The Second Present

Indecisive, I look from Yuki to the other, not knowing what to do. I want to stop Yuki from looking at all the mistakes on my entrance exam, I would like to save her embarrassment. But at the same time, it would be very impolite to not open the door.

At the end, I gave in, stopping Yuki and decided to just open the door.

“Going!” I opened the door.

“Hi dumb guy” another surprise has arrived at my front door.

Lucy!? What is she doing here?

“Here” she extends her arm, with a plastic bag on it.

“What is this?” I ask while grabbing it, although I already know the answer.

“A gift”.

I knew it.

“It is to thank you for your help yesterday”.

“You didn’t have to”.

Let me guess, it wasn’t your idea.

“My parents wanted me to do it anyway”.

I knew it.

“Thank you anyway”.

What a surprise. To think both of them will bring me a present, although they were kinda forced, it is still something nice on their part.

“Can I ask what it is?” I open the bag and look inside, there is a small white container.

“Donauwelle”.

Maybe something from German, because I never heard that name before, and I cannot repeat even the sound.

“I never heard of it before. Is it from Germany?”.

“Yeah, well it has different names. You may have heard of Schneewittchenkuchen?”.

“No, not at all”.

“What about Schneewittchentorte? That’s another name for it as well".

“Neither that one” All the names are super difficult and strange, at least for me.

“Weird. I thought this super delicious dessert was known all over the world” she looked very confused.

“Is it sweet?” I asked.

“Yes, it is a sheet cake”.

“A sheet cake” I had never heard of that type of cake before.

“It consists of two-pound cakes, one on the bottom, flavored with vanilla, and one on top of it, flavored with chocolate. It has cherries, buttercream, it also has chocolate ganache added to the top, and when the cake is being baked, the tart cherries will fall down through the batter, making a wavy pattern”.

I guess she loves this dessert as well as Yuki loves hers. Or at least she is very passionate about it, for her to explain it to me with so much detail and energy. I bet she would like to eat it as well.

“Well, I don't eat too many sweets, that's why I don't know many desserts. I may be the only one that doesn't know it”.

“I don't know it either”.

“Ahhh!” I jump in surprise as Yuki speaks from behind me.

“Stop doing that!”.

“Doing what?”.

“How long have you been there?” I put my hand on my hearth, trying to hold it from escaping.

“What are you doing here?” Luci asks Yuki.

“Nothing just came to deliver something”.

“I see”.

“What are YOU doing here?”.

“Nothing just came to give him something”.

“...”.

What is this tension I’m feeling here? Not good, I have to do something.

Just then the whistle of the boiler was heard from the kitchen.

“Oh, that’s right, would you like to drink some tea with us?”.

“...”.

“We can eat this… hmmm… do… dawi…”.

“Donauwelle”.

“Yeah, that. We can eat it together with some tea. Yuki brought something too”.

“...’.

She looks at me and Yuki who is behind me and accepts the invitation. I tell them to wait at the dinner table while I prepare another plate and teacup for Luci.

“Do you drink any specific tea?” I ask Luci.

“Black tea”.

“Okay”.

As I’m taking everything to the table, I notice both Yuki and Luci, sitting next to each other holding my entrance exam. I totally forgot I left that there.

As I approach the table, they stop looking at my exam and start looking at me. I continue walking, ignoring their stares. I feel heavy glances of disappointment.

I sit at the table, in front of them and I start serving the tea. After a few seconds of intensive staring, I couldn't take anymore, and I made my escape.

“Where are you going?” Luci grabs my arms as I pass next to her.

“Bathroom”.

“Could you first explain to us what this is?” She pointed at the exam that Yuki was holding.

“Never saw that paper before”.

“Interesting” said Yuki.

“Then, why is your name here?” she added, pointing at my name on the top of the paper.

I cannot escape anymore. I accepted my destiny and told them about how Bernard gave me my entrance exam to study my mistakes.

“More than mistakes, these are abominations”.

“Totally aberrations”.

“The worst thing I ever see”.

“Horrific”.

“Could you girls consider my feelings for once?” I try to stop the knives being thrown at my heart.

“Look I try hard, okay? I spent two whole weeks studying for that exam, day and night. I did what I could and still failed. I’m the most disappointed”.

“...”.

“Give us a moment”.

Both of them go to the kitchen and start whispering. I stay in my place wondering what they are talking about. Honestly, now I see that for them I am actually a stupid person. Things that they can do with closed eyes are so hard for me. And seeing that I have so many mistakes in things they won't even make if they try to would obviously surprise them. In the end, I don't think I even deserve to be taught by people like them.

A few minutes go by before they come back and sit at the table again.

“After careful consideration, we decided that…”.

Why does it feel like I’m about to not get the job?

“We are going to help you get the responses for this exam right”.

“Huh?”.

“Well, you helped us out yesterday, so I guess we owe you one” Yuki says.

“Yeah, that and also I can't stand those errors, so you better learn quickly because I have no patience at all”.

I have no words, I can’t believe they actually want to help me, I better use this opportunity to the fullest.

We spend the rest of the morning practicing and reviewing my mistakes. We drank tea and ate those desserts that the girls brought while getting every mistake corrected.

Time went flying, and I feel like I learned a lot in that time, things looked clearer to me. It was a nice study session, or that’s what I thought.