Cakes and Mistakes

Lena entered the PFP room last, as per usual.

“Brilliant.” Mizlin said with perfect pronunciation and posture. “Now that you’re here, we can get started.”

Lena’s eyes quickly skimmed over the room, and it immediately became clear that they were short a member.

“Where is Hamish?” She asked Mizlin, confusion evident in her voice.

“Ah, he decided to join ARC.” Mizlin stated plainly.

Lena blinked a few times, then looked at Zan and Exer. They seemed unbothered.

“Isn’t… Isn’t that a big deal?” She wondered aloud, twisting her fingers together. Leaving the Purpose Finding Program meant he had found his purpose, right? Shouldn’t they be celebrating or something?

Mizlin didn’t respond to her question, and Exer stared at the wall, pretending not to hear it.

“Oh, don’t worry.” Zan waved her hand dismissively. “He’ll be back soon enough.”

Lena’s confusion only grew, and her face scrunched up to reflect that.

Mizlin cleared her throat, deciding to swiftly move on from Hamish’s absence.

She straightened her posture and said, “Today we’ll be heading to Happy Mistakes, a nearby bakery who is holding a pastry workshop for us, and a few other PFP groups.”

---

Lena knew what baking was, obviously; it was one of her duties back home. She hadn’t had much experience with pastry, other than the kind for pies, but she could make a mean loaf of bread. Not that she enjoyed doing so in the slightest.

But Lena’s understanding of baking was challenged as soon as the storefront for Happy Mistakes came into view. The large glass window was set up to display a whole range of baked goods, though Lena wasn’t able to identify all of them.

The few things she recognised were more elaborate that the one’s she’d made herself. The loaves of bread were shaped into braided crowns or stacked atop each other like cakes – she suddenly felt less confident in her bread baking skills.

The others she didn’t recognise were mostly strange smooth blobs of various colours, stacked on other small blobs of various colours. They looked synthetic, inedible, yet also like they’d be really tasty.

Mizlin ushered her inside before she was able to admire the weirdness in its entirety.

While Mizlin chatted with someone at the front counter, the remaining trio of their PFP group entered the back room of the bakery together. It was a surprisingly vast room for such a quaint and cosy storefront. There was already a decent crowd inside, chatting away and lingering about various countertops.

A man turned to face them as soon as they entered. Lena was too busy admiring his crisp and monotone clothing to notice that Exer had slipped away. And she was too enamoured by his cool cape to hear Zan curse under her breath as he approached.

“No Hamish again?” He asked, and Lena was immediately disappointed by the amount of disdain in his voice. She’d hoped the conversation would start on a better note, and she’d be able to ask him where to get a cool cape of her own.

Zan’s usual cheeriness was replaced by a scowl. “He heard you were going to be here, so decided to sit this one out.”

As Lena pondered where Exer had gone, why there was so much animosity between the two, and why Zan would tell such a strange lie, the man’s discerning gaze fell onto her.

“You’re new, right?” His tone made a sudden shift from scorn, to incredibly polite. “I’m Gio, it’s lovely to meet you. I hope Zan hasn’t told you any lies about me already.”

Lena, who suddenly felt very on the spot, shook her head. “No, uh, she hasn’t mentioned you at all, I think…”

Gio smiled, though it didn’t quite reach his eyes. Lena felt sad that someone so nice to look at could have the personality of a snake – the snakes she’d met in the past at least had the dignity to have no sense of style.

“Back off.” Zan said, stepping forward so that she was between the two. “She’s from the Fringes, she’s got enough to deal with without your ridiculousness being added.”

“Right. I’d noticed.” Gio didn’t seem bothered by Zan’s outburst. He looked Lena up and down, not hiding his judgement. “There’s a hole in your shoe.”

Lena quickly looked at her feet. Just as he said, her left shoe had a hole in it by the base of heel. No wonder her heel was feeling a bit chilly today.

“Oh. Thanks.” She murmured.

“That wasn’t a compliment?” Gio said.

Zan rolled her eyes. “No shit.”

Lena accidentally ignored the both of them; all of her attention was now on this hole in her shoe. Vera said she could order anything she needed with her bracelet, but did that include tools for shoe repair? She’d have to check later.

“Let me give you some advice, newbie.” Gio said, prompting her to finally look up from her shoes. “There are a lot of great people out there, so don’t just settle with the people closest to you.”

He gave a very pointed look to Zan. It was clear there was a deeper meaning to his words, a meaning that served to rile Zan up. Lena began to understand why Exer had disappeared, and wished she had done the same.

“Oh, fuck off.” Zan crossed her arms over her chest. “I don’t know how many times I need to apologise. We were just kids!”

Yeah, Lena didn’t want to be in this conversation.

“Just one apology would be good.” He snarled.

Lena took a small step backwards. “Nice to meet you, Gio. I’m gonna go, uh, do something else.”

She turned and scurried away, not waiting to see their reactions. Lena promptly joined Exer at the opposite side of the room, who had found a corner of relative silence.

“You got away.” Exer stated as she approached, the tiniest hint of relief in their voice.

Lena spared a glance over her shoulder to the people she had run away from; they were still in conversation, and still looked incredibly annoyed.

“Yeah. That was… Strange.”