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"Happy birthday!"
"Did you make this yourself?" From anyone else, the question might've been alarmed, but Juniper seemed genuinely delighted as she examined the cake with its admittedly uneven coating of frosting and the shakily hand-lettered HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUNIE!
"I sure did!" Amateur or not, Athena was proud of her creation. "Uh, those are supposed to be flowers," she added, pointing at the colored blobs that decorated the cake around the words. "Those didn't come out so well."
"It's perfect," Juniper said with a smile.
Athena cut out two slices of the cake and slid one of the plates towards Juniper. "Birthday girl takes the first bite!"
Juniper laughed, picked up her fork, and took a bite.
...and stopped.
"Is it...okay?" Athena asked.
Juniper held up a finger and chewed very carefully and swallowed before saying, "Thena, how much vanilla did you put in this?"
"I...don't know?" Athena asked, wilting. "The recipe just said to add some..."
Juniper was laughing again. "Try it."
Athena did, cautiously, and immediately spat her bite out into her napkin. "That's not vanilla," she said, horrified. "What is that?"
"It's vanilla," Juniper reassured her. "Or it's vanilla extract, really. Have you never tried to taste plain vanilla extract?"
"No! I know you're not supposed to do that."
"Because it tastes like rubbing alcohol," Juniper said. "It's okay, Thena, you just know better for next time now."
"I ruined your birthday!" Athena said. "I wanted to impress you with my baking skills..." Not that she had any, really, but she hadn't thought it would be too hard.
"Hmm," Juniper said. "I think I have the ingredients to make a new cake. I can show you the ropes, and then next time you can try on your own. How does that sound?"
"We're going to make the best cake ever," Athena said, jumping up from the table. "And then next year I'm going to make you an even better one!"
"That's the spirit! Go get the flour from the pantry."