72. Cupcakes and cookies.

Elena.

It was a Friday and I had just gotten back with both Mia and Diego from school when Diego informed me about the little fundraiser for a charity that his school organized and how they have all been asked to bring anything that they can to support one another.

Even though Diego had been very excited as he kept talking about the event, it soon started to turn to panic for him because he thought that the entire event will be ruined all because of him. Diego had said that what he wanted to bring to school was cupcakes and cookies and since Mrs. Cali was not around because of the weekend getaway that she was on, there was absolutely no one who could help him with that. And I was sure that these are ties when he missed his mom dearly.

I was not happy with how sad he was over it all so I knew I had to do something, “I will bake you the cupcake and cookies, Diego, don’t worry about it, you don’t have to be so sad.” I said to him and his face lit up.

“Really? You will do that for me?” He squealed and I nodded with a wide smile even though I was panicking inwardly and screaming, ‘I do not know how to bake cookies and cupcakes! I do not even know how to bake anything at all!’

And as if Mia could read my mind, she spoke as she took sometime to look away from her phone, “are you sure though? Can you even bake?” She asked, looking skeptical, Camila snickered beside her and I rolled my eyes.

She was still not talking to me so why was she snickering about my business?

“Well, how hard can it be, Mrs. Cali’s recipe books are right here, I’m sure I can do it if I put my mind to it.” I said and Mia laughed, she then walked upstairs to her room, “well, just don’t burn down the house, and even if you do, please, remember to call me so I can get out of here on time.” She said to me in a playful tone and then disappeared into the second floor.

“You might be shocked.” I called after her and then moved into the kitchen. I brought out the book that Mrs. cali had left in the safe part of the hanging cupboards and started to read through, allow the butter and eggs to stand at room temperature for thirty minutes. This will make the butter easier to blend. Step two, combine butter and sugar, then add eggs and vanilla, add all of the dry ingredients together in another bowl. Stir properly and then add them to the batter,” I kept reading them out while I did all of them as carefully as I could.

I was feeling proud of myself until it got to making the dough for the cookies, and after making about two patches of terrible dough in which one was too hard like stone and the other was just way too fluffy it was almost liquid, I was almost breaking down. The baking ingredients were almost finished and the fundraiser was literally the next day.

“What are we going to do now, Ms. Elena? Am I going to show up to school tomorrow without anything?” Diego questioned, it looked like he was close to a melt down. I looked at him, fed up and not knowing what else to do.

Suddenly, Camila stood up from where she was seated, “Ugh! Let’s just try harder together for the boy!” She said as she scooted closer to me. I was surprised but I smiled as she took hold of one of the doughs and started to knead it. We decided to put our differences aside to fix things up. We worked in complete silence at first but it was soon almost impossible to just remain silent so we started talking. I even remarked about how Camila was the daughter of a chef and is not a very good cook nonetheless and she laughed about it.

We ended up working until late in the night, we were both so tired that we even fell asleep in uncomfortable positions and almost burnt the cakes.

When I walked into Mia’s room to tuck her in, I discovered that she was still on face time with this Andrew boy, “go to sleep already, Mia! Or I would have to confiscate the phone from you till morning.” I warned and she reluctantly put it away and covered herself up.

The next day was a Saturday and we were arranging the cakes and cookies. Camila made some lemonade to go with them while I had to go wake and prepare Diego for the school event that he had been so excited about. It was not a school day so he was simply dressed in shorts and an adorable t-shirt. The cakes and cookies were so not not top quality but they were not so bad and Diego did not seem to care that they were not shaped properly or the right shade of brown, he was just excited to be having something to take to school like his friends, “thank you so much, Ms. Elena!” She showered his thanks on me as he hugged me.

Mia on the other hand kept panicking over what to wear for her date to the beach, “I have nothing here to wear, absolutely nothing! How did I not know that I need some new dresses, Elena, can you even see this? It is nothing to write home about, I might have to show up to the beach looking like a little kid with these outfits!” She rambled on and I smiled.

“Let’s just go shopping and get some new fits for you then?” I suggested and she immediately concurred.

I was so busy with all of these as I juggled myself between Mia and Diego so much that I barely thought of Mr. Deangelo anymore. The only thought I had of him was wondering what he might think about his young teenager dating already and if I needed to inform him about that.

But then Mia had already sworn me to secrecy, saying that she did not want her dad to freak out like he normally would over her. “Well, if you do not want me to tell him, then you have to do so yourself, Mia. that is not something that he should not know about, so you have the week to tell him or else I will do it myself.” I had told her.