Knight

01

Mason Maloney

Sometimes I felt like I was living in the shadow of my brother. We looked the same except for my scrawnier build versus his athletic one. But still, it was him that got all of the attention whether it be from girls who wanted to be with him or guys that wanted to be him. Being the star quarterback, he was the pride and joy of our town.

Me? Well, I wasn't the star of anything, except maybe at the bakery I worked at. There were very few employees there and because of that we were all considerably close. The bakery was a place where I felt like I belonged. It was only a bonus that I got paid to be there.

After school, I sat in the passenger's seat of mine and Nathan's shared car, waiting for him to drive me to work. I let out a heavy sigh as I looked through the parking lot, hoping to find Nathan among the crowd. Eventually, I saw him running toward the car, pushing through people standing in his way. He threw himself into the driver's seat and slammed the door shut when he reached the car. Nathan wasted no time starting the car and peeling out of the parking spot, getting beeped at as he cut people off.

"Can you try not to get us killed?" I asked worriedly, gripping onto the handle above my head.

"I only have fifteen minutes to get back for practice," he explained hurriedly, rolling through a stop sign.

I rolled my eyes, shaking my head in annoyance.

Nathan barely stopped the car in the bakery parking lot before I rushed out, throwing my backpack over my shoulder. The tires screeched on the pavement as he speedily left back toward school.

I ripped open the bakery door and hastily walked toward the back room to throw on my apron.

"Hey, Mase," Charlene, the owner, greeted with a wide grin as I walked to the front.

I smiled sweetly. "Afternoon, Charlene."

"Before I forget, I wanted to let you know that we have a new hire starting tomorrow and I'll probably have him training with you," she told me as she took a pan of muffins out of the oven.

"Really?" I asked, feeling surprised.

I had never trained anyone before, not that we usually had new people working here. I hadn't been here the longest, nor was I the most experienced.

"You two are around the same age, so you'll probably have most of your shifts together," she explained, placing the muffins in the freezer to let them cool.

It was hard to stop myself from groaning at that. I hoped that it wasn't anyone from my own school.

"Got anything for me to do?" I decided to ask instead of commenting on what she had told me.

She stood silently for a moment as if she was trying to think. Then, Charlene looked at me and snapped her fingers.

"I need you to take the muffins out of the freezer in two minutes and then I have a cake for you to decorate," she let me know, walking toward the front counter.

Charlene grabbed a paper out of the binder of orders and brought it back to me. I read through the paper to see how the cake needed to be decorated and then set it down on the counter I was leaning on.

"I'm going to head out," Charlene started. "Sandy should be here soon."

As if on cue, the bell on the front door rang and Sandy came barging into the kitchen a moment later, looking disheveled. Sandy always acted as if she was running late, even when she wasn't.

"Sorry I'm late!" Sandy exclaimed, throwing her apron on hastily.

Charlene and I shared knowing looks, chuckling slightly. Sandy quickly made her way to the front counter to man the register. Charlene waved goodbye and she was soon out the door. I took the muffins out of the freezer and brought them to the front to put them on display.