Hi everyone! Got another update ready!

Claire and Grim finished that 'lovely' conversation with the mysterious Leona and made it out alive. Let's see if they'll actually make the tart now.

Enjoy!

Chapter 9:

"And that's what happened," Grim concluded. The duo had listened to Grim in stunned silence and their mouths hung open even after the story.

"That guy was definitely not the groundskeeper," Ace managed to say.

"That's what I said," Claire said, speaking up for the first time. "He was wearing yellow, so I think he's from Savanaclaw."

"Savanaclaw? They're the rowdy delinquent group, aren't they?" Deuce paused for a moment and said, carefully, "Maybe we should report this to the Headmaster. Guys like those don't just let things go."

"It wasn't a big deal," Claire tried to brush off. She gingerly picked up several spiky chestnuts with the tongs before she spoke again. "It wasn't like he did anything to me. He just startled me. That's all."

"Startled?" Ace repeated in disbelief. "Sounded like you almost peed your pants."

"I'll be fine," Claire insisted, pointing her tongs at Ace. "Stop worrying about it, or I'll seriously throw these chestnuts at your pretty little face."

"But we don't know what might happen next time," Deuce pointed out.

"I'll make sure there isn't a next time. I do not ever want to deal with him again. Besides, I can't just go up to Cro- the Headmaster every time someone wants to pick a fight with me," Claire said in a tone to tell them to drop it.

Secretly, she sighed and scratched the back of her head. In truth, she wasn't sure if she could avoid another encounter, but she didn't want to needlessly worry Ace and Deuce. She'll avoid the gardens for the time being and anyone from Savanaclaw. She was placing more chestnuts in her bucket when she noticed Deuce looking at her with a distracted and uncomfortable expression.

"Is something wrong?" she asked.

"Oh uh, nothing." Deuce turned away to resume working, but it was clear that he was still preoccupied with his thought. After another twenty minutes or so, their baskets were soon heavy with chestnut burrs.

"Hey! I think we got enough!" Ace called out, lifting his heavy basket for them to see. "Let's get over and meet up with Trey!"

"I can't wait," Grim said excitedly, "This tart is going to be amazing!"

Since Ace was barred from his dorm (and thus the kitchen), Trey had reserved the school kitchen for them. It was usually only for the catering ghost crew to serve breakfast and lunch for the students but was opened for the students after school if they were given permission or signed up for a slot. The only caveats were that they had to provide their own ingredients and needed to clean up after themselves.

As they walked in, Claire observed the place and felt rather impressed. With a thousand hungry students to feed breakfast, lunch, and dinner, the kitchen could belong in a high-end buffet restaurant. At the center were stations for prepping, cooking, and serving with state-of-the-art kitchen appliances. Lined along the walls near the entrance were large three-compartment sinks and three massive dishwashers. At the side, there was a large freezing pantry that stored all the school ingredients under lock-and-key (much to Grim's disappointment).

Trey was already waiting for them and had all the other baking ingredients and cooking utensils lined up on the island. "Hey, guys. Looks like you picked up quite a bit! Just dump them over here."

He pointed to another empty table with a large metal bowl at the side.

"Is there anything else we need to do other than peeling?" Claire asked as she shook her basket upside down. Chestnuts rolled around the table like tiny prickly tumbleweeds.

"We will need to sift the flour to make the pastry shell. Here," Trey handed her an open cookbook. It was like the ones back at Claire's world with a list of ingredients and detailed step-by-step instructions, but there was one huge difference that made Claire gasp.

"Whoa, the pictures move!" Claire stared as the image of a whisk blended the ingredients in the glass bowl.

"Yeah, that's a pretty normal thing for cookbooks…" Trey said with a curious stare as Claire excitedly skimmed through the pages from front to back, already distracted.

"All of this…" Deuce stared at the mountain of chestnuts they had all gathered, "There is no end to this…"

"Making desserts is all about the prep work," Trey said, handing them each an apron to put on. "It may look difficult, but it is worth it in the end."

"Yeah, yeah, we get it," Ace said rolling up his sleeves, "Let's just get this over with already!"

The work required painstaking detail and effort, but surprisingly, everyone was able to do the job effectively, particularly Ace. He was surprisingly proficient with the knife, even more so than Claire, and Deuce and Grim even managed to break the husks off with their unpolished magic, making up for their failure in the rose painting fiasco.

While Claire and everybody else did the peeling, Trey boiled them in several pots to puree them. They soon completed most of the prep work by the time the clock chimed five times.

"Finally," Ace declared, "Last one." He leaned back in his stool and threw the peeled chestnut into the pile and its husk into the overfilling trash bags.

"My arms hurt," Deuce complained, rubbing them to alleviate soreness.

"You guys did a good job," Trey praised the exhausted group.

"I'm just full from the smell," Grim groaned as the waft of chestnut and sugar mixed in the air like a winter morning.

Seeing the huge mess that they made, Claire quickly grabbed another small trash bag and swept the bits of discarded husks over the counter into it. She then dragged the garbage to the outside of the kitchen to be thrown away.

"We still have work," Trey reminded the others. He pushed the other ingredients to the center to their audible groan. "Next, we need to cream the butter and sugar into the chestnut paste. After that, we will add the secret ingredient" – Trey gave a sly smile as he held up a glass cylindrical bottle with dark viscous condiment – "Oyster sauce."

"Oyster sauce?!" Everybody looked up at Trey as if he was crazy.

"That's right," he said with a straight face, "The savory flavor from the sauce adds depth and richness to the cream. This is one of the finest oyster sauces in Twisted Wonderland with the Walrus' Endorsement. All famous patisseries use this sauce in their tarts."

Trey pointed to the front label for them to see. A large gentlemanly walrus wearing a top hat and holding a cane in one hand and a cigar in the other had his thumb up.

"Are you sure?" Deuce said, scratching his head with disbelief still. "My mom uses that for cooking. Isn't it really salty?"

"I guess it's the same idea as putting chocolate into curry," Ace said. "It might be good."

"Wait," Claire spoke up as she picked up some discarded chestnut husks from the ground and looked at Trey with suspicion. "Exactly how much do you put in there?"

Trey's face broke into a grin. He chortled with laughter and had to wipe a tear from his eyes. "It's a joke," he explained to their puzzled faces, "No one would put oyster sauce into sweets."

"What the heck?!" Ace said, angrily, "You said that with a straight face."

"It is kind of obvious if you think about it," Trey said as he put his glasses back on, "Besides having a healthy amount of skepticism is important. Don't take everything at face value."

"This guy certainly can lie with such a straight face," Grim mumbled to Claire.

"Okay, let's move on," Trey said, looking over at the rest of the items on the table, "The next ingredient is – ah! Shoot!" He hit his forehead in despair.

"What's wrong?" Ace asked.

Trey pointed to the giant tub of paste. "You guys brought back so many chestnuts that I went overboard and made too much marron paste. There's not enough whipping cream to mix it with."

"I can go buy some more at the school store if they have any," Deuce volunteered.

"Do you know where it is?" Trey asked.

"Yeah, I visited there yesterday before school. Sam's the owner, right?"

Listening in with curiosity as she continued to clean up, Claire furrowed her eyebrows. She didn't recall seeing a store on the school map Crowley had given her. Maybe it was outside school grounds?

"In that case, can I ask you to pick up some other stuff as well?" Trey pulled out a notepad and jotted down some ingredients. "Let's see… I need two cartons of milk, two dozen eggs… Oh, some aluminum cups and five cans of fruit…"

"I don't think I'll be able to carry all that by myself," Deuce said as Trey ripped the top of the sheet and handed the list over. He glanced over at Claire who stared back with an eager face filled with curiosity. "Claire, do you want to come?"

"Sure. Sounds fun," she said, bobbing her head with enthusiasm, "Just give me a second." She quickly wiped her hands with the towel and took off her apron.

"Count me out," Grim said, "I need a break."

"Picking up ingredients? No thanks. I don't want to do something that troublesome," Ace said as he massaged his shoulders.

"A lot more fun than making the tart for you," Grim shot back as Claire washed her hands and arms with soap.

"Now, now," Trey cut in before another argument could start, "Here's the money. Oh, and bring back the receipt."

"No problem. We'll be back as soon as possible," Deuce said, pocketing everything.

"Remember, this is your tart!" Claire called out to Ace. "You're still responsible for making it."

Author's Notes

I never thought of Trey as a guy who would make jokes like that (or jokes in general), but it was funny to see the Walrus and oyster reference from the movie.

I wonder how many Alice in Wonderland themes and such could be found in the Rose Kingdom. I hope we can see the place in an event like with Land of the Hot Sands in the future!

Thanks for reading! I'll see you in the next chapter!

-JD