The patisserie club ran around crazy and rushed in and out of the kitchens, weighing mixtures, rolling out dough, checking ovens and finalizing the sweets with only after schools hours to do their thing, since the owners needed it to sell their meals during the day.
Compared to the Hobbies club, all we did was hang about the cafeteria which still seemed more like a food court to me and contributed a little. At times, our boys were called to help the girls from the patisserie club to lift tons of flour or gallons of water on and off the benches but most of the time they just sat there in the cafeteria watching the patisserie people work their ass off.
“Hey you hobo club,” Tatiana rocked up beside me, her floury arm draped over my shoulders.
“It’s hobbies club” Yuuki said flatly, annoyed at the fact he was being used as an errand boy. “It’s a bother that I have to do this and if it wasn’t Sophie-san’s idea to join up with the patisserie club, I’ll abandon the whole thing,”
“Well the new nickname suits your club. Bumming around, doing nothing. You think I want to join up with you hobos?” Tatiana shot back. “I only agreed to this a as a favour to Harrison, not for you sloths and I got plenty of slackers here and I don’t need anymore,”
She stormed off catching two girls standing around for a chat. They saw her coming and quickly fled back to their separate kitchen.
I sighed and continuing tapping away on my keyboard then hit the send button. At the chateaux I was prohibited to use the internet and the only time I could go online was on the weekends or use the net during school, otherwise I’m totally isolated from the world.
I emailed back home replying several mails with one long email. It felt like I was writing pages of essays but that’s what I get when I can’t check my mails every day but when I could, usually I just end up sleeping all day during my days off because of my maid work or either forgotten to reply because I was buried in assignments from head to toe.
That’s pretty how suck my life is at the moment, having to do the laundry and hand wash almost every piece of garments because they were made from freaking expensive materials till my skin peel off.
There was even one time I had to look after Sophie Keusch’s dog Juliet because the carer couldn’t make it and that dog never liked me. I remembered she once attempted to swallow my whole arm on my first day and since then I was a little cautious of her. She was a nightmare even when her real owner came back, she did everything the opposite to what I order her to do and have to bribe her with the whole bag of premium beef jerky to get her to do a thirty minute exercise in the gardens. When mum and dad ask about me, I lied because I don’t want them to worry about me and I’m sure they have plenty of other things to worry about.
Yume walked across the cafeteria, hands full of decorations that Yuuki took from the art room the other day with Leo’s butler following behind carrying more stuff. I quickly closed my email and pretending to work on the menu. She didn’t pay any attention to me as expected but still kept her happy-go-lucky defense up and was enthusiastic as usual. She was bouncy and excited for the display but in the other hand Leo was the opposite and was in his usual self. He couldn’t care less in putting an effort into the whole thing and let his butler do the work while he sat back sipping his tea and reading a book.
There were nothing abnormal about them but the only changes were their attitudes towards me. Leo made it clear that while the preparation is still going, I’m not allowed to go anywhere three metres away near him and only speak to his butler when I needed to talk to him. He’s a real bitch and wanted me to be gone; he was no difference to other people in the school.
In Yume’s case, she didn’t speak to me and ignored me half of the time, but her reason to do so was sort of acceptable because I understood that she must’ve been hurt deeply because I didn’t tell her the truth.
“Do you think it’s really her?” Andrew meant Yume.
“There’s no way it’s Yume,” I whispered back.
Yuuki said nothing about his sister neither did he defend her. He was in LaLa Land and had his arms crossed staring at the chair in front of him. It automatically told me that we didn’t mistaken it and he was quite overwhelmed to accept it or maybe he already knew judging by his expression when he saw them making out. If it was me I wouldn’t be able to believe it and stand watching my own sister pashing, but thank goodness I’m the only child which meant I don’t need to witness the horror.
I shouldn’t be getting worked up about something that doesn’t concern me, particularly when Yume doesn’t want to mix in with me and the school exhibition was only one day away, so I need to get moving as well since I’m in charge of all the paperwork and make everything perfect.
It was true that it was my idea to team up the patisserie club. Few days ago, Yume wanted to do a host club but it was difficult to combine café and host club together when we only have six members in the club. If all the men were hosts then Yume and I would have to cook and serve at the same time is something we couldn’t do with only two people doing two things at a time. Luckily, I was the one who was thinking ahead and planned to join Tatiana’s club with ours and submitted a letter to the council which left them no choice and follow out my plan.
“Sorry for having long legs but how’s the weather down there?”
Nicholas busted in followed by Ivan trailing behind. Ivan looked like he just ran a marathon; his face was blotchy and stopped to catch some breath. There was not even a single sweat on Nicholas and wore a cheeky smirk.
“F you! At least I don’t need to be worried about getting struck by lightning you ass!”
“Guys!”
I stood up and glared at them.
Nicholas has ditched his club and gave an excuse that he didn’t want to go back to give show jumps and pony rides which was probably a lie. At first both of the club presidents didn’t agree to it. Tatiana said she had enough people working and Yume didn’t seemed to like Nicholas very much but he managed to force his way in like always and him and Ivan was like that since the morning.
“So tell me guys, did you manage to get the teachers to lend us their lounge?”
“Of course, if it’s for you – ” Ivan began.
“Don’t mind him, all he can speak is crap,” Nicholas butted in. “The teachers gave us the thumbs up and now we got that sorted it out, so why don’t we go to North Corsica?”
“No Nick, I still have other stuff to do before tomorrow and can you tell Yume and the others that you can get the teachers’ lounge all spiced up?”
Nicholas gave me a dazzling smile, slowly manipulating my brain. Quickly I closed my eyes and telling myself to get a grip and not fall for his tactics over and over again.
“Come on Nick, this is my first and last school exhibit for me and I want people to have fun and I want to enjoy it myself too. You will help me wouldn’t you?” That hit the mark.
“Fine, but a kiss on the cheek first,”
“What a cocky bastard you are!” I found myself shouting at him. “Fine, you better get your ass there,”
This was what kind of relationship I have between me and Nicholas Windsor. I don’t mean to sound play hard to get, I just don’t feel comfortable doing things that couples do. Plus I’m still a learner and compared his fully license, he’ll never stop telling me how clumsy I am.
I gave him a chaste peck on the cheek and pushed him away. My mind was completely blank that moment as I sat done staring at the laptop wondering what I was supposed to do again.
“You really should talk to Yume. If she doesn’t want to listen, you have to convince her too,” Yuuki gently tapped the table to get my attention then went after the others.
*****
During the day, swarms of people grew bigger and bigger.
Tatiana’s club supervisor, Mr Perera or known as Marky had come back from his paternal leave just in time for the exhibit. He was wearing full tie and concierge suit, escorting the customers in. He was also in charge of the outside of the teacher’s lounge and made sure the customers had their tickets so no family will quarrel about who’s first, which happened quite often when Marky forgotten to give out tickets.
Outside the lounge, the corridor was cramped up. Although it was fairly wide enough to fit six average people standing side by side and the beelines of eager parents and students already took up half of the space. Chairs that our club had set up earlier on both sides of the walls were already occupied. People grew tired waiting and standing behind the red rope barriers but rarely someone gives up their spots.
It was filled with families with great eminence and they weren’t they weren’t the most patient group of people. They made their servants run in and out to gather some chairs and sometimes they set high prices for tickets just to get in first. It was chaotic but Marky, the humorous home economics and humanities teacher seemed to be able to harness the parents with his funny stories about his students.
“Here we go, one tiramisu and lemon tart,” I smiled sweetly at the wealthy billionaire that I recognized from the news and couldn’t help wondering whose father he is.
The billionaire gave me a stiff solitary nod. His wife was slightly different and smiled back at me. I clutched on to the sides of the silver platter and quickly bowed then headed to my next table.
Bowing to customers wasn’t necessary but I did it anyway, just something I gotten used to from my maid work and it doesn’t take too much effort to do so but it’s always nice to make them feel important so they could help promote our café. In other words, it’s a simple hidden motive up in my sleeves to get more customers.
More pastry and cakes wheeled in as I snuck into the kitchen area.
Half of the patisserie club were waiters and dashed in and out waiting tables. They scribbled pads and threw orders at the ones who were doing the final touches on the dishes, taking turns swapping over in tag teams. They were wearing plain shirts rolled up to their elbows, black trousers for boys and pencil skirts for girls. Each also had a black apron fasten around their waists with a pocket at the front to keep their notepads and pens in.
Then other team was responsible for baking and delivery from the cafeteria. Nanette and Wilson were in that team and both of them wanted to be in the café as waiters with me but Tatiana refused to give up two of their very best members. They were fast and skilled judging by the cakes that they often make for my club and that time I watched Nanette make macaroons when I screwed up the fillings. I guess it was better for them to stay at the cafeteria than run around crazy here at the café.
I wasn’t just a waiter, in fact I was placed in the position as the barista and was in control of the other waiters. I wasn’t needed most of the time and when I’m not needed for making coffee, I often go waiting on tables and make majority of the drinks. I guess I was only given the tittle as the barista because there wasn’t much talent I could sell like the other hobbies club members.
Everything was going towards the plan. Our club display was the attraction of the year. Each minute gone by, customers increased demanding for more. Students also came ditching their own displays just to take a look. Most of them were girls wanting to the boys as hosts and grabbing the chance to get near them. It couldn’t be helped and nobody was allowed to change shifts, literally there were no shifts at all, everyone was required to stay in the lounge and serve the customers.
The only people who were allowed to take a break were the hosts. They were assigned to their own specialized posts where they sold their talents and captured many people. All customers who visited any of the posts were given stamps from the hosts and five percent will be added on to the bill each time they visit. Therefore a total of twenty five percent increased on the bill which did seem like a great big deal to the overloaded rich daddys and mummys.
Ivan chose cards as his selling point. His customers were aimed at middle aged men and sometimes girls from sister schools. He was playing with males customers when I walked up beside him.
“Double expresso with whipped cream,” I interrupted their game and placed the expresso beside him.
“Geez, thanks I totally need a break. So why don’t we just stop here?” he threw his cards down.
“Good game, son. I’d remember playing poker with your dad, and boy he was sneaky,” A jolly old man told him.
He was bald and had an American accent, probably an acquaintance of Mr Kelleher.
“My father? No, not at all!” It was rare from his to address his old man as his father. “Well it is a shame that he couldn’t make it today and if you want a coffee or two our barista is the man,”
“You mean your woman?” they joked.
I forced a smile and chimed in. “No, no that’s not true and please feel free to call out for me if you want something,”
They laughed again about the way I took their joke seriously. I laughed with them, then hurried away to see how the others are going particularly Nicholas whom I haven’t seen all morning but promised to be here last night.
“Andrew,” I walked up to him after he struck the last note of Hallelujah. “Have you seen Nicholas?”
Andrew swiveled his head around and was about to give me an answer when a bunch of girls from another club butted in rudely.
“Andrew could you play Bach’s Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring for us?” they giggled.
How rude! Not even a single please and jumped into our conversation. But who am I to blame because I am invisible to their eyes or maybe they’re just Andrew’s crazy fans and too busy fantasizing about walking down the aisle as they listened to him play the wedding recessional piece.
He started play the piano again without a sweat. His sound was nice and smooth and it made me wonder if there was any piece he couldn’t play because he continuingly received song after another and played each and every one like a professional.
I checked the time on my wrist watch. Cripes, it has only been two hours since the opening and it felt like ages. Yet, Nicholas was nowhere to been seen. He probably got strapped up and carried to the horse riding arena, after all he is the star of the equestrian club.
Given up on hope, I looked around the room to see if everything was fine and spotted Yuuki serving his customer one on one. I went over to him and peeped over his shoulders. He was doing commission art in manga style.
“That’s so cool,” I couldn’t help saying.
“So desu ne?” he asked as he handed over the portrait to the lady and placed a stamp on her loyalty card.
“Hai,” I told him. “I’m not trying to boast or anything but sometimes I want to trade my brains for your artistic skills,”
“Eh? What are you talking about?”
Yuuki quickly ripped out a new page out of his sketch book and quickly sketched something with his maker then washed his brush and added watercolours to the picture.
“Here,” he said and gave me the drawing.
“Wait this is for me?” I admire the little chibi head with red hair, large beautiful eyes beaming back at me.
Yuuki nodded and began packing away his equipment into a brown satchel. He then insisted that we should see how Yume was doing.
We walked across the room and found Yume’s tea stand was rivaling Leo’s. We knew that they were setting up tea stalls but never thought they would be right across to each other and selling the same thing but in different manners.
Tatami mats were placed out and a portable hearth was placed in the centre with Japanese floral patterned floor cushions around the table. In the background there were completed with a shoji screen and bonsai and ikebana arrangements.
Yume sat in front of the hearth. She was wearing a beautiful midnight-blue furisode with a pale pink obi around the waist. Her hair was pulled back in a half ponytail decorated with bright red and blue kanzashi hair ornament.
“Wow,” I whispered to Yuuki. “This is my first time seeing a Japanese tea ceremony on live,”
Five customers at a time were allowed on the mats. As they walked on, Yume got up and bowed deeply to her guests. They awkwardly did the same and were asked kindly to kneel on the cushions by the twins’ housekeeper.
When they found themselves comfortable, Yume began the ceremony. First she’d place a bow in front of her and picked up a bamboo ladle then scooped up a ladle full of hot water from the kettle into the bowl. Next she’d picked up a bamboo brush and swished a couple of times before emptying it into another bowl beside. She’d clean the bowl slowly and settled it back down onto the mat.
The customers watched her with awe as she gracefully reached over for a hand painted floral container. Inside was green tea powder and a spoon or two into the bowl in front of her. Yume picked up the ladle again and confidently poured in the right amount of water. She whisked the bowl till the powder finally dissolved.
“Douzo, nonde kudasai,” Yume said softly as she turned the bowl a few times then placed it in front of the first guest. “Please drink while it’s hot and when you have then wipe the rim with the silk cloth and past it to the next person like the way I did,”
At the same moment, Leo initially raised his voice to capture people’s attention.
“To drink tea, the temperature must be precise for different types of tea leaf, if not you would not be able to taste the true potential of the leaves. Also the longer you leave the leaves, the flavor gets stronger,” Leo demonstrated.
Yume suddenly smiled, but quickly covered it up with a furrow. Yuuki seemed to notice it too beside me and made no sound like the other times. I finally seemed to understand why he kept quiet all along and why Yume and Leo didn’t announce their relationship. Both of them didn’t want to be teased by the members of club because of their year level differences although they were the same age and Yume and I would be graduating soon which might makes things a little different.
The customers at Yume’s side finished their round. Yume each gave them a stamp then bowed to see them off.
“Ichijo-sama,” Yume’s housekeeper, who was always at her side, quickly did a ninety degrees bow.
Yuuki stiffened beside me. Yume flinched at the honorific and slightly turned her body towards the entrance.
I followed their gazes. A tall, black haired, board shoulders man in a suit strode in. Beside him was a beautiful woman with hair bundled up together nicely and wore similar traditional Japanese clothing as Yume.
"Is this how you greet your father?" he said sternly.
From being nailed dumbstruck to the ground, the twins stiffly bowed. They stayed liked that until they were given a word to move an in.
Mr Ichijo ignored them and took off his shoes then stepped onto the tatami. The stepmother, I guessed, did the same and knelt beside him.
"When your guests have arrived would you not serve them tea?" The twins' father spoke again.
"Yes, otou-sama" Yume replied obediently and took her place.
The process of the way of tea began again. Yuuki didn't seem to relax and clenched his fists around the strap of his satchel.
"The taste isn't strong enough," he pushed the bowl away without tasting. "Do it again,"
“Humph, as expected from a half blood,” the woman said behind her sleeve.
“Kanako, be mindful that they are still my children,” he said coldly.
This time people were staring. The stepmother frowned and Yume was pressured to make it again. Marky seemed to catch the atmosphere and passed on to the waiters that we would be closing up for a short break.
Yume haven't made a move yet and kept her eyes downcast.
Customers were ushered out to pay the bills and what were left was the members of the hobbies club and few patisserie club members.
Leo looked slightly annoyed with whatever that provoked him. He pushed himself off the chair and stalked over. Yuuki lifted up an arm to stop him from barging in.
"What are you doing? Yume's-"
"This is our family business, please keep out of it," Yuuki said in a neutral tone.
"I'm alright Leo," Yume finally spoke and rose to her feet."Otou-Sama if you can't enjoy my tea then I'm sorry you're not welcomed here,"
Andrew, Ivan and my mouth opened, surprised with the hostile speech to her father. Leo was taken back as well and stopped moving, a tiny smirk crept up his. I could almost tell he was thinking "way to go" to her.
"Very well, we shall take our leave. Let us go Kanako," he said.
Yume looked fragile and lifeless. Her face paled and shoulders shuddered. She'd open her mouth then closed it again and swallowed the words she was going to tell her father. I quickly ran up to her and shook her by the shoulders, not wanting her regret everything later.
"Yume!" I screamed at her. Mr Ichijo and his wife stopped their tracks without facing us. “What’s this I see? You sounded proud when you first introduced yourself as the daughter of a toy manufacturer and now you behave this way?"
Yume shook me off. "What would you know? You had a papa when you were born and watched you grow up seeing you fall, picking you up and guiding you back to the right path. That man may be related to me by blood but is no papa! He didn't even come to okaa-san's funeral and inside me he is already dead,"
"That's not true!" I forced her to look at me. "Yuuki told me about it. You did all those Japanese classes and did all those Japanese custom at home while your mother was alive just to meet your father! He must've had a reason why he didn't come back earlier to meet you guys and why he couldn't go to your funeral!"
"Yume, is this why you've hated me all this time?" It was Mr Ichijo's turn to speak, his stern look turned into an apologetic father. "Gomen nasai, I didn't know, Hannah never told me about you and Yuuki in her letters and soon we’d lost contact. I tried writing back to her for two months and nothing came in so I thought she had moved on. When I received your voice mail after so many years, I was overwhelmed that Hannah left me a pair of twins but by the time I received it, it was too late. I'm sorry. I never knew you felt this way,"
It was one of those heart-felting moments with hugs and tears. Yuuki was pulled into Yume’s bear hugs. He made a disgusted face but soon it was replaced by an assuring smile. The stepmother and the housekeeper stood at the side watching. Ms Ichijo didn’t seem quite pleased or maybe she was just jealous that her first place was stolen by her husband’s first lover’s children.
I smiled and sighed in admiration and how I long to be hugged by my parents again. It sure feels best to be safe in my parents’ arms or maybe not…
A familiar arm snaked around my waist. I looked up. Nicholas was trying to keep a straight face without looking at me but couldn’t help breaking into a mischievous smile. I was right, he was dragged back to his own club; he was stilling wearing his jodhpurs and tailcoat, his shoes were covered in grass and a few streaks of dirt on his face.
He caught me staring at him and brushed my fringe aside then planted a kiss on the forehead. “You and your nose in other people’s business, one day I think I will need to rescue you for that nose of yours,”
Nicholas pulled away and pressed something in my hand. I opened my hand and saw the cutest charm ever. It was a charm with a tiny wooden hour glass, a silver chain hang from the strap and a metal charm of a cartoon couple holding hands that resembled us.
My fingers curled around it. I smiled at Nicholas then at Yuuki who denied it with his hands and pointed at Yume who was smiling back at me.
“I designed it ages ago, but I’m not handing So-chan to you that easily,” she pouted.
“Neither will I,” Ivan declared. “She’s the best girl space friend I ever had,”
We all broke into laughing.
Eventually the café was opened again and Nanette and Wilson managed to get their spots swapped over to our side. Yume began to be all clingy again and often teased Nicholas but at one point I had to kick him out of the café because the equestrian people were in desperate of his help.
Now that the school exhibit is drawing to an end, it was one thing down. I still have my exams coming up in next few weeks time and not to forget to mention I will be soon to able to gain my freedom. When this is over, I want to go into university and take over my parents’ business and make it the top which is a dream I always had since I was young.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here's some little drawings of how the stamps may look like and also Sophie's charm on the side! (I know I'm missing a "c" in "collection")