The Competition

Yu Zan's tattoo was a pair of pink balloons on her lower calf. Lily seemed so fascinated by it that Mr. Wu kept shooting looks at her as if he was anticipating future fights between them.

"What does it symbolize?" Michael asked Yu Zan when he mustered the courage to speak again.

Yu Zan frowned. "That I like balloons?"

Sun Mei laughed. She believed this was the end of any potential relationship between the two of them. Yu Zan was a carefree, albeit superficial, person who liked beautiful things without caring about their hidden meaning. Michael was nice, but… a little pretentious.

"This is not bad!" Sun Mei said when she finally blew out the candles and tried Mr. Wu's cake.

"I said so!" Michael immediately defended himself. "I said it wasn't bad!"

"Yes, for a toddler," said Mr. Wu. "I remember."

"I did not mean…"

"You know what?" Mr. Wu's eyes suddenly shone brightly with a new idea. "Let's see you try!"

"What do you mean?"

"I bought plenty of extra ingredients. Let's see you try to make one if you think it's so easy!"

Michael stuttered a little. "But, uh… It… It would take hours…"

Mr. Wu smiled widely. "The day is still young. Our plane doesn't leave till tomorrow morning."

"Oh… Okay."

"Yay!" yelled Lily excitedly. "Two cakes!"

Surprisingly, despite Mr. Wu and Michael's childish rivalry, this sounded like a lot of fun. Michael rolled up his sleeves immediately and got ready to compete.

"How about this?" he asked. "I'll make the exact same cake and you ladies will pick a winner. We will blindfold you when you taste the cakes so that you will be fair judges."

"Count me in!" said Yu Zan.

"Me too!" said Sun Mei.

"Me three!" said Lily.

"Men!" said Vivian.

They all turned to look at her.

"Fine, I'll be your guinea pig!" she said at last.

That's when the game started to get a little tedious. In order to keep this fair, Michael would not accept help from anyone, so all they could do was sit and watch him while he followed the recipe Mr. Wu gave him.

"I'm bored," Lily said after a while.

"You're not the only one," Mr. Wu told her.

Michael, who had heard him, immediately said, "Don't try to sway the judges, Mr. Wu!"

"She is my daughter. I think she is already kind of prejudiced."

"What is prejudiced?" Lily asked curiously.

"It means you like me more than Michael."

"But I like Michael!"

"I'm your father!" Mr. Wu cried out.

"You make me sleep at eight when I have school the next day," Lily pointed out.

Mr. Wu shrugged. "Fair enough!"

As they waited for Michael to finish his masterpiece of a cake, Sun Mei opened her presents. Yu Zan had gotten her a pair of earrings, and Vivian had bought her a nice bag. To her surprise, it was Michael's present that she liked the most.

He had gotten her a home popcorn machine!

"I love it!" Sun Mei exclaimed in joy. "It's the best present ever!"

"Wait until you open my present…" Mr. Wu told her with a wink.