Chapter 15
Anna skipped into her grandpa's arms after the audition. "I take it things went well, Cupcake?" he said as he wrapped her in a warm hug.
"I get to be on Sliced!" She still couldn't believe it. Dozens of kids had auditioned with all sorts of delicious desserts, yet somehow she'd made the cut. Thank goodness she had all of February to calm down and practice before they taped her episode in March, or else she'd end up practically vibrating with excitement the instant she entered the Sliced kitchen.
"That's amazing! Know what that means?" her grandpa asked. Bertrand bent down to let Anna climb onto his back. The big, burly bear never minded giving her a ride, but her grandpa only let her do it on extra special occasions.
Anna raised her hands in the air and cheered as Bertrand trotted into the parking lot. Craving Channel staff and contestants darted out of their way as he bellowed. Despite how noisy he was, her grandpa was louder. "My granddaughter is going to be on TV!"
"Sh, you're embarrassing me!" Yet, despite all the people staring at them, Anna couldn't stop herself from laughing or prevent her bees from zooming around her like shooting stars. No matter what, her grandpa always knew how to make her feel like the most amazing person in the whole world.
They reached her grandpa's truck all too soon. Bertrand took his usual spot in the flatbed hooked up to the back while Anna and her grandpa climbed inside the vehicle itself. A great big bag with bright red tissue paper poking out the top rested in the backseat. "What's this doing here?" Anna asked.
"I don't know, Cupcake." Her grandpa's smile crinkled the wrinkles around his eyes as he looked in the rearview mirror. "Why don't you check it out?"
Anna rummaged through the rustling redness until her hand found fabric. She gasped as she pulled out a bright blue apron depicting bees buzzing above a field of sunflowers. "This is beautiful!"
"I wanted to get you a little something to celebrate going on Sliced since I knew any judge with working taste buds would know they'd be lucky to have you," her grandpa said. "Besides, now that we know you'll be on it for sure, we need to tell your parents. Can't imagine a better way to do that than to show them what an amazing young baker you've become."
Anna hugged the apron close to her chest. "Thank you so much, Grandpa!"
She spent the whole ride home telling him all about her audition. By the time she was finished gushing about all the amazing desserts she'd seen and how cool it was to meet the judges in person, they'd pulled into her parents' driveway.
"Sounds like you're going to have your work cut out for you, Cupcake," her grandpa said. "Now we just have to tell everyone the good news!"
Anna gulped. This was the part she'd dreaded the most, even more than meeting Ivan Volkov and his enormous vulture. Her parents hadn't wanted her to bother with Sliced at all. They probably wouldn't be happy she auditioned without their permission, but they'd forgive her once she told them she'd made it onto the actual show, right?
There was only one way to find out.
Anna yanked open the front door as if she was ripping off a Band-Aid. Her parents were already home, with her mom slouched in her armchair rubbing her temples and her dad pacing the living room with Skippy trailing right behind him.
It must have been another bad day at the bakery. Anna absolutely had to tell them her good news, though. Maybe it would even cheer them up a little.
"Nice apron," her mom said. Her face was unreadable, but her lizards' throat sacks bulged bright red.
"I thought she could use a little something to celebrate her good news." Anna's grandpa gave her hand a gentle squeeze, nodding for her to tell her parents what happened.
"I passed my audition for Sliced." The air in the room hung thick with silence as neither of her parents said a word. Everything else came out in a rush. "Grandpa helped me with the entry fee, and the judges really liked what I made. If I win, we'll have enough money to save Sweet Surprise!"
Her dad stopped pacing, making his squirrel accidentally knock into his ankle. "That's wonderful, sweetie, but..." His gaze shifted to his wife.
"We told you not to waste your time on that." Her mom thrust out a math quiz with an angry red 65 on it. "Is that what you were focusing on instead of studying?"
Anna swallowed and hugged her apron closer to herself. She'd shoved that quiz into the bottom of her backpack as soon as she got it back from Mr. Sanderson earlier that week. "How did you find that?"
"Mr. Sanderson emailed us saying he was really worried about how much your grades have dropped. No idea what a teacher is doing emailing people on a Saturday, but I was sure he must have been thinking of another kid because my daughter would never hide something from me." Anna's mom crossed her arms. "I guess I was wrong."
The look on her mom's face scared Anna more than anything she'd ever seen. She'd seen her mad before. Furious, even, like the time when a pair of teenagers who came in to buy brownies thought it would be funny to chase Skippy around the bakery and try to step on his tail. This was different, though. She almost looked... hurt.
"I tried to study," Anna muttered. That technically wasn't a lie, even though she hadn't actually succeeded. "I promise I'll do better on the next quiz. Now that I know I'll be on Sliced—"
"Enough." Her mom pinned her grandpa with a glare that could have burned cookies into charcoal. "Isaac, how much has she been studying when she's alone with you?"
"Well, she always has her homework with her, and I make sure she gets that done," her grandpa said. Bertrand's ears flattened against his head as he cast his gaze to his paws.
"You know that's not what I meant."
Her grandpa sighed as he gave Anna's hand an apologetic squeeze. "Not much. We've mostly been trying to prepare for her audition."
"We?" Her mom crossed her arms, her lips set in a firm line. "That's it, then. If baking is such a big distraction for her, then she needs to stop."
Anna gasped. Her mom couldn't possibly mean that, could she?
Her grandpa's mouth hung agape. "You can't be serious. She was born to bake!"
Bertrand echoed his disbelief, huffing and slapping the floor with his paw.
Her dad looked at her mom as if she'd just suggested replacing Sweet Surprise's chocolate chunk cookies with broccoli. "That's a bit harsh, don't you think?"
"Stop enabling her!" Her mom pinched the bridge of her nose. "This is exactly why her grades are dropping. We need to make sure she takes care of her schoolwork instead of sneaking behind my back to try out for some baking show."
"I just wanted to help Sweet Surprise." Anna's voice cracked as tears burned in her eyes. They weren't talking to her anymore, just talking about her as if she wasn't there. "I promise I'll study really hard from now on. Just please, please let me be on Sliced."
"How can I believe you when you've already lied to me?" her mom said, her voice cracking like peanut brittle.
"I..." Anna sniffed. Seeing her mom so upset hurt worse than cutting her finger while she was zesting limes. "I'm sorry."
For a long moment, her mom didn't say a word. Then, she shook her head slowly, her voice unusually soft. "I wish I could believe you."
Anna had to prove it to them somehow. The future of Sweet Surprise depended on it, and so did something just as important.
She couldn't bear seeing her mom so upset, especially not because of her.
"Mr. Sanderson has a test coming up. If I do okay on that, then will you let me be on Sliced?"
"That would prove she's serious about getting her grades up," her dad said. Skippy ran up his back, the squirrel's tail twitching as it peered down at Anna's mom.
"I've seen how hard she works when she sets her mind on something," her grandpa said. "If she puts as much effort into studying as she does helping me in the kitchen, I'm sure she will do great."
Her mom's arms stayed crossed, her stare unwavering. At last, she nodded. "Alright. If she gets at least an 85 on that test, then I'll let her start helping out at the bakery again." Her lizards lowered their heads and crawled into her shirt pocket, their thin green tails disappearing along with the renewed firmness in her mother's voice. "As for whether I can trust her enough to let her represent it on Sliced, I guess we'll see."
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