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 Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 4:52 am
Gigi hated hospital-grade doom and gloom. She’d dropped everything when her dad messaged her that Aunt Giovanna was being admitted again, but the nurses had kicked her out of the ward after only a few minutes, so the doctor could have a Serious Word with her dad. It wasn’t fair, she thought, her aunt was supposed to be getting better, not worse. Doctors were supposed to stop this stuff. But at least it wasn’t chemo – this time.
Now she was stuck hanging around the waiting area until they were ready to let her come back in. She wasn’t leaving until she saw that her aunt was okay – she’d brought daffodils. They weren’t specifically fundraising flowers, but buying them at the hospital had to count for something, right? She got three bouquets, which was all she could afford, and wandered back towards the uncomfortable plastic chairs. Half-way there, though, she spotted a familiar face – a familiar earring. Her history study buddy! A welcome distraction from the oppressive atmosphere of held breaths and hoping.
“Hey!” she called, which was not very effective in the crowd of worried visitors. Clutching her bouquets, she ducked and wove through the crowd (which wasn’t appropriate hospital behaviour either) until she reached the dark-haired boy. “Arian! Hi!”
She gave him a critical look, suddenly worried he might be here as a patient rather than a visitor, but fortunately he didn’t look sick to her, and her friendly smile was back in place in an instant.
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Posted: Sat Oct 15, 2011 1:00 pm
Saffy had started to hint that there was such a thing as too much chocolate, so Arian had whipped up a batch of raspberry ripple minis instead of the double chocolate brownies he’d initially been planning to bring.
He’d been a bit amused when the lady at the desk in the waiting area had recognised him as Saffron Laith’s little cousin and offered her a cupcake – which had been politely refused. He was in the process of contemplating the uncomfortable-looking plastic seats and debating whether he really wanted to sit on one, when he heard his name being called.
He recognised the owner of the voice as the girl who’d helped him out over the holidays with his catch-up work in History. “Miss Gigi” he gave her a friendly smile. “What brings you here?” He eyed the bouquets. He hoped it wasn’t anything bad.
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 5:13 am
Oh great, he remembered her! She grinned, juggling the flowers to wave at him. It was kind of funny being a ‘miss’, like something out of an old movie. “How’d your G-exams go? I bet you aced them~!”
Her cheeriness took a bit of a hit at the question.
“Oh, um. My aunt’s here, that’s all.” She hitched up her armload of flowers with a shrug, the ruffle-edged petals tickling her cheek, and reminded herself to think positive, especially in front of her friend. “So, visiting! My dad’s in with her now, I have to wait till the doctors are done.” Hopefully it wouldn’t be too long. They’d just be all ‘false alarm, we did some scans and it’s cool!’. And the nurses would pack them off home. Daffodils would be prettier in her aunt’s big kitchen than in a hospital ward.
“She maybe doesn’t need all of these. Want some? You’re visiting someone too?”
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Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2011 1:10 pm
“My GCSEs?” Arian asked but continued before receiving a response “Well I did okay for the most part, I got mostly Cs and a couple of As and Bs. I totally screwed up my Maths exam though and my Physics paper on my Double Award Science exam.” not that he'd been particularly surprised considering that he sucked at Maths and had never been particularly brilliant at Physics.
“I'm sorry to hear about your Aunt” an awkward note slipped into his voice as the cheeriness faded somewhat from Gigi's face. “I hope it's nothing too serious.”
At Gigi's query about daffodils, Arian replied with a flustered “They're beautiful, but I wouldn't want to impose.” Then when she queried whether he himself was visiting someone his face turned solemn “Yes, I'm visiting my cousin. She got hurt in that city council meeting that's been on the news recently.” He indicated the box he was holding "I bought her some cupcakes since hospital food doesn't tend to be that brilliant."
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Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 5:06 am
"Maths sucks," Gigi commiserated, nodding her head. "But Cs are pretty good, I like Cs! How about the history one, how was that?"
She'd really rather talk about exams than her aunt. To be honest, she'd rather take an exam. People got such a pitying look in their eyes when she mentioned it was cancer, like there was no hope at all. She hated that. "She's been sick for a while. But I'm sure she'll get better this time."
Arian's cousin's fate was of considerably more interest. Her eyes widened to hear of someone who'd been attacked. Gigi hadn't really been paying attention to the news, but what she had heard had been pretty nasty. "Omigod, seriously, the terrorists? That's awful, I hope she's not hurt too bad! I'm so sorry! And you guys haven't even been living here very long. That's so unlucky. Cupcakes are a brilliant idea, though! I never thought to bring food in before."
She looked curiously at the box, wondering where he'd bought them, and if they were the fancy decorated kind.
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Posted: Sat Oct 22, 2011 2:50 pm
“History was one of the papers that I got a C in.” Arian was okay with it – in his opinion C was a pretty solid grade and a whole lot better than grade E, F or even worse grade G. He wasn't sure how to respond after Gigi response to his question was that her aunt had been sick for a while, eventually settling for “I hope she gets better soon” while hoping that it hadn't sounded trite or anything.
Arian bit his lip awkwardly as Gigi's talk turned to the 'terrorists'. “It could have been worst” he said at last. “Some people were hurt much worst.” And some had died there – actually quite a few people had died because of the negaverse – it wasn't something he could really talk about though, especially since according to the news he was supposedly one of the said terrorists.
He was relieved Gigi talked about cupcakes and seized on the subject change gratefully “They're just raspberry ripple” he opened up the container to show her the raspberry-swirled buttercream topping on each of the small cakes. “There's kind of a lot here though.” Okay, so he had baked a lot of them. “Want to try one?” The container was held out in offering.
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 7:09 pm
Gigi was happy enough to accept the standard aunt response, nodding her thanks, both for the well-wishes and for the polite dropping of the topic. There was just no way to talk about it without being a complete downer, and she didn’t want that for her friend when he had family here too.
“Well I’m glad to hear that. Uh, that you’re cousin’s not too bad, not about the other people.” The terrorists got so many people, it was really sad. She’d had a dream once, ages ago – there were good guys and bad guys, like a comic. But it was like they were all bad now. How did kids in such cute costumes go around destroying everything?
Then the cupcake box was opened and the morbid train of thought happily derailed. “Just?” Gigi shook her head with a disbelieving laugh, admiring the treats. There was no such thing as ‘just’ when it came to cupcakes. And these were adorable, with the pretty swirly-patterned frosting and everything. Finally she twigged to the type of container they were in, the lack of any labels. “Omigosh, are these homemade?” A moment ago she’d been delighted. Now she was seriously impressed.
“Are you sure? I would really really love one! I’ll swap you, flowers for cupcake! Thank you so much!”
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Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2011 11:18 pm
“Yes they're home-baked” Arian admitted with a nod, slightly embarrassed at Gigi's enthusiastic response. He was so not going to admit to baking them himself. Not at all. Well okay maybe he would – but only if directly asked.
He couldn't help but smile at Gigi's offer to swap “Sure I'm sure you can have one, you can have more than one if you want – as I said there's kind of a lot in there.” He added “I wouldn't mind trading some for a few of your flowers.” Trading seemed a lot fairer than outright taking and Saffy probably would like the flowers, not that he'd ever thought to bring any. “But you should probably see if you like the cupcakes first before offering to trade anything.”
For all he knew Gigi might hate them and Arian didn't want her to regret her offer.
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 8:09 am
All trades were fair trades in Gigi’s book. It wasn’t unusual for her to swap rare game cards for pretty commons she didn’t have yet, with no thought to actual values. Monetary cost had little bearing when she so rarely had money to spend. There was no way she’d be pulling out just a few of the flowers. He was getting a whole bunch, no arguments.
“Who wouldn’t like cupcakes? Seriously, they’re cupcakes! What's not to like?”
The bunches of daffodils were summarily dropped onto the nearest uncomfortable hospital chair, freeing her hands so she could pick a cupcake out of the box. One was plenty for her, there was no point being greedy, even if he had loads. Maybe if her dad came back she’d take him up on the offer of more.
“So who baked them?” she asked, dipping her finger in the icing for a first taste - so good! She hadn’t heard Arian mention any family but his cousin, so if she was in hospital, who’d made the delicious? He seemed a little shy about it, which made her suspect they were his work.
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Posted: Sat Nov 05, 2011 4:43 pm
Well Arian liked cupcakes – even better if they were the mini variety which were so addictive – but he also had a pretty sweet tooth. “I suppose it depends on the flavour, there's some pretty strange cupcakes out there.” Like the bacon and maple syrup one he'd seen on the telly once. Arian personally wasn't sure he'd want to try one of those – after cupcakes were supposed to be dessert things – not something you'd contemplate having for breakfast.
With his mind caught of the wrongness of savoury things masquerading as desserts, Gigi's query about the baker of the cupcakes took him a little by surprise “Um I did,” before adding “I think Saffy, my cousin, wanted something other than cookies.”
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Posted: Tue Nov 15, 2011 4:19 am
"Strange like how?" she asked, cupping her hand beneath the cake so as not to lose a single delicious crumb. "Veggies and stuff?" Her mother had made pumpkin scones once. She'd refused to even try them. "Hospital food sucks," Gigi continued, before her brain caught up with the conversation. "These are *really* good! How did you learn to-- You can make cookies too? Wow!"
That was it, she was totally stealing him for a fundraising bake-sale at some point. Anti-cancer cupcakes, anti-terrorist cookies. It would be amazing.
Her mind turning back to the patients here, another thought occurred. "If your cousin's in here, who are you living with? I hope she doesn't have to stay in too long."
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Posted: Sat Nov 19, 2011 10:46 am
“Strange like bacon and maple syrup or spinach and feta cheese – that kind of thing” Arian replied in answer to Gigi's question. “I think it's supposed to be gourmet or something – but personally I think cupcakes are something that should be sweet.” Seriously they were cakes, to Arian the notion of a 'savoury' cake just seemed plain wrong.
He shrugged slightly, pleased that Gigi liked the cupcake, but also a little embarrassed about her enthusiastic response about his baking skills. “I have a sweet tooth.” Actually to call it a very sweet tooth would probably be more accurate.
The dark-haired teen felt slightly relieved as Gigi changed the subject and asked about where he was living – being able to bake wasn't something Arian saw as a big deal. “We've got something worked out with one of our neighbours.” Madam Thomas, a friendly lady in her early fifties, owned the apartment next to theirs and Arian was under instructions to drop by her place should he need anything.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 3:38 am
"Ugh, gourmet!" Gigi nodded, excessively enthusiastic agreement. "Why would anyone do that to poor innocent cupcakes?! Sweet is much better."
It went better with coffee, for a start. You didn't really have, say, carrot sticks with coffee. Cake and pastries were the way to go. Maybe sandwiches, but only as a last resort. With a grin, she popped the last of the sweet treat into her mouth.
"So good! You're amazing!" She continued when the last scrap of icing was gone. Her friend's discomfort at her praise went unnoticed. "That's really nice of your neighbours, it sucks not to have anyone around. I hope it's not for long though. Hey, you should come over to my place sometime! My mum always makes too much dinner, she wouldn't mind a guest!"
It was a sore point - her mum still cooked meals for three, without seeming to realise. Just another little imbalance to the universe that would be solved if her dad moved back in. Having a guest over would be nice, and Arian had been very sweet giving her the cupcake and everything. It didn't occur to her that the offer might be in any way awkward to the boy.
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Posted: Sun Nov 27, 2011 8:02 am
It seemed Gigi agreed with him on the idea of savoury cakes being just plain wrong if her response was anything to go by.
Arian's felt his face reddening at Gigi's continued enthusiastic praise of his baking skills “It's just a bit of baking, outside of that I only know the basics.” Arian wasn't into cooking as a whole – baking was a good way of feeding his hopelessly sweet tooth, but other forms of cooking – to be honest he found coming up with jewellery ideas and then trying to craft them out so much more interesting and hadn't put any effort into learning anything other than the basics.
The invite over to her place took Arian by surprise, the dark-haired teen not sure if she was actually serious about the offer, not that the offer wasn't a sweet one – it was – but it didn't make it sound any less out of the blue. “That would be nice” he said at last. “If it's not too much trouble for your Mother” and then – partly because he was feeling a little awkward and partly because Gigi had liked the first one – Arian offered over the box of cupcakes again “Feel free to take another if you want.”
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Posted: Tue Dec 27, 2011 5:14 am
It took Gigi quite a while to notice the blush creeping up Arian's face, and even when she did spot it, she couldn't quite work out what to attribute it to. Her knowledge of things that made boys turn red was limited, and she couldn't think of anything she'd said or done to upset him. She picked up her flowers again, leaving one bunch on the chair for him to collect if he still wanted it.
"What's wrong? No way are these basic, they taste too good!" she tried again to cheer him up. "And it wouldn't be any trouble, my mum won't mind at all. But, um, only if you wanted to?" Realisation had finally dawned. She hadn't meant to be pushy.
Even so, she couldn't resist the offered box. "If it's okay?" she asked, hand hovering over the cupcakes.
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