9. Nat #4
I didn’t want to present to the judges. Maybe I could just throw the cake at Jack and run out of the mess hall. Could there really be consequences for that? People would probably get a kick out of it. I would.
A pathetic whimper came from behind me, and I did a one-eighty. Jack’s cake was looking sad and kind of collapsing on itself.
“I don’t want to hear it,” he warned the second he saw my face. I was trying to hold back from laughing and the tears caused by the full-body shaking I was doing.
“Is yours supposed to look like a collapsing soufflé?” I barely got it out. And despite trying my very best, I burst into laughter.
He did not look pleased.
Then he leaned around me to see my creation, which was looking more and more like the Frankenstein of cakes, now that the broken piece was separating from the mainland.
“It’s a galaxy cake,” I tried.
“Galaxy? That thing needs to be taken out by a meteor.”
“Hey!”
We were gaining the attention of other counselors, some of whom had placating faces, while the rest were chuckling.
“Ooh, Nat, are you gonna put that on your socials?” my ex-friend Sawyer snarked.
“No, don’t do it,” Emerson said seriously. “That will lose you followers.”
Jack cackled.
Bobby clapped. “Okay, everyone, please leave your creations on your workstations and stand in a line. We’ll call each of you up. Starting with Sawyer.”
Sawyer’s Coke cake was lauded because of their decorative ingenuity.
They’d made a swirly design with the marshmallows and even made little chocolate trees that wrapped around the side.
How had they found the time for that? The judges loved Lamar’s cake for its layered lemon design placed over his drizzled almond icing.
Chase’s matcha cherry cake was the perfect bright green and had edible violets on top that made it look like a garden.
By the time it was Emerson’s turn, I wondered what my trainwreck of a cake looked like.
“Tell us about your cake, Emerson.” Bobby’s eyes lit up even though Emerson’s cake looked a little wonkier than the others.
“It’s a lavender, vanilla bean, vodka cake.”
“And how do you think you did?”
“It certainly smelled good. But the thing that’s going to give me an edge is that it was baked with love.”
I turned my head to find Jack rolling his eyes. I pressed my lips together, trying not to scoff. He shook his head and tilted it toward the judges, so I returned my attention to them.
“Thank you, Emerson. Up next is Jack.”
Jack went to our table and visibly exhaled. “Do I have to?”
“What was that?” Azalea shouted from her spot.
I was beginning to think my sides were going to collapse just like his cake from held-back laughter.
“Nothing.” He brought his cake to the front and placed it before the judges.
Felix’s eyebrows shot off his forehead. Cherie looked like she was chewing on the inside of her cheeks. And Kristy, well, she was touching her fingers to her temples as if she were doing complex math.
“This is my coffee and maple bacon lover’s dream. It’s my attempt at a soufflé,” he lied.
“Soufflés were not in the book. Did you do this by memory?”
“Yes.” Another lie.
Cherie chewed slowly before swallowing. “Well, Jack, I appreciate your effort.” Oh, this was going to be good. “But despite its collapse, this is still not a soufflé. Also, traditional soufflés don’t have frosting.”
I should remove myself from this room because I was going to lose it.
“Fair enough.” Jack rejoined us, looking a little disheveled.
Then my name was called. His was so bad, I’d forgotten mine was about to be a trainwreck.
“This is called Stargazer’s Delight. It’s a raspberry sponge cake with planets on the inside.” Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned that part. “It has a planetary glaze, which I made with gelatin.”
“And your mystery ingredient?” Kristy asked.
“It was mayonnaise.”
Two of the judges cringed at hearing my mystery ingredient, which didn’t bode well. But I heard several hums, so I knew the flavor was on point. But were they bypassing the frosting?
“Is the cake supposed to, um, ooze?” Felix asked as sweetly as he could.
I knew exactly who the snort behind me came from.
“Not really.” Might as well be honest.
Kristy pushed a piece around her plate. “The gelatin is probably the reason it’s congealing.”
Ew. What a word.
“Thank you, Nat,” Bobby said.
Dismissed. Thank god. I went back to stand in line with my fellow counselors, all of whom had shit-eating grins.
The judges deliberated, and after an ungodly amount of time, they came back with a winner: Chase. Thankfully, they didn’t have a loser category, because I was pretty sure I’d be in it alongside Jack.
“Thank you so much, bakers. You did a wonderful job.” Bobby congratulated us on the hard work we’d put in, and everyone went back to their stations to clean.
Jack pointed at my cake. “You know, if it’d be helpful, I can get a shovel and dig you a crater out back so you can bury that thing.”
“Yours was shit, too, Hawthorne.”
“What did they call it again? Oozy? You should let me try it.”
I batted his greedy hands away. “Not a chance in hell.”
Jack burst into laughter, and that was the moment I decided once and for all.
It was on.