The weight of her backpack made Keeley walk the halls of her school slightly slower than usual. Even though she'd driven to school, the short walk from the parking lot to her locker had made her perspire. As she turned the dial of the lock, she could feel her shirt sticking to her back. It was uncomfortable at best, and even though she'd performed this ritual so many mornings, her damp shirt distracted her enough that she turned the knob of the lock too far and had to start over.
Keeley removed her backpack, took the loose end of her shirt in one hand, and shook it in an attempt to get it to dry out a little bit. When she stopped flapping her shirt, and returned it to its resting position, it was suddenly much colder than she expected and it caused her to stiffen while the temperature matched that of her back.
After a few turns, the all too familiar feeling of the unlatching of the lock clicked out and she opened her locker. Which class was first today? Math? History? --no, today was Wednesday so science was up first. Keeley quickly scanned the binders and textbooks in her locker, and pulled on the one with the correct label.
As she removed the binder, the remaining books and notes shifted down as their support had been removed. Carefully eyeing the stack to make sure it wasn't going to move any further, she rested her binder by her feet so she could swap it for the cast-iron monstrosity that she had brought with her today.
Keeley moved her hands to her backpack, which must have held at least an extra 10 pounds of weight in it today, and unzipped the main pocket. Her parents knew that today was an important event for the school and had allowed her to bring the machine with her. She'd promised that she would return it to the cupboard cleaner than when she'd found it, but loathed thinking of how long a process that could be. Many mornings she'd watched her mom or dad clean it thoroughly to ensure it wouldn't rust. It took them a good 30 minutes or more and she had already made plans after school.
The machine was clearly overkill for her family, and she'd seen much smaller, more practical versions at Williams-and-Sonoma. Come to think of it, she'd never even something like this in a store. It was clearly professional and must have been purchased from a restaurant or a specialty store.
As she pulled it from her bag, Nicky came up beside her. "What on god's green earth is that?"
"What does it look like?" Keeley tried her best to raise an eyebrow at her friend's obviously dumb question, but ultimately just ended up scrunching her face up.
"It looks like a torture device." Nicky said half seriously, simultaneously trying to stifle a laugh.
"I think my dad bought it for my mom for their first Christmas together." Apparently, or so the story goes, Keeley's mom and dad had met while he was waiting on tables at a restaurant in town. Every time her mother had gone to the restaurant, she would always order the same meal. By the time her dad had mustered up the courage to ask her out on a date, she must have ordered the dish at least 10 at least times. Eventually, when they spent their first Christmas together, he made her the dish. Belgian waffles, with raspberry infused maple syrup, and a healthy dollop of whipping cream to top it all off. Her dad still made it every Christmas. It was their family tradition now.
"I know what this is" Nicky gibed as she pulled a fairly reasonably sized Cuisinart waffle iron from her bag "but yours would probably be considered a lethal weapon in several different states."
Keeley stuck her tongue out at her friend and heaved the heavy waffle iron from her bag into her locker, hoping it wouldn't crush the existing unsuspecting contents.
✦✦✦
As a part of trying to foster the school's sense of community, the student union thought that the seniors should cook a waffle lunch for the freshmen before everyone went off on winter break. The school would provide the batter, but the seniors needed to bring a waffle iron to do the cooking. Zach had managed to borrow one from a friend and refused to be seen with the monstrosity that Keeley now lugged down the hallway, towards the cafeteria.
When she turned into the room, a bunch of tables had been set up with extension cords running in every direction. It looked like a fire hazard waiting to ignite, but remembered when she had been a freshmen and the seniors had made pancakes for her grade. She wished now that she was making pancakes. It would have been so much easier, but for some reason this year the council had wanted to set themselves apart from the previous ones and had decided that this was going to be the way to achieve that.
The spots were assigned randomly. Keeley walked around the room for about 5 minutes before finding the station with her name on it. Her spot was at the end of one of the tables so she only had one neighbor. She looked at the paper that labeled the other half of the desk, but didn't recognize the name: Talon. She wished she could have been positioned closer to Nicky but she was off prepping in the distance on the other side of the room.
Keeley put the machine down on the table and collected a pile of plates, utensils, napkins, and a bucket of waffle batter. She placed the items around the front of the iron. She went back to grab one of the colorful aprons that the school was supplying and ran into Nicky. "I can't wait until this is over" Keeley said with a sigh.
"Oh c'mon, it's not so bad" Nicky reassured her friend. "Remember when Brent made us pancakes. He saved the best ones for us. We had a lot of fun that day."
"I'm pretty sure we both ate our weight in pancakes that day. I couldn't eat them for 6 months after that. I still feel a little sick when I smell syrup." Keeley thought back to a few years prior and felt her heart grow a little heavy. It had been a treasured memory up until not that long ago. Now it was just another reason she wanted the whole event to be over.
"Even if you don't have fun, it's only for an hour and then it will be over. Plus the freshmen really enjoy it. Are we still on to watch Love Actually after school tonight?" Nicky tried changing the topic to help her friend think about something to look forward to.
"Yeah! Of course!" Keeley replied. "I'll bring the popcorn, you bring Hugh Grant, Liam Neeson and Emma Thompson. I need to drop off my waffle iron at home, then I'll come over."
"If by waffle iron, you mean medieval battering ram, then that sounds good. Can't wait!"
✦✦✦
The two girls returned to their stations. Keeley went underneath the desk to plug in the iron and get it warmed up. As she turned to come back up, an anonymous hand thrust a cord in her face.
"Hey baby doll, you mind turning me on?" the accompanying cocky voice said from above the table.
"How about you take care of yourself" Keeley spat back as she came back up from under the desk.
"Awww. Don't be that way baby doll, can't we just get along?" A smug face met her as she stood up.
Keeley sighed "Please stop calling me that. I really don't appreciate it."
"You sound... WAFFLEY upset. Don't be so uptight baby doll." Talon said with a grin that was decidedly evil.
Keeley put her hand to her face trying not to laugh at the terrible pun. If she reacted now, the battle would be over, and she the loser. "Look, you keep to yourself, I'll keep to myself, and we'll get along fine." she said trying to exit the conversation.
"That's all the appreciation I get for such an eggcelent pun!?" He said, refusing to give up.
She wanted to bang her head into the table out of frustration, but instead she ignored him and turned towards her station. She carefully ladled batter onto waffle iron and closed it.
In her peripheral vision she could see him holding up his joke of a waffle maker. It was small, cheap, and looked like it had not been cleaned since it was bought. "Don't ignore me baby doll, I'm going to need your help I've never used this thing before."
"You should have thought of that before you started trying to antagonize me." she responded without turning towards him. She ran a fork along the outside of the machine checking the readiness of the the waffle. She refused to give him any satisfaction of a reaction.
Talon would have quipped back, but a cute first year girl had lined up in front of his station. Keeley eavesdropped on the whole ordeal, and listened as he proceeded to flirt for the next few minutes with the girl. In the ended he ended up with a phone number, and she a badly burnt waffle, though that hadn't seemed to phase the bright eyed girl in any way.
"You really are a vile human being." Keeley said while tending to her waffle iron.
Talon turned towards her and with a smirk on his face asked "Are you jealous that you're not getting my undevided attention baby doll?"
Keeley immediately regretted her decision to provoke him. She couldn't leave well enough alone, and now felt that she had played directly into his hand. Luckily more and more students were now lining up at the stations for waffles and the conversation ended there without counting as a loss for her.
By the end of the hour, she had watched Talon burn all but one waffle which ended up only mildly singed. None of the girls who had received one of the charred messes seemed to have minded or cared though.
Before the conversation had a chance to pick back up, Keeley returned the remaining plates and cutlery to the school stash. She took the apron off and folded it neatly and placed it with the others. After a quick rinse of her hands, she returned to her station only to find Talon and her waffle iron missing.
"What the Fuck! You have got to be kidding me." She cursed to herself. He had stolen her parent's waffle iron and left her with his bargain bin, plastic piece of crap.
Keeley frantically searched in the hallway for him but couldn't find any trace. Nicky caught up with her "Are you okay? What's going on? You're running around all frantic."
"That asshole stole my parent's waffle iron!" She accidentally yelled at her friend.
"Hey! Don't get upset with me! Who's got it exactly?"
"That guy who was beside me. Talon? or something. He stole it while I was cleaning up. If I don't get it back my parents are going to kill me!" Keeley didn't know what to do. She had only just met the guy and she had hoped that their brief interaction would also be their last.
"Don't worry" her friend consoled her. "I'll help you track it down and get it back. Hopefully we can get it back before long and be home in time to watch Love Actually tonight."
Keeley sighed loudly. Somehow she knew that getting it back wasn't going to be so easy.
-- THE WAFFLE IRON SWAP --