Survival Of The Fittest

The other two started to work on the frosting. Alvaro looked over at them. Alba was beating the butter, and he was pretty sure that Andrew was trying to mix stuff. They seemed to have the frosting under control so there really wasn't anything that Alvaro could do really. Which sucked. Alvaro loved cooking and not having anything to do kinda sucked. Probably the worst part of his day so far, which was funny, since it was something so insignificant that he would probably forget about it after his shift at the cafe ended. Oh yeah, he had a double shift today. That meant that he had to push his physics homework back, but that also meant that he could be with Lily a bit, if she came, so yay? He wasn't sure if she'd come, though. She hadn't appeared the past couple of days so maybe something was up on her end. Or she hated him after something that was innocuous to him ended up offending her. He hoped that it wasn't the latter, but it probably was. He'd have to find her and see if she was alone and ask what was up. Maybe then

Wait, no, not now. You're in class, Alvaro, and there is something that you can do.

He took the mixing bowl, and took it over to the sink. No water in it, whoops. He moved the tap over to the right sink, put the plug in, and started pouring hot water into the sink. He grabbed the detergent and squirted it into the pool of water. He might as well wash the dishes since nobody else was doing it.

Before he did so, though, he moved his finger through the bowl and got off some of the cake mix from it, before licking it.

Tasted good.

---

Ding!

And the cake was ready! It didn't really take that long, since Alvaro was doing the dishes. He always found that doing something and getting invested in it always helped to make the time go by. He sometimes got really invested in chess matches, and after he lost, it would turn out that far more time passed than he thought had passed. Time was a weird thing. Maybe he'd have a bigger look at it after he did his physics homework.

Getting to the topic though, Alvaro grabbed the oven mitts and put them on his hands. He did the same song and dance with the oven, reopening it so that he could take the cake out. He kinda dreaded opening it again, since he figured the heat would be worse since it had more time in the oven cooking something. Someone had to do it, though.

The heat wasn't actually that bad though, once he opened it. There was a brief surge, but he wasn't on fire or anything. Kinda like the feeling that you get when you walk into the Kingman sun during summer. He carefully pulled the cake out, and showed it to his two partners.

"And the cake is ready!"

…

"Barring the frosting, of course."

Alba let her mind drift around as she worked on the frosting. The frosting wasn't too difficult to make, and she made sure the ingredients were measured properly. But it gave her time to think about golf team and roller derby. The practices she needed to go to, the games she had to play, and the anticipation for all of the above were what flooded her mind. So of course, it would come to be that she remained quiet and out of the way of the guys until the cake was ready.

"Alright!" she shouted when Alvaro pulled the cake out.

It looked and smelled amazing. She grinned in excitement as he set the cake out. Alba started to think about how good it would taste. She also remembered that it would taste even better with her frosting on it.

"Okay, so let's get to frosting."

Alba walked over to the fridge and pulled the frosting out. She let it cool in the fridge while the cake was baking. She hoped the guys would be cool with her decorating the cake.

((Breaking post order to move this along, sorry Rugga))

Alba went and got the frosting out of the fridge. Alvaro wasn't really sure when she put it in the fridge, but it was a pretty good idea. It'd prevent the frosting from melting and it would provide a pretty neat contrast to the heat that the cake probably had. Man, he couldn't wait to have the cake. It looked and smelled delicious, and there weren't many foods that could do that and taste disgusting. Of course, there was potato bake, but from what he could remember potato bake was the exception, not the rule.

Alba had the frosting out, and he didn't really know where Andrew was. Considering that Alba made the frosting, it seemed a little fair that she got to decorate it. Plus, this was supposed to be a team job, and there wasn't an "I" in "team" after all.

"Do you wanna decorate the cake?"

((Skipping to help draw this to a close))

"Sure! Definitely" Alba said to Alvaro.

Alba took the rubber spatula out of the bowl and began to plop the frosting onto the cake. She hummed to herself as she tried to smooth it out. It probably wouldn't be the best looking cake, but it was probably going to taste great anyways. She continued to spread the frosting on, adding more and more each time it looked thin. There were times some of the cake would get mixed in with the frosting, but she continued on anyways.

When she was done, the cake looked somewhat decent. It was thinner on some sides and a little heavy on others. But at the very least, it looked covered.

"Okay, shall we eat?" she asked.

At least the best part came now.

((Alba Reyes continued in So Sorry For That Man!))

And now the cake was done, and it looked great. It seemed that he definitely had a future in being a potential future chef for the cafe. Not like there was really any choice for him, though. He was either going to work for his dad when he grew up or he was going to take over his dad's job back in Mexico. Neither were really bad prospects, though. He enjoyed cooking, and while he doubted that running a business was fun, it would be great if he was able to hold onto the Vacanti's torch. Maybe if he had a son he could raise him to take over the cafe in Kingman, keep it as a family business.

Alba asked if they could eat. "Wait, hold on a moment." He had to do something before they could eat. He reached a hand inside his pocket and took out his phone, turning it on and putting it into camera mode. It was a little hard to figure out what it'd look like with all the cracks in the screen (maybe he should get it repaired, if he could do that) but he eventually got the photo taken. After doing that, he put his phone back in his pocket. He'd show his dad the cake when he went home, assuming that he could see it through the cracks. As for now, though?

"Okay, let's eat now."

((Alvaro Vacanti, continued in Bad Days, Bad Moods, Bad Burgers))