Candied Apples

☆ Chapter 1: A Royal Invitation ☆

To my dearest friend,

As you may be aware, the Biennial Gumball Ball is just coming up around the corner!

I should hope you are available on the day of, and I would be most appreciative if you could attend. 

Everyone in the Candy Kingdom, especially myself, would be delighted to see you there!

Due to this, I would like to cordially invite you to the ball as a rather special guest: the head chef!

Along with this invitation is another letter regarding the tasks I would like you to complete if you so choose. 

I hope to see you at the ball! Until then...

Prince Gumball

Fionna set down the letter with a look of disbelief scribbled on her face and let out a weary sigh. After all the adventuring she had just come back from and now this?! She was being asked to be Prince Gumball's personal chef? What a load of dirtballs!

Letting out another disappointed sounding sigh, the female pushed away the papers and set her head down on the table. 

     "Ugghhhhhhh...

     UgggggHHHHhhh...

     UuuuUUUUuGGGggHHHH-"

     "Fionna! What's that matter baby cakes? Is someone sending you hate mail?"

Cake popped her head out of the kitchen while the rest of her body was still most likely cooking up something for the two roommates to eat. Before Fionna could reply, Cake made a disapproving 'tsk' sound and slowly shook her head. 

     "Nuh-uh, no one hurts my Fionna! After I'm done making these pancakes we're going to go find that ding dong that thought they could get away with this."

Fionna laughed weakly and slid off the couch she was sitting on.

     "It's not hate mail or any of that junk, Cake. Gumball just sent us an invitation to his ball thing an-"

     "Oh sweet babies! That means I get my see Mo-Chro sooner than I had planned!"

     "Well... that's great and everything but Gumball kind of invited us as chefs or something like that?" Fionna offered a perplexed expression and made her way into the kitchen so she could have a proper conversation with Cake and her full self rather than just a cat head. 

     "Chefs?" Cake repeated the word with a mirroring expression. 

     "Yeah..." Fionna replied blandly and turned to inspect how the pancakes were coming along, attempting to distract herself from the somewhat lame invitation she had received.

     "So let me get this straight, Prince Gumball specifically sent you an invitation so you could cook up something for his little party?" Cake asked, this time with a hint of astonishment in her voice. 

Fionna simply nodded and continued to watch the pancakes sizzle on the pan, her mind now wandering off to more exciting thoughts about fighting monsters and not making food for the ball. 

     "Hmm..." Cake offered a single hum before she returned to flipping the pancakes in thought.

     "Well it sounds like a pretty big task that Gumball's entrusting you with... which means he definitely trusts you! This is a good thing, Fionna! Besides, you and me can get our baking bods out and serve him the best food his mouth-hole has ever encountered!" She stretched her arm over to Fionna's back to give her a reassuring rub before sliding the pancakes off the pan and onto a nearby plate. 

     "I guess..." Fionna muttered, mindlessly taking the plate of pancakes before moving back into the living room.

     "Oh come on, Fionna! There's no need to be so down in the dumps about this! It'll be fun!!!" Cake continued to offer the girl reassurance that making food for the ball would be "fun", but she just wasn't buying it... if only there was something that she could do that wouldn't make the task seem so bunk.

Then, as if her prayers were answered by the divine Glob, an idea struck her and her face immediately lit up. Placing the stack of pancakes onto the table, Fionna pulled off her backpack and fished inside for her phone. 

     "Who are you calling?" Cake asked as she began to chow down on the freshly made pancakes. 

     "Oh, just the vampire king."