Baking! Yum! Brittany tag Ella

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany had had a pretty good Friday. Despite being detained cleaning the locker rooms a bit during the pep rally, everything was going pretty well...even her and Mal's revenge plan had gone off without a hitch. Yippeee! Now it was baking time.

Brittany skateboarded to the store, grabbing a box of chocolate cupcake mix and vanilla frosting. She then headed over to Ella's house, not bothering to stop home to change at all before the party. Sure, she was still in the same jeans and T-shirt she'd worn to school, but it wasn't as if it was a fancy party and who cared what she was wearing anyway?

She almost tripped off her skateboard as she tried to read the address, look for Ella's house, and skate at the same time, but managed to stop herself, running a few steps on the grass in front of Ella's place to gain her balance. Brittany giggled as she looked around to see if anyone had saw, but the block seemed to be empty. No matter though, Brittany knew she was early since she'd planned to come early in order to make the amazing desert they'd planned.

Leaning her skateboard against the front of the house, she reached up and rang the bell, smiling at the sound of someone running toward the door.

Tag

[Ella D'Agustino]

[http://www.polyvore.com/cgi/set?id=20170548]

Having an outfit already planned for the party, all Ella had to do now was get the cookie cupcakes done and they were all set. Casey was due to arrive home soon and Brittany was coming at any moment. The house was pretty spotless (though she knew that was going to change soon enough), Ella's parents were gone and Alex had been picked up by one of the parents who decided carpooling fourth graders would be a breeze.

After the pep rally, Ella had hurried home without even giving anyone any explanation as to why she had to go home so early. She didn't even stop to take a bath in the lockers, opting to have one at home. So the ride on her Vespa home had been a sticky one. She had taken a shower and blow-dried her hair, choosing to have it just pushed back with a hair band, letting it fall down her back in slightly curvy tendrils.

After the shower, she had turned the thermostat down really cold so she wouldn't sweat while cleaning up the house under record time. She had goosebumps by the time she turned the thermostat back up to get to the kitchen to prepare the ingredients to their cupcake cookie mesh-up. She had cleared a space in the kitchen specifically for their experimentation so it wouldn't interfere with the rest of the party later.

As Ella was about to switch on the oven to preheat it, the doorbell rang. It couldn't be Casey so she perked up, knowing that it was Brittany. She had to take deep breaths to calm herself down before rushing to the door and opening it with a huge grin. "Hey! You're just in time. I just preheated the oven and we're good to go. Come on in!"

Ella didn't care that Brittany hadn't changed but she was more than happy to lend the girl some clothes if she did decide to shower or something. "How was the cleanup? Brutal?" The senior asked as she escorted the junior into the kitchen to reveal the cupcake station with all the trays and the cups and the measuring stuff and everything.

[Brittany Barnes]

(http://www.polyvore.com/brittany_cupcakes/set?id=20173452 since Ella's all fancified, I thought I'd show you just how dressed down Brit is )


Brittany smiled at the other girl when the door opened, although her face quickly dropped. Ella was all dressed up...she hadn't told Brittany to dress up... For Brittany dressing up for a party wasn't exactly assumed...dressing up for anything wasn't assumed. Unless there were specific guidelines on the matter, Brittany wasn't dressing up. "You're like...all...nice," she said. "I didn't know this was like a fancy party," she said, looking down at her T-shirt. Sure, it was a newer T-shirt, and it was clean and all, but she couldn't even commit to it being clean after baking...which might be a problem given the dress Ella was wearing.

Brittany stepped into the house, following Ella to the kitchen as she explained about already preheating the oven. "Great," she said. "I don't think it will take that long to mix up but it takes like 20 minutes to bake or something then it said we should cool them so the icing doesn't melt," she said, repeating the instructions she'd red on the back of the box as she dumped her plastic supermarket bag onto the table. "I got chocolate cup cake batter and vanilla icing...I was gonna go all chocolate but I figured some people aren't chocolate fiends like me and Evan so I figured this would satisfy everyone," Brittany explained.

"Cleaning..." she said making a face, "you cheerleaders are grossly messy," she teased, sure they were being extra messy under the order of Aly since everyone knew that Brittany and Mal had to clean up after them. "Hey...can I have something to drink?" Brittany asked, looking around and eying the fridge. In most of her friends' houses she'd just dive in to the fridge without asking but she didn't know Ella as well. She was pretty parched though from the skateboard ride over.

[Ella D'Agustino]

"Oh it's not!" Ella shook her head, shrugging at her choice of outfit. "I just like the dress." She felt a bit silly dolling up for a cupcake baking but she had aprons. She wasn't going to ruin the dress for anything. "You look awesome by the way...even if you did have to clean up the toilet. Yikes, Brit." Ella shuddered jokingly.

"Yep, mixes require about five to ten minutes of preparation and about fifteen to twenty minutes of baking but since we're using cookies in them, we could get it out even faster than fifteen minutes." Ella explained it to Brittany. At the mention of chocolate, Ella perked up. "Love chocolate. Although I'm a quality snob when it comes to chocolate so I only eat certain chocolates unless they're chocolate chips or chocolate syrup...something."

Ella laughed at Brittany's recount of her cleanup. "Excusez moi. I am the cleanest on the squad. If you didn't have to do it for detention, I would have done it myself." She stuck her tongue out at Brittany. When she asked for something to drink, Ella was searching for an apron, so she didn't even turn when she answered. "Make yourself at home, Brittany. Although don't touch the schnapps. Oh could you have Evan bring over some fruit punch mix? Like about three bottles? I've got a few bottles but I think Casey invited a few freshmen and some Silver sophomores."

"Do you know if any of your friends are coming? Most of the people I invited are coming after the pep rally."

[Brittany Barnes]

"Oh..." Brittany said, still not really believing her. She was willing to bet that everyone was going to come dressed up for the party. She also didn't believe Ella when she said Brit looked good, mostly because Brittany looked exactly the same as she always did. "Uh...thanks," she said, figuring it was easier to just take the compliment than to debate it.

"Cool! So it shouldn't be long at all," Brittany said opening up the box and looking at the what was inside. "We'll need a bowl," she said, "and like eggs and water I think," she said looking at the back of the box again. "Oh...I don't know what kind of chocolate this is...I eat any kind of chocolate," she said. "Is this okay?" she asked, holding up the Betty Crocker box.

"Thanks," she said heading over to the fridge. She looked over at Ella when she mentioned Schnapps. "What kind?" she asked. "I've never had schnapps but aren't they usually like fruity or something?" Brittany had never really drank before. She had nothing against drinking and it wasn't that she was afraid to or anything, she just hadn't. Usually she just got hyper on candy and sugar and she really hadn't been to too many parties either, so just really hadn't had the chance. "Fruit punch! Yum! I'll text him," she said looking through the fridge. She pulled out a container of juice. Brittany preferred juice to water because it was sweet.

"I don't know who's coming," Brittany said, as she'd sort of forgotten to ask anyone. She knew Evan probably had though, so she was safe on that account. She fished through the cabinets till she located the one with the cups and glasses and grabbed one, filling it up with juice. "So...shall we get started?" she asked.

[Ella D'Agustino]

Ella could only shrug when she seemed to have not convinced Brittany of what she was wearing. Maybe she should change. She did look a bit too formal...yeah she'll change once everybody's here. If she knew what Brittany was thinking about how she looked, Ella would have probably smacked the girl up the head if she thought she didn't look decent. Well, Ella could just be very biased. She did have a tiny crush on the girl.

"Nope, it shouldn't be long at all." Ella moved to the other girl and held out the apron she found for the other girl. "Bowl," the dark haired girl motioned to the stainless steel mixing bowl she had taken out. She had a complete set of stainless steel baking equipment from a multi-purpose mixer down to measuring spoons. She took pride and having them gleam everytime she opens the cupboard to find them.

"Eggs," she pointed to the bowl she used to place her eggs. "And water." She said, pointing to the jug of water right beside the mixing bowl. When Brittany held up the box, Ella grinned and chuckled. "That's pretty okay. I've actually got some mix around here somewhere. I'm sure we'll be making quite a few batches. I've pre-heated the oven so we're pretty much ready to go!" She grabbed the bowl and pulled it closer to Brittany. "Okay so dump the contents of the mix into the bowl and crack...two eggs and then add about...a quarter cup of water then you can mix it all up." Ella handed Brittany a whisk but pulled it back. "You ready for this?" She playfully raised one eyebrow.

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany watched as the other girl started getting things ready. Brittany let her take the lead, figuring that she had a better idea of what they were doing. "Oh...no thanks...I don't think I'll need one," she said about the apron. Brit had an aversion to anything girly and aprons were girly.

She started throwing in the ingredients that Ella instructed and mixing it up. Ella was right, it really wasn't too hard. "Looks delicious," she said about the chocolately goodness that was the batter. Yum! She snuck a taste, dipping her finger into the batter, inconsequently causing a big blob of chocolate drip down the front on her shirt. "Oops," she said looking down at it. "I guess that was what the apron was for," she laughed as she reached down to try and wipe it off her shirt.

She didn't do the best of jobs though, as she mostly ended up rubbing the chocolate more into her shirt, causing a big chocolaty stain, with the rest on her hand. Deciding to lick it off her hand (since the batter was just of so delicious) she ended up getting some chocolate on her nose and cheek. Brittany giggled, unaware of the chocolate on her face. "I'm such a disaster," she giggled. "It's not that bad though...right?" she asked, stretching her shirt out to get a better look at the stain, and getting more chocolate (that was still on her hand) on the hem of her shirt and a smidgen on her jeans as well.

[Ella D'Agustino]

Looking at Brittany with narrowed eyes and pouting lips, Ella put the apron away. "You're going to regret that decision, Barnes." She grinned and shrugged before going about making a lemon flavoured batch of cupcakes now. She grabbed the big jar of cookies she had stashed in the overhead cupboard and set it in front of them. "Alright. Do you want to mix the cookies into the batch or use it as a base? Or top the cupcakes with cookies?"

Ella looked at Brittany's mix and grinned. "Chocolate always does." Her eyes started to move away when a glop of the mix fell from Brittany's finger down to the front of her t-shirt. Ella bit her lower lip and chuckled noiselessly only to hide her embarrassment at catching herself checking another girl out. "I told you you were going to regret not wearing an apron."

And as Brittany made a mess of herself and also the stain, Ella couldn't look away anymore. The girl was just way too adorable for her own good. "Oh my God, Brittany...your face wants a taste too?" Ella chuckled. She forcefully tore her eyes away from the outrageously haired girl to rip a piece of paper towel to wipe off the chocolate from Brittany.

They were now a little too close to each other for Ella's comfort even and she couldn't move. Her hand dropped down, sliding against Brittany's arm. "I think I...got the worst off." Ella breathed almost inaudibly. After a few moments of completely awkward silence, the dark-haired senior turned and started to beat the batch she had started on. "Um...if you need to change, I've got some stuff upstairs you could change into." Ella started busying herself so she wouldn't freak Brittany out any more than the girl probably already was.

"Man I love the smell of lemon cupcakes." Ella was grating lemon zest into the mix as she spoke, trying to stop freaking herself out.

[Brittany Barnes]

Brittany looked very childlike covered in chocolate and paired with a guilty look on her face, since she hadn't worn the apron like Ella and recommended. "What? It's on my face?" Brittany asked, but before she could check it out, Ella was there with a paper towel in hand, cleaning her off. It made Brittany feel sort of silly...needing to be wiped clean. It made her feel like a little kid.

She was about to apologize when Ella touched Brittany's arm. Their eyes locked for a moment as Brittany tried to figure out what was going on. It was like some strange moment between them that felt sort of off for some reason...like Ella was hesitating on something, only Brittany couldn't figure out what. If Brittany had been a more perceptive girl, she might have noticed that Ella had a crush on her, but of course Brittany wasn't all that perceptive about things...especially when it came to people liking her in that way. Not to mention, Brittany wasn't aware that Ella was gay. Had she known, she might have figured it out, but she hadn't, so it left her even more clueless to the matter at hand, especially when Ella turned quickly as if something was wrong...offering up a change of clothes and getting back to her batch of cupcakes as if it was really, really important right this second. Something was off, Brittany could see that, she just had no clue what that was.

"I don't think I've ever had lemon cupcakes before," Brittany admitted. When it came to her dessert preferences they tended to be more basic. "Maybe another shirt would be a good idea," she said, looking down at the mess she made. She of course didn't care about being covered in chocolate, but given a lot of people would be over later, she figured there was no need to embarrass Ella who looked extremely clean and neat but being all gross. "Can you show me where everything is?" she asked. She'd never been to Ella's house before so had no clue where the girl's room was or where she kept her clothes. "And nothing too girly," she warned.

[Ella D'Agustino]

The casual turn that Brittany manouvered the two relaxed Ella considerably and she found herself sharing her love of lemon anything to the girl. "They're the best. Especially if you top it off with blueberry and cream cheese. I should make some for you some day." Ella nodded and continued to stir the mix.

When Brittany conceded to a change of clothes, Ella stopped mixing and took off her apron. "Yeah, we'll just run upstairs. I think I should change too. The dress is kinda making me hot." Ella chuckled as she ushered Brittany upstairs. "Girly? Come on Brit...I'm not making you wear a skirt! I saw you in the cheerleading uniform...looked good on you but come on. We both know how comfortable you were in those," the cheerleader teased. She wasn't going to let her in on the fact that it pretty much made her day, seeing Brittany in their short ruffled skirt like that. She looked hot...

As they went up the stairs and into her room, Ella realised this was the first time a girl had been in her room. And it was the girl she was having a crush on. Be cool, Ella...stay calm.

She went to her dresser drawer and pulled out a Metallica T-shirt she got as a gift for her twelfth birthday after her cousin let her listen to The Unforgiven and taught her how to play the song on the violin. It held sentimental value for her even if it was just a plain T-shirt. She handed it to Ella and got out a pair of jeans and a red loose top to change in. "You can go to the bathroom." Ella pointed to the door on Brittany's left. She could change in her walk-in wardrobe.

Once she was done, she got out of the wardrobe to see Brittany from the mirror of her bathroom. The girl hadn't closed the door fully. Ella forced herself to look away. Dammit, Ella. Get a hold of yourself. "Um...you need anything else, Brit?" Ella said, clearing her throat.