Soon the night had passed, and the sun slowly rose into the sky. On this Tuesday morning, Pippi and his friends were still sleeping in their bed, but when it was seven in the morning, Pippi slowly opened his eyes as he awoke. He sat up in the bed, stretching his arms up over his head before rubbing his eyes with his paws. As he did, his four friends slowly woke up, too.
Once everyone was awake, they stepped out of the bed, then headed out of the bedroom and into the washroom. They took turns brushing their teeth and washing their faces until they were clean and ready for the day. Then they left the washroom and went to the kitchen, where they found Luigi making some waffles.
"Good morning, Luigi," Pippi and his friends greeted him.
"Good morning, kids," Luigi said. "Would you like some waffles for breakfast?"
"Yes, please!" Anna said with a nod. She could tell by the looks on her friends' faces that they wanted some waffles, too.
With that, the 5BFF sat down at the table to wait for their breakfast. Soon Luigi had handed each of them a plate that held two golden brown, square-shaped waffles. The animals thanked him, then each picked up a fork and knife before they began to eat.
The waffles tasted good, and as they ate their breakfast, they wondered to themselves how much money they would make today at the bakery. Soon, however, they'd cleaned their plates and thanked Luigi once more. Since they had some extra time, the 5BFF brought their plates to the sink and washed them. It didn't take long before they'd been rinsed off and placed in the cupboard, and then they washed their hands to clean them off as well.
"We're off, Luigi!" Pippi called as he and his friends headed to the front door.
"See you kids later!" Luigi replied.
With that, the 5BFF headed out of the mansion and went straight into town. They weren't in that much of a hurry, but by the time they'd arrived at the bakery, it was only ten minutes to opening.
"Good morning, kids!" Eve greeted them.
"Good morning, Eve," Pippi greeted her in return. His four friends took a moment t say the same thing, one after another.
The next thing the five of them knew, they were back in the kitchen of the bakery, putting on their aprons and chef's hats from yesterday. Their first order from Eve was for a batch of chocolate chip cookies, and they got to work making them, scooping about twenty mounds of tasty batter onto the tray's cooking sheet when it was ready. Just as they'd finished placing the tray in the oven and setting the timer for thirty minutes, however, Eve requested that they make a batch of sugar cookies as well, so they got to work making those as well.
"When these are done, I think I'll decorate these as well," Annika said to herself as she put on some oven mitts.
With that, she set the tray of twenty sugar cookies in the oven as well, and set the second timer for thirty minutes. Around twenty-five minutes later, the first timer 'sang its song' as Annika described, meaning the chocolate chip cookies were ready. Annika brought them out of the oven, and then Willie used the spatula to place each cookie on the cooling rack. As he did, Annika took off her oven mitts and handed them to Tommy. He put them on, and soon the other timer had gone off, so he brought the tray of sugar cookies out of the oven as well.
As he placed each of these cookies on another cooling rack, Eve came in to announce the first order of the day.
"A family of four cats have asked for eight chocolate chip cookies."
"Okay." Pippi nodded and brought out a plate, placing eight of their twenty chocolate cookies onto it.
Once all of them were there, Anna picked up the plate and brought it out of the kitchen. She could see the family of light-blue colored cats, consisting of a mother cat, a father cat and the two kittens from yesterday, sitting at one of the tables. She brought the plate to them.
"That'll be $2.80, please," she said.
"Thank you." The mother of the kittens reached into her pocket, pulling out three dollars.
She handed them to Anna, and she smiled as she took them before walking over to Eve. As she placed the dollars in the register, the cats each picked up a cookie and took a bite, chewing slowly. Eve could tell from the appearing smiles on their faces that they were satisfied, although Anna barely missed them as she made her way back into the kitchen.
The moment she arrived, she could see that Annika was applying some pastel rainbow sprinkles to the cooled sugar cookies. A few minutes went by, and soon Eve announced the next order: "Five chocolate chip cookies and five sugar cookies for five little girls!"
"Oh, goody-goody!" Annika said with a smile. She put down the container of sprinkles, then used a spatula to move five of the twelve chocolate chip cookies onto a plate. Then she handed that spatula to Anna, and she used it to move five sugar cookies onto another plate.
The raccoon picked up the chocolate chip cookies while the rabbit picked up the sugar cookies, and then they brought them out of the kitchen and into the dining room. Indeed, there were five girls waiting at one of the tables, and it just so happened that they were the same ones who had come yesterday - the brown haired, three-pigtailed girl with the pink shirt, the dark-skinned, black-haired girl with the dot-covered dress, the larger blonde girl with the blue jacket, the brown-haired girl with the small ponytail and the green dress, and the girl with the private school uniform. Annika and Anna took their plates to their table before setting them down.
"That'll be $3.50, please," Annika said.
"Thank you." Each of the girls thanked them in unison.
That was when they reached into their pockets, only to each pull out - to Annika and Anna's surprise - a dollar. It was these dollars that they handed to them, and Annika accepted them with a grateful smile.
"Oh, thank you so much!" Annika thanked them in return.
She and Anna watched as each of the girls picked up one of their sugar cookies and began to eat. The smiles on their faces told them that they were satisfied. As they turned and made their way back to the kitchen, Annika handed the five dollars to Eve, and she happily put them in the register. The next thing they knew, the rabbit and the raccoon were back in the kitchen with Pippi, Willie and Tommy.
Eve asked them to make some more chocolate chip cookies, and they were more than happy to oblige. Pippi mixed the ingredients together, Willie scooped thirteen mounds of the delicious cookie dough onto a tray, and then Annika brought it into the oven, while Tommy set a timer for twenty-five minutes. There weren't any more customers in the dining room, nor did Eve come in to ask them to make any other treats - the girls who had paid them their five dollars had left.
So Pippi and his friends watched the oven closely, waiting for the timer to expire. It felt like a long wait, but eventually the timer went off, almost surprising them. But that was when Pippi put on his oven mitts and took the tray out of the oven, before placing each of the freshly baked chocolate chip cookies on the cooling rack. They were now back up to twenty of this kind of cookie, including the seven that had already cooked and were waiting to be purchased and eaten. Annika smiled as she breathed in their sweet scent.
"It sure would be nice if Eve could let us make cookies for ourselves every once in a while," she said to herself.
"Hey, kids! We've got our first commission!" Eve called, just as the cookies had cooled.
"We have?!" Anna sounded like she was excited. She was looking forward to fulfilling this order, as long as it meant more money for her and her friends.
"That's great. What do we have to do this time?" Pippi asked.
"A hedgehog and a fox have commissioned a two-layer chocolate cake with whipped cream on the inside, chocolate buttercream icing on the outside, some yellow stars made of frosting on top, and the words 'Happy Birthday' written in chocolate sauce on top, too," said Eve. "They've also requested ten chocolate chip cookies to go, and they're willing to pay four dollars for those…" She paused a bit before resuming, "and TWENTY dollars for the cake!"
"Wow!" said Pippi and Annika.
"How thoughtful!" said Willie.
"Cool!" Anna and Tommy said in near perfect unison.
"Why don't one of us serve them the cookies first, while we get to work on the cake?" Willie suggested.
"Hey, that's a great idea!" said Pippi. "I'll serve them."
With that, he placed ten of the just-now-cooled chocolate chip cookies into a little cardboard box that he then closed. As he did, Annika, Anna, Tommy and Willie gathered their ingredients so they could get to work. He brought the box out of the kitchen and over to the register. Indeed, there was a blue hedgehog and a yellow fox waiting for them. (They were Sonic the Hedgehog and Tails the Fox, but none of the 5BFF had ever seen either of them before, so they wouldn't know.)
"Here are your cookies," Pippi said as he set the box on the counter. "But can you wait a bit for your cake, please?"
"Sure, thanks," the hedgehog said with an understanding nod.
"Of course. I have heard that good things are worth waiting for," the fox said in agreement, accepting the box.
He and the hedgehog each placed two dollars on the counter, and the puppy handed them to Eve so she could put them in the register for later. As he did, the hedgehog and fox headed over to one of the tables so they could wait for their commission. Then Pippi made his way back into the kitchen, watching as Annika and Tommy stirred the brown contents of two mixing bowls with a couple of wooden spoons.
"Oh, man! I can't wait until this cake's finished and we get our money!" said Anna, applying some cocoa powder to some plain buttercream and stirring it with a spoon, so it could be ready for when it was time to decorate their creation.
"Neither can I," Tommy said.
"Whoever those were, I have a feeling they'll be just as satisfied as we'll be," Pippi said.
When the mixtures were ready, Annika and Tommy took out some equally-sized cake pans and poured the cake batter into them, making sure they had the same amount. They then placed them into one of the ovens - both of the ovens were quite large, so one could hold two cake pans - and set a timer for just the right amount of minutes.
While they were waiting, as the hedgehog and fox were waiting, they received another order from Eve. Someone had requested seven chocolate chip cookies, so Willie moved the seven, slightly less fresh but still tasty chocolate chip cookies onto one of the plates with the spatula. Then he picked up that plate and brought it into the dining room. There were two customers, one male and one female, at one of the tables, though he couldn't recall ever seeing them before; the male one had some large red spots on his head and wore a red vest, while the other one had some large white spots on her pink head and wore a light purple vest.
Willie brought the plate over to them and set it in front of them. "That'll be $2.45, please."
"Okay, thank you," the female customer replied.
She reached into her pocket and pulled out a dollar and a quarter, setting them on the table. The male customer pulled out a dollar and a quarter as well, placing them on the table, too. Willie accepted these dollars and quarters with a smile and brought them to Eve so she could put them in the register.
A few minutes after Willie had come back into the kitchen, Eve announced another order. Six customers had requested twelve sugar cookies, and two additional customers had requested three sugar cookies with one cut in half. The 5BFF were aware that this was the last of the cookies they had at the moment, but they were still willing to fulfill the orders. Pippi placed twelve of the cookies on a large plate, and then Annika placed the remaining three on a smaller plate, using a butter knife to slice one of the cookies perfectly in half.
That was when Pippi brought the larger plate into the dining room. The six customers who'd wanted the twelve cookies were a group of cute dinosaurs who looked practically identical. The only way to tell them apart was their colors: one was green, while one was red, one was yellow, one was blue, one was light blue, and one was pink. Pippi brought his plate over to them, while Annika brought her plate to the table where the two customers were waiting. They were two light-skinned human boys, one wearing a red baseball cap and one having blonde hair. The two customers who wore the vests and had the spots on their heads had left.
"That'll be $3.96, please," Pippi said.
"$0.99, please," Annika said.
The boys handed Annika a dollar, while the green dinosaur trilled gratefully and handed Pippi four dollars and a quarter. It was these dollars and that quarter that the puppy and the bunny brought to Eve, who put them in the register for them.
Before they went back into the kitchen, however, Pippi made his way over to the hedgehog and fox. He could see that the hedgehog was rubbing his nose idly with his forefinger, but he didn't focus too much on that.
"Everything alright?" Pippi wanted to know.
"Yeah, everything's good," said the hedgehog.
"Okay, just making sure," said Pippi with a nod. "Your cake should be almost ready."
With that, he and Annika made their way back to the kitchen. Just after they'd come back there, however, the timer sounded. The cake that the hedgehog and fox had commissioned was finished baking.
Wasting no time, Pippi and Annika put on their oven mitts and brought both of the layers of cake out of the oven, setting them on a cooking rack. Once they'd cooled, Pippi applied a thick layer of sweet whipped cream to the top of one layer before placing the other one on top. Then Anna scooped the chocolate buttercream onto the cake and used her spoon to smear it about. Once every part of it had been frosted, Tommy drew some cute little stars in yellow frosting, and Annika wrote the words "Happy Birthday" with a small bag that had been filled with milk chocolate sauce.
The cake was then placed in a large cardboard box to prevent anything unwanted from getting on it, and then Pippi picked up the box and brought it to the register. He set it on the counter, where the hedgehog and fox had returned to.
"Here's your cake," said Pippi. "Thanks for waiting."
"Cool! Thanks, dude!" the hedgehog said with a smile.
He pulled out a twenty-dollar bill from his pocket and handed it to Pippi, and with a big smile he handed it to Eve. As she placed those twenty dollars in the register, however, Pippi felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned his head, seeing that the hedgehog wanted to tell him something.
"Oh, and just between you and me," said the hedgehog in a whisper, "today is my birthday. That's why my pal and I asked for the cake."
Pippi smiled. "Well, happy birthday, sir. I hope you and your friend enjoy your day."
"Thanks, buddy. See you around!"
With that, the hedgehog picked up his box that held the cake and brought it with him out of the bakery, with the fox holding the box of cookies they'd bought and following him out from behind. Pippi headed back into the kitchen, where he could see his friends smiling in happiness over their completed order.
"Score!" Anna cried with a fist pump.
"It's only our second day here, and we've already broken a new record for most earnings in a day!" Willie acknowledged.
"Quacktacular!" Tommy said. His friends looked at him, but then laughed over the new word he'd come up with, and Tommy laughed with them.
"That's great news, but let's not focus too much on the amount of money we've made. At least, not as much as making more goods," Pippi said. "As Eve said, the more we bake and sell, the more money we'll have at the end of the day."
"Okay," Anna said with a nod.
A few minutes later, Eve came into the kitchen and asked the 5BFF to make some vanilla cupcakes. The animals quickly got to work, with Willie and Annika mixing the ingredients, and Tommy pouring the batter into a cupcake tin that had enough room for twelve cupcakes. Then Anna placed the cupcake tin into the oven, and Pippi set a timer for thirty minutes.
A half-hour later, the timer went off, and the cupcakes were ready. Anna put on some oven mitts and brought the tin out of the oven, and once the cupcakes had cooled, Annika and Willie decorated them. Annika couldn't help but hum the melody of "Red River Valley" as she applied a swirl of pink buttercream icing to each of the cupcakes, while Willie added some yellow star sprinkles to each of the swirls.
Not long after they'd finished decorating, Eve announced that two more customers had arrived, and each had asked for four cupcakes. Anna placed four of the eight cupcakes on a plate, and then Tommy picked it up before bringing them out of the kitchen. In the dining room he could see the customers who had wanted the cupcakes - a pink cat that seemed to be half-cat and half unicorn, and a blue dog that seemed to be half-dog and half unicorn. Tommy went over to them and placed the plate on their table.
"That'll be $1.75, please," said Tommy.
"Thank you very much~!" the cat-unicorn thanked him, practically singing her thanks.
She pulled out a dollar and a quarter while the dog-unicorn opposite her pulled out a dollar, and they handed them to Tommy. With a grateful smile, he brought the two dollars and the quarter to the register as the two satisfied customers tucked into their cupcakes. Eve placed the dollars into the register, and the next thing Tommy knew he was back in the kitchen with his friends.
"Eight cupcakes left," Annika said to herself, "until Eve asks us to make more, that is." Pippi chuckled over her comment.
A few minutes later, after the pink cat-unicorn and the blue dog-unicorn had left, Eve announced two new orders. A group of four customers - a red-haired boy, a dark-skinned boy, a brown-haired girl and a blonde-haired girl - had asked for four cupcakes, and a second group of four customers - a slender pink-colored panther, a girl with glasses and orange hair in pigtails, the light blue moose from yesterday, and the black-pigtailed, glasses-wearing girl from yesterday - had asked for the same thing. Annika placed four cupcakes on a plate, while Annika placed the remaining cupcakes on another plate, and then they brought them out to the dining room.
"A dollar seventy-five, please," they said, placing their plates down on the tables.
They each received two dollars from their grateful customers, and they brought them to Eve. As she placed them in the register, the 5BFF made their way back into the kitchen.
No more customers came into the bakery, even after the eight most-recently-served customers had departed, so the rest of the day went by rather slowly for Pippi and his friends. Eventually, however, it was five o'clock, the end of their shift. The 5BFF breathed a sigh of relief as they took off their chef's hats and aprons before putting them away. Then they headed out of the kitchen to check up with Eve.
"Pippi, Tommy, Annika, Willie, Anna," Eve started, "You can't begin to imagine how proud I am of you. You have all done a fantastic job today."
"Since you've made a whopping $46, you'll be happy to know that I'm paying you a total of… $18.40, with $3.68 for each one of you!"
"Oh, thank you!" Pippi and Annika thanked her in unison.
With that, Eve paid the 5BFF, indeed giving each of them three dollar bills and 68 cents. They happily brought their earnings out of the bakery, and the first thing they did once they were out of the building was head over to the bank.
Pippi greeted the bank-teller once they'd arrived there, and then he and each of his friends handed her three dollars and 68 cents, until they each had one dollar left, just like how they'd deposited all but one of their dollars the day before. The bank-teller took their money and thanked them for their deposits, saying they were up to 123 dollars. Only 363 days until they would earn their annual percentage yield.
Satisfied, the 5BFF returned home to Luigi's mansion. Just as they thought he would be, Luigi was waiting for them in the lobby when they got back.
"Hey, kids!" he greeted them.
"Hi, Luigi!" Pippi and his friends greeted him in unison.
"How was your day at the bakery?" Luigi wanted to know.
"It was good, thank you," Pippi replied.
"We made lots of cookies and cupcakes, plus a birthday cake that someone bought from us for twenty dollars," Annika added.
"That's-a pretty good," Luigi said with a smile. "Would you kids like some spaghetti for dinner?"
"Yes, please!" Pippi said, and his friends nodded in agreement.
With that, the 5BFF made their way to the dining room, while Luigi headed into the kitchen to prepare their dinner. As they did, they looked at one another, smiling proudly at themselves and each other. Today had to have been their most successful day yet as far as the amount of money they'd earned went, but they had a feeling they were going to earn even more in the future.
Soon their dinner was ready, and Luigi spooned a good amount of spaghetti into five bowls that he brought to the table. He made sure to bring a sixth bowl to the table, however, so that he could have some spaghetti as well.
As Pippi and his friends ate their dinner, they took turns eating their spaghetti in slightly different ways. It was like the little spaghetti competition they had a few years ago, just for fun, and it amused them just as this one amused Luigi.
When they'd finished their dinner, Luigi cleared the table, and Pippi and his friends helped with the dishes. They were beginning to feel sleepy by the time they'd finished, however, so Luigi led them to the spare bedroom, where their bed was waiting for them. Pippi climbed into the bed first, followed by Tommy, then Annika, Anna, and finally Willie, and then Luigi tucked them in.
"Good night, kids," Luigi said.
"Good night, Luigi," Pippi and his friends replied.
They watched as Luigi turned around and headed out of the bedroom, turning off the light and closing the door as he went. The 5BFF slowly drifted off into a peaceful sleep, and before long, they could hear the crickets chirping outside.