Only Fools - Chapter 17: Chapter 17

Ivy: Hey you wanna hang out today?
I can't help but grimace as I look at the message.
Me: I wish I could, but I told Naomi that we could practice for cupcake wars today.
Ivy: Oh.
Ivy: I didn't know you were doing cupcake wars.
Me: Yeah....
Ivy: Well, I'm doing it too, so I guess you're my competition now ;)
Me: *your biggest competition. ;)
Ivy: So you're seriously doing cupcake wars?
Me: Yeah.... is that so unbelievable or something?
Five minutes later, no response. Letting out a sigh, I tuck my phone away, figuring that she probably got busy with something, but still feeling rather sad that she did.
It's then that I glance at the time and nearly jump off of my bed in surprise. Margot and Naomi are going to be here in any minute. I fly downstairs to the kitchen and quickly pull out the ingredients and utensils that look like they could be used for baking. It's not even five minutes afterwards that I hear a knock on my door.
"Hello, fellow baker," I say with a smile as soon as I see Margot standing on my porch, but almost instantly wince at my words.
"That.... should've just stuck with a basic hi," I confess as I scratch the back of my neck and look away from the girl.
"You wanna try that again?" she asks me, rather clearly amused. I nod sheepishly as she backs up and I close the door and wait for her to knock again. Once she knocks, I count to four before opening the door with a smile on my face.
"Hey, Margot,"
"Hey, Aspen," she says in response with a wider smile than when I first opened the door. Her dark curls are pulled up into a messy bun with a few strands hanging loose in front of her face. She's dressed in a sweatshirt that's clearly too big for her as only the tips of her fingers peak out of the sleeves. It depicts the logo of what I assume to be a rock band that I just haven't heard of before, though I'm sure that I'll learn about them in no time because of her.
"Um. Can I come in?" she asks with a small laugh.
"Hmm," I stop for a second, blocking the doorway as I pretend to think about her question. Margot just rolls her eyes at me, smile still on her lips as she physically pushes me out of the way and walks into my house.
"Alright. Just act like you own the place then," I say dramatically as I close the door behind me and hurry in front of her so that I can lead her to the kitchen.
Margot just winks at me in response, and so I over-exaggerate an eye roll right back at her.
As we enter the kitchen, I can practically feel her judgement over the ingredients I decided to set out which are most definitely not the right ones. But she nonetheless begins to move around the kitchen, whispering quietly to herself as she puts some of the "ingredients" I took out to the side to make room for the new items she's grabbing. It's then that I feel my phone buzz in my pocket and whip it out to see Ivy has finally responded to me.
Ivy: Well.... last time I checked you couldn't bake.
I let out a gasp at Ivy's words, slightly playing it up to get Margot's attention.
Me: You won't be saying that when I win.
"What?" Margot asks me, rather unamused with my antics as I set my phone down on the counter.
"Ivy just said that I'm not good at baking," I explain to her, acting more offended than I actually am given that I know Ivy's right.
"Does she have reason to believe that?"
"Well, yes.... but-"
"What's the reason?" Margot interrupts me. I narrow my eyes at the interruption but answer her anyways.
"I almost caused a fire in her house because I forgot a couple ingredients before baking...."
"So then I'll double check everything for you," Margot offers.
"And I fell into an oven in seventh grade," I say quietly.
"You what?"
"Fell into an oven...." I trail off as my cheeks flush and I look down.
"You...."
"Yeah...."
"What are you? The witch in Hansel and Gretel?" Margot asks with a laugh.
"No! Dustin just has a low oven and I tripped when I was trying to put the cookies in and.... fell in a little bit,"
"Were you ok?"
"No! I had to go to the hospital!" I exclaim.
"Oh, shit," Margot's eyes widen, finally realizing the severity of the situation.
"Yeah. The burn scars are finally basically gone, but...." I trail off.
"Well, fuck. I guess we won't be letting you near the oven either then. What are you good for here?"
"I mean, you need three people to enter so...." I say, twiddling my thumbs.
Margot just shrugs.
"I still can't believe Ivy said that. I mean, the nerve to bring that up," I say as I shift some of the ingredients randomly on the counter.
"The nerve," Margot says sarcastically, causing for me to narrow my eyes are her in response.
"So, you're not the best at baking. You still have other qualities," Margot says with a shrug, most likely tired of me complaining about the rejection I had to face due to Ivy.
"Like what?" I question her as I begin to search the cupboards for some kind of baking utensil that she may have forgotten to take out, searching for something to do that isn't awkwardly stand around and wait for Naomi. So do I even know what I'm supposed to be looking for? No. But I'm going to find it anyways.
"Well, I never said that they were good qualities," Margot says in response, and I can almost hear the smile in her voice. I stop my cupboard raid for a moment so that I can glare at her.
"What are you looking for anyways?"
"I'll know when I find it," I simply say, because it's not like I'm familiar with any of the tools I may need for baking.
"Well, everything that we need for baking is already set out on the counter. I'm just gonna leave you with that statement and maybe it will make what you're looking for easier to find,"
She thinks she's so smart, having her baking materials already set out. I quickly open the next cupboard and pull out the first thing that my hand touches.
"I was actually looking for this," I say as I hold the object out for her to see it. It's then that I realize what I just grabbed.
"A cheese grater? Did you drastically change the cupcake recipe without telling me?" Margot says with a laugh. Even though I just made a fool of myself, I can't help but be put in a better mood by her joy that aroused as a result of my stupidity.
"I was just making sure that we had one. And now that I've double checked, I can put that back...." I try to explain. I didn't even believe that.
"Alright. I-"
Margot begins to speak, but she's cut off as my phone makes a loud buzzing noise on the counter. Thank goodness. Naomi should be arriving soon. Then maybe things won't be this awkward with us just standing around with nothing to do, not wanting to start without her.
As I pick up my phone to respond to her, I can't help but notice that she didn't send the text I was expecting her to.
Naomi: hey!! i'm sooooo sorry, but i can't come today. tori is apparently having some major crisis and needs me. she of course wanted you to come also, but i figured that at least some of us should practice today. i'll make it next time. i promise. please don't set fire to the house. i know you, aspen.
Well, shit. I glance over at Margot.
"So.... she's not coming," I break the news. Margot raises her eyebrows in response.
"Hmm. Was she ever supposed to come or was this just a ploy to spend more time with me?" Margot teases me.
"Oh, you got me there," I say sarcastically as I snap my fingers. Margot winks at me and I just shake my head.
"So, are we going to get started?" she asks, looking at me expectantly.
"Wait. We're actually going to bake?" I ask, slightly shocked.
"Why wouldn't we?"
"Naomi isn't here,"
"Ok? And she's the only one that can bake all of a sudden?"
"Well, then I've learned something new about you today. Margot May: loves The Rolling Stones and baking cupcakes,"
"You still haven't given me that sweatshirt back,"
"Do you have mine to give back to me?" I ask her.
"....no," she says sheepishly.
"Then you aren't getting yours back,"
Margot rolls her eyes, but accepts my deal as displayed by her lack of objection.
"Could you pull up the recipe Naomi sent us?" Margot asks as she begins to group together certain ingredients out of the disorganization I had mostly caused out of boredom just minutes earlier. I nod as I pull the recipe I printed out of my back pocket, causing Margot to smile.
"So you were prepared,"
"Oh, believe me. This is all I did,"
"Well, at least you're useful for something,"
I narrow my eyes at her words but silently flatten out the piece of paper on the counter before she turns to me with a determined look in her eyes.
"Ready?"
"No. But we can start anyways,"
Margot chuckles but nonetheless begins to work. However, after a few minutes of silence, Margot pulls her phone out of her back pocket and a smile forms on her face a second before the music starts. Classic rock begins to blare out of her phone speakers and her mood is almost immediately lifted. She places her phone back in her pocket and begins to dance around as she continues to bake, which quickly brings a smile to my face. And so we continue our baking with the music blasting in the background, Margot dancing around to it and at some points singing along, and me just smiling at the girl.
"Hey. Margot?" I softly ask. Upon hearing me, she quickly stops her music before giving me her attention. She then raises her eyebrows, as if signaling for me to continue.
"Um. Could you maybe not tell anyone about the whole oven thing? Outside of my family, Ivy and Dustin are kind of the only ones who know and...." I trail off rather awkwardly.
"Of course. Is that all you wanted?" Margot says in complete understanding.
"Yeah," I say with a smile which she returns before turning her music back on.
Margot doesn't stop the music again until she places our last batch of cupcakes in the oven.
"I don't think we fucked that up too bad," she tells me with a lopsided smile which I return.
"Now let's just hope I can manage that again at the actual competition,"
"Don't worry too much. I'm pretty sure the ovens aren't placed super low there," Margot teases me. I hit her with the kitchen towel I was wiping my hands off on as I shoot her a glare. I then turn around and begin to survey the kitchen which is now in utter disarray.
"Well, we better start cleaning-" I'm suddenly cut off as I feel something hit my back. I first assume that Margot grabbed the other kitchen towel and hit me with it, but as I turn around and notice the bag of flour in Margot's hands, I can't help but hope that she knows she just started a war.
With almost no hesitation, I grab the sugar that's set on the counter next to me and fling some towards her. Unfortunately for me, she was prepared. As I turned back around to throw the sugar at her, she was ready to send flour straight to my face, and unluckily enough for me, she has a pretty good aim.
I let out a gasp as the flour hits my face and almost instantly come up a plan. I wince as I look down at the ground and begin to rub my hands over my face and mostly concentrate on wiping at my eyes.
"Oh, shit. Are you ok?" Margot asks me, concern laced into her voice as she hurries over to stand in front of me and places her hand under my chin, lifting my face up so that she could inspect the "damage". It's then that I make my move. Grabbing the excess milk that I incorrectly measured from earlier, I quickly pour it on her head with a smirk on my face.
However, it's not even a second later that my smirk vanishes as Margot's hand hits the top of my head and with an unfortunate crack, the egg she was holding breaks and the gooey insides run down my hair and slip down the front of my face.
"How did you...." I stutter out to which Margot just chuckles darkly.
"Checkmate," Margot says quietly with satisfied smirk despite the milk still dripping down her cheeks. My cheeks flush slightly as I finally realize our close proximity.
"I don't think that was the game we where playing," I tell her tilting my head slightly as I glance down at the ground. Margot tucks the hair that fell loose once I moved my head back behind my ear.
"I still won," she tells me to which I shrug.
"What?" she asks me, slightly confused by my response as she lets out a nervous chuckle. I just shrug again. And then taking advantage of her state of confusion, I grab an egg from the open carton on the counter and smash it over her head.
"And now we're even," I tell her before I turn around confidently and begin to clean up the mess that we made throughout the evening, certain that the war is over.
"We're tied,"