I'll Always be by Your Side (Noremma)

Baking

(A/n:  Yes, I am alive.  I was just busy but please enjoy this chapter as an apology for not updating sooner.)

The group walked back to the kitchen, all out of breath.  "That was fun!"  Emma exclaimed, bouncing up and down.  Gilda was busy digging through a book to find a recipe.  

"Ah, here we go!  Do you all want to do a baking competition?"  She asked.  Emma nodded her head only to get hit on the head with a book,

"If you keep nodding your head like that, it's gonna fall off."  Ray said.  Emma glared at him, annoyed.  Ray turned to Gilda to reply, "Alright, what are the team?"  He asked.  Gilda thought for a moment,

"What about boys versus girls?  Except that won't work since we have an odd number.  Oh I know!  Somebody can judge!"  Gilda proposed.  Ray shrugged his shoulders,

"I guess the teams are Gilda and Emma and Norman and Don.  I'll judge."  He replied,

"Now wait just a minute!  If you think me and Mr.  Perfect over here!"  Don yelled, pausing to gesture to Norman, "Are going to work together to bake, you are wrong!"  He continued.  Gilda rolled her eyes.

"Can you stop hating Norman for 30 minutes?"  Gilda asked, Don shook his head.  Gilda took a step towards him and looked up, "Please?  For me?"  She asked again.  Don looked enraged but quickly cooled down,

"Alright, just until this bake is over though!  Come on, Norman!  We're going to win this competition!"  He screamed, charging through the kitchen.  Norman followed.  

Once the pairs have gotten into position, Ray announced that they would be making a lemon meringue pie, "You can bake now."  He added unenthusiastically. 

Emma and Gilda quickly split up with Emma working on the dough and Gilda working on the lemon curd since it needed to set in the fridge while the crust baked.  Norman turned around to find Emma measuring the flour, the braid she usually wore to cover her ear was dangling above the bowl.  Norman grabbed a hair clip and went over to pin back her hair.  Emma could feel somebody standing behind her; out of reflexes, she picked up a handful of flour and threw it at whoever it was behind her.  She turned around and saw that it was Norman,

"Agh, I'm so sorry!  I didn't know who was behind me."  Emma exclaimed, waving her arms around.  After calming down a little, she noticed that Norman was laughing, "Hey!  What are you laughing about?"  Emma asked.  Norman stopped laughing,

"Oh, it's nothing."  He responded, walking back to where Don was.  

"Did your crush just throw flour at you?  Dang, Norman!"  He said, trying not to laugh as he was stirring the curd.

"Isn't it great?  She always apologizes and looks cute doing it!"  Norman exclaimed before covering his mouth, "Just forget the last part, ok?"  He asked,

"Nope!  I have to tell Gilda after this competition!"  Don smirked.  Norman covered his face and ran to the tap to cool it off.  He ran back after drying his face and the duo worked in silence until the crust had only one minute left in the oven, "You know, you're not as bad as I thought you were.  Don't get it wrong, you still can be a bit irritating but, the only reason I hated you back in that orphanage was because... I may have thought that Gilda had a crush on you and I was jealous."  Don admitted,

"You could have told me back then, I would have made sure that Gilda knew how great you were."  Norman responded.  The timer on both of the ovens had gone off, indicating that they should start on the meringue.

Gilda gave the hand mixer to Emma, knowing that she had limitless energy and let her beat it, "This is kind of fun!"  Emma exclaimed, swirling the hand mixer all around the bowl until a soft peak came up.  Gilda added in the cream of tarter and sugar before Emma whipped again until reaching stiff peaks.  They placed it into the fridge before taking out their lemon curd which was set.  Gilda distributed the filling evenly on the pie before handing the piping bag over to Emma and letting her choose a tip.  Emma chose the star tip and piped.  Although the meringue was short to bring out the star shape, Gilda had to admit that it looked wonderful.  The due placed their pie in front of Ray and headed off to see what Don and Norman were doing.

Norman was currently spreading the filling when Don came over to see if he could pipe the meringue,

"Perfect!" He exclaimed.  Don chose a leaf shaped tip and began piping meringue roses on top of the pie.  Once he finished, he showed Norman how to use the blow-torch and presented the finished project to Ray.  

Ray looked at the 2 pies and decided to try Emma and Gilda's pie first.  The meringue was nothing special but it was the filling that intrigued him.  There was lemon and also a little bit of pink peppercorn in there to help bring out more of the lemon.  He then tried the crust, it tasted like coconut because instead of butter, Emma decided to use coconut oil.  There was also a little bit of lemon zest to help boost the flavor of the curd, "The presentation was ok...  I liked the pink peppercorn in the curd and also the crust was well done.  The one complaint is that the meringue was sort of a let-down.  Maybe try spicing it up a little  by adding some sort of fruit on the top.  Also, I get that it was lemon meringue pie but... I don't think it was necessary to add that bit of lemon in the crust.  Overall, 7.5/10"

He then moved on to judging Don and Norman's pie, "The presentation is wonderful but the meringue is a bit too torched for my liking .  The filling was a perfect balance between the sugar and the lemon curd and the crust was conventional.  I would have liked to see a bit more creativity and maybe the crust could have been more flaky.  Overall, 15/20."  Ray said with a smirk.  

The 2 teams both looked at each other, knowing that Ray tied them on purpose, "Now then, is anybody hungry for desert?"  Gilda asked, getting out a pie server and some plates.  

The group was having fun when the doorbell rang.  Gilda answered it to see the English teacher.  "Oh, Ms. Suzuki.  What are you doing here?"  She asked.  

"I just came to deliver Emma's calculator she left in class."  The teacher responded, handing the calculator back to Gilda and stepping back outside.  On the way home, Isabella danced back, "My darling children, I'm so glad that you all are living together in perfect harmony."  She said, causing looks from people passing by.  

Norman felt a little anxious and walked up to Don, "Don't you think that the teacher's a bit strange?" he whispered.  Don nodded in agreement,

"Yeah, what should we do though?  We know nothing about her past!"  He whispered back,

"We have to think of something.  Don't tell Gilda or Emma though, I don't want to worry them!"  Norman continued. 

It was getting late when the group decided to call it a night since they had school tomorrow.  Emma saw something wedged where the battery was and pulled it out.  She gasped in horror before running to Normans room.

(a/n:  Yeah this chapter got cringy and I left it on a cliff-hanger and I'm sorry!  That's the only way I knew how to end it.  How it's gonna go with Isabella is that the children still think that she's their enemy but actually Isabella wants to make up with them, uhhhhhh I guess let me know if you were thinking of something different for Isabella, I'll be glad to hear it!)