A few days later Ashley and Penny were in the kitchen while Chloe borrowed Miraidon to visit the Ten sights of Paldea.
"Ready?" Ashley asked, looking at the stove.
"Ready!" Penny agreed before both of them activated their Vee packs and started gathering what they needed to make Chloe a strawberry cake.
"Look out," Ashley called seeing several bowls fall from Penny's grasp.
She dodged most of them with Ashley trying to help, only for the last two to fall upside down on them both, causing them to giggle, when they both peaked out from under it at the same time.
After a few hours with a few other incidents like that they went to put the cake in the oven, only to find that the weight was too much for the Veepacks (which Penny would fix) and they broke covering them in cake batter as Chloe took a closer look at Colonnade Hollow and found a glowing yellow stake that she pulled out in confusion, before it disappeared, and her curiosity made her search for more.
In the kitchen Ashley and Penny sighed before…
"What is going on here?" a voice said as they looked around and saw the Home Economics teacher Mr. Saguaro.
"Sorry," Ashley said, looking to the remains of the Veepack arm. "We were trying to make a strawberry cake for Chloe's birthday to suprise her in her dorm, but…"
"I see," Mr. Saguaro said, seeing the broken arm as well. "Well, I certainly understand doing that, though allow me to help, that way this does not happen again."
"Of course!" Ashley and Penny agreed before they started cleaning up, and once that finished they helped Mrl Saguaro.
Luckily with Mr. Saguaro helping they could make a much larger cake, one larger then they were. Unfortunately without the Veepack arms they had to jump on the counter to help. Even more unfortunately Mr. Saguaro had turned around to get something, and bumped into the bowl as they were on the edge putting something in and they fell in. The bigger bowl, also completely covered them just as Mr. Saguaro put the final ingredient in and poured them out without noticing, before putting them in the oven, forcing them to use Protect to keep themselves safe, not moving in case it broke the protect and cooked them.
Meanwhile Chloe had just found the last stake and Miraidon led her to what it affected, as a pokemon called Chien-Pao burst out of the shrine and forced her to fight with Skeledirge, Pawmot, Frigibax, and Kirlia.
Mr. Saguaro had tried to find Ashley and Penny when he did not see them after putting the cake in the oven, but could not and eventually decided they went to clean up the cake batter from their fur. When the cake finished he decided to deliver it to Chloe's dorm room using his status as a teacher to gain entrance to the dorm. Inside the cake Ashley and Penny had merged their protective bubbles and decided to take advantage of being inside the cake to surprise Chloe. This made her laugh in surprise when she got back covered in dirt and with a freshly evolved Frigibax and a recently captured Chien-Pao. She saw the cake on the table, went to inspect it and had them burst out saying happy birthday having heard her muffled voice. It gave her a surprise but made her laugh, while her appearance surprised them, and made them impressed at how she did against Chien-Pao.
They had a lot of fun at the party before settling in for the night.