7:15
january 24th
P L A Y ►
the camera points to max. she's putting on a white apron but the apron falls to her feet from how oversized it is on her. she puts her hands behind her back and frowns. after a minute she huffs and lets her arms fall to her sides.
max looks up at the camera and glares at it. "vii." she whines. "help me tie it."
violet giggles from behind the camera. "you look like you're doing okay max."
"i'm not! come on. be nice and help me."
"nah, i'm okay." the camera turns left, right, and then back to max like a shaking head motion. "holding a camera is a lot of work."
"vi!" max stomps her foot. she stumbles, almost slipping on the apron, but catches herself and lets out a sigh of relief.
"max, be careful."
there's silence. max stares at the camera with pleading eyes but the camera doesn't move, it's' still. a moment passes by before a sigh of giving-in is heard behind the camera.
"i hate when you do the eye thing. you know it's too hard to say no to you when you do that, right?"
"i know." max states matter-of-factly.
a hand comes into view, then its pitch black. the sound of rattling is heard and violet mumbling something before the camera is hit with light. it's unfocused on one figure behind another. it adjusts, then focuses on violet behind max trying to tie the apron around max. she's badly trying to tie a bow before throwing the strings down, not hard out of fear that she would hurt max, and just sticking with a loose tie.
"is that good?"
max turns around to face violet and nods. she looks around and then looks at the camera and waves at it. "that's a good idea putting it on the counter so now you don't have to hold it."
"i know! wait, oh my god- max!" violet grabs max's arm. "let's do a cooking show!"
max grins. "that would be so cool! we could get our cooking show on tv and we'll be famous!" she starts jumping up and down while holding onto the sides of the apron. the apron starts to slip off max so she starts jumping a little less.
violet jumps around with her. she doesn't have the heart to tell her that there's a little bit more to becoming famous than just making a video.
violet glances at the camera and stops jumping.
"vi? what's wrong?" there's worry in max's voice.
violet looks down, then looks up at max. "cameramen aren't supposed to be one of the main characters of videos. they're cameramen for a reason." she points out.
max grabs violet's hands and squeezes it. "hey. you're not just a cameraman."
"but-"
max interrupts. "nope, you're not a cameraman. you're a main character to me and i need you to be part of this with me."
violet smiles and looks away. "okay then, let's both be the chefs and make this late birthday cake."
max grabs another apron that was hung up on the wall and puts it over violet. it's just slightly less oversized on violet than it is on max because she's taller.
"turn around." max tells violet before turning her around herself anyway.
max hums away as she starts to tie the apron around violet. violet fiddles with her hands and looks around at the cupboards, the counter, the camera, everything. max doesn't look up and continues to tie it into a neat little bow. it was much nicer than the one violet made for max earlier.
"there." max stares at the bow and gives herself a small nod. she looked proud of her bow-tying skills.
violet spins around, stumbling a little, and hugs max.
max hugs violet back and buries her face into violet's apron.
"max?"
max looks up, her cheeks becoming a light shade of pink. "oh, haha, sorry. i was about to fall asleep."
"max."
"yeah?"
violet sighs and ruffles max's hair. "just get some more sleep."
"okay, i'll try." max looks over at the camera and jumps up. "oh! let's bake!"
"you're right! we can't forget about our cooking show!" violet runs over to a cupboard and opens it. she grabs a pan while max hesitantly looks through drawers for utensils.
max disappears from the view of the camera and so does violet. there's sounds of rattling and banging before max comes back into view and lays out way too many utensils in front of the camera. she spreads them out and organizes them neatly.
violet comes back into view after a moment and puts a couple of cake pans next to the utensils. it's an extremely small cake pan that's used to make tiny cakes and not birthday cakes.
max adjusts her apron and looks into the camera. "hello and welcome to the max and violet baking show! i'm max." she points to herself, "and this is violet." she motions to violet whos beside her.
violet looks at max, then back at the camera and grins. "hello! i'm chef violet and today we're making a birthday cake- well, a late birthday cake for chef max."
"i just turned eleven!" max chimes in.
"and i'll be turning twelve really, really soon."
"she's older than me by a few months." max loudly whispers to the camera.
violet softly laughs and grabs some cake mix while max grabs a spoon.
"okay first, you put the cake mix in the pan and add some water." violet pours all of the cake mix into the bowl and watches as max puts some tap water into a cup, then pours it into the pan.
max looks up at violet. "do you think this'll be okay?" she motioned to the already almost full pan.
"yeah, it looks okay to me."
"oh, you're probably right. you have that chef blood in you after all." max grabs some eggs from the fridge and forcefully cracks them open into the pan. she throws the eggshells away even though some were still in the mixture.
"just because my parents are both chefs'' doesn't mean i have 'chef's blood' in me. i have no idea what we're doing."
"that's okay! your chefs' blood will guide you to helping make this cake amazing." max carefully pulls the pan to herself and slowly stirs it. drips of cake mix spill over the edges.
violet watches max stir the mixture and decides to let her do her own thing and not interrupt her by correcting her that it was actually genes, not blood.
"didn't we have to add something else vi?" max looks up at violet.
"nah, i think that's it. mix, eggs, and water, what else do you need for a cake?" violet walks out of frame for a moment while max keeps stirring.
violet walks back into the view, oven mitts in hand.
max thought for a moment. "vi, are you sure we don't add anything else? i feel like there's more to cakes, otherwise, people wouldn't take so long on them, right?"
"hm." violet pulls the mitten on one hand, then pulls the other mitton on her other hand. "i don't think so. we don't need all that fancy stuff, it's just a cake, right? it's probably like a plant where you just need water to grow it."
"oh!" max nods and watches violet quickly put the cake into the oven. "you're right! that's probably how it works, i'm dumb."
violet closes the oven door. "you're not dumb you're learning." she mumbles.
"now what do we do while we wait? what do cooking shows usually do to pass time."
"uh max, i think they usually have the cake prepared in cooking shows. they just hide it."
"ohh. well, what do we do?"
"come on, let's watch tv!" violet grabs max's hand and pulls her out of the view of the camera.
the only thing in view now was the cake in the oven. besides the distant sound of a tv and max's and violet's incoherent conversation, there was nothing else. that was it. well, at least for twenty minutes before smoke started appearing out of the oven.
there was the sound of loud footsteps, then violet appeared in the camera.
"oh no, oh no!" violet throws the oven mitts on and throws the oven door open. she pulls the pan out of the oven and drops it on the counter.
max walks into the frame and tiptoes over to violet.
"the cake.." max trails off.
violet fans the cake with one of the oven mitts. "i'm so sorry max this is all my fault. we should've just looked up a recipe or called my parents or-"
max interrupts by hugging violet with one arm. she mumbles, "it's okay." and rests her head on violet's shoulder.
violet looks at the mess in the pan that could barely be called a cake. she looks back at max's face. "max i'm sorry-"
"shh." she interrupts. "it's okay, we don't need a cake. i just like hanging out with you."
"are-" violet hesitates. "are you sure?"
max nods and yawns, standing up straight. "c'mon, let's post our cooking video. i wanna see how famous we'll get!"
violet bites her bottom lip but a smile still appears on her face. she nods and walks over to the camera.
"i'm sorry max. we'll make a better birthday cake tomorrow."
"okay! that'll be fun. i'm gonna remind you tomorrow after school."
"we'll see the violet and max cooking show tomorrow!"
R E C O R D I N G E N D E D .