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❛ ᴏᴄᴇᴀɴ ᴇʏᴇꜱ​​​​​​​​​​. ❜ ° . ༄
- ͙۪۪˚   ▎❛ 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓𝐄𝐄𝐍 ❜   ▎˚ ͙۪۪̥◌
»»————- ꒰ ᴜɴᴄʟᴇ ᴅᴀᴅᴅʏ ꒱


❝ CORY, IT'S CAKE. EVEN
BETTER, IT'S FREE CAKE ❞

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Shawn, Cory and Juliet were sitting in the curly-haired boy's room studying for the SATs. The redhead sat on the bed with a prep book in her lap as her pencil tapped rhythmically on the paper. Cory sat at his desk with a similar book opened in front of him while Shawn paced between them.

"You know," he said, "I think I'm developing quite a knack for these scholastic aptitude tests or, as I prefer to call them, SATs."

"Okay, here's one," Cory told him, "verbal."

Shawn joined Juliet on the bed. "It's how you talk and stuff. Keep 'em coming."

The redhead gave him an amused look. "Shawnie, he's telling you what type of question it is."

"Okay. 'Perigree is to apogee as zenith is to: A: Nadir, B: Cortex, C: Sulfur,'" Cory read.

They watched as Shawn pulled a pained expression and his hands moved to rub at his temples. Cory stood and opened the window so his best friend could climb out. As he did, Eric entered the room. "A: Nadir. I'm right, aren't I?"

"Yeah," his brother replied.

Juliet gave the window a longing look and Cory sighed. "Fine, you can follow him."

Her expression brightened and she said, "thank you!" before she exited out the window. The boy hadn't gotten far and was a few houses past the Matthews' when she caught up to him. "Hey, Shawnie."

He jumped, surprised. "I didn't know you'd follow me."

"Of course I would," the redhead told him.

They began to walk home and the boy stuffed his hands in his jacket pockets. "I dunno if this testing stuff is for me, Julie."

"Yes it is," she insisted immediately, "I know you can do it."

He gave her a fond smile as they walked, knowing that she wouldn't give up on him so easily. "I just don't know how I'm gonna manage to keep all this stuff in my head."

"We'll think of a way," Juliet promised him, "then it'll be a piece of cake." As she said the words, her eyes widened and she excitedly grasped the boy's arm. "Shawn, that's it! A piece of cake!"

He looked down at her, confused. "As much as I love cake I don't see where you're going with this."

"Who was the first president of the United States?" she asked, her eyes gleaming with anticipation.

"Uh— George Washington." He froze. "How did I know that? That's right, right?"

"Yes!" Juliet cheered. "I taught you that using cake, remember?"

She had? A fuzzy memory returned of them sitting at her kitchen table as she talked, though the girl's words were muted to him as he watched, enthralled, as she spoke animatedly about history. All Shawn could really remember was staring at how brilliant her blue eyes had been and the way her face had brightened as she talked about what they were studying. He vaguely remembered something about cake but the majority of his memory was taken up by how pretty he'd found her in the moment.

Shawn realized she was waiting for an answer and quickly agreed, "right, of course."

Unfortunately, she didn't seem convinced. "Uh-huh. Anyway, come over tomorrow, okay? We'll see if the Cake Method still works."

At this point, he'd basically agree to anything she asked him to do. "Okay."

🌎🌎🌎

The next day found Shawn in front of Juliet's apartment. After knocking on the door, she opened it soon after and the first thing he noticed was the chocolate cake sitting on the table— and then he saw the prep books.

"I don't know about this, Julie," he said hesitantly.

"I do, so just trust me, alright?"

He did, of course, so he allowed her to lead him to the table to sit down. The redhead climbed up into the other chair and pulled the book closer to her. "Right then. Here's how this is gonna work. For every question you get right, you get some cake. I'll start with the easy questions and if you keep getting them right, I'll make them harder. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

"Okay. 'Paltry is to Significance as A: redundant is to discussion. B: austere is to landscape. C: opulent is to wealth. Or D: banal is to originality.'" He gave her a blank look. "C'mon, Shawnie. Just guess."

"Fine, fine," he sighed. "A?"

"No, sorry. Paltry means low or insignificant, compared to significance which is of importance. Therefore, the correct answer is d, banal is to originality," she replied.

"I can't even guess right, Julie."

"It's okay, maybe language isn't your strong suit," Juliet replied. "We'll try history."

"That's your strong suit."

"That's why I can help you. Okay," she said, turning to the correct section. "'Early Christians developed the monastic ideal as a means of counteracting: A: government interference. B: heresy. C: competition from Eastern religions. D: worldliness or E: persecution.'"

"These are the easy questions?" he asked in disbelief.

"You caught me," she lied, giving him a guilty look. "It's actually one of the harder ones. But think of how confident you'll feel if you get it right!"

"I don't even know what monastic means."

"It's like monks or nuns living under religious vows, so it's asking why a certain belief was developed. In other words, what were Christians not liking about the current system that caused them to create this idea?" Juliet looked over at the boy to see if he'd been following along with her. Instead, she saw that he was staring at her with the dreamy expression just like he'd had the first time she'd used the "Cake Method."

"I don't think I'd ever get tired of how smart you are," he sighed. His cheek rested on his hand and his arm propped his head up on the table.

Juliet felt her face warm and quickly looked back down at the prep book. His words felt so much more important now than they had when they'd studied together in the past and it was hard to remember that they were just friends.

"Do you have a guess, Shawnie?"

"Guess?"

"For the question," she prompted.

"Oh, uh—" he'd already forgotten what she'd asked but knew that he only had to guess one of the four letters. "Um, D?"

Juliet's expression brightened. "That's right!" She used the nearby fork to break away a bite of cake before she handed it to him. He took it from her slowly, still watching her with a fond, fascinated look that made it hard to meet his eyes. "Now that you've gotten one right you can get another one!"

It took them several hours to get through twenty questions, yet Juliet was proud of the work Shawn had done. Even if he'd gotten most of them wrong and the other part had been guessed, she was happy that he'd stuck with it and seemed to be paying attention as she explained what they were asking and what the answers meant.

(He wasn't— or, at least, he tried— but how could he focus on something as boring as history when all he wanted to do was watch the person he loved talk about something she loved?)

🌎🌎🌎

After their study session, they joined Topanga and Cory at Chubbie's for a mental break. Eric was there with "the baby" who Juliet had heard about second hand from Shawn.

"Oh, hey, it's the baby," the dark-haired boy greeted him as they approached.

Topanga leaned forward. "Aren't you adorable?"

The boy grabbed a piece of candy. "You get a Tootsie Roll."

"Oh, thanks."

"Okay," Shawn announced as he moved over to the pool table. "Me and Cory against you and Julie. You guys are going dow-how-hown!"

"Well that's real fair," the blonde remarked. "Everyone knows Jules is terrible at sports."

"I'd be offended but that's true," the redhead agreed. "I'm more of a liability than an asset."

"That's why I don't want you on my team," Shawn told her with a grin. "If this was Jeopardy, that'd be a whole other situation."

Topanga turned to Eric. "You wanna be on my team?"

"Topanga, I take my babysitting responsibilities pretty seriously," he replied.

"Okay, the spot's open if you want it," she offered. The four of them began to get their pool sticks ready, though Juliet was only copying what her teammate was doing.

"Okay, I'll break," Cory said, doing just that.

Eric stood once the boy reluctantly agreed to let him play and held out his hand for Juliet's pool stick. She gave him a relieved look. "Thank you!"

"You can cheer me and Topanga on instead," he suggested.

"Or I can be a distraction," she pointed out.

"Good thinking," Topanga nodded.

As Eric moved to take her place, Shawn asked, "so, Eric, what'd you and the baby do today?"

"Oh, we did just about everything there is to do in the world," the older Matthews replied. "Cory, you have no idea how adult you look to me right now."

Juliet approached her best friend, a mischievous look on her face. "Hey, Shawnie."

"Hey," he replied warily.

"I'll give you five bucks if you lose."

"That's a terrible way to negotiate," he told her. "Besides, I don't need five bucks."

"Alright, what about I buy you some cake?"

"What kind?"

"Shawn," Cory warned him.

"Any kind you like."

The dark-haired boy turned to his teammate with a pleading look. "Cory, it's cake. Even better, it's free cake."

"Yeah, but they'll rub the loss in our faces."

"Cor, maybe you're not listening to me. Cake."

"Shawn, you're not listening to me," he responded, "winning."

"Fine, I won't ask for your opinion in my decision," Shawn said, "Eric, it's your shot."

"My shot, alright," he replied. "So, when are you guys actually taking your SATs?"

"A week from Saturday," Topanga answered.

A pained look immediately crossed the dark-haired boy's face and she glanced at him. "I thought he knew."

"Actually, I told him there's no SATs and that Saturday was just cake day at school, and perhaps some Crème Brulee," Cory corrected her.

At his words, Shawn's expression relaxed. "Mmm. . ."

Juliet chuckled at the quick turnaround. "Don't worry, Shawnie. I'll get you some cake."

He gave her a fond look. "You're the best."

"Okay, okay, that's enough flirting, kids," Eric interrupted them as he positioned his shot. "Why don't we do the ten ball in whatever pocket it decides to go into? Come on, Ryan!" he called to the boy he was looking after. "Come check this out, my friend!" When there was no response, he looked around. "Ry?"

"Where'd he go?" Topanga asked.

"The baby's gone?" Shawn added.

🌎🌎🌎

Juliet was still surprised at how angry Eric had been when he'd scolded Ryan for running off and it made her reconsider her opinion of Cory's brother. She'd never paid much attention to him in the past since she dealt with enough stupidity with her own best friends and she didn't have enough patience left over for anyone else. She'd always just known he was there without caring to really interact with him. Still, he'd rather impressed her tonight with his responsibility about Ryan, though she knew he'd hated yelling at the boy every second he'd done it.

She was now finishing the night off with a bit more studying before bed, wanting to be as prepared as she could be for their exam Saturday. A key turning in the apartment door made her look up and it opened a moment later to reveal a tired Daly, clearly rumpled from her day of college classes.

She gave her daughter a surprised look. "I wasn't expecting you to still be up."

Juliet shrugged. "I want to be prepared for my SATs."

The weary expression turned proud as the older woman put down her keys and backpack. "You're working so hard, darling. I know you'll do well."

The redhead watched as her mother made her way into the kitchen and pulled out leftovers for a late dinner. "You work hard too, mom." She paused. "Hey, let me put that together for you."

"You don't—"

"I know, but you need a break and I'm just about finished." She slid from her chair and took her mother's place, nudging her gently out of the way.

Daly placed a gentle kiss on top of the girl's head before she took her daughter's unoccupied seat. "Hey, maybe I know the answer to some of these questions being back in school and all." She looked down to read the question aloud: "'perigree is to apogee as zenith is to: A: Nadir, B: Cortex, C: Sulfur.' Are these words even real?"

Juliet gave her mother an amused look as she waited for the food to heat up in the microwave. "Yeah, they are. Sulfur is a chemical element on the periodic table. Cortex has to do with the brain. Nadir is the lowest point. A perigree is the point of orbit closest to Earth while apogee is the point of orbit farthest from Earth. Zenith has to do with the sky, or the highest point."

"So the answer is nadir then?" Daly asked.

"Yep," the redhead replied. She took the food out and placedit in front of the older woman.

"You're going to do just fine on these SATs, darling," her mother said confidently. 

[written apr. 2021]
[edited may 2022]