The day passed quickly for Olive and Ned as they baked their pies. Olive made the filings and Ned busied him self with making each crust absolutely perfect. At four o'clock exactly Ned placed the last pie on the judging table.
Because Olive and Ned's spot at the very, very long table they would have an awful long wait for the judges. Olive turned to Ned.
"Well how do they look Pie Man?" she asked bouncing on her toes.
"Perfect Olive, really I think yours look the best." Ned said gesturing to the triple berry pie and the famous pear and Gruyere pie that she had made.
"Well thanks, Ned what happens after this phase of the competition? You still haven't told me!" Olive asked curiously.
Ned was surprised that he hadn't told her yet, but continued anyway. "First is this part, the judges will only look at each of the foods, and based on their presentation they will pick the top fifty." Ned stopped talking for a moment when Olive leaned into his left arm slightly. "Then those fifty will have a tasting, the top twenty from that group will then be given a challenge, the team that completes the challenge in a set amount of time the best, will win."
Olive nodded into Ned's arm as she leaned a little closer to him. "sounds cool. Hey when do you think those stinkin' judges will get here?"
"We are here now" said a deep voice from Olive and Ned's left. "Although I'm fairly sure none of us stink." The tall African American man said with a chuckle. Olive couldn't help but think about Emerson Cod, she looked at Ned who apparently shared her feelings about this man, as he mouthed "Emerson" Olive chuckled and turned back to the judges.
"I am Sondre Plod, this is Courtney Maple." He said gesturing to a small brunette woman behind him, she had on a nametag, and olive wondered why he felt the need to introduce her. From behind them stepped a very short older woman who olive knew would probably be the toughest judge of all.
"And I am Violate Delroy. How glad I am to see a team that specializes on pie alone, great. Now lets get to the judging." She said leaning over the pies and pulling out a pair of glasses.
"I like her." Olive whispered to Ned who looked kind of nervous. "But what's with Maple and Plod? They seem a little tense."
Ned nodded and looked at the judges, Olive noted his expression, the same expression the crossed his face while he was in the middle of stress baking.
"Alright then." Sondre Plod said as he straightened up and checked off one final thing on his clipboard. "I think were done here. There will be a letter later tonight to inform you of teams that will move to the next round.
***
After cleaning the kitchen and putting away two of the pies Olive and Ned sat at the small table in their little cabin eating the other two.
"I think they liked us, we are so getting to the next round. Don't you think Ned?" Olive squealed her mouth full of pie.
"Olive don't count your chickens before they hatch." Ned noted as he sliced himself a piece of apple pie, he had specially made from fresh fruit.
"Well I think they liked us. Hey your eating pie! You never eat your own pie!" She observed happily. "why is that?"
"um, um, because if I eat it all the time I would get sick of it, and not want to cook it anymore." Ned said thinking quickly.
"oh, well, I'm glad you are joining me in eating this fantastic pie." Olive said as she stood up and grabbed another slice, then sat down next to Ned.
When the two had finished their pie they sat on the couch and waited to be informed if they had passed the first round, Ned still nervous about the whole thing sat lost in thought.
If they did not make it to the last round he would be forced to return home sooner than he had planned. He would have to face chuck, he would also have to finally do something about their failing relationship. Not only would he have to face Chuck, but he would also have les time to spend with the small blonde that he was slowly falling in love with.
When he though about Olive he glanced over to her only to realize that she was now asleep on the arm of the sofa. Just then there was a nock on the door and a letter was slipped through the mail slot. He hopped up and went to retrieve the envelope. When he returned he sat close to olive and pulled her into his side, gently waking her.
"Oh, hey Ned." She mumbled, as she realized that Ned's arm was around her and she was pressed lightly against his side.
"We got the letter, I didn't want to open it while you were sleeping." He said looking down at her.
"Thanks!" she chirped, sitting up a little more to see the letter. " well, open it!"
Ned carefully broke the seal of the envelope and pulled out a blue piece of paper. Both were silent as they read.
Congratulation your eatery has been selected to move to the next round!
Here is a list of the winning teams:
Peter Jemkin's Pancakes
The Pie hole
Wok and Roll Chinese
Pho-schizzle Noodle House
Garden of Eat'n Salads
Bodacious Buns Bakery
The list when on and on, but neither Ned nor Olive read the whole thing. Olive jumped up after reading the congratulations part, and squealed loudly.
"Ah! I told you so Ned!" Ned managed to understand between squeals and jumps. As soon as Ned stood up he was attacked by the flailing mass that was Olive, she jumped into him for a hug but he picked her up and pulled her body close to his. When she pulled back a bit to look at him they exchanged smiles and before either one knew what they were doing their lips were pressed together in a kiss. Ned set Olive down on the floor but continued to kiss her as she wrapped her small arms around his waist and stood up on her tip-toes.
When they finally broke apart Olive looked at Ned questioningly, he was smiling but there were tears in his eyes, and when Ned stepped forward and wiped the tears out of her own eyes she realized that she was crying as well.
***
That night there was no confusion on where Ned would be sleeping as he was lead by olive to the one bedroom in the house. They both lay down together and quickly fell asleep. Neither one of them troubled by an uncomfortable sofa, nor unreasonable insomnia.