Anna and Jack gathered gardening gear for everyone before joining Taylor, Mason, and Eliza outside one of the Tulls' many greenhouses. "I figured we should focus on picking carrots since those are super popular," Jack said as he passed each of them a pair of gardening gloves and a trowel. "It shouldn't take too long to show y'all how to do it."

"Don't you just yank 'em out of the ground?" Anna asked. It couldn't be that hard to pick carrots.

"Not if you want to keep their greens on, which we do," Jack said. "A lot of people's companions are only supposed to eat the orange parts of carrots as a treat, but the greens are good for them."

"A lot of vegetables store extra energy as sugar in their roots," Mason explained, "so eating too many can give herbivores an upset stomach."

"Where did you learn that?" Eliza asked. "I thought you just knew a lot about trees, not other plants."

Mason shrugged. "I've been getting interested in fruits and vegetables lately, too. Ever since I started hanging out with Jack, I've learned all sorts of cool stuff about them."

Nothing in Anna's life was the same anymore, not even Mason. She hadn't noticed before, but now that he mentioned it, he did seem to be branching out into more types of plants, and she'd had no idea he was spending so much time with Jack. No wonder Jack's boar was so comfortable around him, sticking as close to Mason's side as his owner's.

What else had she been missing?

A blast of warm air welcomed them into the greenhouse. Wheelbarrows filled with radishes and parsnips rested by the entrance while countless rows still waited to be picked. The scent of mulch hung thickly in the air, and water speckled the plants' leaves from the sprinkler system's latest spraying.

Jack took them to the far side of the greenhouse, gently nudging Harry to keep him from snacking on the vegetables. He knelt beside a row of carrots. "First, you've gotta loosen the soil. Then, the carrots'll come right out." He demonstrated with as much speed and finesse as Anna's grandpa broke eggs, tossing what he harvested into a wheelbarrow. "Don't worry if you accidentally break a couple. Harry would be glad to take care of 'em."

His boar grunted, its snout twitching as it sniffed for any stray scraps.

Loosen. Pull. Toss. Loosen. Pull. Toss. Anna shivered as she sank her hand into the damp soil. Despite how warm the greenhouse was, the dirt stayed as cool as chilled cookie dough. With each carrot she pulled out of the earth, her worries faded until she thought of nothing but the work in front of her and how satisfying it felt to do something with her hands again.

"Feelin' any better?" Taylor asked. Even with dirt covering her gardening glove and sweat running down her forehead, she still looked as pretty as ever.

"A little," Anna said. It was all too easy to lose herself in the rhythm of the harvest. Loosen the soil, pull out the carrot, and toss it in their wheelbarrow. Loosen. Pull. Toss. Loosen. Pull. Toss.

"Glad to hear it," Jack said. Unlike the rest of them, he had yet to break a sweat even though he had to constantly keep an eye on Harry to make sure his companion didn't sneak himself a treat or twelve. "Sorry you had to hear all that stuff with my dad. Things've been weird around here ever since..." He took a deep breath before mumbling, "I started seeing a therapist."

He cringed as if he was expecting a bomb to go off, but the other kids just looked at him with concern in their eyes. "Did something happen?" Mason asked. His termites hummed around them in a thick cloud, blocking their conversation from the other people tending to plants in the greenhouse.

"You don't have to tell anyone if you're not comfortable," Eliza rushed to add. "I mean, tell us if we're making you uncomfortable, but you don't have to talk about that stuff if you don't want to."

"We just want to make sure you're okay," Anna said quietly.

"I'm fi—" Jack cut himself off. Harry trotted to his side and nuzzled his hand. "It's been... a lot. Dr. Keen is real nice. She's been helping me deal with some stuff, but—" He cleared his throat as his voice cracked. "It's hard knowing I could've started being better ages ago. I was awful, and sometimes I don't know how anyone can stand me."

"You apologized ages ago," Taylor said gently. "Besides, you're not like that anymore."

"Yeah, but what if I start acting like that again?" Jack took a deep breath. "Sometimes I think y'all would be better off without me."

Nobody knew what to say to that. Their silence hung in the air as heavily as the humidity.

At last, Anna said, "None of that sounds like something a terrible person would say. I mean, you've been trying real hard to be nicer, right? You invited me over just to try to cheer me up, and I wouldn't have even known I could audition for Sliced if you hadn't told me. I dunno about you, but I'd say that's the opposite of awful."

"Yeah, I may not be the best at reading people, but I think you're pretty great," Mason said. He kept his gaze firmly fixed on the soil, but Anna noticed a redness in his cheeks that hadn't been there when he'd been hard at work harvesting carrots.

"You guys are the best." Jack rubbed his eyes with his sleeve, leaving specks of soil dotting his face along with freckles. "I'm not the only one who's been having a rough time, though. Sorry stuff's been so rough for you lately, Anna."

"It's been nice to get a break from all that," she admitted. Picking vegetables beat spending hours staring at a textbook any day. "I guess I just have a lot on my mind. Even if my parents let me be on Sliced, I don't know if I'll actually do okay. I barely passed the audition."

"But the cupcakes tasted so good," Taylor said.

"They wouldn't have let you through if your baking sucked," Eliza said. Her hummingbirds darted forward and chirped their agreement.

"And even if your cupcakes weren't that great," Jack said, "if a couple mistakes don't make me a bad person, then I don't think one batch of cruddy cupcakes makes you a bad baker."

Anna's cheeks flushed. They all thought so highly of her.

Yet, as much as she wanted to believe what they said, she wasn't sure if she could, not after Ivan had been so harsh to her. Sure she knew how to bake, but was she good enough to beat three other bakers?

If she wanted to save Sweet Surprise, she had to be.

"I'm gonna do my best to believe that," Anna said. "Right now, my brain agrees with you, but my heart's still sayin' no"

"I can't hear them saying anything, but I'm sure you'll do great," Mason said.

"Seems like you need something to help you not get stuck worrying," Jack said. "Do you ever notice yourself doing certain stuff when you feel yourself starting to get upset?"

"Like what?"

"Dr. Keen says I clench my jaw a lot when something's bugging me, and Harry'll start stomping his hooves."

"My bees get real loud when I get mad." So much so that they drowned out everything else, flooding her ears with furious buzzing and making it hard to think.

"Dr. Keen's been trying to teach me to be better about catching myself getting worked up," Jack said. "Once I do, I count to ten to give myself time to calm down before I say anything, but she said there's lots of other things that can help like squeezing something or naming different stuff you notice with each of your five senses. Basically whatever gets you out of your head for a minute."

That reminded Anna of how Mason used his termite mounds when he was overwhelmed. If something like that worked for him and Jack, hopefully it would help her, too. "It's at least worth a shot."

"I know something else that might cheer you up," Taylor said. "When you win Sliced, why don't we all throw you a party?"

"I call dibs on decorating!" Eliza said. Her hummingbirds twirled around her, their bright green feathers shining in the sunlight.

"Bet I could get my dad to bring some of his ice cream," Jack said. "The hard part's gonna be picking the flavor. Can't go wrong with chocolate, but strawberry's awesome too. And I bet you'd love cookies and cream!"

"Guys, I'm probably not gonna be on Sliced," Anna said. "Mom was so mad I—"

"We can still throw you a party," Mason said. "You're awesome even if you don't get to be on Sliced."

Anna blinked back tears. Her friends were sweeter than sugar cookies. "You guys are the best!"

After they finished harvesting the row of carrots and took a quick break to enjoy some of Mr. Tull's homemade strawberry ice cream, the five of them returned their gardening gear and headed inside to study for their upcoming math test. With Anna's friends helping her, what had once felt as impossible to understand as why anyone would ever turn down a freshly baked cookie now seemed like a challenge they could conquer together.

Anna handed Mason the latest of the baking-themed problems she'd tried to solve. "How'd I do on this one?"

He wrote down how he'd handle it, taking his time to keep his normally messy handwriting from bunching the numbers together too much. "Don't forget PEMDAS."

"Darn it, I swear I can't remember that to save my life!" Anna said. As if letters sneaking into math wasn't bad enough, they just had to bring acronyms with them.

"I always think of it as Pitch Eats My Dad's Andouille Sausages." Taylor laughed. "That one's easy 'cause it's true!"

Jack jokingly covered Harry's ears. "My folks don't eat pork. How about Pigs Eagerly Munch Dill And Spaghetti?"

"Dill and spaghetti?" everyone else chorused before erupting into a fit of giggles.

"Hey, it doesn't have to make sense," Jack said. "We just have to remember it."

"Wait, I've got one!" Anna exclaimed. "Please Eat More Doughnuts and Strudel." As funny as Jack's was, she wasn't sure she'd remember something so weird in the middle of a test, especially without laughing so hard nobody would be able to concentrate.

"I still don't think anything's wrong with dill and spaghetti, but as long as whatever it is helps—"

Mr. Tull rushed into the room with his phone in hand. "Yes, she's here. She's fine, just studying with—yes, that's fine. I'll let her know. Drive safe." Only when whoever was on the other end hung up did Mr. Tull speak to Anna. "Sorry to cut your visit short, Anna, but your mom's coming to pick you up. Something's happened at the bakery."