Rei couldn't live like this anymore!
Mom could be on as many weird diets as she wanted, it was a free country, but Rei was going to eat food. She was going to eat whatever she wanted no matter how bad it was for her. She was going to go to the store and get chips and gummies and chocolate bars and cookies!
Or at least she would have, if she hadn't spent all her money already.
"Ok, so it says that we need to add dust the cake pan with…cocoa powder? Why does it say cocoa powder?" asked Rei as she scrolled through the recipe on her phone. She like chocolate, she wanted a chocolate cake, and the still had all the cake fixings at her house. So she was going to make a chocolate cake no matter what Mom said!
Though she wasn't going to say anything since, according to the version of the future Rei had seen, she wasn't going to be home for another four hours.
That was more than long enough to make and eat a cake, and then destroy the evidence…ok, so that wasn't really super rebellious or anything but she didn't want to get in trouble. With her family out of the house, her friends free, and the siren song of cake fixings and a cake pan that looked like a giant cookie she really had no choice.
It was cake time or nothing.
"This?" asked Tome as she dipped her finger into the cocoa powder. She pulled her finger away and made a face. Bitter. Too damn bitter! They were going to ruin this cake, she could tell. It needed more sugar, probably twice as much as the recipe listed, and more chocolate too. Real chocolate, not cocoa powder.
"Yeah, that…but why am I dusting the cake pan with it? Wouldn't it get sticky?" asked Rei as she took the cocoa powder from Tome. She looked at it and then the cake pan…her head kind of hurt but it wasn't like looking into the future once more would kill her…
Though she could do without the splitting headache that came with using her powers too often.
"Taste it and tell me that 'stickiness' is your biggest concern." Said Tome. Rei shook her head.
"I'm not eating raw cake mix. I don't even know if that's safe." Said Rei
"If you can crack a raw egg into rice then you can eat raw cake mix, but I was talking about the cocoa powder." Said Tome
"What's wrong with it?" asked Rei. She held it up and checked the expiration date…ok, so it was old but it wasn't like anyone had ever gotten food poisoning from chocolate…right?
"Too bitter. I've had coffee sweater than that." Said Tome, sticking out her tongue.
"Do frappes count as coffee?" asked Rei. Tome nodded.
"Yes they do and I won't hear a word otherwise." Said Tome
"I think that they're mostly ice, though, and milk." Said Rei. Tome sighed and looked to Mob…who was still on her phone. She'd been glued to that thing all week. Tome knew Teru was cute and all, he didn't have anything on her boyfriend of course but she could acknowledge his appeal, but at some point you ran out of things to say!
"What do you think, Mob? Mob? Earth to Mob" asked Tome. She rolled her eyes when Mob didn't even look up. She was intently staring at…something. Tome craned her neck over. Just a page of text, tiny text, too tiny to see. She leaned over a little more…
And nearly tipped over. Great.
"Hey Mob? Shigeko?" asked Rei as Mob…ignored her. She couldn't think of another word for it. Mob was ignoring her right now, right at this very second. She'd been on her phone all day, but that was normal for her now. All week she had been buried in her phone…and it was Thursday! If Rei hadn't been as nice as she was she would have at least asked Mob to stop being on her phone all the time. But she was too nice to say anything like that, she didn't need to see into the future to know that it would have been a rude thing to say, and anyway she should have been happy for Mob.
She had a boyfriend after all.
As a good friend Rei should have been happy for Mob. She had a boyfriend! Someone to love and hold and kiss and…well, all of those other things. She knew she was mostly supposed to care about being loved, and she did, but having someone to kiss sounded wonderful. Having someone to do all of those other things with sounded…like something she wanted but she wasn't supposed to want. Not actively, anyway, not unless she wanted people to talk about her. Not her friends! Just…other people.
Sometimes she wished that it could have just been the three of them, plus Reigen, but that wasn't how it worked. It was the three of them plus everyone else in the world….and minus Mob who seemed to be off in her own little world.
"Hey Mob, did you hear? The yakuza poisoned the Japanese milk supply so now we all have to drink that soy crap you hate." Said Tome. Mob didn't even look up. Her hair was even floating a little…what in the hell could have been more engaging than her two closest friends! The true companions that would be with her until the day they died and then for some time afterwards because she could see into the other side!
"Also there's a virus that's going around turning cats into zombies. Yeah, they're out there right now. I can see them." said Tome
"….uh-huh…cats are nice…" said Mob, not looking up. She did like cats but this was more important than cats…few things in this world were but this was one of them. She couldn't believe that tomorrow night she and Teru were going to…she had to do more research! She had no idea what she was doing and this wasn't the kind of thing she could just go to Master Reigen about. She would have just told Mob that she was too young to be even thinking about these kinds of things even though, no, she wasn't. She was fifteen.
She was old enough to do…things…she just had to figure out how to do those things first and then she would do them just like she was old enough to want to do.
"Hey Mob? Tome finally saw aliens. They're taking her with them, they're going to Mars." Said Rei. Ok, so maybe this was a little mean…but Mob was kind of being a little mean first. Even if she did have a boyfriend and she was talking to him, probably about how much they loved each other, and then Tome would probably get bored and start talking to her boyfriend too and then Rei would just be here making cake because she had cake fixings but no boyfriend and no chance to find one!
And then she'd be alone with her cake. And probably die with it too. You didn't need to be clairvoyant to see where her future was headed.
"No, Europa. Mars is long dead, they fled for their lives when it lost it's magnetic-" said Tome
"That's nice, have fun." Said Mob as she got a text from Teru. She didn't look at it, not even the preview. She just let it disappear. What if it was him telling her that he'd changed his mind? Or worse, that he was looking forward to…to everything? She didn't know what she wanted…well, she did know what she wanted, or at least the idea of what she wanted…but ideas weren't reality and in reality she had no idea what she was doing!
This wasn't like kissing, kissing was simple, people wore clothes when they kissed!
"Ok, that's it." Said Tome as she hopped down from the counter and yanked the phone out of Mob's hand. She gasped and, for a moment, Tome could have swore that she was glowing…or maybe she had been since Rei had shielded her eyes. The kitchen shook too, for a moment, but luckily Rei was there to catch their cake batter.
Good. So what Mob had done was only half unforgivable.
"Hey! Tome! What was that for?" said Mob as she reached for her phone. She nearly took it back with her powers, it had been instinct, but luckily she caught herself before she accidentally hurt Tome. Sure what she had done wasn't polite but that was no reason to accidentally hurt her.
"For ignoring us. Honestly, sometimes I feel like you're not as committed to this cake as we are." Said Tome before she tried to wake up Mob's phone…which needed a passcode, and the old one wasn't working. Honestly. If you were going to change your passcode then you really needed to keep your friends up to date.
"I am, I'm very committed. I just…have something else I'm committed to, too." Said Mob
"Someone else." Muttered Rei…not that she wasn't happy for Mob, because she was! She just…was having a hard time being as committed to being happy as she should have been…maybe she just wasn't trying hard enough…
"What?" asked Mob as she turned towards Rei. Rei immediately turned away and picked up the fancy cakepan she'd gotten…specifically because she'd wanted to bake a cake with them, her friends…ok, yeah, maybe Mob had been kind of a jerk there.
Just because she had a lot going on right now that didn't mean that she got to ignore her friends.
"Nothing! Just going to…to dust this cakepan, that's all." Said Rei. She turned around and dusted the cakepan with cocoa powder like the directions said.
"She said someone else. Someone probably being Teru. Tell me I'm wrong." Said Tome
"But that would be lying." Said Mob. Tome sighed and slapped herself over the head.
"Well, at least you're being honest…but still! Come on, sisters before misters." Said Tome
"Huh?" asked Rei, turning around. Cocoa powder did seem like it was going to be too sticky, she could even feel it sticking to her fingers right now…but it was what it was. It wasn't going to be so bad…right? She could have checked the future but she could feel a headache coming on…
…and, really, she had other things she should have checked on with her powers.
"Sisters before misters, it's like bros before hos but cleaner since, you know, there's no word for guys who sleep around." Said Tome with a shrug. It wasn't that hard to figure out, though it was kind of annoying that there wasn't a word for a guy who slept around. Stupid double standards…
"Players?" asked Rei
"That's still a compliment!" said Tome
"Then…huh, I really can't think of a better word." Said Rei
"I know, right? All we have is sisters before misters which isn't nearly as insulting." Said Tome
"But why do we need to insult anybody? I love Teru…or at least I really like him, I've never been in love before so I have nothing to compare this to, and I don't want to insult him…or you guys, either. I really am sorry I ignored you. I was just…reading about things." Said Mob
"There'll be time to study later, right now we're baking a cake of the upmost importance." Said Tome. What could she have been worried about, entrance exams? Unless she wanted to go to Saffron High there wasn't a point. School was school. They had all decided, anyway, that they were going to the same school and since Tome had managed to get into White Pepper with her scores and grades then they were shoe ins.
"But I don't have time to study later! I only have until tomorrow before we-um…" said Mob. She looked down at her hands and shifted in place. She wished she still had her phone, then she could have pretended to look at it instead of her feet. Then she could have had an excuse to look away. It wasn't like they didn't talk about this stuff sometimes, Tome a lot of the time, but there was a difference between talking about this stuff and talking about preparing to actually DO this stuff.
"Before you 'um'?" asked Tome as she raised her eyebrows as high as they would go. She spoke conversational 'Mob'. She knew what 'um' meant.
"Wait…'um'?!" asked Rei. She quickly began pouring the batter in the pan, not caring that she was ruining this shirt. 'Um' was WAY more important than laundry! This was huge! 'Um' was the most important moment of your life! 'Um' was the whole point of even having a boyfriend!
Plus the love and stuff, of course, there was no forgetting the love and stuff.
"Um…yes. Um." Said Mob. Rei gasped and practically threw the cake into the over. Suddenly Mob found herself surrounded by her friends…which normally would have made her happy but right now just made her wish that she knew how to turn invisible.
"He finally asked you to 'um' with him? Wow, I didn't think he had the balls…actually, I was beginning to doubt whether or not he even had-" said Tome before Mob gasped and covered her mouth.
"Tome!" said Mob, her voice muffled by her hands. She could feel her braids floating away. The lights above them flickered. Something shattered in the cabinets…whatever it was she'd replace it! She'd go out and replace it right this second if it meant that they weren't going to be talking about this!
"My mom's going to kill me…but that's not important! I take back every mean thing I thought! This is huge! I can't believe he finally asked you to-" said Rei
"He didn't ask…I did…but I'm starting to wish that I hadn't!" said Mob as she covered her eyes.
"Why? Is he being an asshole or something?" asked Tome as she sighed and uncovered Mob's eyes. Well, it looked like they weren't going to be eating any cake today, though giving Teru the ass kicking of a lifetime was small consolation. He thought that Mob had beaten him badly? Well Tome was going to do a thousand times worse then stripping him naked, shaving his head, and destroying his school! She didn't know how she was going to even begin going about doing that but she had the whole internet at her disposal and near unlimited free time if she skipped school.
Nobody was an asshole to Mob and got away with it.
"No, no, nothing like that. I just…I don't know what to do, ok?" said Mob, shaking her head.
"Don't you just…you know, do it? You know, he does the thing and then you let him do…the thing?" asked Rei. She wished that she could rewind time, it would have been more useful than clairvoyance. She should have known how dumb it would have sounded. She sounded like a little kid! Which she kind of was…
She was the youngest after all.
"Yes but…but I don't know how and…I mean I know what you're supposed to do but not how to do it…." Said Mob. She knew…what she had seen and read about and what she had been warned about in health class…but now that she thought about it maybe that wasn't enough.
"Hopeless. You're both utterly hopeless. Has it ever occurred to either of you to ask for directions from someone who's already walked down that road?" Said Tome with a shake of her head.
"Huh?" asked Mob
"She means we should ask someone who's already done it." Said Rei
"But I can't ask Master Reigen about this, she'll just tell me that I'm too young, and also if she does tell me what to do then I'll have to think about her doing…stuff…with Serizawa and then I'll never be able to look either of them in the eye ever again and have to quit working for her and probably move, too, so we don't end up accidentally running into each other." Said Mob
"I don't think that I could convince my family to move with you. I can't even convince them to buy name brand food or…anything." Said Rei
"Or…and how about this. Instead of moving away to parts unknown you ask me? I mean, come on. I think that we've already established the fact that I've been around the block a few times." Said Tome
"I know that I could have asked you but…I don't know. It just feels like it's more…real, I guess, if I talk to my friends. Like, it's different when you tell us about stuff you've done or we talk about stuff we read or saw on TV. It's more real and also kind of…embarrassing. I think because it's me that's doing it…going to be doing it. I mean I want to but the more I read about the more I realize I don't know and…and it's-" said Mob. She felt like she was floating away. She was floating away. She was floating away and she just…she didn't know how to get back down to earth! She didn't know how to stop feeling this way and just-just-just-
Tome grabbed her.
Her feet touched the kitchen floor.
She was back.
"Mob, I tell you this as your best friend….you're overthinking things!" said Tome as she shook some sense into Mob. She needed it, she really needed it. If Mob was going to spend her whole life overthinking things then she was going to end up thinking her whole life away. Then she'd miss out on all the best things in life and die full of regret and probably end up haunting the world because of that.
Tome wasn't going to let that happen.
"I…am?" asked Mob
"Yeah, of course. Everyone's first time sucks. Not mine, of course, but yours probably will so don't get your hopes up. It takes a long time for a guy to figure out what he's doing. Not you, you'll be perfect, but he'll probably have no idea whatsoever. Right, Rei?" asked Tome
"Um…I wouldn't know." said Rei, checking the timer. It was about time to take that cake out, right? Right. She knew about cakes…at least she knew about something. At least she could contribute in some way.
"Oh yeah, right. Well, I'm right, ok? So stop overthinking things before you drive yourself crazy!" said Tome, shaking Mob again. It took Mob a second but she nodded. Good, for once Tome had managed to shake some sense into her.
"Ok…I think, I mean you make a lot of sense. I guess that I am overthinking things. I mean it's not like Teru's going to break up with me if…right?" asked Mob. The thought is too painful to bear. Teru breaking up with her…it hadn't really been a thought in her head before just now. She loved him, or at least really liked him, and she wanted…needed him to love her back…but she also needed to move forward with their relationship. Sometimes you had to move forward in life, Master Reigen had said, and she gave good advice. If Mob hadn't wanted to move forward in her life then she never would have met Rei and Tome and they never would have become friends. She never would have met Teru, either, and…and she was…
This was going to be ok.
"Oh of course I make a lot of sense, I know you Mob, I've known you for years." Said Tome
"I know that and…and it's nice how much you care about me and stuff. Both of you." said Mob
"Well yeah, of course I care about you, you're pretty much my best friend. You and Rei. It's not like I can hang out like this with any of the guys and it's not like I can impart my wisdom on them either. So accept my wisdom and stop overthinking things with Teru. He's probably in love with you or close to it, he'll be happy with whatever he gets." Said Tome
"Thank you, Tome, you're right. You're my….my best friend, too, you and Rei I love you both." said Mob as she pulled Tome into a hug. Tome hugged her back, giving twice as much as she got. Mob felt like her bones were going to break but she didn't mind. She was just happy to have such a good friend, someone to reassure her when she was worried that she was about to mess up her life worse than she had ever done before.
It was so wonderful having friends. She wouldn't have traded this for anything.
"Cake's done." Said Rei as she turned around and got it out of the oven. She wasn't sure if she was supposed to be a part of that hug. That was their thing, something that they had in common that she didn't. It wasn't like Tome and Mob hadn't always had things in common that Rei didn't, they had both gone to the same middle school after all, but this felt bigger than going to the same school. This felt like being on the edge of something…something big, like a cliff. Tome had jumped off of it, Mob was about to, and Rei…
Rei wasn't there yet.
She was, however, here. At the counter. She was at the counter and now she was going to see if this cookie shaped cakepan was any good. All she had to do was shake the cake out and…and it was stuck. How could it have been stuck? She had greased and dusted the cakepan before she put the batter in, she had actually remembered that part this time, but now no matter how hard she shook it was stuck!
Maybe because she had used cocoa powder instead of flour.
"Rei, quit messing around with that and get in the group hug." Said Tome, rolling her eyes. Rei could be so single minded sometimes. Didn't she see that Mob needed their support in this monumental time in her life?
"But it's stuck, I think that maybe we should have just used real flour instead of cocoa powder." Said Rei as she tried to shake the cake loose. She managed to get part of it free. It fell out of the cakepan and completely managed to miss the cooling rack before hitting the counter in an explosion of what smelled like it would have been very good cake. She really should have seen that coming, she should have seen-
-a lot of things coming.
"Get in here. Cake is temporary, the bonds of friendship are permanent." Said Tome, who may or may not have just quoted the blurb on the latest Cookingville game…whatever! Knowledge was knowledge, wisdom was wisdom, and who cared if the cake broke apart? It wasn't like they were going to be hanging it up on the wall or anything!
"Isn't that from-" said Mob as she made room for Rei.
"Wisdom is wisdom, knowledge is knowledge, and cake is cake. Now get to hugging! Friendship now, scraping cake out of the cakepan later. Or just eating it with our hands like a bunch of ghouls, I really don't mind. Cake is cake." Said Tome
"But it's…oh, alright." Said Rei. Tome was right, cake was cake. So what if it was stuck in the pan and wouldn't look a thing like the design. Cake was cake. She was just happy to have anything sweet to eat, and anything to contribute. She might not have been exactly where her friends were right now but that didn't mean that they didn't still care about each other, that they didn't still care about her.
It just meant that they had one less thing in common but…but Rei could deal with that. She'd get there eventually, just like eventually they would figure out how to bake a cake without it getting stuck in the pan.