Piece of Cake?

by AppleJTZ

Need a little help?

After sunset, when the moon and the stars shined in the night sky, the streets around Sugarcube Corner were very quiet. Only occasionally a car would drive by, and even rarer a pedestrian pass the lonely sidewalk. Despite the solitude of the crossroads, busses still regular dropped by the local station, even at late hours. As the bus stopped at the street, a young girl stepped out of it. She was dressed in blue jeans and a purple-white training jacket with the emblem of Crystal Prep Academy on it. Once the bus drove off she didn’t even look left and right before crossing the street, heading straight for Sugarcube corner. Instead of going to the entrance of the café however she walked into the little alley next to the building. Though a lantern was standing right in front of it the girl’s own shadow blocked most of the light, making it hard to see in the alley. Still, as she walked deeper into it, the hands in the pockets of her jacket, she could spot a door at the wall. As she approached it a lamp went on above it, the sudden flash of light causing her to shield her eyes. When she had adjusted to the brightness she stood in front of the door. An intercom was built into it, alongside the button of a doorbell reading “Cake” right below it. Pushing the button she heard a ringing from the inside, then stuffed her hand into her pocket again as she waited for a response. However, even after a minute no response was coming from the intercom. The girl began to frown, tapping with her sport shoes impatiently on the ground. She was about to turn away and leave, when a scratching noise sounded from the intercom.

“Is that you, Mister and Miss Cake?” a dry female voice asked through the speaker. Though it sounded rather monotonous by nature, there was also a tired ring in it, even a pleading tone as she asked: “Are you back already?”

Leaning towards the speaker the girl pushed the button to reply. “Um, no, it’s me” she replied “Indigo.”

The intercom responded with a loud, disappointed sigh. “One second” the dry voice told her, before the speaker went silent. Inside, Indigo could hear a door opening, followed by feet going down stairs. A moment later the door opened. Indigo took a small step back, startled by the teenager standing in front of her. The white-haired girl seemed rather beat-up, her shoulders slumping and her head hanging low. The look on her face was even more dour than usual, a deep tired frown dominating her expression. Her clothes were ruffled and full of wrinkles, her vest hanging off one shoulder, and her white hair was a complete mess – especially her pigtails, which looked like someone had tried to eat them.

“Hey, Sugarcoat!” Indigo greeted her, forcing a smile as she rubbed her neck. “You look, um…”

Sugarcoat arched an eyebrow. “Terrible? Drained of life? Completely destroyed? As if I’ve been rolled over by a tank, got back up on my feet only to be rolled over by a second tank?”

Indigo cleared her throat. “Actually, you look like a third one hit ya good, too.”

With her thumb and index finger Sugarcoat pushed up her glasses, rubbing the bridge of her nose. “What do you want, Indigo?” she asked the blue-haired girl.

Indigo shrugged. “Oh you know, I was just in the area and-”

She was cut off as Sugarcoat held up a hand in front of her face. “This is a private apartment on top of a bakery and café” Sugarcoat stated, looking sternly at her. “Also, this isn’t even our hometown. Don’t give me that ‘I was just around‘-nonsense.”

The athlete stroke the back of her head, smiling somewhat embarrassed. “Fine” she confessed. “I came over because I figured you could use a hand.”

Sugarcoat crossed her arms. “Why would you think that?”

Indigo put both her hands on her friend’s shoulders. “Sugarcoat, you are a great girl with many talents, and you’re one of my best friends” she said seriously, startling Sugarcoat slightly as she looked her straight into the eyes. A wide grin suddenly spread over her face before she burst out laughing. “But seriously, YOU and KIDS? No way that CAN’T go wrong!”

Under Indigo’s loud laughter Sugarcoat frowned even deeper. “Well thanks for that” she said, brushing Indigo’s hands off her shoulders. “But while I appreciate your concern, I highly doubt you could help me.”

“Oh, I can help you big time!” Indigo proudly responded, pointing her thumb at her chest. “I know a thing or two about babysitting! Besides, if it’s two versus two, at least the odds are evened.”

Sugarcoat huffed. “I wonder.”

The blue-haired teen gave her an odd look. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

For a moment Sugarcoat seemed unsure if she should go on, but then continued speaking anyway. “Well, to put it bluntly…”

“…which is pretty much all you do…”

Sugarcoat sighed. “Look, I don’t have time watching three babies” she told her, not in an offending, but still slightly aggressive tone. “I have enough trouble keeping two from destroying the apartment.”

The noise of something heavy falling on the ground up the stairs made Sugarcoat cringe.

“Which I should probably get back to right now. Good night.” Just as she had said that Sugarcoat closed the door, leaving a rather irritated Indigo standing in front of it. Suddenly, the door opened again by notch, Sugarcoat’s head poking out for a moment. “But I still appreciate you dropping by and offering your help.” And the door fell shut again.

Left alone in the alley, Indigo scowled. Hands in her pockets as she turned to the street, mumbling something as she walked away.

Inside the building Sugarcoat went back up to the apartment, one hand on the rail. Halfway up the stairs she suddenly heard a crashing noise from up above. Panicked, she jumped up the remaining stairs, dashing into the living room. The whole place was a mess, looking even more vandalized than before she had answered the door. The most striking difference, Sugarcoat noticed in shock, was that the TV had been thrown over from its stand. The screen facing the carpet it was lying at the ground, the wires ripped out and scattered around it.

Immediately Sugarcoat rushed to the TV. As she bent down she took a quick look around for the culprits. She just saw a small blur vanishing through the door into the kids’ room, accompanied by a hyperactive giggle. Grumbling she set her eyes back on the TV - though leaving these toddlers alone was basically like setting up a time bomb, she decided to check first if the TV was alright. “If that thing’s broken, I’ll have to babysit until these two are in third grade to pay that off.” Carefully she lifted the TV up, grateful it was rather light, and put it back on its place. To her relief, the screen seemed undamaged. “Good thing they don’t make those out of glass anymore” she said to herself, and began to plug the wires back into their places. Once she was done she took a step back. Everything seemed okay, but she decided it was better to test if it was really running alright. She glanced at the chaos around her, guessing the remote to be hidden among one of the piles made out of toys, books and pretty much anything else a baby could grab and throw. With a sigh, she pushed the button on the TV.

It took a moment for it to boot, Sugarcoat nervously staring at the black screen. A weight fell off her chest as it jumped to life, showing a clear picture. The sitcom with the babysitting girl was still running. Sugarcoat recognized the scene as one near the end of the episode, with the girl standing in the living room. No traces of the chaos from earlier were left, the whole furniture being back at its place, shining and sparkling. In her arms, the girl was holding the baby, wrapped in a white cloth and sleeping peacefully with the face of an angel. Next to her a boy around her age was standing, a stereotypical nice guy from the book. Both teenagers were smiling from ear to ear at each other, so much in fact it was slightly disturbing.

“Thank you so much for helping me!” Sugarcoat heard the girl in the TV say in a voice so artificially sweet it would have put Sour to shame. “You are my best friend! I should have listened when you told me I wasn’t up for this by myself.”

“It’s no problem!” he assured her, overacting just as much as his female colleague. “But remember, next time you have a problem you can’t overcome by yourself, just call a friend for help!”

Sugarcoat turned off the TV. Her hand remained on the switch for a moment, before her fingers slowly glided off. She stared at the black screen, standing in the devastated living room. In the silence around her, she could clearly hear her own thoughts inside her head – a train of complicated and contradicting thoughts, born from a variety of complex emotions like despair, solitude, shame and personal pride.

The train of thoughts suddenly crashed when she heard something heavy fall over in the kid’s room.

Sugarcoat stared at the door with the smiling cupcake for a moment. With a look of annoyance upon her, she then pulled out her smartphone. After rummaging through her contacts for a moment she put the phone on her ear, waiting until the call was picked up.

“Indigo, it’s me. You’re not in the bus back to the city yet, are you?”

Comments

[FourShadow]

Sugarcoat, hon, you should have just asked for help in the first place.

[Regreme]

D'awww....

[BenRG]

"So... You admit that you need my help?"

"Yes! Yes, yes and a thousand times yes! I need your help; I need anyone's help! Harmony help me but I think that I'd welcome that ditzy brain-dead blue-haired Siren's help right now!"

[Tennis Match Fan]

Moral of the story: Sitcoms lie to you

[Godslittleprincess]

7814858 But, everything that happened in the sitcom more or less pretty much happened.