Hurray for chapter 4! Took forever but it's here. It was going to be longer but I've decided to split it, so the next one should hopefully be out by next week!
Dorothy's mind was in a haze as she kneaded the dough on the counter, the music on the overhead speakers further lulling her into her own world, a world where she could imagine herself as a fun, outgoing person who could carry a conversation without fumbling like an idiot, a world where she was confident, cool, funny, maybe even a little prettier. Yeah, that was nice. She could go to the party like that. She'd strut into the place with her hands on her hips and her head held high, smile charmingly at the other guests, tell a joke or two to get a few laughs, and then she'd leave fashionably early, making the people wonder who that stunning, elegant, mysterious woman was.
"Dorothy... Dorothy... DOROTHY!"
"Huh-" Dorothy was startled out of her fantasy by Angela, who stared at her with an exasperated look.
"I said we'll need another batch of those oran berry cookies. They're almost gone."
"Got it..." She mumbled, more than a little embarrassed that she'd been so engrossed in her own fantasy that she couldn't hear anything. She put the dough aside to let it sit and rise and got to work on the cookies. Angela had been in a mood all morning; the Dynamax incident hadn't hurt the business too bad, but it had slowed a noticeable amount compared to last week due to news of the bakery getting overshadowed by the event. Though apparently not enough to dissuade people from buying oran berry cookies. They'd become the most popular by far.
Angela sighed and crossed her arms over her chest as she went to the front to wait for customers. Dorothy could hear the rhythmic sound of Minccino sweeping near the tables, though he wasn't as frantic as he usually was because of the low activity. The upbeat pop music playing switched to a softer ballad, and Dorothy focused on that instead of letting herself drift off to her daydreams again.
Her thoughts were plagued with memories of the other day, running through the conversation between Milo and Nessa. If she accepted the offer, then she'd have to struggle through the anxiety of dealing with unfamiliar people and places, the loudness of the music and the claustrophobic feeling of being in a large crowd with no visible exits.
It was best she declined. She wasn't at the right point in her life to be in that situation. Her mental health had improved exponentially since she left high school, but she knew her limits and what she could handle, and a party with a large crowd of loud and possibly drunk people was absolutely not on the list of things she could handle.
Puffing her cheeks out in a frustrated huff, her hands kneaded the cookie dough with more force than necessary. There was no use dwelling on the past and what-ifs. There wasn't. So why did she keep doing it?!
After the cookies were placed in the oven and the pecha berry bread was finished, Dorothy wiped her hands on her apron and leaned against the counter, her shoulders slumped. The shelves were fully stocked, so she didn't need to continue.
Lilligant's flower had worked wonders for her mind last night. When she woke, she was well rested, but her body felt sluggish. It was a common thing at this point, whenever her mind would torment her, her body would bear the aftermath, her muscles aching from how tense they had been. Still, she wasn't shaking anymore, so she counted that as a positive.
Angela scanned the area outside, teeth lightly biting at her long thumbnail. It was a habit Dorothy had noticed when the blonde was thinking deeply, which happened at least once a day.
Mincinno climbed up his trainer's body to settle himself on her shoulder, rubbing his cheek against hers affectionately. She didn't reciprocate the gesture or perhaps didn't notice it, because she turned around so quickly it nearly swung the poor Pokemon off.
"I can't believe this." She muttered. "We're doing worse!"
She all but stomped to one of the booths by the door and plopped down, Minccino hopping to the table in front of her after regaining his balance.
Fiddling with the straps of her apron, Dorothy silently debated on what to say, or if she even should say anything. She didn't know Angela enough to gauge the appropriate response. When people were in a less than pleasant mood, she tended to stay far away.
"That stupid Dynamax thing ruined everything."
Dorothy nodded in agreement. Looking to her right, she noticed a half-eaten muffin on the counter, likely forgotten by Angela in her frustration. Deciding to use that as an ice breaker, she carefully picked it up and carried it to her boss.
She placed it in front of her and sat across from her while still figuring out what to say.
Angela took the muffin without word and munched on it grumpily, crumbs falling all over the table. Minccino, happy to be doing something while his trainer moped, hastily swept away the crumbs.
Silence hung in the air between the two women, and Dorothy fidgeted in her seat. "The... oran berry cookies are doing well at least."
Angela scoffed. "Yeah, with the two grannies who bought them in bulk wanting a senior discount."
Dorothy quickly shut her mouth and looked down, silence once again befalling the bakery.
Sighing, Angela ate the last of her treat and rolled the wrapper into a napkin. Her brows were furrowed in irritation as her hands moved, and she brushed the newly made ball aside for her Pokemon to pick up. Resting her chin in her hand, she tilted her head and watched as people passed by the building without so much as a glance.
"So, how was your weekend?" She suddenly asked Dorothy, her tone bored and uninterested. Still, Dorothy was glad the silence was broken.
"It was... nice," she replied quietly. She didn't want to divulge in what happened at the stadium, knowing it might set Angela off again. Plus, she'd rather forget it happened in the first place. The rogue Dynamax Pokemon were being talked about everywhere, Tsareena especially since it was revealed that Milo had graciously kept any information about her trainer a secret. It was yet another kind thing of him to do, adding to the list of things she owed him for.
"I... met the gym leader of Hulbury," she decided to say instead.
Angela hummed in acknowledgement. "Nessa? Is she as catty as she looks?"
That made Dorothy blink a couple of times. Nessa certainly looked like the same girls who used to bully her in school, and even now she was surprised by how nice she was and felt the need to defend her against her boss's uncharacteristic attitude.
"No, she's actually really nice and generous. She even invited me to a party."
Something about that made Angela perk up in her seat. Her head slowly turned to Dorothy and the poor woman froze on the spot.
"A... party?"
Dorothy nodded, and when the taller woman suddenly stood from her seat, she flinched. "And what did you say? Did you say yes, tell me you said yes!"
"I- uh, I said no because I'm not good in large crowds-"
"No!" Grabbing Dorothy's shoulders, Angela stared at her with a crazed expression. "Do you have any idea how big that is?! Nessa throws some of the biggest parties in Galar, she's loaded! If we can offer our catering services, she might promote it on her Pikagram and we'll be famous! Imagine the customers that'll be flowing in!"
Dorothy felt like her brain was being rattled in her skull as her boss frantically shook her with a surprising strength as she ranted. "Uh, well-... she gave me her number in case I changed my mind!"
The abrupt stop to the shaking left Dorothy's head spinning. When she got her bearings, she saw Angela leaving the table to pace around.
"You have her number." She muttered, though she spoke so low that Dorothy had a feeling she was more thinking out loud than anything else. "You have Nessa's number. How the heck does that happen? She's a top tier model."
Dorothy found herself regretting telling her she acquired the gym leader's number. It was meant to be for just her, if Angela insisted Dorothy give it up, then it would make her seem untrustworthy.
The purple haired woman jumped when her boss stopped her muttering and quickly turned around.
"You have to call her and tell her you changed your mind," she demanded. "Or better yet, ask her to hire you for a catering job. When's the party?"
"This weekend, I think."
"Perfect, plenty of time. You can call her tonight and start working on those desserts."
Dorothy's eyes widened in shock. "Wh-what? There's probably going to be hundreds of people there. I can't make enough food for that many people on my own!"
"Sure you can, we're just going to serve the same things we do here, I'll pay for the supplies." Angela responded nonchalantly with a wave of her hand. "This could be huge for the bakery. Right after work, tell her. I don't care how many times you have to call, tell her we're the best up and coming bakers Galar has ever seen."
"But... that's a lot of people..."
"You'll be fine. You work pretty quick here when you're not all airheaded."
Dorothy felt sick. How in the world was she going to pull this off?
Leafeon, Tsareena and Lilligant watched their trainer as she anxiously paced around the living room, her phone clutched tightly in her hand. She stared at the screen with her finger hovering over the call button, her teeth chewing her lip as she worked up the courage to do it.
"Angela is completely out of her mind for this," commented Tsareena. She crossed her arms over her chest and huffed. "The party is in five days and she expects Dorothy to work up a miracle."
"I agree," said Leafeon. His eyes scanned the stress showing on their human's face and frowned. He was hoping after she got back to work that the issue about the party would be forgotten by the monotony of daily work life, but Angela completely threw a wrench in that expectation.
Lilligant, who was standing beside them, had her mouth covered with a leafy hand as she observed Dorothy's behavior, ready to step in if the woman got more anxious.
"She should've said no. That's way too much for one person to do alone." Tsareena said, her brows furrowed in irritation. Dorothy had barely started working there and Angela was already taking advantage of her. "I knew we couldn't trust her."
Leafeon opened his mouth to argue, but before he could say anything, his ears twitched when he heard buzzing coming from Dorothy's phone.
Deep breath. In, out, in, out. Her chest moved up and down slowly, her eyes staring intensely at the calling indicator. She silently hoped Nessa wouldn't answer, but then she'd have to call her again. If only she hadn't told Angela about having her number!
The ringing stopped and an unfamiliar man's voice came from the other end. "Who is this?"
Blinking in confusion, Dorothy took a moment to answer. Did Nessa give her the wrong number, or did Dorothy type it in wrong?
"Oh uh-... I'm sorry, this might be the wrong number. I'm calling for Nessa."
"Name?" The man asked, his voice sounding bored.
"Dorothy."
He hummed in response and fell silent. After waiting for ten seconds, she wondered if she should hang up, when a voice she recognized sounded in her ear.
"Dorothy?" Asked Nessa. Dorothy sighed in relief before remembering why she was in this situation.
"This is me," she responded. "I thought I called the wrong person."
"Sorry about that, I have bodyguards when I'm modeling, so I give the phone to them when I'm busy. Lots of crazy fans get my number and claim to be my friend."
"That makes sense..." The nervous woman let out a long exhale and began speaking. "Uh, the reason I called was because I wanted to talk about the party. I know I rejected the offer to come, but my boss thinks we would be perfect to cater for it if you don't already have people hired."
Of course she has caterers hired already! She probably planned this weeks in advance.
She held her breath as she waited, and to no one's surprise, the other woman sounded a bit doubtful. "We do have caterers hired. The party is going to have around 200 hundred people, so it's not too big. But you guys just opened up, didn't you?"
Two hundred people?! That was more than Dorothy knew in her lifetime. The number rang in her head as she responded hesitantly. "Y-yes, but we can make double that amount."
Double that amount. She couldn't believe the words falling from her lips. Was she that big of a people pleaser that she was resorting to this?
"Double that? Really?"
She didn't blame Nessa for her suspicion. She invited Dorothy to go to the party as a guest and here she was asking for a catering gig.
"I've been told I have really quick hands," she adds lamely.
Nessa remained silent on the other end and Dorothy checked her phone screen a couple of times to make sure she hadn't accidently hung up or muted it. When she heard the other woman's voice again, her body jolted in surprise.
"The cake you made for Milo was good. I haven't tried your other desserts, but if they're half as good as that, then I wouldn't mind having more treats."
Dorothy's eyes widened at her words. Was she really going to give them a chance?
"I won't be paying you as much as I do my normal caterers," Nessa continued. "But if you're good enough, I'll do you guys a favor."
"Oh, that would be wonderful!" Dorothy breathed, her shoulders sagging with relief. "We won't let you down, I promise."
"Okay, see you then." Nessa replied smoothly before hanging up.
Dorothy let her arm drop to her side, her heart's rapid pace beginning to slow. One challenge was over, but now she had to make desserts for two hundred people.
Lilligant took hold of her hand and held it between hers, and the woman noticed that while she was on the phone, she had been rubbing her fingers together so much they had become raw.
When she returned to work the next morning, Dorothy's ears rang at the squeal Angela let out, and while she was making the treats for the day, her boss sat in front of her laptop ordering the supplies they would need.
For two hundred guests, she'd need to make a few dozen of everything they had. The shipment would come in two days, so that meant she would only have three days to prepare. She'd also need to make extra in case people wanted to take some home. Angela told her to forgo the cakes and pies to focus on the smaller treats, so the cookies, donuts, cinnamon rolls and bars were going to be her main focus, along with some cupcakes.
Maybe twenty-three dozen would be enough. I'll focus on the donuts and cookies on the first day, then the cinnamon rolls and bars on the next, and on the last day, I'll make the cupcakes. I'll ask Angela if I can stay in the building after work so I can get everything ready, and I'll probably have to skip a few meals if I want to get things done on time. Sleep... maybe I can stay up a little later.
Her anxiety grew with each passing day, and Lilligant worked overtime in keeping her trainer from falling over the edge, following her throughout the house and letting her scent hang in the air.
When the shipment finally came, Dorothy poured herself into her work after her shift was over. Angela had given her a key to the building so she could make the most of the little time she had, something she was grateful for, because she needed everything at her disposal. The only time Dorothy spared was for her Pokemon, the rest dedicated to baking and quick bathroom breaks.
The first day passed by far too quickly, and though she pulled an all-nighter at the bakery, she was barely halfway through making the batches of donuts.
"Oh no," she gasped when she saw the sun rising. If she kept going at this rate, there's no way she'd make enough! "Tsareena, quick, make me a coffee, please."
Tsareena dutifully nodded and went to make the drink. Dorothy didn't often drink coffee. She hated how jittery it made her, but desperate times called for desperate measures.
She rushed through the process as she made the next dozen, her hands shaking as Lilligant watched over her and Leafeon assisted in grabbing what she needed.
After receiving the coffee - extra vanilla creamer with eight scoops of sugar and two ice cubes - she thanked Tsareena and chugged it down before going back to her task.
The door jingled when Angela stepped in, her head down as she typed on her phone. The woman was oblivious to the glares of Dorothy's Pokemon when she finally spotted her disheveled employee. "Oh good, you're here. Have you been at this all night?" She looked Dorothy up and down, noting the same clothes as yesterday.
"Yeah," Dorothy admitted, her hands quickly working at the donuts. If she saw another donut again after this was over, it would be too soon.
They still had little customers, which was fortunate for Dorothy, because she could focus on finishing the batches instead of keeping the shelves stocked. She finally finished making twenty-three dozen donuts before her shift was over, but she was far from done. Now she needed to make the cookies.
I'm too far behind! I should've been at the bars and rolls by now, how am I going to get to the cupcakes?
Her hands shook as she slid a pan of cookies in the oven and immediately started preparing another dozen.
"We have to do something," said Leafeon. "She's going to get sick or hurt from doing all of this on her own."
"But we don't have much experience in this." Lilligant replied, wringing her hands together as her flower emanated the calming scent.
"It doesn't matter, we know enough to help." He said stubbornly.
It was true that they weren't skilled in baking like Dorothy, but they observed her for years. If they could help even a little bit and take some weight off her shoulders, it was worth a try.
Tsareena nodded in agreement and nudged their human. Dorothy jumped in surprise, as if she had forgotten her companions were there.
"Oh, I'm sorry guys," she sighed. "I need to get this done. After that party is over, we can all jump into bed and sleep for an entire day... hopefully."
The trio could see the exhaustion on her face, the dark circles and heavy eyelids. Tsareena grunted and started gesturing to the counter of baking supplies and to her and the others, attempting to communicate to the tired woman their desire to help.
Dorothy's eyes flicked from her friends to the places Tsareena was gesturing to with a weary expression before it finally clicked what the fruit Pokemon was trying to say.
"You... want to help?"
They all firmly nodded and stood straighter, determination written on their cute faces.
Dorothy felt her eyes sting. "Guys..."
Wiping her face, she slapped her cheeks a couple of times and shook her head, her body filled with a new burst of energy. "Okay, let's get this done."
With the new help, the cookies were finished before midnight. Lilligant packaged the cookies while Tsareena helped mold the dough with Dorothy, and Leafeon kept the area clean and made it easy to reach things.
That Minccino would be real handy right now. He thought dryly.
The trio had managed to convince Dorothy to take a small nap after they were finished. She was too tired to put up much of an argument, but she'd set an alarm on her phone before laying on the bench, her body falling limp as soon as she hit the leather seat.
Two hours passed before she and her team were jolted out of dreamland by the shrill alarm, and she sat up and rubbed her eyes with a groan. The group steadily got up and prepared to make the rolls, four cups of coffee being made this time.
The rolls were made and finished during the middle of Dorothy's shift. Her entire body ached with the nonstop work, and her stomach craved more than just the sweets she was eating at the bakery. A nice hot shower would also be wonderful, she was sure she stunk, and her hands were painfully dry from constantly washing them.
"You're going to go home after this, right?" Angela asked, wrinkling her nose at Dorothy. "The party is tomorrow. You can't be looking like a homeless person."
"We need to finish the bars, and we haven't even started on the cupcakes." She responded, her voice weak and slightly slurred. The fumes she was running on were starting to fizzle out at a rapid pace, and her Pokemon's movements were also beginning to slow.
Angela let out an exaggerated sigh and rolled her eyes. "Finish the bars after work and worry about the cupcakes tomorrow. Make as many as you can, but you need to fix yourself, and you can make more at the party, too, if we need it."
She wouldn't even get relief at the party? At this point, Dorothy's sleep deprived self wanted to scream, cry, whimper pathetically, or all three at once. Instead she just gave a halfhearted nod and continued the task.
The group continued long after her shift was over, and by the time they were done, it was almost eleven o'clock at night. Dorothy slogged home on tired feet that were screaming for relief, her hands swollen, red, and cracked from the amount of labor she endured.
She fumbled with the keys in her hands and shakily turned the knob, weakly pushing open the door. All but stumbling in, she stepped out of her sweaty shoes and slowly walked to her bedroom, collapsing on the bed.
Her Pokemon, sensing they were finally home, emerged from their pokeballs and collectively groaned, falling to the floor in a tired heap.
"We actually pulled it off," mumbled Tsareena.
"Not completely," reminded Leafeon, his face buried in the carpet and ears drooping. "We still have the cupcakes. But we'll worry about that tomorrow."
"Yeah, tomorrow..."
Too exhausted to retreat to their own room, the trio crawled next to Dorothy and promptly passed out.
This was so stressful to write. I made myself anxious with the whole party preparation. Next one will be a little better.
I also apologize for any errors. I've read over it a bunch of times but my brain is not working, haha.
Until next time!