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The sweet, shrill sound of the final school bell means many things to students. Most people believe the bell signifies freedom from the prison better known as high school for a handful of hours. On a normal day, Andi would agree with that statement. On this day, however, the final bell evoked nervousness and stress. She knew that in a couple of minutes, her actions had the potential to make or break her school’s art department. Whether it survived or not depended on her leadership, marketing, and networking skills.
Okay, perhaps she was being slightly dramatic. Her high school’s art department was hosting their annual bake sale, and she had volunteered to organize it. Thankfully, she wasn’t organizing the bake sale alone. She was working with a couple of other students in the art department, and a couple of her friends had offered to bake some treats for the fundraiser. However, Andi couldn’t help but feel as if she had to prove herself to her fellow students; she had to show that just because she was a freshman, she wasn’t any less responsible or hardworking. This may prove to be a challenge, though. After all, she did put some of the responsibility in the hands of her friends. Her wild, unpredictable friends.
That might have been a mistake.
Putting her slightly pessimistic thoughts aside, Andi grabbed her backpack and rushed to the front of the school, only stopping to grab some desserts that she stored in the teachers’ lounge. She arrived at a foldable table dressed with a maroon tablecloth with her arms full of various brownies, cookies, and cake pops. After placing them down carefully on the table, she looked around and realized she was the only person there.
Maybe I’m early, Andi nervously thought to herself, impulsively checking her watch. No, she wasn’t “early”. The bake sale was supposed to officially begin at 3:10, and it was already 3:03. This realization made her panic a bit, especially when she noticed eager buyers lurking around the area, eyeing the treats Andi had just laid out.
She checked her phone for a possible text from the group chat explaining everyone else's tardiness, but there was no new message. She even tried calling some of the other committee members and was met with a voicemail after every attempt. Andi checked her watch again. 3:05.
Before Andi could start to really panic, she heard a familiar voice and was relieved.
“Hey,” Buffy called, walking up to the table with some Rice Krispie treats in her hands, “where is everybody?”
Andi took the desserts from Buffy’s hands, placed them down on the table, then threw her arms around one of her best friends. “Oh, Buffy! I’m so glad you’re here. I don’t know where any of the other volunteers are, I don’t know if I’ll end up having enough desserts, I’m basically running this whole thing by myself-”
“Okay, okay.” Buffy interrupted, doing her best to calm down her frantic friend. “Don’t worry. I can stay around to help you, and Cyrus, TJ, and Jonah said they would help bring some other desserts, right?”
“Right.” Andi responded.
“See! We already have a good amount of food here. This plus the stuff Cyrus and Jonah are bringing will definitely be enough for the bake sale.”
Andi nervously checked her watch once again. “Well, I hope they’re coming soon. It’s already 3:06.”
As Andi and Buffy began to lay out the treats and a line started to form, Cyrus, TJ, and Jonah all walked up to the table at the same time.
“Hey, Andiman!” Jonah said, holding a store bought tray of cupcakes in his hand. “I hope you don’t mind that I didn’t make these. I’m not exactly a good baker.”
“Don’t worry about it.” Andi smiled with relief, “I’ll just check to see if there are any allergens in these and put them out. Thank you so much!”
Cyrus and TJ, both wearing a silly grin, each held out a tray of lopsided, misshaped muffins. One tray was full of chocolate-chocolate chip muffins while the other was blueberry macadamia nut. Andi stared at them for a bit, doing her best to hide her disgust, before looking up at the two boys.
“We baked these really early this morning.” Cyrus giggled, looking at his baking partner, “They, uh, didn’t turn out as aesthetically pleasing we hoped, though.”
Buffy scoffed, eyeing the muffins. “You think?”
“But that doesn’t matter! What’s important is how they taste.” TJ chimed in. With that, before Andi could protest, TJ grabbed one of his own muffins and took a bite into it, dropping loose crumbs on the ground around him. His face shriveled in disgust, then changed to show delight, then changed back to a dissatisfied frown. He finally swallowed the bite and cleared his throat.
“Well,” TJ said weakly, “let’s just hope the chocolate ones came out better than these.”
Andi started to panic a bit, but took the muffins from the boys quietly and placed them on the table. “Thanks guys. I appreciate the effort.”
“Hey, you three should stick around and help us with the bake sale. No one showed up to help except for Andi, so we could use the extra help.” Buffy suggested, motioning to the growing long line of buyers.
“I’m down.” Jonah nodded.
“Me too.” Cyrus joined in.
“And so am I.” TJ threw an arm around both Cyrus and Jonah.
“Great,” Andi checked her watch once again and saw the time hit 3:10, “we have a bake sale to run then.”
---
After about an hour and a half, the long line of hungry students had dwindled down to a couple still looking to buy some leftover treats. Andi was relieved that the bake sale had gone pretty well. Buffy spent her time keeping the line under control. Andi and Jonah focused on selling the actual goods and handled the money. Jonah was often more persuasive when it came to getting a customer to buy an extra dessert, as his warm smile and dashing looks were able to charm anyone. Cyrus and TJ volunteered to do whatever was needed, whether that was throwing away empty containers and wrappers, or holding up some signs to attract new consumers.
“Alright guys,” Andi smiled after the final customers left, “the bake sale is officially over!”
Everyone cheered and made their way back over to the table. Although the sale was over, almost all of TJ’s blueberry macadamia muffins were left on the table.
“Hey,” TJ frowned, “why didn’t anyone buy my muffins?”
Andi giggled. “Well, they don’t look the most appealing. I wouldn’t buy them, either.”
TJ shrugged and grabbed the tray of muffins from the table. “More for me, I guess.”
“But Cyrus’ muffins looked just as gross, yet people bought those.” Buffy pointed out Cyrus’ empty muffin tray.
“Everyone knows that the chocolate-chocolate chip muffin is superior to any other kind of muffin, regardless of how they look.” Cyrus threw a smug smile in TJ’s direction.
“Or,” Jonah peered into a nearby trash can, “they bought them, took a bite, then tossed them out.”
Everyone laughed except for Cyrus, who jokingly frowned and crossed his arms.
“At least the bake sale was a success! We reached our goal in sales.” Andi said, not even caring that none of the other volunteers showed up. She was just relieved that she pulled it off with the help of her friends.
“Well, what do you guys want to do now?” Buffy asked, looking around.
Cyrus shrugged. “I could go for a muffin.”