Firefly

20: star-shaped cupcakes

Chapter 20: star-shaped cupcakes.

Elena

I didn't choose the evening time for driving to the supermarket. I left right after lunch. I had written down the keywords of the dream I'd got before homecoming night. The paper had been folded and unfolded so many times by now, that it was starting to rip off. This was my second dream that I'd remembered enough to write it down. 

I wanted to ask Dylan but with the amount of anxiety he was already having prior to his departure, I didn't want to burden him with this. Dad had to perform his first surgery in Cadford yesterday, so couldn't tell him either. Nate's phone was still on rogue. I call every morning, evening, and once before sleeping. All the time it's switched off. 

Spencer is acting weird lately, so I decided to maintain my distance from Caleb but he texted me last night. We exchanged texts for nearly two hours before I fell asleep. He's been texting me today too. Apologizing a thousand times for bailing when he was my date and ride for last night. His bailing didn't bother me. The fact that Spencer chose to tell him she was not feeling okay rather than to me did. 

So with no source left to update, I towed myself to the only supermarket in town. With the words of fruits and cupcakes and frostings and honeybuns, it's obvious we were going to bake something that night. Cupcakes shaped like stars? How do you bake that, it doesn't even make sense to the ears? I'd asked for ice cream and it was winter so she'd deny it. Could late June be considered winter or was she just denying it for the sake of it? What does it matter, the ice cream would've painted the rainy road anyway. 

I put the same things into my trolley—bananas, apples, cherries, and apparently my favorite strawberries. The solid colors of the fruits in my trolley are outshining with one color in the majority. Red. Dark Pink. We weren't going to bake cupcakes because I know my mother never knew how to cook. She bought readymade cupcakes for god's sake. We were going to whip flavor into the frosting. 

I put two packs of four Vanilla cupcakes into the trolley. Beside the cupcake pack, I find chocolate molds of different materials, measuring cups, frosting caps with designs, and stencils in various shapes. There I see it, a star-shaped stencil. I pick it up in my hand wondering what it was because it didn't have a base. It can't be a cookie mold. I turn it around and try reading the product description but the font is way too small. Even for my perfectly powered eyes. 

"It's a cutter," I spin to the voice. Penelope Castor pushes her cart as she comes beside me. "It's used to cut bread, batter, dough, anything soft and that can spread into shapes. A big motivation for kids to eat." 

"Oh," the puzzles in my head fit. 

She must have bought one of these. She was going to cut the cupcakes into stars and then frost them with fruits. She was going to buy different readymade pieces and make them fit into a perfect puzzle of a star-shaped cupcake. I put that in the cart and turn back to Penelope with a grateful smile. 

"Thank you, I couldn't figure out what this was." She eyed my cart so I eyed hers. 

Her pile was definitely big but it lacked purpose. She had a weird set of things in there. Either she was shopping for a whole month or she just bought everything she saw. 

"I shop when I'm stressed." Her words tell me she did the latter. I give an understanding nod. "Neatly arranged piles of groceries in large stores calm my mind. Distract it even." 

She pushes her cart further and glances at me across her shoulders. She wants me to follow. I'm done shopping anyway. It's the season cold so Veronica Summer would be very mad if I bought ice creams. "I don't usually shop. I cook and Dad does it. But I thought I'd stir some new habits now that Dylan's in Morbridge."