Baked Love: Hot cross buns

The scent of freshly baked waffles and toasted loaves of pumpkin bread wafted into my bedroom at early six in the morning—

Such a daily occurrence wasn't something that I had taken into much consideration, since it was due to the fact that my family owned a bakery downstairs.

Simply put; I didn't get to eat the tasty waffles that they brought out on trays.

"Muffins!" Rose called through the door, rapping her knuckles sharply on the weak wood. I jerked awake.

With the thought of muffins for breakfast at the back of my head, I managed to drag myself away from soft pillows—proceeding to the only bathroom in my house.

It was, obviously, occupied.

"Gretel!" Coco, the second oldest, had her hands banging on door of the bathroom; calling impatiently as she tapped her foot.   

"What?" The girl in the bathroom shouted back, "I'm busy!"

"And that's what you say all the time!" Coco crossed her arms across her chest and rolled her eyes— then, without another word, she stormed away.

I heard the vague sound of her complaining to Rosemary, snapping about Gretel's makeup routine. It so happens that we tended to go to Rose for backup, since she was the eldest sister.

It was only after a good fifteen minutes when Gretel finally decided that she was looking good enough to come out of the bathroom, all prepped for school.

"Took you long enough," I grinned, slipping past her in the narrow entrance.  

She stuck her tongue out in reply.

"The face wash is running out. I bet Hansel's the one squeezing a handful each time," My sister wriggled her nose in disgust at her twin.   

I poked the side of her cheek. "Hypocrite. I'll run by the convenience store and get it."

"Great!" Gretel's eyes lit up, as if she was waiting for that answer all along. "While you're there, why don't you grab two bottles instead? With seven people using it—it's bound to deplete rapidly so..."

Yeap, four sisters and two brothers. Well, including me, that's three.

I nodded vaguely, shutting the door quickly so that my sister would stop with the requests as soon as possible.

After jumping into the shower for a minute or two, I dried myself and slipped on some dark jeans and a white long-sleeved shirt. I took a quick check in the mirror; tidying up my blonde hair, then slipping on my overly-huge glasses.

Well...they weren't exactly mine. They were Coco's; before she started wearing contacts.

And coincidentally, I started getting short-sighted.

"Chip! The muffins are getting cold!" Rose called from downstairs.

"Coming," I hurried down the creaky wooden stairs to the bakery, grabbing my book bag along the way.

We live in a tiny shop house above our family business, which Rose handles most of at the present time, since Mom's away. I help out every day after school; and it's kind of how I developed a love for sweet things—and my passion for baking.

A-Admittedly, I am a male who loves to bake. Especially cookies; and pies; and muffins; and cupcakes...oh cupcakes. Yes, cupcakes.

Snap out of it Chip! You had three just yesterday—

Entering the back kitchen of the bakery, I grabbed two blueberry muffins as I walked past, giving one to Gretel on the way out.

"Hey, Mom's sent a postcard," Coco piped up from the doorframe. "Er...it says...Egypt? What?"

Rose placed a tray of coffee buns on the cooling rack, removing her mittens and sweeping over to a perplexed Coco. "What does it say?"

"Having fun here. Remember to pay the rent and...good luck?Good luck? What does that even mean?" Coco frowned, turning to us.

My oldest brother, Loki, was at the breakfast table, enjoying his morning coffee while reading the papers like the...the old man he was. "Nothing for a month and she says that—oh well. That's Mom."

"I'm going!" I called after checking the time, proceeding to open the door of the bakery. The bells above made loud jingling sounds, indicating the entrance or exit of every customer.

"Have a nice day at school!" Rose stood outside the front steps of the shop in her apron, waving.

"Oi, Hansel! Hurry up, my friends are waiting," Gretel snapped, adjusting her ponytail.  

"Oh, is the hot one there?" My brother raised a brow. "You know, the one with green eyes—"

"Shut up."

**~*~*~*~*~~*~*~*~~*~*

So...if you were wondering why our names are Rosemary, Gretel, Hansel, Coco, Loki and Chip, you might want to ask my parents. They probably have a thing for sweet stuff.

Not to mention, our last names didn't help the situation by any bit.

Honeycutt...?What sort of name is that?

Since Elementary school, it had become a regular routine to dread self-introduction and deem it as a particular ritual to be laughed at. And it's really just because of my name—Chip. Not to mention the common association to 'Chip & Dale', the Disney characters.

Well...I wasn't exactly small like a chipmunk, though I do admit, 5'2 is kinda...n-never mind.

I walked through the halls of the school, shrinking involuntarily as I walked up to my small group of friends. Just Kim and Jack.

"Just in time," Jack yawned. "Nothing better than a boring Tuesday in high school—"

"Incoming!" Kim squealed, "He's hot."

Incoming? What does that even mean?

Jack and I craned our necks to get a better look over the crowd of girls gathered in a tight pack at the center of the hall, completely blocking off the route to the classrooms.

It was no use. I was too short.

"Class starts in five. Better hurry." Jack said, checking his watch and turning to Kim and I.

But Kim wasn't listening. She drifted, as if drawn to the crowd by a strange magnetic force.

Sighing, I tried to pry through the impermeable wall of squealing girls. "U-um...'scuse me...sorry..."

Before I knew it, I was thrown off balance by something hard, and I landed on the ground.

"Chip!" Jack doubled back, "You okay? Can you stand?"

I nodded quietly, rubbing my lower back as I tried to stand up.

"Oh—didn't see you there..." A smoky voice sounded from above; but I was too disorientated from the impact that I couldn't really catch what he said.  

Straightening my glasses, I glanced up.

The first thing I noticed was the crazy amount of students gathered around him.

The next was that he was clad in frayed denim jeans and a simple V-neck sweater that stretched across his broad shoulders. His raven black hair was styled in an appealingly-messy manner. 

But it was his face that made me look like a complete idiot.

It took me awhile to notice that he was getting miffed by the fact that I wasn't even moving.

"So...Can you move a bit? You're in my way." He stated simply.

And when I did not respond—simply stared at his perfect face, he stepped over my legs and crossed the hall in a few strides.

I felt my face heat up as I realized my predicament.

I had been staring at him! Ah, I must have looked so stupid.

Jack lifted me up effortlessly, muttering something like "what the hell that cocky bastard".

I shook my head, brushing off the matter, and hurried to class with Kim and Jack.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The new guy's name was Xander.

I found out from Kim. She was crazy about it during lunch, spilling out every single detail about him she had heard from her girlfriends.

"He's a senior, and he moved into the area recently. Guess what? He's in the school team for Beach Volleyball! Oh those abs..." She sighed dreamily. "Funny thing is that no one knows where he's from..."

I was about to say something but Kim seemed to have the ability to go on and on—so, well...I didn't want to interrupt her.

"Did you see his eyes? Gosh I can just melt into them," Kim fanned herself and Jack choked on his pizza.

"Come on Kim, we're eating."

The girl rolled her eyes. "You wouldn't understand. Right, Chip?" She winked at me.

Kim and Jack were the only ones who knew about my sexuality, not even my family does. Jack was a bit hesitant in accepting it, but Kim was spontaneous and positive about it; in fact, she was the first one I told.

"Um...I guess..." I smiled sheepishly.

"You have no idea how lucky you are. Heard you're going to have Home Economics with the seniors this afternoon," Kim nudged me playfully.

My face was blank. "H-Huh? Um...I don't know..."

"How could you not?" She gasped, placing her utensils down in false agitation. "Your class is paired with Xander's!"

"So...?" I tried to act indifferent. Truth was, I felt my heart skip a beat.

Just a little.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Worst of luck, or best of luck—I did not know.

It was Home Economics the period after lunch, and I dragged my poor self to my usual station, waiting for the teacher's instructions.

"Okay everyone! I'm sure you're all excited about your seniors coming over—" Mrs. Harry began lightly, while the girls interrupted her with excited squeals and giggles, "but I need to remind all of you that this is a graded project. Every single course that you make will be tested by myself and the headmaster."

"And therefore, none of you should poison us with your horrible cooking." Mrs. Harry said jokingly, and the class laughed.

"Now let's give your partners a few minutes to come down, while each of you heat up the ovens at your stations. Today's theme is baked goodies. You have some time to think about it before your partner comes. "

Soon, a crowd of students gathered outside the Home Economics room while Mrs. Harry begin ushering them in—assigning them to their partners.

When she arrived at Xander, she smiled encouragingly, and then whispered a few words.

Then she pointed at me.

Startled, I dropped my pen; while Xander approached me. He crossed the room in confident strides easily and I quickly bent down to pick up the blue pen.

Before I could reach it, another hand grabbed it out of my reach, and I raised my gaze.

My partner didn't say anything—just handed the pen to me.

Our fingers brushed lightly when I retrieved the material from him, and again, I felt my face heat up.

"T-thanks."

"You're the guy from this morning," He noticed, leaning forward on the counter.

"Um...yeah. So-uh today's theme is baked goodies. You have any ideas?"

I wondered why I had to be so nervous when talking to Xander. I think it's because the air around him was rather intimidating. Sure, his tone wasn't harsh—it could even be passed as gentle—but he had a sort of authoritative aspect to him that made me feel small and...unimportant.

"Nah. I'm not good at these kind of stuff," He gestured to the baking set.

I began to scribble on my notepad. "How about some cupcakes?"

"I don't really like those." Xander sighed, as if bored.

I felt my temper rise a little.

This guy...he's so mean! Hey—it's not as if I wanted to be partners with you! I mentally cursed him in my mind.  

"Well then, what do you—"

"Hot cross buns."

I blinked.

"Um—"

"Yeah. I kinda like those," He held my gaze with steely eyes.

I'm not good with these kind of people.

I looked away.

"U-Um okay..." I began to jot down the ingredients and retrieve them from the cupboard. When I was back, Xander had placed two aprons on the table top and was rinsing the mixing bowls.

I arranged the ingredients in order and put on my apron, Xander doing the same but with slight difficulty. Pouring the milk into the saucepan, I turned on the heat to a simmer. Xander was reading the steps I wrote on paper.

"You memorize the recipe?"

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. "W-Well my sister makes it a lot so..."

Xander nodded, and began adding the rest of the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl. Once I let my eyes wander, he began to add the sugar.

 And then he added more. And more.

"Wait! That's too much!" I lunged towards him and stopped the next spoonful of sugar in time.

The dumb boy looked at me with a puzzled expression.

"It says 3 spoons..." Xander pointed at the paper.

"It says 3 teaspoons, not tablespoons!" I huffed, and moved in closer to take over the ingredients.

"Okay all you have to do is mix them." I said, focused on adding the exact amount to the bowl, and not realizing how close we were.

Xander was silent. Wondering why, I turned around and looked up at him, and saw that his face was inches away from mine.

Startled, I jumped back, and moved away, pushing the mixing bowl into his arms.

"U-Uh you can mix this now," I turned to the saucepan of milk and added the yeast, trying to hide my flushed face.

"You smell weird," Xander's gaze was fixed on my back. It was so strong I could practically feel it. "Like...freshly baked bread."

My eyes widened.

The family bakery was something I've kept a secret from school—even Kim and Jack.

"W-Well, maybe that's because everyone's...baking?" I reasoned quickly. Xander shrugged, and continued to mix the dry ingredients.

Once it was well combined, I added the milk into the bowl, and showed him how to stir it properly. For once, I felt contented that I was better at something than others. I mean, it accounts for the fact that I wasn't good in anything besides baking.

"You seem like an expert at this." Xander suggested, raising his eyebrow in an amused manner. I decided to ignore him and concentrate on looking after his mixture instead. His grip on the wooden spoon was so hard I thought it was going to break. 

I was only relieved once the bread mixture was inside the oven. My partner was very entertained by the rising of the flour. It was as if he had never seen such a thing before.

"Smells good," Xander said, bending down to check the buns through the light in the oven.

"Students! 30 minutes left!" Mrs. Harry announced.

I began to wash the mixing bowl to prepare the white glaze topping.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

"This is wonderful!" Mrs. Harry exclaimed, her eyes sparkling with delight, "As expected of Chip I see." She winked at me and bit into another mouthful of hot cross bun.

"I want to try it!"

"Me too!"

"Mind if I have one, Xander?"

"Hey, I asked first!"

The crowd of girls behind us scrambled for the batch of twelve buns, shoving me aside in the process. Ah well, guess they can't see me.

Xander smiled, squaring his shoulders. "Sure, go ahead."

The girls squealed and grabbed at the tray.

"Oh god it's so good!" One of them moaned, and I winced.

My partner only smirked, and handed another to them.

Before I knew it, there was only one left.

I cleared my throat. "Aren't you gonna eat?" I asked Xander.

However, fate didn't allow me to hear his reply—

For the bell rang sharply, and class was dismissed. I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to help out at the bakery since peak hour was approaching. Grabbing my bags, I hastily rushed out of the Home Economics room—leaving Xander behind.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Xander picked the last bun off the tray and bit into it.

It was the same.

The exact same taste of an angel.