Happy Pancake (The second pancake part 5)

“Ah...crap! Help!” I screamed before falling off and landing right onto my backside. My trousers were all covered in mud and my palms ached as I tried to position myself up straight.
“Ouch! Why didn’t you catch me?”
“You’d probably kill me if I were to catch you!”
“Hannie!”
“You know I’m only just kidding...right?”
She sighed, “Right...so how are we going to do this?”
“Wow...this looks kind of stupid...” I muttered to Hannie, hoping she would change her mind. I began brushing the bits of grass off my trousers.
“And so it is,”
“Hannie...enough of you teasing me okay? I’ve already got mud all on the back of my trousers, and I still have an essay to write after school today. But here I am, trying to steal keys. I thought you said you’d stop contradicting me now- whhh...?!” I screamed, without finishing off my word.
I saw his face again. The person who I feared most would appear in my life again, was standing at the window looking down at me.
“You, you-Bastard! What on earth are you doing up there?” I asked, hoping that what he was about to say, was not what I was hoping he was not going to say.
“It’s my house...why? Shocked?”
“What?”
“Seriously...why is it whenever I talk to you, I always have to repeat what I say?”
“Stop making jokes and get out of that house- who let you in...are you robbing the house?” I gasped, trying to get a grip of the situation.
“Are you really that dumb?! I just said that I live here! Have you got a problem with that?”
“Yeah-stop making up nonsense!”
“Raina...” Hannie muttered, “There was a renovation last three weeks ago for the person moving in remember?”
“You said?” I whispered back, hoping he wouldn’t overhear.
“Who is that Raina...?” Hannie asked suddenly out of the blue, making me jump. I darted a stare at her, hoping to give the impression that he was the sort of someone you’d meet...and never wanted to meet again.
“Your friend asked who I was...aren’t you going to tell her?” he said, smiling his agonising face that made me want to go up there and punch him.
“Oh…him?”
“Yeah,”
“Oh, just a jerk that doesn’t have any manners,”
She snorted loudly, and I was glad she did for the first time. An offended expression crossed his face…
Bonus! First point goes to me for annoying him.
“Hey,” Hannie nudged me, before pushing me down with her shoulders, so that my ear was in level with her mouth. She whispered to me, “but don’t you think he’s quite good looking?”
“A man with no manners nor personality is nothing, why don’t you have him?”
“Okay,” she smiled at me.
At that moment, I thought she was joking. But as I’ve come to realise, she never is.
“Hey!” She yelled, waving her arms to get his attention.
I quickly covered her mouth so she could speak no more to him. He started at us in confusion.
“Hannie...don’t please...you’ve got the complete wrong guy, he won’t do anything for you...you really deserve someone better,”
“Really?”
“Really.”
“Hey- you’re just saying that because you don’t want me to be with him right?”
“What? No!”
She looked at me curiously...as if I had some deep dark secret hidden from her.
“Look Hannie- he is definitely the last person that you would want to be with, even for one minute!”

Only after a few seconds, did we realise that we still had to get Hannie’s kit before anything else. We exchanged glances. Suddenly, we got out of our seats and carried on plotting the plan, as if nothing had happened at all.
“Right, you try climbing that tree again, and I’ll check to see if there’s any signs of them,” she spoke, confidently, like if nothing could possibly go wrong.
“But why can’t you just get in through the front door, and take the keys from their room?” I questioned, wondering why I hadn’t asked the same thing before.
“That’s because mum and dad have locked their rooms- they always do that before they go out. They’re worried that burglars will break through the front and take all their stuff…”

“-And yet, they didn’t seem to think about the fact that the burglars could just as easily get into the house through the back door?”

Hannie shrugged mindlessly- concentrating more on the amount of time we had left.
“Raina,” she said, looking at her watch, “you go climb that tree now,”
“Ok,” I replied, knowing I had no choice.
One foot after the other, I quickly reached the top in no time. All I had to do now was bring my foot over the bridge of the gate, and pull myself over.

“Raina…you okay?” Hannie asked, noticing I had abruptly stopped in mid air.
“Hang on, give me a second…” I said, trying to get my breath back.
“Dear dear- look at you. I’m really going to have to give you some fitness training when we get back,”
“Just give me a sec,” I said, quickly taking two more breaths as I pulled myself over. I was finally on the landing, and all I needed was to break into the room, and take the keys.
“Right, Raina…do you see a window?” Hannie called.

“Errr,” I hesitated, whilst looking round. Finally I had spotted it, “Yes!”
“Ok, slide it open,”
I did as I was told, being careful not to make too much noise to attract attention from unwanted guests.

“Raina…” Hannie cried. I could tell immediately by the seriousness of her voice that she was going to say something bad.
“Don’t tell me…”
“My parents are home.”

Happy Pancake (The second pancake part 4)

“What?! Hannie, are you crazy?! How are you going to do it with the state of your hand?!”
“Don’t worry- I have that covered…but I just can’t wait. I’m starting next week…and I need to get all my kit out of my old cupboard without my parents knowing…so any tips on how I’m going to do that?”
“Don’t be silly- how are you going to do that? They’ve locked the cupboard with keys that are probably with their other keys…so how are you going to get that?”
“That’s why I’ve asked you to help me…come on!”
“Mmm…I don’t think it is a good idea…”
“Oh come on Raina…you’re supposed to be my friend!”

“I know, I know…”
“Well…are you coming?”
“We’ll have to think of a plan first,”
“We don’t need one! We need to do something practical…something that would really work.
“Hey- this does not include me going into your parent’s room to steal anything…does it?”
“Only just…but better…”

***

To be honest- it’s not relatively normal to find two nineteen year old kids, fully mature, breaking into their best friend’s house, by climbing up a tree to get through the window. Nor is it normal for someone like me to agree to this crazy idea from an insane friend... Yes- as crazy as it was- I was made to do it...because that’s just how Hannie is . Once she’s got an idea, she forces you to go with it, no matter how dangerous or what consequences there will be to face.
“Raina...place your left foot onto the lower trunk!”
“What? Why?!”
“So you can get onto the higher one...obviously!”
“No! I really can’t do this...”
“Oh come on- you’re not that much of a chicken are you? Besides- you’re nearly there!”
“I’m afraid of heights...and you know that!”
“Oh...just listen, don’t look at me!”
“Too late...ah, shit...I really can’t do this!”
“Argh, we’re never going to make it before my parents if you’re going at this rate!”
“Hannie...do we really have to do this?”
“Yes!”
I closed my eyes and reached for another branch. Just as I was going to put my foot on another branch- my soles of my shoes lost grip, and I was slipping…

Happy Pancake (The second pancake part 3)

I waited around for Hannie so I could tell her about my first school day after the holidays…but she didn’t come. I stood around at the lockers, hoping that she’d appear soon, as she always did whenever it was the end of school. I decided to wait a little while longer anyway, with the hope that she did not already leave.

But that curiosity did not last very long. I heard her run up to me, grabbing me on my soldiers, whilst bringing herself over me.
“Raina!” she laughed, whilst being piggy-backed…by me…
“Hannie, get off! My shoulders are hurting!”
“Oh, sorry!”
She got off, smiling as she did so. She swung her bag over her shoulders, smiling as she did so. She looked at me, smiling as she did so.
“Don’t do that…”
“Do what?”
“Smile at everything you’re doing…in that creepy way.”
“What? Am I smiling now?”
“Yes, Hannie. You’re smiling…a lot.”

“Ah, sorry...” she said, smiling.

“So what happened?” I asked.

“Do you really want to know?”
“Course I do…wait, it’s not another guy this time…is it?!”
“Wait, no no no no no.... It’s not,”
“You just plotted against an ex?”
“No,”
“You just pranked someone’s locker,”
“No,”
“You-”

“Raina!”
“Yeah?”
“The martial arts club have finally accepted me in the audition!”

Happy Pancake (The second pancake part 2)

“Right…you do all the work, I can’t be bothered to do such lame things in my precious time,”

“What?” I said, hoping I was mistaken and that it was only out of my imagination.

“Are you deaf- or just clearly stupid?”

“Excuse me?”

“I’m telling you to do the work woman- what part of that do you not understand?”

“Oh my…are you being serious?” I said, ripping the hat off my head and throwing it to the table. I breathed heavily, holding my fist high in the air.

He looked at me, leaning backwards with his eyes wide open.

“Is that a way to talk to someone? Say what you want? Hey- ‘just do all the work whilst I sit here and enjoy my day?’ Is it, is it?!” I shouted and poked at him, seconds later whacking him and lastly punching.

Indeed, I shall now tell you that it was only my imagination, and that it was only my dream of beating the guy. But yes, unfortunately, being the pushover, I could only say ‘yes’ and do what I was told. Unfortunately, that was the worst mistake, because not only having been told what to do. I was now getting told off for it.

“Ray…Rain?”

“Raina, miss. “

“Ahh...what is it your doing exactly?”

“I’m doing what you asked us to do…”

“And what is that exactly?”

“Remaking the apple crumble you showed us in the demonstration?”

“Yes…but in a pair- not by yourself.”

“Well miss, it’s not that…it’s just-“

“Ok- can’t you just share the work with Sky…he has to learn too,”

“But he said-”

“What did he say? And please don’t refer to your classmates as ‘he’ or ‘she’. Call

them by their names please,”

‘Sky…so that was the name of the rude bastard’ I thought.

“Erm… yes miss,” I said…not bothering to explain to her that in truth- I was the

actual victim here. Especially when your new cookery teacher is some arrogant

woman who only backs up ‘the good looking’. Besides, I don’t think she’d believe

me anyway. I turned around to face him after she left to talk to another group, and

all he did was smirk.

“Got told off for the first time miss goody?”

Though I tried my hardest to hold all my anger in- I just could not stop clenching my fists. All I wanted to do was the crush the guy. My teeth gritted together and my hands began to shake and clench even more. Without realising, I had ripped the piece of dough in half that we were supposed to be using.

I looked up after hearing a gasp, and saw the face of a pale lady with her mouth hanging wide open.

“Raina! Please stand outside!” she scolded when she had seen what I had done.

For the rest of that period, I stood outside, looking down at my worn out shoes. To be fair, if I had really become that annoyed at him- I would’ve cut out his tongue and fried it (just kidding…but seriously).

I peered through the small window in the door to see what that jerk was doing. And for some reason…I could not see him. I looked from wall to wall and no sign of him. Eventually…when the teacher noticed that I was distracting my classmates, she darted her stare at me again so that I would turn away. However, that would not keep me from finding that insolent child.

Moments later when I was sure she wouldn’t look at me, I peered through the window again. However, unexpectedly, a face jumped at me from the opposite side of the glass.

“Aaaahhhh!” I shrieked, quickly putting a hand to my mouth to stop myself from screaming to the shock that nearly killed me. I lay on the wall, quickly trying to get my breath back. It was only moments later till I realised that it was the face of the evil bastard. The door then opened, and he strolled out as if nothing happened.

“You!” I said to stop him before he walked past me. But he carried on walking as if he heard nothing.

“Hey! You bastard!”

He stopped dead in his tracks with his hands in his pockets, and that made me gulp. Without turning round to face me, he said

“What did you just call me?”

“Are you deaf…or are you just dumb?”

“Hey…if you’re playing my own jokes on me… I will-”

“What are you going to do about it? You have nothing so highly about you anyway.

people like you just eat and sleep and don’t even care about their own education,”

“People like me?” He said, coming toward me, closer and closer as I spoke.
“Yes- Bastards like you!”

“Bastards?” He asked in disbelief, laughing it off, “Then what are you? You’re just a little commoner who has no property, status, or looks,”

“What?”
He laughed in my face and smirked again, “Do you think you have more property than me?”
“What are you seriously talking about?”
“I said, do you have more property than me? Do you have more land? Do you have more money?”
“What does that have anything to do with what we’re talking about?!”

“And what did you call me? A bastard?” he laughed, and leaned right close to me against the wall. I tried to escape from him, but he placed his arms on each side of me, making me feel trapped.

“Yes- a b-a-s-t-a-r-d,” I said spitting into his face.

“You’re going to regret that,” he said, wiping it off in disgust.
I wished that his annoying smile would wipe off with his hand too.
Before realising, the teacher came out of the room, staring at us in confusion.

“You lot, what happened?” she asked.

“Nothing,” I said, pushing him off me, as he fell into the opposite wall. I rushed into the classroom, hoping I would never see him again.


***

“I hoped you all learned something good today- and I hope that some of you,” she said, darting her eyes at me, “Learn to get along with each other. Very well, that’s me done. Class dismissed,”

As everyone got up to leave, I quickly stuffed my diary into my bag before heading towards the door. I reached for the doorknob, and just about when I was about to turn it, she stopped me again.

“Raina…could you come over here please,”

I turned around, and plopped myself onto a seat in the front row.

“I hope you’ve learnt a very good lesson today- that we should all respect our peers…no matter who they are and what they do…we have to accept them for who they are,”

“But I’ve already told you- it wasn’t me who was doing the disrespecting!”

“I don’t believe that…you know too well about the school here. Sky couldn’t be much of trouble- he’s only just transferred here 2 weeks ago and school life’s been pretty tough on him,”

‘Yeah- that’s a good excuse to use,’ I thought as I imagined sky to be acting sickly innocent in front of her face.

“Ok- that’s all I’ve got time for- you better start going home now- and get some good night rest as well as thinking about what you did in the morning,”

“Ok…” I said, not bothering to repeat what I had said a few minutes ago.

Happy Pancake (The second pancake part 1)

Chapter 2

When I was little, holidays were always my favourite times of the year- cause you know, when there’s no school, meaning no homework? Yeah, well I was like every one of the other kids, who spent their holidays watching television and doing…well absolutely nothing. But now, going to university was more enjoyable. First of all there was using time wisely- there was so much more to do- so much more to learn.

I finished secondary school two years ago, and moved onto university to study cookery and desserts. It’s more exciting than most people think.

Hannie says that I was ‘born to do cooking’ which really boosted my confidence up- especially since I had no confidence to begin with. I remember really hating working at the pancake shop after school. It was the same and monotonous every time. I walked into the shop: I got out the plates, I put the pancakes on them, and I served them. Yeah- it was pretty boring I must admit to you.
But as I grew up, I actually learnt how to make the pancakes myself, and I even made some of my own toppings- like the banana and peanut butter one- which tasted delicious. They were on sale and the top sellers for almost 2 months. And now, I’ve come to here.

This is what most people don’t get. You should always do what you want- not what somebody else wants. It’s your future you’re talking about, so you have to make it happen. That’s why my parents are always so nervous about what I want to do. They don’t want me to pick the wrong thing, but I know I haven’t because…I love what I’m doing now.

Right, so starting Monday morning off with a long bus journey…great! No, not so great. It’s a bit of a pity that I can’t drive. If only I could- there are so many places that I can go in the matter of time. And somehow, I’m stuck here in the middle of a long traffic jam and I have a feeling that I was going to be late on the first day of my second year.

There was going to be no way I could make it out on time. I popped out of my seat and headed towards the driver, before tapping on his window screen. He turned to look at me with an annoyed expression.

“Erm…sir, how long is it going to take to get to Geordan street?”.

Additionally, I was going to ask him if he could take a different route, but somehow I couldn’t. His eyes stared at me, like how a cat would stare at a ball of wool.

“Well at this rate, probably half an hour…”

“But…I’m going to be late!”

“I’m sorry love, this traffic is going nowhere, and it’s not just you who isn’t.”
I sighed, and headed back. I was going to be extremely late if I didn’t make a move on. That’s when I got off the bus, and ran.

***

Running towards the hall, I saw a few other students walking in. I looked around for a seat just until I heard someone call my name. It was Hannie. She waved her arms in the air frantically, signalling for me to come over.

“Raina! Come on!”
I sneaked quietly towards them, nearly falling over a few times and stumbled as I made my way through the hall.

“Ouch!” A student cried, after accidentally stepping on her feet.
“I’m sorry!”
“Watch where you’re going,” Another replied.
“Sorry,”

However, I finally managed to get there and placed myself onto the seat next to hers.

“Where were you?” she whispered at me.

“Traffic,”

“Oh, well that isn’t a surprise,”

“Hey, what are you trying to say?”

“Hey, I’m only joking,” she laughed

“Look at my clothes!”
They were dripping wet, especially my shoes that squelched whenever I moved my feet. I sat there hoping the assembly would finish sooner so I could quickly go and dry up. But instead, it seemed to last forever. People in the front row began to droop off.

“What time is it?” I sighed with utter annoyance in my voice.

“Just gone 10 past…”

“What?! Are you kidding me?” I shouted. Everyone from the row in front turned to look at me.

“Sorry,” I whispered to them and then they turned back as if nothing happened.

“I know- even your clothes have started to dry up,”

“You got that right,” I sighed, and carried onto squeeze all the water out of my hair that fell onto the now- wet floor.
Another few minutes passed by, and when the professor finally managed to put a close to the assembly, everyone was relieved to get up and leave.

“Why can’t they just last for one minute- besides, it’s not like you have much to say anyway,”

“It wasn’t that bad- I mean compared to our last ones,”

“Yeah- but all it is, is just ‘Hey guys, I hope you all had a nice holiday, now study hard and don’t get drunk! That really did not need 40 minutes I tell you!”

She chuckled, and she threw a friendly punch at me- except they weren’t so friendly because to be honest…they really hurt!

Hannie joined taekwondo club from a very young age. She learned how to picks someone up and them at the age of 10, and finally received her black belt at the age of 18- which is stunningly amazing… except the fact she is left with incomparable muscles at her arms.

But to be honest- I’m glad for who she is, because that’s how I met her. There was this one time in primary where a couple of kids were bullying me…and out of nowhere she comes, defending me and attacking them...yeah…the only downside to it? Well, out teacher wasn’t so pleased to hear about that. And nor were her parents by the looks of it. They never wanted her to join such “violent clubs” to begin with, but being their only daughter…they spoiled her quite a fair amount…but she’s not like one of those spoilt brats…she’s just one in her own special way- a cool personality is what I would call it.

***

“Excuse me…miss?”
I slowly opened my eyes to realise that I was not in a world filled with chocolate biscuits and sweets the size of the moon, and cakes which were used as the ground to walk on…but in fact, inside the library with a book over my face…and a librarian calling me to wake up. I realised that I had fallen asleep in the library whilst trying to get inspiration for new desserts to put in the shop.

“Young lady?”

“Oh… is it past lunch break?”

“Yes dear, only five minutes…but you have to go now. A class has already reserved the library and I’m afraid it wouldn’t be a good sight to them, seeing you sleeping underneath a book now- would it?”

“Five minutes?”

“Yes,”

Flashbacks of my last year in school appeared when I was silently scolded at by my extremely strict teacher for being “five minutes” late.

“Sugar!”

I stood up and quickly stuffed the hardback book back into the shelf full of cookery books.

“I’ll get going now.

“Okay, cheerio!”

I ran for the door and pushed it open, heading down the corridor, hoping that my new professor wouldn’t scold at me like my last year did.

“Why are you so late?” was the first thing she said (like most teachers would) when I came through the door.

“I’m so sorry, I’m late miss,”

“Yes, that would be a start,”

Everyone in my class (who were actually supposed to support me) laughed, and I was left standing there, looking like an idiot.

“I was in the library actually miss,”

“Doing what…it’s past your lunch break,”

“I’m sorry miss, I was reading,”

“What?”

“A book…”

“I know that obviously…what book?”

“A cookery book…”

“Very well. I’ll let you off since it was your first time- but no more lates!”

“Yes miss,”

I headed towards the empty seat with 30 other eyes on me. Pulling the stool was not a great thing either- because it made the most annoying clench- and the teacher even darted her eyes at me like foxes who had found their prey. I pretended that no one had heard, and took my things out of my bag.

“So class, before we were interrupted…getting the right flavour is the most important task of all, because if not, your desserts will taste bad…and then obviously no one would eat it,”

Her long lecture of “flavour” was then followed by copying off the board and was finally ended with a demonstration.

“Right…so now you have all witnessed my ways of cooking, I want you to pair up with someone for this practical- preferably not someone in your column- since there are some new students this year. I want you to recreate what I have just showed you and the pair who has paid most attention and so will make the closest similarity in the dessert will receive a prize,”

Then there was the big hassle- the obvious girls, friends with each other came together…and being me, I waited in the corner until everyone was paired up so I’d have to work on my own. Of course, if you were smart- you’d noticed that there was an even number of people in the room…and in the end my partner…was quite surprisingly someone I did not know.

‘He must me a new transfer’ I thought as I saw him spot the empty seat next to mine and headed towards it. The first impression he gave me: friendly, smart…quite good looking also. But the second he threw his bag carelessly on the table and slumped into the seat was the moment I knew that we were quite definitely not going to get along.