Taste

Kosaki leaned down, intently looking into the oven as she waited for her cake to bake. The wait time felt excruciatingly painful as the worry of yet another ruined dessert loomed over her mind. Her first proper exam would be coming in a matter of mere days and she knew that either she'd be able to finally get it together, or be exposed as a fraud.

The latter would be beyond humiliating. Not only would they realize she was no good at baking, but Kosaki would be kicked out, forced to return to Japan and have to face her friends and family as nothing more than a pathetic loser. Under no circumstances could she afford such a failure, so it wasn't an option.

"You probably shouldn't be bending over the oven like that." Suddenly a voice spoke up from behind, giving the girl a tiny pinch to go along with it. Kosaki yelped in a mix of panic as she straightened back up and turned to see Chiffon laughing. "You're just sticking your butt out for everyone to see." She continued on with her laughing.

"O-oh." She grew a bright red blush in response. "Sorry, I just kind of lost focus there."

"You don't have to apologize to me, or anyone for that matter." She replied. "But you know, no reason to give the one boy living here a nice view or anything."

"I don't know if he even cares about that." While Kosaki couldn't say she was close to Anadama by any stretch of the imagination. She was confident he had no interest in them as girls, or even as friend either.

"So anyway, looks like you're all stressing out on the next exam." Chiffon commented on the cake in the oven. "Figures since you're new, but I hope once you realize it's not so bad. You'll loosen up a bit."

"There's nothing wrong with taking it seriously." She was glad the girl had no idea on her real reason for being so worried. Though she wished it would be easy, Kosaki knew there was no shot of it. "But you don't look like you're getting ready." Chiffon was dressed as someone ready to head out to the public. She had on a pretty summer dress and had sunglasses in tow.

"Of course, we're in LA." She responded. "Got to enjoy the city life a little bit. I bet this is a lot bigger than where you came from."

"Yeah… It is." Kosaki was grateful she wasn't forced to go out into the city often. Everywhere was so loud and she hadn't gotten used to the hustle and bustle that made home feel like nothing moved. "Have fun, I do need to keep working on this."

"I'll make sure to have fun for the both of us." She gave her a wave and walked off for a day in town. Meanwhile Kosaki still had too much on her plate to give up now. Her cake was nearly finished, but after making nearly half a dozen in the past couple of days. She still felt too far from producing something of decent quality.

The minutes ticked by as she stared at the oven until finally time was done with the timer beeping. Carefully she took her new creation out and gently placed it on the shove to cool. Her heart was tight from the anticipation of how this one would turn out, but she'd have to wait a little bit so that it would be cool enough to try.

In the meantime, she could head off to the bathroom and relieve herself after standing in the kitchen doing nothing else but stare at an oven. Which is exactly what she did, leaving the cake all by itself.

Unfortunately for her, it wouldn't stay alone forever. While she was gone, George the butler came into the kitchen to take care of his usual errands. He got a real sight to see upon realizing just how big of a mess the kitchen was due to her all her efforts.

"She must be real stressed out." He didn't get upset with her though. Kosaki had always been a polite and responsible girl ever since moving in. So he simply chalked this up as her getting too over her head. "Or I suppose she's not done yet." He laid his eyes on her plain cake which had yet to get any frosting spread around.

He walked up to it and took a closer look. Nothing about it seemed out of the ordinary, so he became a little curious. After all, she was the newest student, so he hadn't had the opportunity to try out her baking. "I'm sure she won't mind." He said to himself as he took a knife and fork to cut out a small piece so that he could have one bite for himself.

The man put the piece he cut into his mouth and began to chew. Slowly, his face contorted into one of disgust as he got taste of her sponge cake. His body shook from the utter pain it gave him as he quickly rushed to the sink and spat out the cake. George wanted to throw up, but composed himself as he stood straight and took a deep breath. "Well, that nearly killed me."

Immediately he knew something wrong. He knew the difference on what cake should taste like when made by someone who made some mistakes compared to one made by someone who didn't belong in a kitchen. This one sat firmly in the latter, which confused him. Didn't Kosaki get in because she baked well? This was made by her, right?

Now knowing something was wrong, George decided he couldn't keep this to himself. Quickly, he looked over his shoulder to make sure she wasn't coming back anytime soon. Then he cut out a small slice and added some frosting on top so that it wasn't a plain slice of cake anymore. There was only one person he could go to at a time like this. Anadama.

While he was aware of his master's obvious disdain for the academy. George also knew he was the only person who mattered when it came to the quality of their students. After all, he was the one who graded them and determined their skills without a hint of bias. "Sir, might I interest you in some cake?"

"Cake?" Anadama replied as he sat in his lounge chair in the study. "Kind of random for you to be baking me stuff in the middle of the day, but it's hard to say no to your baking." He placed down his book neatly on the end table and took the plate without question. "Thanks, this is pretty…"

Anadama spoke as he immediately cut a piece and put it in his mouth. It only took him half a chew to realize something was wrong as his sentence trailed off. His smiled turned into a frown as he spat out the cake directly onto George who had been standing in front of him. "Yuck, are you trying to kill me?"

"That certainly would never be my intention." He replied, using a napkin to pick off the spat out food which had stuck onto his suit. "I should've made sure to stay out of the firing range. Now I'll have to get this dry cleaned."

"You knew this was going to be bad? Why would you serve me something so horrible?"

"I should begin by explaining that I was not the one who made this." He informed him. "I'm sure you can take a wild guess as to whom created this abomination."

"I get that Chiffon hates me and probably wants to end my life, but she's not here right now." He responded, slowly realizing the true culprit. "Kosaki? But she's been nothing but nice around here. Hmm, maybe it really is the quiet ones who'll get you." Despite his coldness, Anadama did trust her more than anyone other than George. Though this new transgression had changed his perception a tiny bit.

"Something tells me she had no intention of either of us tasting her baked goods today." The older man could tell from the mess earlier that this was a girl who was more than just stressing out over a test.

"More like her baked bads." Anadama shook his head. There was something wrong with the cake they had beyond it simply tasting poorly. "George, we both know the different between a baker making a mistake and one who clearly hasn't a clue what they doing."

"And I'm sure you've already ascertained that this sits firmly in the latter." He finished his master's thoughts. "And it makes not even an ounce of sense at all. You and I have tasted her baking before and it was lovely. And I know your father has done the same thing."

"I want to say the new environment is harming her, but…" What they got now was more than someone trying to make adjustments. This would be what he considered proof that this girl couldn't bake to save her life. So how can something that clashed so heavily with their original thoughts be possible?

"Regardless of the reasoning, you do need to make a decision." George reminded him of his position in the academy. While the butler supported any and all students who were enrolled. He ultimately was subservient to his employers. Since Anadama's father was still gone, this responsibility fell solely on the young man.

"I can't just do something based on that one bite." He answered. "It looks like I'll have to talk to her… And I'll do it my way." His latter sentence signaled to George that this would have to be done alone and with no other intervention.

"Of course, you are the master after all." He bowed down his head as the young man stood up from his seat. Anadama sighed as he looked over at his closed book. He had hoped today would be a quiet one.

After Kosaki had taken care of business in the bathroom. She returned to the kitchen none-the-wiser about what had occurred while she was gone. At first she simply went to put on some frosting to begin simple decoration. While it was nowhere near her peak when it came to how she designed her family's offerings. The girl still placed more quality to this right until she noticed something was off.

"Hmm?" She encountered the part in which George had sliced off. "Was that always like that?" While it clearly appeared as if someone had cut off a piece for themselves. Kosaki couldn't help but wonder if she had somehow made yet another mistake to cause her cake to become so misshapened.

"I can assure you that it wasn't." Anadama spoke up from behind. She turned to see him standing before her. His arms cross and his face like a father looking over his child in utter disappointment.