Chapter Text
Mornings, in Sugarcoat’s professional opinion, sucked. She was a night owl, always had been, probably always would be. What made this inconvenient was that the rest of the world decided that life just had to be dictated by whoever could wake up the earliest. She wanted nothing more than to sleep in til noon and cuddle her cat, but alas, it was still a weekday. Because the universe hated her.
“Mrrrow,” the sapphire cat in her lap wasn't happy about this fact either, as unfortunately there was no way Sugarcoat was going to get out of bed without moving her.
“Sorry, Ember. Momma’s got things to do…” the powder blue girl groaned as she disabled the alarm on her phone, then reached for her glasses. Like it or not, the day was starting. And she had a perfect attendance to think about. Thank gods it was Friday.
She gave herself a bit of a stretch as she left the beckoning comfort of her warm bed. She didn't think her back was supposed to ache this much at her age. The stress had to be getting to her. Prep school was invented by the devil, and no one would convince her otherwise.
Those musings aside, she figured she should actually get a move on. Passing shelves of manga and sparsely dust covered cook books, she made her way to her closet to retrieve one of the half dozen copies of her school uniform(one of a handful of things she didn't hate about CPA, Cinch may have been a nightmare, but she had damn good tastes in esthetics). Grabbing the one closest to her, and taking a brief detour to her dresser to retrieve clean socks and undergarments, she moved to her bathroom to wash the night off.
Long, warm showers were a must for maintaining her tenuous grip on sanity. Unfortunately that resulted in needing to wake up even earlier than she already had to. When would the sleep related struggles end, she wondered? Not today unfortunately. You’d think that after surviving a magical demon form of her old classmate trying to rip the world apart that nothing else in this world could challenge her, right? But no, the sad truth was that no matter how earth shattering a day in your life could be, life goes on.
So despite it all, here Sugarcoat was, fighting with her hair to look presentable, just another day in her life. Whippie. After this she’d do the same thing of going to the school she tolerated, force herself to care about academics enough to keep her spot in the top three, and try not to think about the ennui that her life seemed to perpetually soak in. At least she was socializing more… It was a small victory in her opinion, that she and a small group of her fellow shadowbolts managed to somewhat become friends. It convinced her to leave her house in her free time, and gave her a reprieve from the stress. She’d found she needed to take her small victories where she could find them.
Another small victory she often savored; sugary cereal in the morning. Quick and tasty, even if she needed to jog off the empty calories(health regulations were in the gutter.) After feeding Ember, the needy little beast, she indulged herself in the sugary flakes. Savoring the bites just long enough to enjoy them, without the milk ruining the crunchy texture. Sure it wasn't the most nutritious, but it was healthy for the mind.
“Lets see, phone, wallet, checkbook..” grumbled a woman with the same bluish/white hair as the girl, entering the kitchen/dining area. It seemed like it was an early day for her mother, Sugar Caster, as well. The elder of the Sugars was already dressed in her lilac suit, and seemed to be doing a last minute check up of her purse, “I know I'm forgetting something but I don't know what…”
“You were working from home last night, so probably your laptop,” Sugarcoat piped up. Not particularly interested in her mother’s work, but the day she kept her mouth shut was the day hell froze over.
“Right, right, thankyou,” Sugar Caster said, quickly leaving the room to retrieve it, before returning to the kitchen and grabbing a few containers of yogurt.
“Hectic times at work?” Just a general observation. She wouldn't call her mother a control freak, per say, but… you could generally tell when something was upsetting her.
“Filthy Rich was banking on that new spa investment and now that it's no longer feasible, I have to be the one to deal with a half dozen snubbed contractors,” the woman groaned, “if that man makes one more deal without proper foresight, i swear, im going to kill him.”
“Wouldn’t recommend that, pretty sure it's illegal,” at this point Sugarcoat was mostly clocked out of the conversation.
“Sweetie, what have we talked about in regards to filters?” The elder sugar wasn't impressed with her daughter’s remark.
“Not everything needs a comment…” Sugarcoat sighed at the reminder. Like she wasn't already well aware of her motor mouth on the best of days.
“Right. How about you just worry about your schoolwork so you don't end up working with a short sighted idiot, mmkay?” Sugar caster said, making one final check of her belongings, "I'm working late tonight, make good choices.”
“Ill see if I can manage,” Sugarcoat said, trying to salvage the small joy her cereal provided.
“And your sister’s been trying to call you. Something about a bakeoff, I don't know,” Sugar Caster said as she was making her way out, “you should probably check on that.”
With the last word and the shut of the door, the powder blue girl paused. Quickly going for her phone to find, sure enough, three missed calls from her little sister, Silverspoon.
Her relationship with her sister had been… a little strained since the divorce. They were simply seeing each other less as time went on and being in different schools wasn't helping. She'd tried to make time to meet her at the friendship games, but since Cinch practically strong-armed her into being one of their front liners, it didn't pan out… and that was after missing the sisterhood social because of a cram session…
Sugarcoat gave a brief look to Ember, as if the feline possessed some knowledge that would magically fix the situation. She’d seen a talking dog in the last few months, so it wasn't impossible! Unfortunately she was only met with red eyes seemingly judging her for entertaining the notion.
“It was worth a shot,” the girl groaned, quickly hitting her speed dial.
The thirty seconds of dial tone were agonizing, to be honest. The divide between sisters had been steadily growing to such a degree that interaction honestly gave her anxiety. She could barely remember what they’d talked about last time, however long ago that was.
Finally, reprieve came as the call connected, “Sugarcoat? About time! Where were you? I was trying to call you all day yesterday!”
“Indigo Zap dragged me to an escape room…” it was the honest response, of course. But boy did it sound like an excuse. And of course it didn't help that the escape room took forever because her friends wouldn't know “teamwork” if it struck them like a wild horse. So she very quickly realized how she’d gotten into this situation in the first place, “I’m sorry I missed your call.. And that we couldn't talk at the friendship games… and the sisterho-”
“Sugar, stop. I don't need a recap,” the preteen groaned. While the sisters had much in common back in the day, she never had her older sibling’s… impulse.
“Right, right, sorry…” Sugarcoat really shouldn't have been sweating right now, “so. Uh… mom said something about a bakesale?”
“Sort of… CHS is doing a baking competition on Sunday, it's a fundraiser thing for the home ed class,” Silverspoon explained, “Diamond Tiara was supposed to be my partner, but she totally flaked. We’re allowed to have family help, so I figured…”
Sugarcoat wasn't quite sure how to feel about the direction this was taking. Dread? Happiness? Panic? The cocktail of emotions was frankly hard to keep down. She just really hoped her sister’s next words were anything but-
“Do you still bake? You were probably the best baker I knew when I was little…”
And there it was. It was true, the sisters once had a shared hobby of making sweets, even if Sugarcoat did most of the work by virtue of being the older sibling. But time changes many things… and the honest answer here would be one that Silverspoon wouldn’t like… so that wasn’t the answer she gave.
“O-of course I still bake! I- I would love to help,” god the lie was painful. Brutally honest, blunt and heartless Sugarcoat was lying. And it took all of her will power to keep the lie going, “I didn't have any weekend plans anyway!” That part was the only truth to the whole statement.
“Really? Oh thank goodness! Alright, I'll have Dad drop me off tomorrow so we can throw something together! Thankyou, Sugar!” for her part Silverspoon seemed convinced.
“Right, tomorrow! That works, see you then!” Sugarcoat very quickly ended the call before she could trip over her words. Once it was through, the girl was left in a silent stupor. A calm before the inevitable storm… “AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”
Ember jumped in shock from her owner’s rather loud outburst. The twintailed girl was pacing back and forth, ranting to herself over what she had just done.
“I can't help! When was the last time I picked up a mixer for anything other than a passing grade? Months? Years!? My cake at the friendship games was a C+, and Lemon Zest did most of the work! Argh!!!” she was practically pulling her hair in frustration, “Why did I tell her I could help!?!”
Seeing the girl throwing a tirade over something she either couldn't, or didn't care to understand, Ember the cat wisely chose to leave the room while her owner dealt with her emotions.
“Alright, Sugarcoat. Calm down, you can deal. You've still got those old recipe books, you can salvage this… you’ve just gotta get ingredients, refresh yourself on the fundamentals and-” the girl’s phone buzzed from an alarm, letting her know what time it currently was. Which didn't help her little freakout, “AND MAKE IT TO SCHOOL ON TIME!”
She quickly grabbed her school bag and bolted. It was going to be a day..
…
The jog to the bus stop, and subsequent bus ride, had done little to actually calm Sugarcoat’s nerves. She still had no idea how she was going to play this off, tomorrow she’d see her kid sister for the first time in months and would make a total fool of herself. She was doomed!
“Alright, get a hold of yourself, sugarcoat…” She groaned to herself, taking a brief stop at her locker. Most of the time she just kept everything she needed on hand, it was more efficient given the school’s layout, but she knew she’d kept a few of her old notebooks in here. Maybe something in there would help, “I need to have an idea of what we’re doing beforehand so I can get ingredients. And maybe a trial period to refresh myself? Of course that means I'll have to get ingredients for both today and tomorrow, which doesn't work well because I can't drive…”
The twintailed girl kept muttering to herself, trying to think her way out of this little blunder. And unfortunately it was grating on her locker-neighbor/kind of friend, Sour Sweet.
The ponytailed girl had been trying to touch up her makeup before class, and the constant muttering to her left was killing her concentration. With an annoyed groan, she snapped her eyeshadow container shut. She supposed checking on her friend would be the kind thing to do. And what could she say, she was trying to be kinder.
“Sugar, sweety? Is something bothering you?’ she asked in her ‘overly sweet voice,’ before muttering, “Because the muttering is bothering me…”
Sugarcoat paused from her downward spiral, acknowledging Sour Sweet’s presence without really saying anything. Thinking on it, the redheaded girl posed a solution to at least one of her many problems…
“I need to borrow your car,” Sugarcoat said bluntly.
“What?” Sour Sweet didn't even bother trying to put a sweet spin on that.
“More accurately I also need to borrow you, I still don't have a license,” Sugarcoat clarified.
“Why do you need my car?!” Sour sweet asked.
“Because I promised my little sister I'd help her win a bakeoff, but I am severely out of practice so I have to go get enough materials to do a trial run tonight before I help her tomorrow, and there’s no way I can carry that many groceries back to my house on foot…” the twintailed girl explained.
Sour sweet stared at her blankly, “you have a little sister?”
“We don’t see each other often…” Sugarcoat looked down as she said that.
“I… why can’t you get Indigo to drive you? She has a car?” Sour sweet asked.
“You want me to trust an adrenaline junky to safely transport at least two dozen eggs, milk and whatever else I'll need across town?” Sugarcoat shot her an eyebrow.
Dammit, she was right. Sour Sweet wanted to shoot her down, she had better things to do on a friday night than chaperone a grocery run… but, she supposed it was the kind thing to do. Ugh, being nice was exhausting.
“I suppose it's only right that I help a friend in need…” Sour sweet said, before shooting a glare, “But if you get gunk on my seats again, I will murder you.”
“Thankyou, Sour,” Sugarcoat ignored the threat at the end, giving her friend a thankful smile, “But I would save your threats for someone else… I did say I was out of practice so…”
Sour sweet’s glare intensified, “We’re bringing her?”
…
A few classes later and they finally had a free period to track down the other help Sugarcoat was gonna need.
Lemon Zest was oblivious on the best of days, constantly rocking out with her headphones and ignoring her surroundings. The green haired girl lived her life like a Scene music video and gods help you if you got caught up in the middle of it. But, she did have the best score in home ec out of their friend group. Sour Sweet suggested they try Suri Polymer instead, but Sugarcoat shot that idea down on the basis of “do you really want to deal with that girl’s ego?” So they were going with plan A.
Finding the rocker wasn't that hard, really. She usually spent her free time at school headbanging in the courtyard, the only place on campus where she wasn't a massive distraction. Not that she cared, Lemon Zest’s motto was go with the flow.
“Lemon,” Sugarcoat said when they finally found the girl doodling whilst banging her head to her tunes. They made eye contact so the other girl knew they were there at least.
“Just a second dude, I'm at the best part!” Lemon yelled a bit louder than really necessary. Side effect of constantly wearing headphones. Sugarcoat kept her patience, though she could hear Sour Sweet tapping her foot impatiently. After a few seconds, the dumb grin on Sour’s face gave way to a calm expression and a satisfied, “ah…” before she removed her headphones, looking at the other girls with a smile, “Alrighty, whatcha need?”
For all her quirks, Sugarcoat would never deny Lemon was probably the most genuinely nice of her friends. She didn't take anything that seriously, so she was just able to vibe with pretty much anyone.
“I need your help, Lemon,” Sugarcoat said, ready to catch her up to speed, “I promised my sister I'd help her with a bakeoff, but I've bee-”
“Abridged version, Sugarcoat needs some remedial baking lessons tonight, you free?” Sour Sweet cut her off. She figured they could skip the preamble, Lemon was most definitely going to say yes.
“I can help ya!” the greenette said with a chipper grin.
And there it was! Sour sweet shot her twintailed friend a grin, who only rolled her eyes in response. Regardless, this was good news, Lemon was just the person to get her back in gear on her neglected skills, “Alright, I figure Sour can come get us after school, we’ll make a quick run for supplies, then come back to my house and-”
“Have a sleepover!?” The idea brought a light to Lemon’s already bright eyes.
“Wait, what? No, I just meant we’d use my kitchen for the prep-” sugarcoat unfortunately was very quickly losing control of the situation, as Sour Sweet smirked at Lemon’s suggestion.
“That sounds like a marvelous idea! We can help Sugar, then hang out all night long~!” the redhead grinned, “and totally annoy her for dragging me into this~!”
“Wooh! Party at Casa Sugarcoat!” Lemon cheered, quickly grabbing her phone and texting away, “lemme just clear this with my folks, and- YEP! We’re good, I can stay the night!”
Sugarcoat face palmed, well now there was no stopping her. Good thing mom was working late, she’d just have to clear them out before Silverspoon was dropped off. Whatever, she could handle this. They weren’t sunk yet.
“Alright, fine. Just try to stay focused on the task at hand, alright?” the twintailed girl said.
“Sugar, please, when have I ever lost focus?” Lemon zest asked with a cocky grin.
…
“Woooh!!!!” ok, maybe letting Lemon push the cart was just asking for trouble. It was honestly on Sugarcoat for not anticipating the greenette immediately acting like an 8 year old when given any amount of power. Was it wrong of them to assume a 17 year old wouldn’t bring the cart to top speed and ride it like a noble steed? Nevertheless, they had to catch their energetic friend before she got them kicked out of the grocery store.
“We should have asked Suri Polymer,” Sour sweet groaned as they chased Lemon down the store.
“Yeah, well hindsight’s a bastard,” Sugarcoat sighed.
At the very least it seemed like she was slowing down… and was heading toward the baking section, which was also good! They should find most of the things they needed here, save for the more decorative elements, but those were honestly the least of her concerns right now.
Almost out of breath, the two finally caught up to their energetic friend. Sugarcoat gave a death glare, “Don’t do that again.”
“So, what exactly are we making anyway?” Lemon asked, looking the shelves up and down.
Admittedly, Sugarcoat hadn’t thought that far ahead. She grabbed one of her notebooks. She knew she had something recipe related in one of these old things, she just had to find it, “Give me just a second…”
She finally found the relevant pages, thank gods, the first one was a rather out there example. Dango was a simple treat to make, though it wasn’t exactly common in their neck of the woods, she briefly questioned why she had that idea highlighted. Homemade icecream, at her skill level? Get real! She cursed her younger self for not knowing her limitations. She kept flipping through, finding suggestions of things like chocolate and cookies, before sighing in defeat.
“Lets just do cupcakes,” it was the safe option, being real. Minimal things to screw up, easy to manage, universally liked.
“Alright! I'll teach you how to make Granny Lemonade’s famous lemon cakes~!” Lemon Zest went ahead, grabbing things from the shelf.
“Well, your family commits to the bit,” Sour Sweet muttered.
“Right then, we’ll need enough supplies for at least two trial batches, i think three batches will be enough for tomorrow…” The twin-tailed girl began doing some mental math, hoping her savings would cover everything, “Alright, I’ll go grab eggs, Sour Sweet, make sure Lemon doesn't break anything.”
“Of course~!” the red head replied cheerily, right before her face sank, “make me babysit.”
“You’ll manage somehow,” Sugarcoat said while walking toward the refrigerated section.
Unfortunately, making snide comments toward her kind-of-friend resulted in her not paying enough attention to her surroundings, and inevitably led to her knocking into someone else. She quickly moved to stop her glasses from falling, couldn't lose another pair of those this year. With herself dealt with, she turned to face whoever she’d just run into… oh.
“Heh, sorry bout that, Sugarcube,” it was one of the Rainbooms from CHS, the blond one, what was her name? Apple something?
“It’s Sugarcoat, actually,” was it hypocritical of her to call her out the country girl forgetting her name when she couldn’t remember hers either? No it wasn't, shut up.
“Golly, it's odd to think how many times we might have bumped into each other without knowing, huh?” gods, the overly friendly demeanor made Sugarcoat uncomfortable, though she wasn't sure if that said more about her or Appletree. She needed to get out of this and focus on her objective.
“Yeaaaah… I've got things to grab, so I'm gonna gooo…” Sugar coat said, beginning to move away.
“Alrighty, say before you do, do you know where I can find Pie crust? Normally we’d just make it from scratch, but short notice and all,” the blond girl asked, "I figure nothing wrong with store bought one in a while!”
“Oh, it's uh… over there,” Sugarcoat obliged, pointing out the relevant section. Her brain latched onto that little nugget, why was it short notice? Oh don’t tell her…
“Applejack! I’ve got the whipped cream!” A younger girl, about Silverspoon’s age came from around the corner. If she had to guess, Appleblond’s kid sister or something.
“Oh, good timing, sis!” The rainboom said happily, “We’re gonna knock them judges’ socks off on Sunday!”
“Sunday… you’re in the bakeoff too…?” Sugarcoat couldn’t stop herself from muttering.
“The CHS Sugar Shock Bakeoff?” Appleslack said. Gods, that's what they were calling it? And she thought ‘Friendship games’ was a cringeworthy name, “Sure are, and the apple family pie recipe is gonna kill it!” She paused to give the smaller Apple a high five… for some reason that action caused a small pain in Sugarcoat’s chest... After doing so, the blond seemed to register the implications of the twintailed girl’s question, “Wait, you’re particaptin? You don't go to Canterlot.”
“My kid sister does,” How was she failing this hard at walking away? Curse her impulsive tongue.
“That a fact? She anyone we know?” the smaller Apple sister asked.
“I mean… I don’t really know, her name’s Silverspoon…” Why was she still talking again?
The younger girl’s face fell after hearing that. Bright eyes replaced with a look of mild annoyance more than anything, “Oh… yeah, i know her… she’s kinda a jerk.”
“...What?” ok, so she just was stuck here. Hearing the little redhead call her sweet little sister a jerk.. Struck something, “No, that can't be! Silverspoon’s a sweetheart… A little aloof, I’ll admit, but she’s not mean or anything. I think you’re mixing her up with someone else.”
“Grey girl, white hair, glasses?” The little Apple asked, getting an unsure nod for an answer, “yeah, no, that’s her. She and Diamond Tiara have been bullies since the first grade.”
Right description… and Sugarcoat definitely remembered her sister was friends with a ‘Diamond.’ Her mom’s boss’s kid? Maybe? She’d have to double check the exact details but nothing sounded incorrect…
“They aren’t givin ya trouble again, are they sis?” Applesmack (gods she needed to get better with names) gave her sister a worried look.
“I mean, not lately, but still…” The younger girl now just looked annoyed at the conversation, “Did you ever find that pie crust?”
“Oh, right! Yeah, let's go!” Applejane said, before turning to Sugarcoat one last time, “You might wanna talk to her about that when you get the chance. Bye now!”
With that the apple sisters walked off, leaving Sugarcoat alone with her rapidly degrading thoughts… ok, so evidently sweet, smart little Silverspoon, the girl who once depended on her for basically everything, ended up becoming someone’s bully… that didn’t make sense, did it? When would it have… how out of the loop was she… ?
“Ahem,” a familiar voice pulled her out of her thoughts. She turned to see an annoyed looking Sour Sweet, “and what exactly happened to getting the eggs?”
Sugarcoat paused before answering… “Existential dread.”
…
One rather hectic car ride later(which honestly was to be expected with Lemon “Life on full volume” Zest in the same car as Sour Sweet), and the trio had arrived back at home. Sugarcoat was eager to get to work, now for multiple reasons as working on something at least quieted her thoughts. She really just wanted to be ready…
“About time, you drive slower than my grandma, Sour,” Lemon snickered as she unbuckled herself and hopped out the car door.
“There is a speed limit and we obey it!” Sour sneered at the greenette as she followed.
Moving to the back of the car, the redhead hit a button on her key, opening the trunk. Lemon immediately went to grab something fragile like the eggs, but thankfully Sour grabbed her by the collar before she had the chance. She made sure to grab the eggs, then handed the rocker the bag of frosting containers, before splitting every other fragile ingredient between Sugarcoat and herself. Satisfied with the now empty trunk, she closed it back up.
“You know, I don’t think I’ve ever been to your house before, Sugar,” Sour said as the trio walked up to the dark blue building, “Honestly the place looks depressing.”
“We’re not really big on guests,” Sugarcoat sighed, unlocking the door to let them in, “Shoe’s off please.”
“Pretty nice digs though,” Lemon said as she entered, kicking off her sneakers. She wasn’t wrong per se, the house was in a decent neighborhood, looked well maintained if a little… empty? Yeah, that felt like the right word. The place just didn't seem like someone actually lived here. It was decorated nicely enough but it was lacking any real signs of life.
“Mrrow?”
Except for the cat. The cat helped sell that this place wasn’t abandoned.
“Awe~! Hello there, kitty!” Sour Sweet gushed as she caught sight of the little cat, who seemed curious who had entered her domain. The redhead promptly set the bags she was holding down, and rushed over to pet it, “Hi there~! Sugarcoat didn’t tell me she had such a cute little thing living here~!”
Ember the cat seemed very uncomfortable with the random display of affection, and responded in the most sensible way possible… with violence! The blue cat swatted at Sour Sweet’s face, ending with a smack in the eye, and a very clear, “Hsssss!!!”
“Ow! She also didn’t mention her cat was a little jerk!” the ponytailed girl growled as she held her eye.
“Yeah, Ember doesn’t like strangers,” Sugarcoat said with a shrug.
“Heh, she’s just like you then~!” Lemon snickered.
Sugarcoat gave the rocker a look, but decided to ignore it and instead lead everyone to the kitchen. Once there, they began emptying their grocery hall.
“For now let’s stock about two thirds of our materials for tomorrow,” Sugarcoat said, setting one of the egg cartons in the fridge, “there should be some space in the pantry for everything, I’m gonna get changed, and see if I can't find my old apron.”
“On it!” Lemon zest said happily.
“Why does she keep trying to ditch me with you?” Sour Sweet muttered as her ‘friend’ left the room. With a groan, she supposed she might as well be the responsible one and help out. At the very least she was gonna need to organize everything after Lemon Zest was done with it.
The pantry itself was easy enough to find at least, and as said, was sparsely filled. Though there were a lot of packaged sweets. Small cakes, brownies and the like.
“Huh, for someone who doesn’t bake, girl sure likes sweets,” Sour muttered as she put away a bag of flour.
“Tracks to be honest, Sugar’s a total, well, sugar addict!” Lemon grinned as she set down
The frosting containers, “I’m always catching her sneaking to vending machines between classes.”
“You’d think with such a sweet tooth she’d just join the baking club or something,” Sour snickered to herself.
“She did,” Lemon replied, leaving the pantry to grab the next item.
“Huh?” the redhead questioned.
“She tried the baking club out in freshman year, was pretty good actually,” the rocker said as she looked through their bags, “Course she only stuck with it a couple months. No clue why she quit.”
“Oh… how do you know this?” Sour sweet asked.
“Girl, have you ever tried crystal prep bakesale food? May not be made with love, but damn do they have tasty down to a science~!” a dreamy look came to Lemon’s face as she remembered those scotcheroos from last month. Worth every penny.
…
After changing out of her school uniform, donning instead an off-white blouse paired with a black, high waisted skirt that went to her shins, Sugarcoat began looking through her closet. She wasn’t a hoarder by any means, but it was clear she’d missed a spring cleaning somewhere along the line, finding old clothes from birthdays and holidays past, some of which she didn't actually recall using… well, given her growth it was too late now…
Finally, buried under an old halloween costume, she found it. The white garment decorated with purple and yellow striped lining, as well as an image of a fire cracker with the same color scheme planted visibly on a large pocket. She still remembered receiving it on her 13th birthday, a gift from her aunt she believed. How little she actually used it…
“Why am I even getting this old thing…” She questioned herself as she began to put it on. It was a tight fit of course, it had been measured for her preteen body afterall, but it would be serviceable for the task at hand. She gave herself a look in the mirror… a large part of her felt silly for having gone this far. A different part of her felt… just a bit of joy putting it on again… It didn’t matter. She had made a decision, now it was time to stick with it… and hope this didn’t fail tremendously.
She went to her shelf, grabbing one of her cook books, ‘101 recipes for the perfect cake.’ If memory served, this one had served her faithfully in its day, and while Lemon offered a family recipe, there was no way she remembered the measurements off hand. She was sure she could find a similar one in the book for their purposes.
“Alright… time to face the music…” She groaned to herself as she left her room. She reentered the kitchen, finding that at least the other girls had listened to her in regards to the excess. She took a deep breath, placing her recipe book on the counter, “alright, Ladies. Let’s begin. Lemon?”
“Right! Don’t worry, sugar! I shall reinvigorate your baking skills!” Lemon said in a sing-song tone, doing a bit of a twirl, “Ooooh! It’s a piece of cake to bake a pretty ca-”
“NO MUSICAL NUMBERS!” both her friends yelled, knocking her out of her groove.
“Pfft, buzzkills…” The greenette groaned.
…
Alright, now they had properly started! Oven preheated! mixing bowl, check! Enough ingredients for a small batch, ready! There was nothing to it but to do it! Sugarcoat couldn’t help but feel nostalgic as she cracked an egg on the counter, pouring its contents into the bowl with her flour.
“Alright, Sour, how much sugar do we need?” the powder blue girl asked.
The redhead had been placed in charge of the recipe book so that Lemon could devote herself to more hands on help (That and generally Lemon Zest and books don't go together.) She took another look at the recipe with a bored expression, “says a cup.”
“Alright, so far so good,” Sugarcoat carefully poured her namesake, pouring it into the bowl, “Next?”
“Half teaspoon of table salt,” Sour sweet answered.
“Right, next?” Sugarcoat nodded, adding that to the concoction.
“Um, a tablespoon of…” Sour sweet paused, and then sighed, “Lemon zest.”
“Oh don't worry about that, there’s plenty of me to go around~!” Lemon said with a giggle and a wink. Unfortunately, this little attempt at humor only got looks of disappointment from her friends. She sighed as she handed the ingredient bearing her name, “Ok, seriously, you guys are no fun.”
…
“Alright, you’ve got it,” Lemon said encouragingly as Sugarcoat hand mixed the batter, “Gentle but firm is how you get the best texture.”
Honestly, Sugarcoat was starting to feel her muscle memory kick in as she stirred. There was something relaxing about it, the steady movement had a calming air as she worked. A small smile crept its way onto her face… it was nice to do this again, all things considered. After a few minutes, the batter seemed ready in her opinion. She set it on the table for peer review.
Lemon inspected the soon-to-be-cake with a critical eye, noting the texture indeed was quite smooth. She produced a spoon from, well somewhere, and lightly dipped it to retrieve a small amount of the batter… which she promptly put in her mouth.
“Aren’t you, like, not supposed to eat raw cake batter?” Sour sweet questioned in a mildly disgusted tone.
“It’s Lemon Zest, don’t question it,” Sugarcoat shrugged. She knew better than to question the rocker’s actions at this point.
“Hmmm, it’s off,” Lemon said to herself, turning over to the ingredients again. She began grabbing at them at seemingly random, pouring them into the bowl in small amounts, “Bit of this, little of that, and wif of this should just about do it!”
“But, that’s not the recipe…” Sugarcoat said.
“Recipe’s are a suggestion, they give you direction, but they don't hold all the answers, ya know?” Lemon said, beginning to mix up the altered batter, “Granny Lemonade always told me great art has to be felt more than anything.”
“Wow, I've never thought about it like that before~!” Sour said in her cheery voice again, which she quickly dropped, “because I'm pretty sure that's how you get food poisoning.”
“Like it or not, she does this more than either of us,” Sugarcoat also had her doubts, but empirical evidence suggested Lemon might be onto something, “Is it ready for the oven then?”
“One last test, and-,” Lemon gave the batter another taste, before shooting her friend a thumbs up, “Alright, we’re good!”
Without another word needed, Sugar coat got out their cupcake tray, a little warn from lack of use, but still good. Soon she had a liner in each slot, and moved to her batter. A few minutes later she had it evenly distributed amongst the half dozen cups, and into the oven they went.
“And now, we wait…” Sugarcoat said, setting a timer on her phone. She was decently sure she’d done everything right, all she had to do now was let the oven do its job.
“So…” Lemon piped up, “got any video games?”
…
“Nonononon, NO!!!” Lemon shouted in rage as her character was knocked off the ledge, her last life up, she was out of the game, “Dammiiiit!”
“Sore loser,” Sugarcoat couldn’t help the satisfied grin that crept to her face at the greenette’s defeat.
“Looks like it’s just you and me, Sugar~!” Sour Sweet chuckled, a confident look on her face.
“Nope,” Sugarcoat was unphased, as her character proceeded to grab sour’s, throw it off the same ledge, and shoot it just for good measure, “It’s just me~!”
“GAME!” the screen announced, declaring Sugarcoat’s victory. In her opinion, demolishing her friends at Smash was one of those small victories she looked for. Nothing quite like the look of defeat on their faces to brighten up her day.
“Best 2 out of 3!” Sour Sweet growled.
“No time, I'm afraid,” Sugarcoat said, checking her phone, the timer was just about up.
She got up from her spot and went to check on the oven, Lemon hopping up to follow her. Sour Sweet let out a sigh before following suit.
With oven mitts equipped, Sugarcoat carefully retrieved the yellow confections from the oven, and placed them on the stove top. The pleasant aroma of lemon permeated the air, she just hoped they tasted as good as they smelled.
“Let these bad boys cool, get a little icing on em, and then we chow down~!” Lemon said happily, admiring the work they’d done.
It was simple as she said, and before long they had six cupcakes coated in white icing. At the very least they looked appetizing. But the true test remained, how did they taste? Time to find out!
Sugarcoat gently picked up one of the little treats. She shed its wrapper, closed her eyes, and took a bite. The lemony taste met her tongue and it was… fine. It was fine, she supposed. The taste, the texture, it was all just… mediocre. Honestly, given the choice she’d probably rather just eat her store bought sweets than put in the effort… it should have been better, they did everything right…
“It’s definitely not bad…” Lemon Zest said as she munched on her own cupcake, Sour nodded in agreement. Though both saw the rather disappointed look on Sugarcoat’s face, “I mean, it’s not gonna wow anybody, but it’s a solid C+! Still a passing grade, you know!”
“Maybe to a slacker like you,” Sour scoffed. Though afterwards, she looked back at Sugarcoat, giving a bit of a sigh, “look, we can try again, Sugar. We’ve got all night.”
“Yeah, yeah, we’d better…” Sugarcoat agreed. Back to the drawing board she supposed, best they could do… Why didn’t it turn out right?
…
Admittedly, the next three attempts saw minimal improvement. Sure, she was at least getting more comfortable with each batch but… something was always off. Ultimately, they were just left with a couple dozen mediocre cupcakes that needed eaten. A few hours in and they figured it would be better to just call it a night, lest they start to cut into the ingredients set aside for tomorrow.
Ugh, tomorrow… Sugarcoat really didn’t wanna think about it. So much could go wrong… She tried to put it out of her mind. Afterall, the girls decided they wanted to get their ‘slumber party’ underway. At least that should provide a distraction.
“You know, for someone confident in her granny’s ‘famous’ lemon cakes, you really failed to deliver,” she could hear Sour Sweet chastising Lemon from the hall.
The two girls, now clad in pajamas, entered Sugarcoat’s room.
“Hey, I’m a musician, not a pasty chef. And Granny’s practically a witch,” Lemon shot back, finding herself a comfy chair to plop into.
“Pfft, whatever,” Sour sneered, finding her own place to sit and scrolling on her phone.
Admittedly there wasn’t much prepared in the way of activities for the girls, mostly due to the fact this had all been Lemon’s idea this morning. Really, Sugarcoat wasn’t even sure what they were supposed to do here. If Sour brought up boys as a topic, as she’d seen in movies, she’d be at a loss for what to say(She’d yet to find any male that brought out anything more than indifference.) She supposed the best thing she could do is find a movie or something.
Yeah, that’s what she’d do. She grabbed her remote and started scrolling.
There was a bit of an awkward silence between the trio. Just the small noises of buttons clicking, fingers tapping, and the muffled sounds of Lemon’s headphones. Friends were supposed to talk with each other at these kinds of things, right? Sour supposed it was on her.
“So, uh, sugar… if you don’t mind me asking…” ok, maybe this wasn’t the best question to start them off, but screw it, “What’s up with you and your sister. I mean, doesn’t look like she lives here…”
“Thats…” Sugarcoat paused, giving a brief sigh, “Well, our parents are divorced… and it didn’t end well, really…”
“Oh…” Sour sensed she just opened an old wound.
“Don’t get me wrong, I think it was for the best. My parents really only got married because I was born… it had been a long time coming…” it didn’t feel great to recount, but… she kept going, “Toward the end, they were just fighting so much and… well, when they finally took things to court all they cared about was getting their hits in. Mom got the house, and a lot of money out of it but… my father fudged things so he got full custody of Silverspoon…”
“Oh… sugar, I'm so sorry…” it was pretty much all Sour could say.
“Yeah, it wasn’t great… Afterwards, Mom used the money to get me into crystal prep, said things would be better from now on… and, me and Silverspoon just saw each other less after that…” Sugarcoat sighed.
Sour debated whether it would be appropriate to hug her… she’d never been good at all this mushy feely stuff… before she had the chance to decide on that front, a blur of green and pink rammed into the twintailed girl at speeds beyond what humanity could process.
“Gack! Lemon!” Sugarcoat gasped as she recovered from the hug tackle she’d just received.
“DON’T HOLD IN THOSE FEELINGS, SUGAR!! THEY ARE VALID AND DESERVE TO BE FELT!!!” the greenhaired rocker shouted, squeezing her harder.
“You were paying attention?!” Honestly, Sugarcoat wasn’t sure if that was more surprising than how good she was at crushing her.
“YOU WILL BE ALRIGHT!” Another shout was the only answer Lemon gave as she forced Sugarcoat to endure her affection.
Honestly, the resulting display did a pretty good job at lightening up the mood. Sour Sweet couldn’t help but laugh as she watched one of her friends struggle in vain against the other’s attempts to console her. Really cut through the awkward silence.
As Sugarcoat seemed resigned to her fate, crushed beneath the greenette, sour got up on the bed with them.
“She’s obnoxious, but she has a point,” the redhead chuckled, “Tomorrow’s gonna go fine. We’ll help if you need us to.”
“Thanks…” Sugarcoat replied, not really looking her in the eye.
“Not a problem~!” ok, she was kinda enjoying this, “and I mean it. You clearly care about your sis a lot… I’m sure she’ll appreciate it, no matter what happens.”
Sugarcoat didn't say anything in response but… she did appreciate the sentiment. She really wanted her to be right.
“Awe! Get in here, Sour!” Lemon grinned, pulling the red head into the hug, which did bring a small grin to Sugar’s face. Sour just rolled her eyes.
“I suppose things could royally blow up tomorrow,” the redhead snickered, “Might as well enjoy tonight, eh?”
“Heh, yeah, I suppose,” Sugarcoat nodded. It’d be fine… but she supposed a bit of revelry wouldn’t kill her.
“Sleepover selfie?” Sour sweet suggested, pulling her phone back out.
“You get one,” Sugar said, while Lemon just smiled in agreement
The redhead chuckled, raising up her phone to get a good angle, “Alright, say; Sugar!”
“Sugar!” the three girls said in unison as Sour clicked the button.
Sugarcoat had no idea how tomorrow would go… but she decided that it’d be better not to worry. She’d face it when it came… for just tonight, she felt ok.
