User blog:Weavillain/FANFICTION: Bake a Load Off - PART 1

Synopsis: ''The Fashion Club's bake sale is but a few months away, and Leni is looking forward to taking part it in. The only problem is, she can't bake to save her life. Even though it's a tall order to fill, Leni is dead set on improving herself in time.''

"Woah!"

Luan Loud was not prepared for this. At all.

By all means, walking into the kitchen—in order to help herself to a popsicle, to help cool off in the heat of the warm Spring weekend afternoon—should've been as mundane and uneventful as a walk in the park...or, heck, a walk to the kitchen. But alas, what she happened to come across was anything but mundane and most certainly anything but uneventful.

Well, okay, it was uneventful now, but Luan knew that there was no way that it was uneventful minutes prior to the kitchen being in absolute shambles.

The formerly pristine tile floor was marred with slimy egg yolks and stains of colorful puddles of runny goop, most of which were either a sickly shade of green or a blend of orange and brownish tints. Empty boxes and cans complimented the assortment of disarray, along with full, swollen trash bags that looked just about ready to burst.

The ceiling wasn't that much better off—along with stains of the same discernment as those sticking to the floor, thick cakes of yellow batter clung to the surface precariously, threatening to plop off at any second.

Tower upon tower of dirty platters stacked in and around the sink, creating a structure that nearly resembled the outer wall of a medieval castle…a pillaged, war-torn castle.

The oven had definitely seen better days; a blanket of flour dusted the surface of the door, imprints of hands slapped into the white soot. Slews of zigzags—ketchup, mustard, and hot fudge(?)—slathered across the stove, dabbing the stainless steel with wild, haphazard precision.

But all those observations failed to capture Luan's attention like the one that greeted her in the middle of the culinary warzone.

Sitting on her rear, her body rocked slightly to and fro, was Leni—a large, grease-stained pot gracelessly strapped over her head, allowing her pained moans to echo within the confinement. By a stroke of either sheer luck or divine mercy, none of her clothes appeared to be targets of the kitchen's vandalism, but Luan didn't allow that fortune to keep her from rushing to Leni's side, heedless to the spills that could've caused her to slip and fall—a fitting dose of karma for the girl who loved to catch her family unawares with a banana peel or two.

"Leni, are you okay?!" Luan cried, coming to a stop once she closed in on her dazed sister.

While waiting for a response, one that Luan hoped was an earnest report of no injury or unbearable discomfort, she gave Leni some semblance of dignity by lifting the pot off her head. Her worries of a battered-looking Leni were broken upon seeing her face—though her eyes with a little glazed over, her face was free of any bumps, cuts, or scrapes. Even her sunglasses, though a bit askew on top of Leni's pale blonde locks, weren't chipped, bent, or scratched in the slightest.

Thankfully, it only took a few seconds for Leni to snap out of her faraway look as her eyes rolled up and fixed on her pun-spouting little sister.

She cracked a weak smile at her, ignoring the slight tug of pain from the contortions her face made in the process. "Oh, hey, Luan."

"Are you okay?" Luan asked again for good measure as she sat the pot off to the side.

Leni nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, but I think I bruised my tailbone," she said, rubbing her shoulder with one hand.

She began to stand up gingerly, but stopped halfway up—pausing as she was hunched over and bent at the knees. "And my spleen," she groaned as she clutched her left thigh.

Driving away the temptation to correct her on her anatomy—as well as the temptation to call her out on the sincerity of her insisting that she was fine—Luan draped one of Leni's arms around her shoulders, assisted her in walking over to the kitchen table, and sat her down on the only chair that wasn't knocked on its side. Before Luan stepped back, she made sure to brush off some of the stray specks of crumbs that clung on Leni's dress.

"Anyway, what happened to you?" Luan asked and took a minute to once again, survey the carnage that surrounded them. "And why does the kitchen look like a tornado just came through here?"

And then, that's when it hit her—another spark of comedic genius that made her grin, revealing the shiny braces which gleamed with less luster than her latest joke.

"If one did, then it's too bad that you didn't catch wind of it!" Luan cried, letting out a rally of belly laughs, not forgetting to sign off the pun with her signature finish. "Get it?"

When Leni groaned, Luan just chuckled.

"Ah, come on! That was funny!" Luan insisted mirthfully.

The fashionista simply groaned again and pointed at her temples. "No, not that," she said, gritting her teeth. "I think my wrist got banged up too."

Deciding to get back on track, Luan resumed where her totally obligatory pun cut her off.

"So yeah, you were about to tell me about why the kitchen's a complete mess…" she began, trailing off to allow Leni to fit the rest of the pieces of the puzzle together.

"I'll tell you," Leni said, "but do you mind helping me clean up before I do that? I don't want Mom and Dad coming back to the kitchen looking like this."

Luan looked at her incredulously, wondering if Leni was sure she was prepared for what she was asking for.

"Seriously?" Luan asked, heeding the less than ideal state that Leni was in. "You sure you can manage?"

"I'll be fine," Leni said, offering a smile as a sign of her dedication.

Luan shook her head and sighed. Although she was willing to give Leni a hand, she still couldn't help but feel that she was roped into this, and her new commitment was a far cry from her objective from four minutes ago.

A cherry popsicle; was having one really too much to ask?

Fate gave her the answer when an overhanging icicle of batter suddenly dribbled off the ceiling and landed on top of her head. Leni's muffled giggles did not make the ordeal the least amusing.

Working together, the girls managed to get the kitchen looking spotless in about an hour. It wasn't what Leni could call a happy experience, but at least with most of the family out and about, the probability of anyone else discovering the kitchen in all its "disorderly glory" was severely low, and she was happy that that was what wound up happening.

Through it all, though her body was racked with little tendrils of pain, Leni made sure that she'd do most of the heavy lifting. After all, this mess was her fault, and Luan didn't deserve to have the remainder her Saturday scrubbing out stains off the floor and ceiling—not that it stopped her from asking for Luan's assistance in the first place, though. Leni promised herself that her I.O.U. to Luan would more than make up for her selfishness, and the first part of that would be to give Luan what she had asked for earlier.

With the conversation in the living room, the sisters resting comfortably on the couch, Leni turned to Luan and said, "Yeah, so the thing is, I'm trying to get better at baking."

Though Leni had stated as much as plainly and clearly as she thought anything could come across, Luan looked back at her with the sort of incredulity that Leni felt was appropriate for what she had just said; she was a little hurt to see such timid confusion from her little sister, but that kind of reaction wasn't what she could call unreasonable, given her "track record" and her latest addition to said "track record".

"Why?" Luan asked, trying but failing to mask her uncertainty in her sister's ambitions.

Leni heaved a mournful sigh and slumped in her seat. "The Fashion Club's hosting a bake sale in two months. We're trying to raise money for more supplies and fabrics. And, like, everyone else is participating except for me, and the only reason why I'm not is because I'm not a good baker."

It was bad enough to think it, but saying it out loud was even worse. After all, it wasn't like anyone was going to object to what she was saying to make her feel better—such was a principle that a certain eavesdropping interloper of their conversation was keen on keeping.

"I'll say," came the voice of Lori, who had made it down the stairs just before Leni's last sentence and had listened intently to every word.

Drained from self-pity, Leni only had the strength to tilt her head up in the direction of the voice and gaze sullenly at her older sister. Luan's movements were more spirited; along with looking towards Lori, she donned a frown in defiance to the blunt tone of her agreement. Lori just rolled her eyes at the glare and focused on Leni.

"Leni, what do you think you're doing?" Lori asked, her disapproval on full display with her scowl and folded arms. "Trying to practice in time for a bake sale? You can't be serious. The last time you tried to bake a cake, you confused laundry detergent powder for sugar. Remember?"

"Well, yeah, but-"

Those were the only three words that Leni's pride allowed her to utter before her lips clamped shut and her head bowed. Besides the sternness of her parent's discipline, Lola's bouts of unrelenting vengeance, and the prospect of trying on flatform sandals, there was nothing in the world more intimidating to her than a hard glare from Lori, especially when it was justified by the truth that would sometimes compliment that expression.

Though her eyes had drawn away from her authoritative figure, she could practically feel Lori's presence drawing closer to her, the invisible chill of her aura making her curl up even further and squirm.

"Remember the cupcake incident?" Lori asked, her tone as berating as ever. "You broke several cups and tried to make cupcakes out of them because you literally thought that the recipe called for it."

As if that wasn't enough, Lori felt that it was upon herself to drag Leni further down memory lane, down paths that Leni had already crossed more than once while she was baking earlier. But at least she had the dignity of holding her head high against the self-doubt that the self-reflection had done. This time, Lori was dragging her along by the ear, as if she were a child being scolded, and she didn't have the fight in her to think that she deserved better.

After all, it wasn't as if Lori was wrong.

"And don't even get me started on the muffin mishap," Lori reminded, who, by now, was only standing about a foot away from Leni. "Poor Lola hasn't been able to do so much as look at a muffin without feeling sick since she ate one of yours."

There was hint of satisfaction in her tone that time around, as if Lori was empowered by both the thrill of being in the right and the fact that the recipient of her declaration was too cowed to stop her. The most it did was make Leni's fingers flinch, ready to ball into fists.

"And those were your most successful attempts," Lori continued. "When you're not so lucky, you just make a giant mess and waste food for nothing. Trust me, Leni, this bake sale is something you ought to just avoid altogether. I mean, it's only a matter of time before you-"

"Enough already!"

Leni jumped, the booming voice scrambling her inner thoughts into mush. She jerked her head up and was flabbergasted by what she found; in the muck of her self-pity, she had forgotten that Luan was with her the whole time, and she evidently had heard just about enough from Lori by the looks of things.

Why else would she be up in her face, face scrunched up in a glower, and her cheeks burned in anger?

"Why're you picking on Leni?!" Luan shouted. "She's just trying to help her club, you jerk! You don't have to make her feel bad!"

It was all Luan could do not to snarl like an angry, rabid dog at the way Lori reacted to her righteous indignation with nothing more than a scoff and another roll of her eyes.

"Okay, cool your jets, Luan," Lori said with infuriating calmness. "I'm not 'picking on' anyone. If anything, I'm helping. Besides, it's not like you think she's a good baker, either."

That got Luan to shut up. Her lividness crumbled under the crushing weight of shame and instead of anger, remorse fueled her reddened face.

"Well, I…I…uh…" Luan stammered weakly, unable to make a retort.

Lori brushed passed her, walking up to Leni until she was right in front of her. Leni didn't look away this time, though, as she could make out the glimmer of compassion in her eyes, and found it oddly comforting despite her indignity.

"Look, Leni, everyone has something that they're good at, and everyone has something that they're bad at. For you, that something is baking, and I shouldn't be telling you otherwise. If you really want to help with the bake sale, just stick to making signs for it or something; literally anything else but baking. If you try to push your luck, you'll just mess up for everyone and the fashion club will hate your guts for it."

A horrible thought entered Leni's mind, and it made gasp and wrap her arms protectively around her waist.

"But I like my guts!" Leni cried. She, like, needed those for food!

"I like 'em too," Lori replied. "That's why you should just give up practicing altogether. I know it hurts to hear this, but it's better that I be the messenger, rather than the people who get sick from eating your food."

At the thought of food, Lori broke away from the pair, and announced her intentions with, "Now, if you'll excuse me, there are some carrot chips with my name on it. If I'm getting my proper antioxidant intake, they might as well be in chip form."

Between Lori grabbing her snack and heading back upstairs, Luan was the only one who made any movement. Though she was still a bit frazzled from being put in check, that didn't stop her from sliding next to Leni and placing her hand on her knee in a gesture of comfort. Luan spoke once Lori had left them, and she was sure that she wouldn't return to instigate any further trouble.

"You okay?" Luan asked.

"Yeah," Leni said, a tug at the corner of her lips that could hardly be called a smile. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Luan frowned at the obvious lie. "No, you're not. Look, don't listen to Lori, okay? She's wrong."

"But she said that I-"

She stopped when the grip on her knee clamped on a little firmer and took that as a sign that Luan wanted the floor again.

"Okay, so maybe your baking skills aren't all that great," Luan admitted, "but practice makes perfect. Don't let her discourage you. After all, Rome wasn't built in a day."

Leni didn't know what ancient civilizations had to do about baking, which made Luan's analogy a mystery to her and one that didn't lift her spirits.

"Yeah, but desserts have been made in less than a day, and I can't manage to do that," Leni replied sadly after letting out a sigh. "My soufflés? My crepes? My puddings? They always come out looking worse than zebra print tops. Maybe Lori's right. Maybe I should just qui-"

"No."

Leni gave her sister a pointed look. "Luan, that was totes rude. I wasn't finished moping yet," she scolded.

Luan just smirked at the reaction; it was better than Leni moping around.

"Good," she said, "and you'd better be finished on quitting too. Even if you don't think you can be all that and a bag of chips at baking, you still want to help with the bake sale, don't you?"

And just like that, the objective behind Leni's pursuit was back in her focus. Her vision was enough to make a real smile grace her face.

"Uh-huh," Leni said. "I wanna do my fair share and help. And besides that, I like the way my tummy feels after I eat something really sweet; it makes me feel…really happy and cozy. I wanna give back that same feeling to others for a change."

Luan's hands moved from Leni's knee to her shoulder, which she gave an encouraging squeeze.

"Then you shouldn't give up," she told her. "You have two whole months before the bake sale. That's plenty of time to learn how to bake. Besides, you learned how to drive in less than that time, and last time I checked, learning how to drive is way harder than baking. What'd you have to lose with more practice?"

Unlike that spiel about Rome, the fact that she had two months to get better was a comforting thought. Heck, it was the reason why she thought that trying her hand at baking was worth it in the first place. But then, Lori had to come along and be so gosh darn convincing. Like, she was a genius, after all. Lori was so smart, always telling her the ways of the world and whatnot. Who else would know if she was in over her head but Lori?

"I mean, I guess, but I've barely made any progress," Leni said with a shrug. "Like, I just got around to realizing that the flour you use for baking isn't the kind you find in Mom's flower garden. How am I supposed to be good enough in time for the bake sale?"

How could she? All she had to do was look at what she had done to the kitchen earlier to know that she truly was in over her head. And she had done all that damage by herself. By herself, she was nothing more than a…than a…hang on a second. Her head was doing that thing again, that tingly feeling it got when her brain start to…blink and then she'd know just what to do. Yeah, it was happening, and Leni felt herself trembling with excitement.

"Unless…" Leni said, swelling with joy. "I get someone to help me!"

It was Luan's turn to get pumped. "Yeah!" she said, hopping to her feet. "That's a great idea!"

"You think so?!"

"I know so!"

"Really?!"

"Yeah, really!"

"Great! So, you'll help me?!"

"Uh-huh! You bet I wi-woah, woah, woah! Hooooooold up!" Luan shouted, putting her arms out and waving them about frantically. "Me?! Why me?!"

Leni, not taking the hint of Luan's obvious apprehension, replied as if nothing was amiss. "Because you're a really good baker. Like, you make the yummiest pies ever. I should know; you throw them at my face all the time."

Leni's praise had only knocked down Luan's trepidation by about a notch. She truly was honored to have one of her older siblings rely on her, but the sibling in question was none other than Leni.

Bless her heart; as kind as she was, Leni was what one could call a…vexing learner at times, and that was putting it mildly. While Luan truly meant every word of what she said about Leni picking up on baking with practice, Leni's proposal meant that she would have to put up with Leni's…for a lack of a better term, annoying habit of making the teaching process difficult with her tendencies to steer the lesson off course. It wasn't like she meant to do it, sure, but that didn't mean Luan wanted her patience to endure all of that for, give or take, two whole months!

"I mean, Leni, look, I'm flattered that you think so highly of me, but I mean…" Luan said, trying to drum up an excuse or two that would buy her out of this. "I-it's just that, I've got sooooooo many comedy routines to whip up. And, uh, I have to stay on top of all the bookings I'm getting for Funny Business, Inc. Oh, and Gary? What would the poor guy do without me? I can't leave his side for one second witho-oh, come on!"

This was not fair! Leni had done the one thing that even those with hearts of ice couldn't resist; the puppy dog face. Besides Lily, Leni was the most effective user of such a drastic tactic—she didn't even have to try to look so vulnerable and cute and…gaaaaaaah!

Luan shut her eyes and begged, "Okay, okay, okay, I'll help, I'll help! Just stop doing that already!"

Leni cheered and stood up to hug her sister tight. Luan just grumbled under her breath; Leni and that cursed pouty lip had won the day…again.

"You can be pretty evil when you wanna be, you know that?" Luan complained as Leni continued to smother her like there was no tomorrow.

It wasn't a fair accusation, though Luan couldn't help but complain anyway. It wasn't like Leni was trying to coerce her; that was just her natural expression whenever she felt mopey and sad.

"What'd you mean?" Leni asked.

Though the question was innocent, her tiny smirk was anything but.

It took around half an hour for Luan to prepare everything needed for her baking lesson. The sisters were back in the kitchen, standing in front of the oven. On the counter were some baking utensils, a few of the ingredients that had survived Leni's bake-pocalypse, and a recipe that Luan had printed out.

"Okay, Leni, if you want to know how to bake, we should start off with something easy, and then we can work our way up from there," Luan said matter-of-factly. "That's why I figured that we'd start off with making brownies."

Leni, who had been somewhat in the dark about Luan's plan up until this point, shot her a look of objection.

"Hold on, you're not gonna use instant brownie mix, are you?" Leni asked. "If you are, don't; it's such a rip-off. Like, this one time, I opened a packet for some and instead of brownies, all this yucky brown powder came out."

Luan was too stricken with exasperation to find her grievance funny; this was precisely why she didn't want to do this in the first place.

"No, Leni, we're not using instant brownie mix," Luan said. "That would defeat the whole purpose of what we're doing anyway; we're making these brownies from scratch."

Luan left Leni's side after that and returned a few second later with the recipe in one hand.

"Now then, we'll be using this recipe that I printed online, so we'll know exactly what to do first," Luan said and motioned over to the assortment of ingredients and tools with her other hand. "As you can see, I've got all the ingredients and cooking utensils we need. So, just watch what I do carefully, and then I'll let you bake some brownies of your own after I'm done."

Taking Luan's advice to heart, Leni scooched up closer until their bodies were pressed together, side-to-side. Then, she leaned down, stopping just before the side of her face could be nuzzled up to Luan's.

"Uh…not that close, Leni," Luan replied, gently nudging Leni a few inches out of her personal space..

Turning her attention to the oven, Luan turned the temperature knob and stopped at the destination she wanted.

"First, we preheat the oven to 325°F," Luan said.

Leni regarded Luan's actions with uncertainty. "Why're we doing that?" she asked.

She might not have known much about baking, but even she knew that it didn't make much sense to make the oven hot if there was nothing in there.

"It's so the batter has a chance to bake," Luan replied. "And if we do it before we start, then we can just take our batter and put it in the oven, which'll be hot enough to let the batter bake right away."

"Ooooooooh," Leni said, coming around to understanding Luan's logic.

The only other thing she that she didn't get was why Luan had only set the temperature to 325°F. She always had it to its highest temperature; the hotter the oven, the faster the food would bake, right? Well, whatever. Luan was in charge, so she wasn't going to rock the boat, especially without a life preserver on hand.

"Next," Luan said after putting the recipe off to the side, "we line the baking pan with foil."

As she watched her sister go to work doing just that, Leni couldn't help but feel a little overwhelmed by this new nugget of information. Foil? She had never used that stuff before. Like, what could the point of that be? She just threw whatever she wanted to bake in the pan and threw it in the oven, nice and neat. Though she couldn't wrap her head around the practical use of tin foil, again, she trusted Luan enough to do nothing more than ask questions if she felt it necessary.

The sound of rushing water broke Leni out of her mulling and diverted her attention to Luan, who was letting sink water pour into a saucepan.

"Now to add a little bit of water to this saucepan and heat it up until the water starts to simmer," Luan said and walked back over to the oven slide it over one of the heated tops, something that Leni had to admit that Luan had done for the few seconds she was zoned out. "We're gonna be using the water to make our batter warm once we whip it up."

With the pre-baking steps all wrapped up, Luan walked over to the pile of utensils and ingredients, eager to get started with the meat of the work.

"And now," she continued, "while we wait for the water to heat up, we can get on with the brownie batter."

But before Luan could make a move for the cocoa powder, Leni grabbed her by the wrist

"Wait a second…" Leni said dubiously, staring at the ingredients with narrowed eyes.

Something…something wasn't adding up here. She promised herself that she would try not to butt in and simply allow Luan to teach her, but this set-up was feeling way too familiar to what she would do with her baking attempts.

Apparently, dumping flour, sugar, eggs, and whatever else into a bowl, furiously stirring it about, pouring the mixture into a pan, and throwing it in the oven didn't work. But if that was true, and they were supposed to have brownie batter on hand, then where was it? How were some eggs, a stick of butter, sugar, kosher salt, and flour supposed to make batter if mixing everything together couldn't do the trick before?

"This doesn't look like brownie batter at all," Leni said. "You must've gotten ripped off with a bad recipe, Luan."

Luan groaned, resisting the urge to facepalm. "No, Leni, I-"

"I hate it when that happens, but it just goes to show that you can't trust everything you read on the Internet."

"Leni…"

"Like, this one time, I was trying to get these cute pumps online, since they were thirty percent off— which is great, since I have small feet."

"Leni…"

"But when I got them, they weren't thirty percent smaller at all. Or at least, I don't think they were. Maybe, like, fifteen percent or-"

" LENI! "

Luan—who was red in the face, seething, and panting after her outburst—bore holes at her sister with a glower.

Leni, unfazed by the shout and the glare, just furrowed her brow in a wrinkle. "Geez, Luan, you don't have to shout. I'm right here."

Mercifully, the next few minutes were less stressful for Luan. After explaining and demonstrating how the brownie batter was made, Leni had simply nodded and followed along with her instruction. But now, it was time for the next part. Now that five minutes had passed, since the batter in their designated bowl had cooled after pulling it off the saucepan of hot water, Luan moved on.

Taking a measuring cup, she filled it to the ½ cup mark with flour and poured the contents over the dark brown batter. Next, she added a teaspoon of vanilla extract and two eggs. Leni marveled at the ease in which Luan expertly added the yolks to the mix; she knew that the eggshells weren't edible, but she didn't know how to separate the yolk from the shell and thought that she'd have to grin and bear with the whole egg.

She had no idea it was that easy—cracking the egg open on the side of the bowl and letting the contents shimmy in! Luan really was a genius!

"Now that our batter is pretty much done," Luan said after turning to her observant, awestruck sister, "all that's left is to beat it before we pour it in the pan and pop it in the oven."

Leni shrugged. Well, if that's what the recipe wanted…

Taking a few steps away from Luan, Leni furled her face in a battle-hardened visage, shifted her body in the best southpaw boxer's stance she could, and began to swiftly jab at the air, hitting imaginary targets with each throw of her fist and feeling more invigorated as she went along:

Icky spiders? *BAM!*

Itchy clothing tags? *POW!*

Early closing times at the mall? *TWHACK!*

Confounded by Leni's…whatever that was supposed to be, Luan approached Leni, stopping just out of her hitting range.

"What're you doing?" Luan asked.

Leni allowed her eyes to wander up for a fraction of a second before she looked ahead of her again. "I'm getting myself in the zone; if I'm gonna beat this batter down, I have to get psyched up for it," she said with a determined grin.

Luan, not in the mood to get in Leni's way, just sighed and waited for Leni's little "psyche up" to be over with. At this point, it didn't matter what it was that helped Leni stay focused on her task; as long as she didn't do anything dramatically catastrophic or hinder the baking in anyway, she could book a flight to Timbuktu for all she cared.

Yep, just as long as Leni didn't do anything that could-

"Hey!"

Luan sprang into action in a hurry, swiping the bowl of batter away from Leni's incoming fist. Having taken her eyes off her for just a second, she missed Leni striding over towards the bowl and cocking her arm back for a punch. Mercifully, Leni was able to stop herself from launching her fist into the edge of the kitchen counter, but she was still a little annoyed that Luan had gotten in her way.

"Okay, so, what the heck do you think you're doing?" Luan asked in a measured tone, trying very hard not to yell again.

Leni gave Luan a pointed look. "I'm trying to beat the batter, Luan," she said.

Like, didn't she just say that they needed to do that? What was her problem?

Luan growled and took deep breaths before she corrected her. "That's not what beating the batter means," she said. "It just means that you're mixing the batter really hard and fast to fill it with air."

Leni rubbed the back of her neck and whispered out a muttered apology while Luan picked up a whisk, still clearly a little riled up.

"Ordinarily, you use a wooden spoon," Luan said, "but we'll be using this a whisk to make the job easier."

With that, Leni watched on as Luan sunk the whisk into the batter, and stirred up the chunky batter. After a few strokes, the colors of the egg yolks, vanilla extract, and flour melded into the dark brown goopy batter, turning the mixture into a lighter shade of brown.

"See? Now, you give it a whirl," Luan said, passing off the bowl to Leni.

Though she was still a little ashamed at being snippy with Luan, Leni was pleased with this opportunity—she could prove that she was worth Luan's time by completing this simple task! She'd be the best stirrer that ever stirred!

Grabbing the whisk's handle, Leni went to work, her rotations paced at a slow rate before bit by bit, she picked up in speed. By as little as five seconds in, Leni's stirring arm was a blur of velocity, churning the batter as fast and as efficiently as she thought anyone had ever-

*splat*

Leni halted, her limbs locked in a stasis. Gulping, she looked over at where the noise had landed...

…and found a thick, blanket of drippy batter smeared across Luan's face. To her credit, she did nothing more than glare off in the distance, not once looking at Leni's sheepish, apologetic face.

"Um…oops?" Leni muttered.

"It's okay, Leni," Luan said, though her stone-face told Leni that she was far from okay. "It's okay."

After cleaning up her second kitchen-related mess of the day, Luan was relieved that they had arrived at the last and easiest step, besides the preheating—sliding the batter-filled bake pan into the oven and waiting.

Waiting; how bad could that be?

"And now, we wait for about twenty minutes until the batter is done baking, and we got our brownies!" Luan exclaimed.

"Yippee!" Leni cheered, clapping excitedly.

Luan felt as light as a balloon; with the heavy lifting done and over with, all she had to do was bequeath Leni with some more practical baking know-how.

"Now, it's important not to get distracted while you wait, or else the food you're trying to bake will burn," Luan stated in an informative tone. "That's why it's important to…Leni?"

Luan, too absorbed in her monologue to notice until now, looked up and saw Leni looking at both of her fingernails.

Luan grumbled to herself. She could not be serious…

"Leni?" Luan asked, shaking Leni a bit.

Leni was shaken out of her focus. "Huh?" she blurted out.

"What're you doing?"

Leni held up her fingernails up close to Luan's face. "I was just looking at my nails; I think the polish is starting to fade a little."

Luan pushed her hands out of the way, revealing her stern look to the fashionista. "Did you pay attention to anything I just said?"

Leni nodded. "Yeah. I was totes listening."

"Then what did I tell you?"

"Something about penguins, right?"

Leni jumped back at sharp, smacking sound that Luan's facepalm made.

"Nooooo," Luan groaned after putting her facepalming hand back at her side. "I was just telling you to pay attention to the time when you're… LENI !"

Once again, Leni had diverted her focus back to her nails, looking at them with disapproval. Immediately after Luan had snapped at her, Leni looked back at her with mild annoyance.

"Luan, what did I tell you about shouting to get my attention?" she scolded lightly. "I'm right here. There's no need for it."

Not looking for an argument, Luan pushed her comment aside and said, "Look, just wait here for twenty minutes, okay?"

Leni frowned in puzzlement. "But why?"

" FOR THE BROW …" Luan paused and took several, ragged breaths through her nose before she replied with a calmer, though transparently wound-up tone. "For the brownies, Leni. We have to wait twenty minutes until they're ready."

"Ready for what? Prom?" Leni asked with a shrug.

"To eat, Leni. To eat."

Leni chuckled and wagged her finger at Luan in light reprimand. "You can't eat a prom, Luan."

After a record-breaking fourteen minutes of screaming her head off into one of the couch cushions, a calmer Luan returned to the kitchen once the timer on her phone had rung, indicating that twenty minutes were up. Leni, who was still in the kitchen and looking at her nails, didn't notice her sister's presence until she had accidentally bumped into her while she bent down and opened the oven.

To say that the drifting smell of baked brownies made Leni spellbound was a complete understatement. Compared to the yucky odors she had been whipping up earlier with her baking disasters, those brownies smelled like heaven.

"Woooooow," Leni sighed dazedly, drop of droll dripping out of her open mouth.

Though Leni wasn't exactly Luan's best friend right now, the comedienne couldn't help but feel a little pride in getting that kind of reaction from her, especially since brownies weren't exactly her specialty and this was her first crack at a recipe that she hadn't even thought twice about using for her lesson.

"And we're done!" Luan said as she used oven mitts to grab that baking pan. She placed it on top of the stove and muttered, all her vexation poured into the remark, "Finally."

"Huh? Did you say something, Luan?"

Luan flinched and shook her head. "N-nothing!" she stammered.

More waiting ensued as the girls waited for the brownies to cool. Once Luan felt that enough time had passed, she cut a corner piece of the baked good and gave Leni permission to try it. Leni, who was totes dying to taste that chocolatey, fudgy goodness, accepted the invitation at once and chomped her brownie piece down with one bite.

"Well, what'd you think?" Luan asked, already having a good idea with the pleased faces that Leni was making as she chewed and swallowed.

Oh, and those squeals of joy were a pretty big hint too.

"This is an awesome brownie, Luan!" Leni exclaimed after the last brownie chunk slid down her throat. "The best I've ever tasted!" she added before she gulped down the other piece of the brownie even faster than the first.

Luan flashed her a bashful grin. "Ah, shucks. I didn't do much. I just followed the recipe, and if you want to bake brownies on your own, that's all you have to do too. And if you keep at it, you'll be good enough to bake without needing to strictly follow a recipe at all."

Along with the delectable morsel of fudgy sweetness, Leni let Luan's words of encouragement digest. Despite there being a few bumps in the road (Luan's weird shouting being at the top of the list), the difficulty of baking went from the untrained eye deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphics at first glance to ordering food off a French menu; both feats would be difficult for her, but at least the latter seemed plausible in a matter of two months.

And then, Leni could learn to make everyone's tummies feel all nice and tingly, just like hers was right now. Oh, how she wanted to get started with her own batch of brownies, but if Luan was wise enough to teach her how to bake in the first place, she was the one that would be able to tell if she was ready to try it herself.

And with Luan supervising her, she'd have the baking process down pat in no time!

"So, what'd you think, Luan?" Leni asked. "You think I should give baking brownies a shot?"

"Yep," Luan said with a weak nod as she walked away. "Good luck."

Leni's eyes widened as panic started to build up where eagerness had resided. "Wait," she said, her plea not enough to get Luan to comply. "You're not gonna stay and watch to see if I'm doing it right?"

Luan chuckled weakly as she continued to head for the stairs, her phony smile complimenting her facetiousness. "Naaaaaaw. You'll be fine. Trust me."

"But what if I-"

"Bye!"

Luan darted away, causing Leni to give chase.

"Luan!" she cried as she stopped at the bottom step in time to see Luan's flowing ponytail disappear around the corner. "Hold on a seco-"

"Just follow the recipe!" Luan yelled back.

Leni could only watch as she heard Luan's bedroom door slam shut, much like the door of Luan's further tutelage slamming shut in her face. She sighed sadly, trudging back towards the kitchen with some of the wind taken out of her sail. She didn't have reason to believe that she was being abandoned; Luan had the opportunity to do it before, and she stuck with her until the very end. After everything that she had taught her, Luan must've believed that Leni was ready to move on without her.

It should've felt great to know that she was ready to go to the next step, but Leni still couldn't help but feel a little unsure of herself, even with Luan's assurance.

Was she truly ready? Was she prepared enough to have Luan's recipe be her one and only guide from here on out? Was Luan's faith worth more than Lori's caution and her own lingering doubts?

Leni supposed she could let her anxiety stall her for two whole months, but what would that accomplish? If she couldn't owe all this practice to herself, she at least owed it to Luan to make her proud of her and prove that she hadn't wasted her Saturday helping her for nothing.

With her mind made up, Leni made a beeline for that brownie recipe: she had twelve tummies to make happy in time for dinner, and Luan's would be the happiest of them all.