Chapter 7 - Preparing the Cannons

After receiving Natasha's permission, Tatyana wanted to hug her mother. However, if she tried to do that now then all of their work would be ruined. Tatyana would need to stand still for at least another few minutes. It was a blessing that her mother was such a quick worker since most people would likely spend hours sewing together a prototype dress.

Tatyana hugged her mother after the prototype was finished and Natasha had taken pictures from every angle. With her mother giving permission it was time to prepare for when she has to convince her father. "Hey, mom, when does dad get home?"

"He gets home in about an hour." Natasha looked at her watch and then corrected herself. "Forty-five minutes. The cook will be here soon so we should wrap this up."

The last thing they needed to do is print out the photos and add them to a folder for indexing purposes. Doing that took more time than it should since Natasha liked to have both physical and digital archives of her work. To make things even more complicated, she kept digital copies locally and on the cloud. Ever since she lost some of her older designs to a small fire she became very serious about protecting them.

"I just have to wait for the pictures to upload now." Natasha hit enter and a progress bar appeared on her screen. "Go get changed. That prototype is going to be worth several years of your allowance once it wins me a prize. I don't want you ruining it." Tatyana was shooed off towards the changing room with a few waves from her mother's arms.

There was an abundance of clothing to change into in her mother's workroom but very few would be suitable for a family meal. Changing out of the bodysuit, Tatyana picked out a simple one piece dress. It was from one of her mother's fall collections from a few years ago; the theme that her mother was going for was 'endings that bring about new beginnings'. It wasn't an award-winning collection but it did well as a collection aimed towards women that wanted to look fashionable on a budget.

"Suka!" Tatyana was leaving the changing room when she heard her mother swearing and smacking the desk.

"What has you so upset that you're swearing in Russian? Usually you're calm enough to swear in English." Unlike most second generation kids, Tatyana didn't learn the mother tongue of her parents. The only time her parents spoke Russian was when swearing like Natasha did or when they were having a private conversation that they didn't want Tatyana to hear.

"The idiots at your father's company have chosen now of all times to do server maintenance. My upload was almost complete but now I have to wait to try again." There was an error code on the screen that Tatyana couldn't understand.

"Why not store it on one of those third party cloud storage sites? It's basically the same thing, right?" Tatyana didn't know much about computers but all of her pictures were automatically preserved on a cloud.

"Your father and I don't pay for top of the line data security so that we can use someone else's servers. You're always seeing people getting their pictures stolen from their cloud accounts in the news. I can't risk that with my designs." If her designs got leaked early then even if nobody tried to rip them off they still wouldn't win since she only got one chance to surprise the judges with them.

While Natasha was backing up the pictures on a thumb drive, a buzzer sounded from the small box near the studio's exit. "Can you let the cook in for me? I've got to double-check everything."

Tatyana opened up the lid to the box that had buzzed earlier and inside was a small screen that displayed the view at the front gate. There was a small iconic German vehicle waiting outside the gate and Tatyana recognized the slightly chubby face peeking out from it. "Is it supposed to be Miss Puffins today? I thought that Mister Fournier was on duty on Fridays."

Natasha was a bit distracted and took a while to process what Tatyana said. "Right. Mister Fournier has the week off so that he can attend a cooking conference or something. He insisted that it was the only way that he could bring his cooking to the next level."

Tatyana buzzed Miss Puffins in and started to the room to greet her at the door. "I'll see you at dinner, Mom. Try not to get distracted with work or else Dad and I will eat all of the food without you."

"Before you go, I've got something to tell you. Wear something that's in season next time. There are plenty of good spring dresses to choose from." Natasha would often chide Tatyana over wearing colors and designs that weren't suitable for certain seasons.

"I'll try to keep that in mind next time." Tatyana wore it on purpose as a part of her silent rebellion against her mundane everyday life.

Miss Puffins was unloading her car when Tatyana reached the side entrance that led to the kitchen. "You brought a lot of food today. Do you need a hand?" Usually there would be only one box of food but the back of Miss Puffins' car was completely filled.

"That would be appreciated. There was a sale so I bought enough food to last the entire week. I don't have to worry about Lucien yelling at me for storing food for more than a day with him on vacation." Miss Puffins proceeded to mock Mister Fournier's words that she was all-too used to by now. "'All the food must be fresh. It is an insult to both the food and those that eat it to use old ingredients.' Most people would agree with me that it's fine to use an onion after a week. I just don't understand that man." Although Miss Puffins made fun of Mister Fournier behind his back, she didn't really hate him. She actually had a great deal of respect for his cooking.

Tatyana brought out a dolly used to ferry food and helped Miss Puffins put the boxes on it. "I once saw him at the butcher comparing two identical cuts of meat for five whole minutes and in the end he didn't buy either of them. He said that they were left out for too long as if it wasn't his fault and instead bought a different cut of meat. I don't know of anybody else that shops with a cooler like that and refuses to go to grocery stores."

Tatyana was used to Miss Puffins complaining when it was just the two of them. It seemed to be a common theme among the staff to complain to her. Her parents were their bosses but Tatyana helped them out while treating them like equals so they couldn't help themselves from opening up to her.

There were two refrigerators in their kitchen but only the regular-sized one was currently running. They would only ever use the walk-in fridge when they hosted a party. "What ingredients do you need to be set aside?"

Miss Puffins was a step ahead of Tatyana and was emptying the boxes at a quick pace. "I've got it from here, dear. If you want to help me then just set the table." Tatyana was a bit disappointed since both of the regular cooks would never allow her to help them in the kitchen.

Miss Puffins' job was to cook two meals for them every day: dinner and breakfast. Her style of cooking was more suitable for families so it was odd for her to be employed by someone that was rich. Yuri likely would have hired a second Mister Fournier if it weren't for Natasha wanting to expose Tatyana to regular home cooking from a young age.

Tatyana set up the table and went back to her room. There wasn't much time left until her father would be home so she went over her plan one more time while laying in bed. With her mother on her side it would be much easier; the only variable that might make it fail at this point is if her father had a bad day at work.

The comfort of her bed nearly put Tatyana to sleep as she laid there. It was only when she heard the 'bing bong' from the intercom that she was startled awake. Tatyana quickly shot up to her feet to quickly brush her hair and straighten her clothes before heading to the dining room. The dining room was just next to the ballroom. During parties and events, the dining room would be transformed into a buffet room so there were few decorations in it.

Entering the dining room, Tatyana was greeted by the sight of Miss Puffins bringing out the cooked food. Her parents weren't there yet so she sat down at the table first. It was a rule in the household not to eat until the entire family was present and phones weren't allowed at the table so Tatyana was forced to sit there... waiting... and waiting...

The daily wait for her parents was a reminder of how dull her life was and helped to encourage her to seek change. They were constantly busy with their own lives while she didn't have one of her own. There was a part of her that was convinced that this was what the rest of her life would be like if she didn't take the opportunity to change now. She didn't want to remain sheltered, living off of her parents' success.

The door to the ballroom opened again and Tatyana could hear steady footsteps approaching the archway leading in to the dining room. The real battle would begin here.