//------------------------------//
// A calm evening? 
// Story: Piece of Cake? 
// by AppleJTZ 
//------------------------------//

	The evening sun was shining on the crossroads in a small town. A bus drove by, stopping at the station to let out a single passenger. With her usual expression of indifference, Sugarcoat stepped out of the vehicle. The Crystal Prep student was dressed in a white basic dress going to her knees, alongside a blue sweater vest with her favorite logo on the backside. Once she had left the bus Sugarcoat heard the doors closing behind her, before it slowly continued its route down the street. She briefly glanced after it, then set her gaze on a building across the street, in the corner of the crossroads. Tables with parasols were standing in front of it, casting large shadows on the street despite the parasols being closed. Right at the corner of the building there were large double doors out of glass. Between the large windows of the first and the smaller windows of the second floor there was an awning, shielding most of the tables from above.

Sugarcoat looked left and right down the street. There were no cars coming in her direction – she also noticed aside from her, there were almost no pedestrians, safe for one or two men and women walking down the sidewalk. “What a sleepy town” Sugarcoat remarked, unable to imagine the city being so quiet on a Friday evening. Walking straight over the crossroads she headed for the building. She stepped up to the large double door, and took a look through it inside. Since the lights were out the room was sparsely illuminated by the light shining through the door and windows. The tables, seats and the counter were shrouded in half-shadow, casting long dark shadows all over the interior. It gave the place a slightly eerie appearance, especially with the silhouette of a slightly corpulent woman in the middle of the room. Holding a broom in her hands she wiped the floor, her eyes focused on the ground. 

With the back of her hand, Sugarcoat lightly knocked against the glass. Immediately the broom’s movements came to a halt. The woman looked up to the door, Sugarcoat seeing in the shadowy contours of her face the knock had startled her. The woman quickly relaxed however when she saw Sugarcoat, a wide smile forming on her face. Leaning the broom against a nearby table she hastily hurried over to the door, while pulling some keys from her pocket. A few seconds later she opened the door.

“Good evening” the woman greeted Sugarcoat, taking a step outside. In the sunlight, Sugarcoat could see the face of a friendly woman in her late thirties or early forties, with some small signs of age on her expression, but only few wrinkles on her light-blue skin. Her hair was whirled up like the top of a cappuccino, its color alternating between large stripes of cherry-red and a lighter hue of red. Looking over her the teenager noticed she was wearing a simple evening dress, alongside some jewelry and make-up - nothing overly fancy, but it was clear she had plans of going out tonight. And though it was slightly covered by the sweet odor streaming from inside the shop, Sugarcoat also noticed the smell of perfume on her. “You must be Sugarcoat, right?” the woman asked, her voice beaming with cheerfulness.

“Yes I am” she replied, her voice beaming with nothing. “I am here because of your babysitting request.”

“I am Mrs. Cake.” Holding the door open she gestured Sugarcoat to come in. “Our apartment is on the second floor. The staircase is behind the shop.”

Sugarcoat entered, and once she was inside followed Mrs. Cake to the back of the room. As she led her through the shop, Sugarcoat took a quick look around. The place seemed clean and nice, if a bit old-fashioned, but with a certain charm to it. It was nowhere near the level of the cafés and restaurants in the city, but considering this was a small town with little other opportunities to hang out, she guessed it would do.

Mrs. Cake went through a door labeled as “private”, and Sugarcoat went after her. The two of them entered a staircase going upwards, with a door on the opposite wall that probably connected to a nearby alley. Looking up the stairs, Sugarcoat saw another door on the next floor. They began going upwards, Mrs. Cake walking ahead. “Thank you SO much for this!” she told her on the way. “Our regular to-go-babysitter had to cancel, and I was afraid we couldn’t go out tonight. But then I heard about this website, and luckily for us, you answered our request!” 

“It’s no big deal” Sugarcoat assured her.

“But it is!” Mrs. Cake insisted. “I know babysitting isn’t how teenagers usually want to spend their Friday nights. And you came all the way from the city too, didn’t you?”

Sugarcoat shrugged. “The ride is not too terribly long, and there is a regular bus connection back to the city until after midnight.”

Mrs. Cake smiled at her. “That’s good to hear!”

“But you’re right, it is rather annoying to be here tonight.”

Mrs. Cake kept smiling, though it was a little more uncomfortably, while Sugarcoat kept her neutral expression. As they reached the top of the stairs Mrs. Cake opened the door. “Honey, the babysitter is here!” she called out as she entered. Sugarcoat followed her inside the living room of the apartment, and took a look around. There was nothing extraordinary about it, with a TV corner sporting a couch and a table, a dining table in the back of the room and some additional furniture like shelves full of books on the walls. Her glance fell upon a door with a smiling cupcake on it, and presumed this to be the children’s room. The other doors, Sugarcoat suspected, probably led to the kitchen, the bathroom and the bedroom.

Through the door with the cupcake, a slender, tall man around the age of Mrs. Cake appeared. His skin was yellow, while his slightly fuzzy hair bore a rather vibrant shade of orange. He seemed a little exhausted, having wrinkles under his eyes while the smile he gave Sugarcoat looked a little worn out. Like Mrs. Cake he was dressed to go out, wearing a simple tuxedo. Unfitting to his appearance though, he was carrying a toddler under each of his arms.

“Ah, hello there!” the man greeted her, still bearing his tired smile as he walked up to Sugarcoat. Mrs. Cake approached him and took one of the toddlers into her arms, allowing him to hold out his liberated arm towards the teenager. “I am Mr. Cake. A pleasure to meet you!”

Sugarcoat took his hand. “Likewise” she flatly replied. While they shook hands, she cast a quick glance at the kids he and Mrs. Cake were holding: Though they were supposed to be twins, it was obvious they were not identical, having different hair, eye and skin colours. One, who Sugarcoat presumed was a girl had fiery orange hair, yellow skin, and a pair of bright blue eyes, giggling as she tried to grab her father’s bowtie (who kept trying to keep her out of its reach). The other one, a boy as far as Sugarcoat could tell, had skin of a considerably brighter hue, brown hair and dark brown eyes, and was currently fumbling around the decoration of his mother’s dress. Their hairstyles, if one could call the single curls reaching out from their foreheads like that, were similar, though the hair of the boy was slightly smoother and the girl wore a blue ribbon on the tip of hers. Both toddlers were naked except for a diaper.

“This is Pumpkin” Mr. Cake told her, nudging the little girl in his arms with his nose. Nodding towards the kid his wife was holding, he added: “And that’s Pound.”

Sugarcoat looked at the two toddlers, both busily playing with the attires of their parents. It took a while until Mr. and Mrs. Cake had managed to get them away from them without tearing something off their clothes. “I take it you still have the instructions I sent you per email?” Mrs. Cake asked as she held her son in the air, the kid giggling and reaching his arms towards her. Sugarcoat nodded to that, and she put Pound to the ground, while Mr. Cake placed Pumpkin right next to him. “Okay, sweeties, Mom and Dad will be back real soon” she told her two little children. The two toddlers kept chuckling, even more as their mother started tickling their bellies. “Until we’re back, Auntie Sugarcoat will take good care of you. So be sweet little kids and be nice to her, won’t you?” 

“I’m not their aunt though” Sugarcoat remarked. 

Both parents gave their kids a kiss on the forehead, before they headed for the door. “We should be back in around three or four hours” Mrs. Cake told her as she grabbed her handbag, while Mr. Cake took their jackets. “Feel free to make yourself as comfortable as you like.”

“You are free to use the TV and take anything from the kitchen” her husband added as he helped his wife into her jacket. “Just don’t enter our bedroom, please. Other than that, make yourself at home!”

“That’s very nice” Sugarcoat said, though the Cakes weren’t quite sure if she really meant it since her face showed no signs of joy or gratitude. As they opened the door and got out, she weakly raised a hand. “Have fun tonight.”

The completely emotionless look on her face caused the Cakes to exchange a short glance, as if they were having doubts about the choice of their babysitter. They still waved back though, smiling a little awkwardly at the completely impassionate teenager, before closing the door behind them. Sugarcoat could hear them go down the stairs, their steps becoming quieter until they died down. There was one more noise of the door in the first floor opening. Once it fell shut again it became silent in the building, leaving Sugarcoat alone inside it.

Except for the kids she was supposed to take care off, of course. 

Sugarcoat looked down on the two toddlers on the floor. They were staring back at her, big smiles plastered over their faces. It almost seemed like they expected something from her, making some undefinable baby sounds as they looked the grumpy teenager in the eyes.

Sugarcoat knelt in front of the twins. “I don’t like you” she told them. “Go to bed.”

Pound and Pumpkin still stared up at her, giggling. With a sigh, Sugarcoat, wrapped her arms around their little bodies. “Guess I’ll have to carry you…” 

She grabbed the two kids around their waists, taking one with each arm. The moment she lifted their diaper-wrapped butts off the ground Sugarcoat could feel their weight straining her arms. Groaning while the little toddlers kept giggling she raised herself, then turned towards the door with the cupcake. She was about to walk towards it, when she felt some sort of pressure on the sides of her head. A quick glance left and right, and she noticed Pumpkin and Pound had wrapped their arms around her pigtails. With childish glee they were pulling on the long strands of her hair, treating them as some sort of toy. Clearly not amused by this Sugarcoat mumbled something under her breath, making sure to speak so low the kids couldn’t hear her, before she headed for the room with the smiling cupcake. Since her arms were occupied she wanted to open it with a light kick, only to find it was closed. Annoyed by this she raised her leg, careful not to lose balance with the kids in her arms. While bringing her foot slowly towards the door handle the two toddlers kept pulling on her hair, all the time giggling and laughing in their baby voices. Using her growing annoyance as a driving force Sugarcoat finally managed to bring her foot on top of the handle. The sole of her shoe nearly slipped off, but she managed to push it down. Immediately the door opened, so fast however Sugarcoat nearly stumbled forward. The babies giggled even louder as their sitter tripped into their room. Fortunately, she caught her balance at the right moment, keeping herself from planting her face against the floor.

Regaining her composure she took a look around the room. It looked like an ordinary room for little kids, with a table to change diapers, a few toys scattered around the carpet and a large crib with a mobile hanging from the ceiling. She looked if there was a second crib, and when she couldn’t spot one carried both babies towards it. Much to her annoyance however, as she leaned over the crib and put them inside it she found the two toddlers were unwilling to let got off her pigtails. Grunting she grabbed the arms of the babies, trying to get them off her hair. With surprising strength Pound and Pumpkin held on to her pigtails, forcing Sugarcoat to pull even firmer. It felt like she was tearing her own hair out, an experience made even more unpleasant by the babies’ high-pitched laughter. Finally their tiny hands slipped off her hair. Her head snapped back slightly, her glasses sliding a little deeper down her nose from the momentum. Her vision was a little blurry, but she could still see the two children resting inside the crib, their empty arms reaching for her hair, but unable to grab it. “Much better” she said, sighing in relief as she adjusted her glasses. Confident she looked down at the two toddlers, who seemed a little confused as they stared back up at her. “Okay, now be good little babies and just fall asleep” she told them, a slightly commanding ring in her voice.

Pumpkin and Pound gazed at her, tilting their heads as if they didn’t understand what she wanted from them. After a while Pumpkin started giggling, while Pound put his foot into his mouth. Sugarcoat looked at them for a while, tapping with her foot on the ground. “Thinking about it, I don’t have to stand here and wait for you to close your eyes.” Turning her back to the crib she headed for the door. In a few quick steps she was already out of the room with one foot. “Good night” she said over her shoulder, throwing one more glance at the crib.

It was empty. 

For a moment Sugarcoat stared at the empty baby bed, blinking. The sound of giggling children then caused her to look around in confusion. With the lights turned out and the sun having vanished completely, the lighting in the room was rather sparse. Yet she was pretty sure to see no signs of the toddlers, neither in the corners nor behind the toys scattered around the room. Her eyes then stopped at a chest of drawers probably containing clothes and more toys. There was a small gap beneath it, just broad large enough for her to slip an arm through underneath. 

Skeptically, Sugarcoat looked at the gap. Could these two actually have crawled down there? It looked rather small, but… maybe toddlers were flexible? Like rubber or gum? She then shook her head at herself for comparing a baby’s body with gum. Another look around the room and after hearing the giggles once more however she grumpily walked to the chest of drawers, and knelt down in front of it. Putting her hands on the ground she lowered her head, her glasses slightly sliding down her nose again as she peeked under it. While trying to push her glasses up by moving her nose she checked if there was something in the dark space. Far at the end, near the wall, she could see something roughly the size of a toddler cramped between carpet and the bottom of the chest – though with her glasses half-down and no real source of light, she couldn’t really make out what it was. With one arm she grabbed into the dark gap, fumbling around it. She could feel all sorts of dirt clinging to the sleeve of her vest, from thick clusters of dust to all sorts of hairs and sticky stuff. The usual indifferent girl turned up her mouth into a grimace of disgust. Finally, she got a grip on what she presumed to be one of the toddlers. The moment her hand touched it however she realized it was no human, but something made out of plastic. Thinking it was a toy she grabbed it, noticing it was crumpling between her fingers, and pulled it out to examine it.

It was a diaper.

Immediately she stuffed it back under the chest, quickly pulling her arm out again. It took a moment for her to digest the shock. Eventually she calmed down, telling herself the diaper was clean. She had seen it only for a brief moment, but there were no dark spots, so it was probably unused - unless they had peed into it, it struck the teenage girl. Cringing she rubbed her hand over the carpet, before she focused on finding the twins again.

As she pondered where she could have disappeared to, still kneeling on the ground, she suddenly felt something pulling on her pigtails. 

Startled she looked at the ground. Her eyes widened as she saw Pumpkin and Pound sitting beside her, each holding one of her pigtails. Looking up at her with tiny baby eyes Pumpkin giggled, while Pound put the tip of Sugarcoat’s hair into his mouth.

After staring at them in surprised for a moment Sugarcoat frowned. Inside, she could feel a fit of rage slowly building up, intensifying with every second the babies innocently glanced up at her, one munching on her hair. The teenager took in a deep breath. Calmly, she put her arms around the two toddlers, stood up, and walked back to the crib. There, she placed them back inside, freed her hair from their grip, and looked them straight in the eyes.

“Sleep.”

Her voice was so stern and cold the toddlers froze for a second. Pound and Pumpkin looked at each other, as if they were communicating with their eyes. Then, all of a sudden, they let themselves fall backwards, dropping their backs on the mattress of their crib. Their eyes closed they immediately began to snore, their little baby bellies going up and down in the rhythm of their breathing.

With a look of satisfaction upon her face Sugarcoat watched the two slumbering toddlers. “And they said I couldn’t handle babies.” Confidently she strode back to the door. As she stepped outside she glanced over her shoulder at the crib again. Pound and Pumpkin were still lying inside and sleeping. Careful not to wake them up she slowly closed the door behind her, peeking one last time at the two snoring twins before closing it completely.

Standing in the living room Sugarcoat smiled for a second, before her face returned to its usual monotonous expression. “Well, that’s enough babysitting for one day” she declared, stemming her hands against her sides. “Now to kill the rest of the evening.”

She took a quick look around the living room, and decided the best way to pass the time was the TV. Sitting down on the couch she grabbed the remote, and turned it on. There was a cooking show on something called “Baking Channel”, apparently a channel only showing things related to sweets and baking. Sugarcoat raised an eyebrow, then changed the channel. The impassionate girl quickly zapped through the TV program, only watching for a brief moment before moving on. 

“The new heavy-weight world champion…”

“...crowned in 1865 during times of revolution and crisis…”

“…in a colony of merkats in the savannah…”

“…the virus that turned all of humanity into zombies…”

“…now with twenty percent more electrolytes!” 

Documentations, movies, ads, TV series – new shows kept flipping over the screen, the programs switching in the rate of a few seconds. Eventually she settled for the probably hundredth rerun of a sitcom that had been a hit when she was a kid. The episode was about the teenage daughter of the family babysitting the child of their neighbors to earn money for a new mobile phone after she had accidentally broken hers.

“How ironic this kind of mirrors my own situation” Sugarcoat flatly remarked. The girl on the screen stood in the living room, the look on her face one of pure horror. The whole place looked like a battlefield, with the couch lying on its back and the TV (still a tube model) resting on the floor. Hectically, with quite some exaggeration in her acting the girl jumped through the room, turning everything upside down and peeking under every surface. “WHERE IS THIS DAMN BABY?!” she screamed, pulling on her hair as the camera zoomed in on her. The giggle of a child suddenly could be heard from the off, and as the camera zoomed out again, the baby was sitting right at the girl’s feet. Blinking the girl rubbed her eyes, background laughter playing as she stared in disbelief at the innocently laughing newborn.

Sugarcoat snickered. “Sure. As if little kids could just pop up out of nowhere.”

Right as she had said that, she could hear a childish giggle both to her left and right, and feel something pulling on her pigtails.

The teenage girl widened her eyes in surprise, before squinting them in annoyance. Peeking below the rim of her glasses, she glanced to her right and left. On each side of her, one of the twins sat on the couch and pulled on her hair. And Pound was chewing on his piece of hair again.

Sugarcoat slumped her shoulders. “Okay, so you two can’t walk, but apparently can climb out of your bed, somehow open the door of your room and crawl all the way the couch in the living room without making any noise?” She harrumphed. “Good to know.”

While Pound kept munching on her hair, Pumpkin seemed to be using “her” pigtail like a bell rope, constantly pulling on it. Feeling both a metaphorical and literal headache building up Sugarcoat pulled her arms around them, and placed the twins on her lap. With some effort she managed to wrest her pigtails from the grips of their hands and teeth. “Listen, you little brats” she scolded them, sternly staring into their face. “I have no idea how you managed to get out of your room, if you jumped up to the door handle or somehow climbed on the furniture – or if you two can fly or have some sort of magic powers, whatever. Just let me make one thing clear: I am the babysitter. You are the babies. When I tell you to sleep, you don’t fall asleep for five seconds and then come to bug me, you stay in your bed and leave me alone so I can spend the rest of the evening not caring about you. Got it?”

The two toddlers looked at Sugarcoat with big eyes. She thought her message had gotten through to them, when she noticed a change in their expression: Instead of curiosity, they were looking at her in a mixture of confusion and sadness. Suddenly, their lips began to quiver, and their eyes became wet. Sugarcoat didn’t have any time to react when they already burst out crying and screaming. Immediately she covered her ears, but the screams were still banging against her eardrums. After taking a hasty look around she grabbed a couch pillow with each of her hands, and tightly pressed them against her ears. Despite being muffled she could still hear the twins’ shrill screams. She squeezed the pillows as hard against her ears as she could, closing her eyes at the same time while leaning slightly forward. When everything around her turned silent she thought it was working, until she noticed a familiar feeling of her hair getting pulled. She opened one eye, then both to see Pound and Pumpkin had taken hold of her pigtails again, looking absolutely content as both were chewing on her hair. 

Dropping the pillows Sugarcoat let her arms fall to her sides in defeat. After watching the babies munch on her pigtails for a while, a thought struck her. “Maybe some food will make you tired.” She pulled her arms around them, and got up from the couch. Trying not to think about how the tips of her hair were being covered in baby spit she headed for the kitchen. As she stood in front of the door she raised her foot towards the handle, managing to “grab” it after a while. When she was about to push it down her smartphone suddenly vibrated in her pocket. 

One foot in the air, with two kids in her arms, the teenage girl frowned. “This better not be Lemon going crazy over some indie punk rock band again.” With caution, she brought Pumpkin higher up in her arm. Holding her close her armpit she slowly moved her hand to her pocket, her foot all the time still on the door handle. Somehow, she managed to get her phone out of her pocket and bring it up to her ear. As she had to be careful not to drop the twins she could only hold it at the bottom with the tip of her fingers. Tucking it between her cheek Pound’s head she managed to hold it relatively secure at her head, and took the call by pressing her chin against it. “Here is Sugarcoat” she said into the speaker, careful not to let Pumpkin slip out under her arm.

“Hello, Mrs. Cake here” the voice of Mrs. Cake spoke to her. “I’m sorry to disturb you, but there is one thing we forgot to put in your instructions: Do NOT let them have anything sweet! They’re in the age when too much sugar can make them a little bit hyperactive.”

“No problem” Sugarcoat replied. Simultaneously she pressed down the handle of the door with her foot, and pushed it open. As she looked into the kitchen however her whole body froze, and her jaw dropped.

“Okay then. We’re entering the restaurant right now. If there’s anything you need, you can just call. Have fun!” Sugarcoat heard her hanging up, followed by a dial tone. Absent-minded, the phone slipped out under her cheek, and fell to the ground. 

The whole kitchen was filled with bakery products, from tarts and cakes to cookies of all flavor and several different kinds of self-made lollipops, bonbons, and other forms of dandy. There was no surface not covered by some sort of sweet treat. Upon seeing the colorful confect the two toddlers giggled, reaching their arms out into the kitchen. 

Still holding Pumpkin in her armpit Sugarcoat pushed her glasses up with her thumb and index finger, rubbing her eyes. “You gotta be kidding me…”