3rd Round (2)

Chapter 86: Episode 37 - 3rd Round (2)

Instead of paying attention to the snobby rich girl, I turned away and glanced around the circle of booths one more time. As I observed my surroundings, I could see that one was in the process of being decorated.

Standing at the booth were familiar faces that I've come to recognize during my time here at the academy. A bright and bubbly girl was holding a tall candy cane and placing it onto the booth that was being decorated. She looked over at me and waved her hand.

"Hey, hey, hey! Team Michiko! Over here!" Rumi called out to us. Behind her were our other classmates from 2-A who'd been working on the candy house. They were busily putting our booth together and directing each other on where each part should go.

"Rumi and everyone else…" I muttered in a sigh of relief. "This is—"

"Don't complain about what we give you," Rumi said with a cheerful smile and I nodded my head.

In just under five minutes, with the help of my classmates, our booth had been neatly decorated into a candy house with the sign "Pumpkin Cake" labeled on it and pumpkins, large cookies, candy cane poles, and fake whipped cream decorations placed on the outside. It was simple and not overly extravagant, and it seemed like it would easily catch the eyes of onlookers. It was amazing.

The four of us were shocked out of our minds that our classmates would help us in our time of need and for that, I was grateful for 2-A's help after that sudden realization.

"We made this in a hurry with the leftovers, but it turned out pretty good. This is thanks for those refreshments and an apology for not helping you guys out enough after eating all of your desserts," Rumi explained and I could feel my soul cleanse from their consideration.

"T-thank you, Rumi, everyone," I thanked gratefully and the sweets princes also expressed their thanks. Though I was ready to just sell our dessert in a plain shop, it was our classmates who helped us more than they thought they had. If they didn't express their opinions yesterday, we wouldn't have been able to come up with the idea to include specific elements in our dish.

"Now then, good luck and make sure you guys win this Grand Prix! Hurry and get ready now!" Rumi said, patting me on my back.

"Team Michiko, you can do this!"

"Win this whole thing!"

"Save me some leftovers while you're at it!"

As they expressed good luck, they turned around to leave and I could feel a faint grin form on my face.

'For their sake too, we've got to do our best!'

*DING DONG* *DING DONG*

A warning bell sounded in the plaza through speakers which awakened me from my classmates' kindness.

"The gate opens in 5 minutes. Students, please head to your stations," the voice on the intercom announced.

"Right, let's start putting our dessert together," I directed the guys and their sweets spirits. They each nodded their heads and we entered our booth, scattering around to complete each task. We worked efficiently to line up our dessert as we placed the pumpkin-shaped cake filled with the caramel custard in the center, the crescent sliced pumpkins around it, and placed the white chocolate ice cream ghosts just on the side. Our process was like a conveyor belt where we would place our element and move it along for the next person to put theirs on, and so on. As we hurriedly prepped 50 dishes for the entrance of the crowd, we would be able to see how many people would go to our shop and purchase our dessert. If we saw that there wasn't a lot, we would, unfortunately, slow down our progress. But, if we saw that our desserts were selling like hotcakes, one person would be pumping out the desserts to order.

"WE ARE NOW OPEN! WELCOME TO ST. MARIE ACADEMY'S HALLOWEEN FAIR!"

After the intercom blasted, so did the people who came running through the gates.

'Now it all comes down to whether who can sell the most… Please let us do good…'

Before we saw the people rush through the gates, Hanabusa brought out his sketchbook.

"This is the outfit I designed for today. Gather around spirits," Hanabusa announced as Fraise, Chocolat, Cafe, and Caramel gathered. "Think your four can make it happen?"

I didn't get a good look at the outfit but the spirits nodded their heads cheerfully in approval as they looked at Hanabusa's sketch.

"Leave it to us!" The spirits said in unison. Bringing up their gold staff and whirling it around in a circle, they targeted Hanabusa, Andou, and Kashino.

"Sweets Magic!!!"

As sparkles and glitter captured their entire body, I could see that under all of that magic that Hanabusa, Andou, and Kashino were dressed up in Halloween-themed butler clothes. It was strange to see them wear something else besides their school uniform but they looked even more dashing than before.

"You all look handsome," I complimented with a small smile.

"We have one for you too, Keiko," Fraise said along with the other sweets spirits. Twirling their golden staffs at me, I could see a bright ray of sparkles and glitter surround me.

"Sweets Magic!!!"

I could only describe it as a tingly feeling as the light hit my skin but as the brightness went away, I looked at myself to see that I was wearing a bright orange, sparkly dress embedded with small beads and a black jack-o-lantern's face on the front and back. My long brown hair was fixed up into a ponytail with an orange headband brushing my hair to the side and I wore black heels and knee-high socks. Although I couldn't see myself as a whole, I could tell from the sweets spirits' expressions and the sweets princes that maybe I didn't look too bad.

"Does it look alright?" I asked everyone who stood inside the booth.