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“Valentine’s Day?” Trey grabbed his chin ponderingly. “Can’t say I’ve heard that holiday before.”
Yuu had asked Trey to help her back a dessert for the special holiday, and the two stood in Heartslabyul Dorm’s kitchen.
“It’s a holiday from my world,” Yuu started. “It’s one of the few details I remember of it. It’s a holiday where girls will prepare sweets for important men in her life. It can range from friends to romantic partners.”
“Oh I see,” Trey smirked, placing his hand on his side. “I’m guessing you’d like to continue that holiday tradition and make something for Ace, Deuce and Grim?”
“Yeah,” Yuu fiddled with her hands nervously, “and for another special someone…”
“Oh I see. Well, what would you like to make? What sort of sweets are custom?”
“Typically it’s chocolate but, I was thinking for Ace and the others of baking some cookies.”
“Alright. Will you prepare cookies for this ‘special someone’ as well?” Trey strolled away to the kitchen cabinets to collect ingredients for the cookies. He began to open a cabinet above him to grab a bag of flour.
“I’m not sure what I’d like to make them,” Yuu admitted. “If I give them cookies, it wouldn’t be any different then, I think.”
“I see your point there.” Trey started piling the ingredients on the counter. “Oh, the cabinet by your feet will have the mixing bowls. Would you grab a medium sized one from there? Oh, and a small one too.” Yuu glanced down by her feet. “You mean here?”
“Yup. There should be metal bowls down there.” Yuu creaked open the cabinet and pulled out two metal bowls. “Are these the right size?” she inquired, displaying the bowls for him to see. “That’s about right. Please bring them here,” he nodded. Trey crossed his arms in thought. “Special someone, huh…? Are they like the romantic partner you mentioned earlier?” Yuu walked over with the bowls and handed them to Trey; he gave a short “Thanks,” in response. “Not…exactly,” she started. “More like…a crush, you could call it.”
“Oh?” Trey smiled smugly. “A crush you say? Gonna use this ‘Valentine’s’ to confess to them?” Yuu blushed and turned away with a pout. “Maaaaaybe,” she said. Trey chuckled. “Well, growing up in a family Cake Shop, I’ve at least learned how to make more than cake. Cookies should be simple enough. Were you going for sugar? Chocolate chip? I supposed I should’ve asked that first.”
“I was thinking chocolate chip,” Yuu said.
“Alright,” Trey started to walk towards another cabinet. “I believe we have some over here. We’re lucky it isn’t September though. Rule #35 states we can’t have chocolate chip cookies in September.” He gave a small, exasperated sigh.
“The rules here sure seem strict.”
“You’re telling me,” Trey walked back, a small back of chocolate chips in his hands.
“By the way, Trey, Do you ever get tired of cake since you grew up in a family-owned Cake shop?”
“Hmmm,” Trey pondered. “Oh, here’s the measuring stuff,” he handed her a set of red measuring cups and white measuring spoons. “In the bigger bowl, mix a cup of white and brown sugar. I’ll go soften the butter in the microwave,” he began to walk away with a stick of butter and the small bowl. Yuu took a cup size measuring cup from the set and went to put the two sugars into the larger bowl. After placing the butter and bowl into the microwave, Trey went to answer the previous question. “You would think I get sick of cake after all the years at the cake shop.” The microwave dinged, and he glanced in the bowl to check the status of the butter. “But there’s so many different kinds of cake- there’s white, chocolate, red velvet, sure. Then there’s more cheesecake, sponge cake, oh then there’s also jello cake.” He walked back over, bowl in hand with the softened butter. “Let me just pour this in with the sugar,” he said, then gently poured it into the mixture. “Here,” he handed her a whisk. “Mix this up until it’s smooth.”
Yuu nodded as she grabbed the whisk. She held the bowl with one hand to keep it stable and mixed the bowl. Trey nodded. “Yeah, just like that.”
“What is jello cake anyway?” Yuu inquired, after a bit of mixing.
“Oh, you probably don’t know huh. Here, next are the eggs. We’ll beat them in one at a time. I’ll crack them; you can keep stirring.” Trey grabbed one of the eggs, and expertly cracked one and added it to the mixture. “For jello cake, you take a normal cake, typically white cake and bake it as normal.” He cracked the second egg open and added it. “Next you’ll wanna get two teaspoons of the vanilla extract. It’s gonna be this brown bottle here.” Trey reached across in front of Yuu casually. She quickly let go of the whisk and bowl, drawing her arms toward her body. “Oh, sorry!” she exclaimed.
“Oh, no it’s my fault,” Trey handed over the bottle. “Guess I should’ve warned you or walked to the other side of you,” he chuckled, a bit embarrassed at himself. Yuu went to add the vanilla extract.
“After making the white cake,” Trey continued, “you wait for the cake to cool down, and poke holes in it with something like a toothpick or fork all over it. Then, you have a jello mixing available. Take that jello mixing before it has time to set, and slowly pour it over the cooled cake. Oh,” he paused, “I forgot the hot water.” Trey walked to another cabinet to grab a small cup.
“The cookies don’t seem to be that difficult,” Yuu said.
“No,” Trey turned on the hot water at the sink. “The most difficult part is just placing them in sizeable portions on the cookie sheet. I should also pre-heat the oven while I’m over here, huh?” The oven was within a feet of the sink. He stepped and leaned over to stretch his arm to turn the oven on. “175 degrees Celsius is about where we want to be,” he told himself. “Could you grab a cookie sheet from the cabinet at your right?”
“The higher or lower one?” Yuu asked.
“Lower.”
Yuu knelt down, and saw different sized, metal cookie sheets. “Trey, about how big do we need for this recipe?”
“This recipe will probably make about 15 cookies, so a medium-sized one will do,” he answered, walking back. Yuu withdrew what she presumed was a medium-size sheet and set it on the counter.
“Trey, wouldn’t the cake get soggy from the jello mixture?”
“That’s a pretty common question. Oh, take two teaspoons of the baking soda and dissolve it in this hot water. Then we’ll pour it in the mixture. You can just mix it with the teaspoon.”
Yuu took the cup of hot water handed to her and carefully measured the baking soda to pour in. She used the teaspoon to gently stir the cup and poured it into the mixture.
“Good. Now we just need to add 3 cups of flour and the chocolate chips. Then we’re ready to spoon them onto a cookie sheet.”
A few minutes later, Trey and Yuu had spooned out about 15 sizeable chunks of the batter onto the ungreased cookie sheet and placed it into the oven. “They’ll just take about 10 minutes,” Trey said. He crossed his arms and leaned back on the counter. “So will you just put the cookies into small bags and hand it to them on the day of? What day was it again?”
Yuu nodded, “Yes, I already bought a few bags from the school store,” she pointed to her bookbag, implying the location of said bags for the cookies. “Valentine’s day is the day after tomorrow. Thank you for your help Trey,” she smiled sweetly.
“Well you were a pleasure to instruct, Yuu,” Trey crossed his arms. “You follow instructions pretty well. You also are pretty good with your hands. I have a lot of patience from having all my younger siblings, but you were no problem at all.” He smiled, shrugging a bit.
After a small pause, Yuu brought up, “Trey, how did the rest of that jello cake recipe go?”
“Hm? Oh… Where was I…? Oh yeah,” Trey stood straight up and uncrossed his arms. “You chill the cake overnight to let the jello set. Then you take the cake out and frost it with something like whipped cream.” Yuu nodded. Trey glanced up in thought, “Though if you made something like that for a special someone, you’d probably want to use either cherry or strawberry jello for the flavoring. It might come off cuter that way. You could even put food coloring in the whipped cream to make it pink too…”
Suddenly there was the sound of loud footsteps approaching the counter. A Heartslabyul student appeared at the doorway, panting. “Vice Dorm leader!” he said urgently. “There’s trouble! Please come at once!”
“Tch,” Trey sighed. “Is it Riddle or another troublemaker this time…? Sorry, Yuu. I have to bail,” he started for the doorway and student. “The cookies should probably be good to take out now. Just make sure they’re a light shade of brown at the edges. Wait for them to cool for a few minutes then just bag them up. I probably won’t be back soon, so I’ll see you at school tomorrow.” Trey ran with the student out of the kitchen.
“Okay…” Yuu looked toward the oven. “Wait, where are the oven mitts?”
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Valentine’s Day
“Cookies~ Cookies~ Cookies~” Grim hummed to himself, tightly holding a small back of cookies. “I get cookies and you don’t!” he mocked at Ace and Deuce. It was the morning of Valentine’s day, and the four were in the classroom before the first bell.
“Grim,” Yuu said exhaustively, “I have cookies for them too.” She grabbed two more cookie bags from her bag.
“What?!” Grim exclaimed.
“Ha! Take that furball!” Ace grinned as he received his bag.
“This is from a holiday in your world?” Deuce asked, receiving his bag as well.
“Yeah, it’s kinda like a ‘thanks for being my friend’ sort of gift,” she giggled nervously.
“I’d feel bad accepting such a gift without having one in return,” Deuce admitted.
“Oh, there’s actually something called White Day too,” Yuu smiled. “Exactly one month from today, boys that received a gift on Valentine’s day give a gift to the girl as a return gift.”
“I see…” Deuce grabbed his chin, pondering as he stared at his bag of cookies.
“Whaaaat? I have to repay you next month? What am I supposed to even get?” Ace groaned.
“Haha! You must pay her back!” Grim mocked again.
“You have to pay her back too, Grim!”
“No need! Just being in the presence of yours truly is a gift Yuu may receive every day!” he boisterously laughed. Ace just sighed, defeated by Grim’s egomaniac tendencies.
“Thank you for the cookies,” Deuce spoke.
“Ah, yeah, thanks,” Ace added. “Are they homemade?”
Yuu nodded, “Yeah, Trey helped me out.”
“Awesome!” Ace said.
“If you received help from Clover, I’m sure they’ll be delicious. By the way, is that another container in your bag?”
Yuu jumped, pulling the opening of her bag shut. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Hmmmmmmmm,” the three said in unison.
“Yuu,” Grim started.
“Didn’t you mention the holiday is also to give sweets to a person of romantic interest?” Deuce inquired.
“Yuu…” Ace smirked smugly. “Who’s the special romantic interest?”
“Is it for someone in our class?” Deuce asked, glancing around the room.
“No fair! I want a special gift too!” Grim protested.
“Are the cookies not special enough for you, Grim? I’ll gladly take them back,” Yuu threatened.
“Fwah! No! No they’re fine! Don’t take them back!”
At that time, the first bell of the day sounded, and everyone hurried to get to their seats before the teacher arrived.
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Lunch break
Ace gave a heavy sigh, “Finally lunchtime,” he popped down at his table, sitting across from Deuce and grim, beside Yuu. Beside Deuce’s lunch was the small bag of cookies he had received earlier.
“Deuce,” Ace started, “you still haven’t eaten your cookies?”
“Of course not,” Deuce stated, fork of food almost to his mouth. “It’s against school rules to eat food in class.”
“Hey,” Ace said casually. “Give me one.”
“What? No! You had your own bag! It’s not my fault you ate it on one sitting!”
“Hey! If Ace is getting one, I want one too!” Grim exclaimed, raising his fork of food up into the air. This caused the food to slip off and fall to the floor. “Nooooooo! My hamburg steeeeeeeeak!”
“I’m not sharing any of my cookies! So stop asking!” Deuce protectively wrapped his arm around the bag, slapping Ace’s outstretched hand thinking he was being sneaky.
“Stingy…” Ace turned toward Yuu. “Yuu, you’ve been awful quiet.” Yuu was surveying the cafeteria, looking around. On her lap was the small container that was in her bag from before. “Ohh?” Ace made a mischievous look and snatched it. “Hey!” Yuu turned toward him, “Give that back!” She leaned over him as Ace leaned away, stretching his arm backwards to keep Yuu from reaching.
“Ace, stop being so gluttonous,” Deuce scolded.
“Yeah! Share some with me!” Grim exclaimed.
“It’s not for any of you!” Yuu yelled.
“Oh, there’s a sticky note on it!” Ace flipped the lid to face him. Yuu stiffened in response. “Let’s just see who it’s for…”
At that moment, it was do or die for Yuu, so she took the opportunity to give Ace a gut punch. He bent forward to hold his stomach in pain. Deuce and Grim sat there speechless as Yuu snatched away the container and started walking briskly to the hallway. “Hey Yuu!” Ace yelled at her back, “What’s the big idea?!”
Yuu walked out into the hallway and leaned against the wall, heaving a sigh. “I should’ve skipped the note,” she mumbled, grabbing the sticky note from the lid, then crumpling it to stash in her pocket.
“Oh, Yuu. What are you doing here?” A familiar voice spoke out to her from down the hall. She jolted in surprise and saw him walking toward her. “Oh, Trey. What are you doing here? Lunch started a while ago.”
“The Dorm Leader wanted a quick meeting after class, but it dragged on longer than expected,” Trey sighed. “Aren’t you having lunch?” he asked, stopping to stand beside her. Then Trey noticed the container in her hands. He smiled smugly. “Oh? Is that your gift for your special someone?” Yuu looked down and blushed.
“Hm? Oh this looks like...” he grabbed the container from her hands to get a better look. “It looks like you made a piece of jello cake. You were curious to make it yourself, huh?” Trey smiled, handing it back to her. “Were you gonna give it to them during lunch break?”
Yuu still looked down, holding the container of cake, nodding.
“Well, I hope they like it,” Trey said. His voice was gentle, sounding like he was truly rooting for Yuu.
After a pause, Yuu quietly spoke, “…Me too,” before thrusting the container towards Trey. He jolted and blinked. “Wait wasn’t this for-” he cut himself off, making the realization. He stood there, a bit frozen, staring at the container. After a while, Yuu looked up toward Trey, not sure about the pause. When their eyes met, he glanced away quickly. Trey’s ears appeared a bit pink. He was also lightly scratching at his cheek.
“So that’s who the special someone was… I was kinda curious myself. I guess I got my answer,” Trey laughed nervously. Yuu pulled back her container and looked down dejectedly. Trey noticed how depressing her body posture looked and quickly turned back to her. “Wait! No! I just—Uh…”
“Trey!” Riddle exclaimed from down the hallway. “Rule #297 says we cannot loiter in the hallways. Why are you not in the cafeteria?” The way he walked was as confident-looking as ever.
“Oh, Dorm leader!” Trey quickly snatched the container from Yuu and hid it behind his back as he turned to greet Riddle. “I was just talking with Yuu, but we’ve finished our conversation and are off to the cafeteria.”
“I see,” Riddle stated. “Hello, Yuu.” She lightly nodded back as a greeting.
“Well, let us make haste to have lunch while we still have time,” he started to make his way toward the doorway. “Yeah yeah, I’m coming,” Trey started to walk behind Riddle. Before passing the doorway, he turned a bit around towards Yuu and mouthed, “Thank you,” while holding the container, smiling.
Yuu smiled back and began her way back to her lunch table.
“Oh Yuu, you’ve returned,” Deuce commented.
“Hm? You don’t have the container anymore? Where’d you put it?” Grim asked.
“Wait… Did you give it to your ‘special someone’?” Ace asked on top. “Who was it? Spill!”
Yuu picked up her fork and stabbed a few green beans on her plate. “Don’t worry about it,” she said putting the food in her mouth.