniform but in a shade of dark blue.
I'm so nervous, I'm shaking. This is it. It's time for the first grand prix match of my life. I can hear the crowd of people in the kitchen room that we're using. They are all whispering excitedly. Most of them are 4th years that know of Team Katsumo. Only a handful of them are there for us. That makes it even more stressing.
One of the teacher judges comes inside the room, "Team Lynne. It's time to start."
I stand up shakily, my legs wobbling precariously. Together, we follow the teacher down the hall.
"Calm down," Himoto whispers from behind me, "It's okay."
For some reason, that assures me a little bit.
The teacher opens the door for us, the room is pitch black. I gulp and follow them; they lead us to our side and leave for the judges table.
"Alright!" The lights turn on, Aunt Lemon has a microphone in her hand, "It's time to start the first match in the middle school grand prix!"
Everyone cheers excitedly, it's like I can feel the vibrations traveling through the floor.
"Team Katsumo," Aunt Lemon continues. There's a tremendous roar from the crowd of students. Everyone seems to be here for them. We're just nobodies they think they just need to knock out so they can move on.
"Versus Team Lynne!"
There's a small cheer. One little section in the front is waving their arms cheerfully, "Go Lynne-chan! You can do it!"
It's Hana-chan. A smile breaks out on my face. She has to be the sweetest person I know.
"There will be 3 hours to complete your sweet," Aunt Lemon instructs us, her voice booming over the speakers, "You will make a sweet representing the theme of power, using fruit as your main ingredient. 5 judges, including myself will grade your work out of 100 for a total score of 500. Good luck teams!"
There's a moment of silence. A tense, half of a second, feeling like everyone is waiting for her to say the words...
"Start baking!"
XxXxX
Both mine and Katsumo's team start. We need all the time we can get. Himoto and I are working on the pie filling while Komanda-kun and Isho-kun work on making the individual sized pie crusts.
The pies will need time to chill, so we need to save enough time at the end for that. They need to chill for at least an hour, that way we know they are completely set and aren't going to be mushy.
It's been about an hour and we've been working well. Himoto and I have just about finished the filling and Komanda-kun is starting to spoon them into the first batch of pie crusts. Isho-kun is just bringing in the last pan of the crusts and then the pies will chill in the fridge for the time being while we prepare plating and decoration.
Team Katsumo is as I thought, making the berry cheesecake. It takes longer to prepare, but it's not like they're running out of time.
I start to help Komanda-kun fill the pies, as does Himoto. "Come on Isho-kun!" I call. He's bringing the pie crusts in from the cooling rack on the other side of the kitchen. A member of team Katsumo is there. I look behind my shoulder and it looks like the member from the other team is in Isho-kun's way.
"Excuse me," Isho-kun says, trying to sidestep past him. He's not budging. Isho-kun looks flustered for a moment. "Um, excuse me... You need to move out of the way..."
The guy finally smiles a coy smile, "Sorry, of course. Pass through." He moves out of Isho-kun's way.
I feel bad for Isho-kun, that must be embarrassing. His face is red and he steps around the team member. As he walks past, I notice an evil flicker pass through his eyes. A feeling of terror washes over me, "Isho-kun! Watch ou-"
But it's too late. The team member of Katsumo's sticks his foot out, causing Isho-kun to trip over him. As he falls to the floor, the tin with the pie crusts arcs through the air before crashing down to the tiled floor. They're crumbled, on the floor and broken. No way can we use them.
We're doomed.
I'm frozen in panic.
It all happened so fast. The 5 pie crusts that Isho-kun had in his hands are now on the floor in a sad heap. Isho-kun is getting up off the floor with clear pain in his eyes. "What was that for?" He finally snaps. He's angry. I can't see why he wouldn't be. First, he embarrassed him and then he knocked him to the floor.
The older boy, who also towers inches above him, says, "It was an accident."
"Accident! Yeah right!" Isho-kun fires away, he's so clearly upset, "That was NOT an accident! Look what you've done!"
There's a commotion in the crowd and a stirring at the judges table. "That's enough," One of the teachers says.
"But he's sabotaged us!" Isho-kun yells, he's really worked up. I feel numb.
"Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about that," Aunt Lemon replies sadly. "You'll just have to make it again."
That's when it finally hits me. We're missing 5 pie crusts. We're five sweets short to complete our sweet.
I look at the clock. We only have 1 hour left. From the corner of my eye, I see Katsumo flash a smirk at me. His eyes are full of question. Just one simple sentence comes from his mouth, "What're you going to do now?"
XxXxX
Isho-kun comes back and he's apologizing like crazy. "Guys, I'm so sorry... If I could have saved them I would," He rambles on, "And for getting so worked up, I just got so upset and..."
I put my hand gently on his shoulder to calm him down. "It's okay Isho-kun, it's not your fault. Katsumo must have planned it all."
Himoto interrupts me, "But that doesn't change anything. We need to finish and we've only got an hour left. There's no way we're going to be able to finish in time."
My shoulders fall forward. He's right.
"Himoto's correct," Komanda-kun murmurs sadly. We were all ready to win this. I can't believe we only got this far.
But this isn't right. We can't give up now. We can't. I didn't stay up all of last night to quit. Maybe Katsumo's underestimated us, maybe we can push forward and finish.
"Guys," I ask strictly, "Are you saying you give up?"
They all look to me. A serious expression is on my face and my hands are on the counter. This is what being the team leader is about. Leading the team in times like this. "You can't give up; we didn't stay up all night to give up with an hour left in the competition. We didn't practise time and time again to give up!"
"Do you remember what the theme is? Power. We need to show them how powerful we are. We can't be that easy to bring down. We have to show them we're better than they think we are."
I pause and look each of them in the eye, a split-second each. I'm trying to see the fire of determination in their eyes. I lock gazes with Himoto and whisper, "We've got to try. Come on, please?" I put my hand out in the middle, signalling I want us to be in this together.
Closing my eyes, I pray that one of them, any of them will agree with me.
"We haven't gotten this far for nothing." It's Himoto. I look up at him and he places his hand on top of mine, "I'm not going down without a fight."
Isho-kun and Komanda-kun exchange glances before nodding. They also put their hands in the middle.
My heart leaps. We still have a chance, if we try hard enough, we'll be able to make it.
A smile as what seems as wide as a watermelon, "So what are we waiting for? Let's get going before time runs out!"
The three boys smile and nod, "RIGHT!"
XxXxX
"Hurry hurry hurry!" I yell loudly. Our side of the match is in frenzy, there's half an hour left. We've got the 5 pies we finished an hour ago in the fridge chilling. The pie crusts for the other 5 are just done cooling. They're only going to get half an hour in the fridge before we have to serve them.
That's not enough time and I'm praying that we'll be alright. Himoto gets them from the cooling rack this time and lays them out in front. We all start spooning in the filling like crazy. Every few seconds I glance at the clock, each second ticking by painfully.
With all of our efforts, we finally get the pies into the fridge to chill for the little time they have.
"We did it," I breathe finally. I'm so fatigued. We pushed so hard to be able to finish those. Now all we can do is wait for the pies to chill.
"And we couldn't have done it without you Lynne-chan," Isho-kun whispers sweetly, taking my hand, "If you weren't there to encourage us, I'm pretty sure we would have given up."
Komanda-kun agrees with him, "It's just one of the many reason you should be the team leader."
All the compliments make my face turn red, "W-well... I wasn't ready to give up."
"No one was, but you helped us see that," Himoto answers from behind me. I turn around to face him. His face is expressionless, but I feel like maybe his facial expression isn't as hard as it used to be, "We wouldn't be able to do this without you."
For some reason that makes my heart beat faster. It must be the adrenaline. "Thanks," I choke out finally.
The clock rings out. We all turn to look, "OKAY!" Aunt Lemon yells, "You've got 15 more minutes!"
"We should start plating the pies that have been chilling for a while," Komanda-kun suggests.
I nod and we all break away to start. That one moment, I felt like we were a true team and that's exactly what I want to feel.
XxXxX
I start sprinkling icing sugar on top of the pies as decoration. It's a race against the clock, as I dust them, the boys are switching the plates so I don't have to stop.
The crowd is yelling out the number of seconds we have now. I've got about 3 more plates to go.
"10! 9! 8! 7!"
2 more.
"6! 5! 4!"
1 more. I'm almost there. Just a little bit more.
"3! 2! 1!"
I drop the sifter in relief. We've just made it. "TIME'S UP!" Aunt Lemon shouts to us, "Put everything down!"
My legs suddenly wobbly. We made it. We did it. It's an overwhelming feeling of relief. It knocks me so hard that I almost fall over. Himoto comes behind me to steady me, "Woah. Are you okay?"
"Uh..." I stammer quietly, "Y-yeah." I stand up straight, "Thanks."
"Alright teams!" Aunt Lemon yells over the noise, "It's time for the judges to sample your creations!" Looking to Katsumo's team, she continues, "Team Katsumo first."
Katsumo stands in front of the 5 judges as his team mates set a plate of dessert in front of each of them. It's the cheesecake from Salon de Marie, as I had predicted. It's a simple slice, cut perfectly and laid on its side so you can clearly see each layer. There is a light drizzle of chocolate on it too.
"Today, we made for you berry cheesecake trifle," Katsumo says with a bow. It's funny, when talking to the sweet princes and I, he's very rude and mean, but when he talks to the teachers, he's polite. "It uses strawberries and blueberries as the main fruits."
"What about theme?" One of the judges on the right asks.
"This sweet is Salon de Marie worthy," Katsumo states boldly, "It's powerful enough to push through the screening process for sweets there, so we assume it'll help us get past this grand prix match as well."
The judges nod and pick up their forks almost all together. They each take a small portion and put it in their mouth. I watch, looking at their eyes, trying to see any form of emotion. Nothing. They are so trained to hide what they are thinking until they say it.
"It has good taste," Aunt Lemon says after a moment of silence.
There is a murmur of agreement from the judges. "I like the balance of sweet, from the cheesecake and angel food cake and the tartness from the berries. Well done Team Katsumo." Another contributes.
"Answer me this," One of the high school teachers ask, "You've chosen this sweet because you believe it must be powerful to be able to be sold in Salon de Marie?"
Katsumo nods, "Yes sir."
He presses his lips together into a tight line, "Very well."
Once the dishes are cleared away and the judges have submitted their score, everyone is staring at the score board. No one's eyes are anywhere else.
The scores start appearing quickly.
89.
86.
92.
87.
91.
Those are amazingly high numbers. They make me nervous. The total score flashes at the end.
445.
The crowd roars and cheers. That's impressive for middle schoolers. I suddenly feel nauseous. We're never going to be able to beat that.
Himoto must have seen my expression. "Calm down," He whispers in my ear, "We haven't lost yet. Just keep your head high and show them what we've got."
That makes me feel a little bit better.
"Alright, Team Lynne," Aunt Lemon says, addressing us to show our dessert. I stand in front of them as Himoto, Isho-kun and Komanda-kun lay out a dish in front of them.
Katsumo is watching, staring at the plates. The little pies with barely any plating at all amuse him. I can see it in his eyes. He thinks we're pathetic. Just let him watch and learn.
"Today we made for you orange and pineapple pie," I say, trying to keep my voice steady, "Our main fruits are orange and pineapple."
The judges have their eyes down at the plate. "It looks very... Plain," One of them says.
"T-that's the idea," I stammer. Now that I think about it, they must think we're crazy for bringing something like this to them, "We may seem just like those pies, small and plain, but we have a lot of power behind us that you won't get to know unless you give us a chance. Please, sample the pies and see what I mean."
There's hesitance in their movements. They're slow to pick up their forks and slow to put the food in their mouth.
I feel like I'm holding my breath. Without a single hint at what they might be feeling, one of the judges say, "You have a strong taste, well done."
That lightens the weight on my shoulders. It's a success, it's good. We're going to be...
"It's not chilled enough," Another says, with a small sigh, she continues, "If you had chilled the pies for longer, it would have turned out a lot better."
I can feel my cheeks turn red. I want to say it's all Team Katsumo's fault. I want to put the blame on them. I want to scream how much of it's their fault. But I can't.
"Unfortunately we ran out of time," I murmur embarrassedly, "But please, it's not like they're falling apart."
Aunt Lemon speaks up, "That aside though, your theme is very strong. I am able to taste the message you are trying to get across. The angle you used for the theme of power is very interesting. Well done Team Lynne."
With those closing remarks, they put away the plates and clear off the table. As they discuss, I gather the sweet princes up to talk with them.
"We did our best guys," I assure them. I can't imagine how stressed they must feel as well, "We can only hope our best is enough."
Himoto nods and puts a hand on my shoulder. It's comforting. "It's all thanks to you anyway. Us three would like to thank you for leading us to do what's right and being the leader we need."
Isho-kun and Komanda-kun exchange looks. It looks like they're surprised to hear that. As if they hadn't said anything about it to Himoto at all.
"Thanks," I mumble quietly.
Aunt Lemon gets everyone's attention again. "Okay! Team Lynne, here is your score."
I cross my fingers tightly and stare at the score board. Please Kami-sama; please don't let this be the end.
86.
93.
88.
91.
89.
I'm so nervous I can't even add that up. What's the score? Is it enough? Can it get us past the first round? I hold my breath, everyone is trying to add in their head but the number flashes before anyone can finish.
447 fills the total spot, shining in bright lights. The screen clears before 3 words fill the screen.
Winner: Team Lynne.
XxXxX
It takes a while for it to register in my mind. It's only until the sweet spirits come up to us, cheering and congratulating, that I finally get it. We won. We did it!
A huge smile breaks out on my face. "YES!" I cheer, jumping up and down. In my excitement, I give the sweet princes a huge group hug. "Guys we did it!"
They're smiling too. I've pretty much said what we all feel, so they have nothing to say. I put my arms across Isho-kun and Himoto's shoulders and gesture for Komanda-kun to join in. We're all linked together, smiling, when Aunt Lemon addresses the crowd to hush down.
"Congratulation Team Lynne," She says, her tone happy, "All your hard work paid off and you've made it past the first round."
There's nothing that could ruin this moment. We've just made it through the first round.
"HOLD IT!"
The whole room goes silent. Everyone turns to the person who yelled. Katsumo.
"Why did they win?" He asks in a loud voice. "They can't be better than us! There's so... Small."
One of the teachers stands and takes the microphone from Aunt Lemon, "Quiet, listen to the advice I'm going to give you."
Katsumo seems taken aback, but doesn't speak. "Yes, your creation was up to grand prix standards. It was very well done and obviously made better than Team Lynne's under-chilled pies."
That's a little bit of a puncture to the heart, but I ignore it.
"But you lacked in theme," He continues, "I don't consider 'it's powerful enough to get into a shop' to be a strong execution of power. On the other hand, Team Lynne's take on theme was creative and unique. The pies were meant to look small and naive, but if you took the time to taste them, they were packed full of flavour and really did have a powerful taste. Your lack of theme put you behind them, if you had taken the time to think about what you were going to do, instead of thinking of how high class it might seem to bring in a Salon de Marie sweet, you might have been able to win."
Katsumo glowers. I can only imagine how angry and frustrated he must be.
Aunt Lemon takes the microphone back, "With that resolved, Team Lynne, I officially announce you the winners of the first round of the middle school grand prix!"
The crowd cheers for us, especially Hana-chan up in the front. "Great job Team Lynne!" She cheers, waving her arms.
As I hear the crowd and look at each of my team members and the enlightened look on their faces, I realize just how lucky we are.
Basking in the glory of my victory, I can't wait to get further.
Me: I'm really sorry if this chapter sucks...
Ichigo: Now why would they think that?
Me: Well, I usually write a chapter all together, so having to start and stop was difficult for me. So I don't know if that affected my writing.
Ichigo: Don't worry too much, I'm sure everyone loved it.
Me: Hey guys, please review to tell me if I did okay. And, I've posted a poll on my profile if you guys could check it out, I'd be really happy. :)
Thanks for Reviewing!
1. sweetlittlepanda121
2. Lusaay
3. AzukiDoll
4. WingedMax
5. AnimeMangaVicki
6. Guest
7. Kitsune Jackson
8. shewholovesfanfictionandmang a
9. Rei Star
10. Den
11. StrawberryDream15
12. Guest
13. MrsSpaghettiWig
14. Dr. TeriyakiCxh
I made it past 100 reviews guys! Thanks so much, you all mean so much to me! Thanks for sticking around. 100 reviews in my first major milestone for this story and I'm so proud. Until next time!
Love,
Mikashi-chan :)
