Lizzie Bennet Diaries one-shots

Cake

Darcy's first birthday after their parents died, Gigi tries to make her brother's birthday extra special, but not everything goes according to plan...

~~~

Gigi had the perfect plan. After school, she would get the boxes with streamers and balloons from the attic and decorate the living room. William always said he was too grown-up for that nonsense, but Dad always decorated the room anyway, so Gigi was determined to do the same. After that, she would get Mum's old recipe book out and bake William one of Mum's famous chocolate cakes. When the cake was in the oven, she would make William a present, and she'd be finished just in time before William came home. Her plan was absolutely foolproof, and it would guarantee William the best birthday ever.

Or so she thought. The first hurdle she had to jump was when she couldn't find the balloons anywhere. She was absolutely sure Dad always kept them in this drawer. The drawer was filled with sticky notes, notepads, USB sticks, pens and other small items, but not balloons. However, Gigi didn't easily give up and there were more than enough streamers. Dad had always put up the streamers himself, but Gigi wasn't nearly tall enough to reach the pins, even when she climbed on a chair. Determined as ever, she dragged their ladder from the garden to the living room and used it to hang up the streamers.

By the time the living rooms was covered sufficiently in streamers (though it could definitely do with some more glitter, Gigi made a mental note to buy glitter next year) Gigi was falling well behind on her schedule. She rushed to the kitchen to get the chocolate cake ready. The mixer spat the dough everywhere and she spilt melted chocolate at least twice, but an hour later, she had something at least resembling a cake to go into the oven.

When the cake was safely in the oven, Gigi grabbed her coloured pencils and a piece of paper, and put it all on the dinner table. She picked up a picture from the mantelpiece and carried it to the table, extremely careful not to drop it. She climbed on a chair and started drawing very carefully.

~~~

When he came home the first thing William Darcy noticed was the smell of burnt chocolate, and the second thing he noticed was smoke coming from the kitchen.
"Gigi!" He ran into the kitchen, where he found that the oven was turned off, although the kitchen was filled with smoke. Sitting on the floor was his little sister, holding a blackened cake in her hands.
"Gigi, are you alright?"
Gigi looked up, tears staining her face. "William!" She jumped on her feet and attacked William in a hug. He was caught off-guard but returned the hug. Through her tears, she explained: "I just wanted to give you something for your birthday! I got Mom and Dad's picture because I wanted to draw them, but the drawing was terrible and it didn't look like them at all! And I'd been working on the drawing for so long I'd completely forgotten the cake so I went back to check on it but I accidentally threw Mom and Dad's picture on the floor and now it's broken so I went to the kitchen and there was smoke everywhere and the cake was all black and I haven't even put away the ladder yet!"
Darcy couldn't help but chuckle at his sister's despair.
"It's not funny!! I wanted to do something nice and now I ruined everything!"
Darcy quickly pulled himself together: "Gigi, it's fine. You didn't ruin anything. I'm just glad you're okay."
"But I broke Mom and Dad's picture."
"That's ok, we'll just put them in a new frame." He put down his sister, "Now, you should go take a shower to wash that smoke out of your hair. I'll clean up here."

When Gigi came downstairs, the picture of their parents and her drawing of them were already on the mantelpiece, both in brand new frames. Darcy was sitting on the couch, two store-bought cupcakes in front of him and the Little Mermaid ready on the TV. Gigi curled up next to him, and he started the film.

~~~

That night, when he tucked Gigi in bed, William sat down beside her, and he said: "Thank you for the best birthday ever."
Gigi looked up at him with big, tired eyes and said: "But I messed everything up."
William shook his head. "You didn't mess up the most important thing. You were here with me. I loved watching the film with you, we should do that more often."
Gigi smiled. "Next year I'll get you a film for your birthday," she promised.