Keep Her Busy

"You don't have to worry, Mrs Markell. I'm good. Since Goldie's not down yet, I'll just head straight to her room and-", says Jasmine, straying towards the stairs.

"...!!?!!"

Goldie's parents panic, seeing Jasmine begin to climb up the stairs with intentions of meeting Goldie… and her brand-new, disgusting, baby chick wings in her room upstairs!

"No!-", Goldie's mother suddenly blurts out with her arm slightly outstretched in Jasmine's direction.

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Jasmine freezes in her tracks, a little spooked by the sudden scream.

"What?...", she turns to gaze confused at Goldie's mother a few feet behind her.

That sudden "No" had come out of nowhere. It made her feel like she was doing something wrong just now.

'Oh dear!', Goldie's father breaks out in a nervous sweat, watching silently from the living room sofa.

"Ah- I…", Goldie's mother begins stammering in response, feeling very awkward, a nervous sweat breaking out on the side of her head. 

She had unconsciously screamed "No" all of a sudden when she panicked as she saw Jasmine approach the stairs, headed for Goldie's room.

Jasmine was now giving her a weird look. If she didn't do something quickly, Jasmine would head up the stairs within seconds to discover their daughter, Goldie and her new wings naked and unprepared!

'Fix it. Fix it now!', she reasons within herself, thinking quickly for a reasonable excuse to explain her obvious 'don't go up there' scream, and keep Jasmine downstairs…

"I- I mean, No… you cannot reject my chocolate chip pancakes!", says Goldie's mother, proferring a random excuse for her sudden weird reaction.

"Huh?…", questions Jasmine, confused.

"Why would you do that?... Just brush them off like that without even giving them a second thought…It hurts my feelings, you know? ", she pouts, looking like her feelings had been badly hurt by Jasmine's rejection, and was only seconds away from tears.

"...?!!"

Jasmine, stunned speechless by the scene playing out before her is instantly struck by guilt.

A nervous sweat breaks out on Jasmine's forehead as she stares in wonder.

Becky Markell continues, completely wrapped up in playing out her dramatic role of acting hurt, her eyes growing bigger and more pitiful by the second.

"I asked because, since it's a new recipe, I want your opinion on them. But you won't even try them…

...and after I worked so hard on the new recipe… put in all my heart and all my love, only for you to-"

She pretends to break down, her hand cupping her mouth to 'hold back' her dramatic tears of pain as her head hangs low.

Jasmine instantly panics.

Just looking at Goldie's mother's downcast demeanour alone makes Jasmine feels so horrible for rejecting her offers.

"I- I'm so sorry… I didn't mean to- I… I didn't know-", she begins to apologise, feeling genuinely remorseful.

"Awww, Honey…", begins Franz Markell, rising from the sofa to 'comfort' his lovely wife whom he knows is only acting sad.

"Not everyone understands…", he says, patting her gently in his comforting arms.

His words make Jasmine's rejection more apparent, and his wife seemingly more pitiful.

'Oh no!… I must have really hurt her feelings!', reasons Jasmine, feeling even more guilty as she quickly tries to remedy the situation.

"No, No… I'm not rejecting- I… I'll try some!", Jasmine suddenly announces.

"I'm happy to try your chocolate chip pancakes!"

Jasmine responds immediately, turning away from the stairs, and making her way towards Becky Markell. 

"You will try them?... Really?", questions Goldie's mother in a pitiful tone, raising her head from its downcast, fallen state to gaze at Jasmine with hope in her large, glistening eyes.

"Sure I will! Let's taste them now!", responds Jasmine.

"Yay!", Goldie's mother rejoices with a single clap, her downtrodden expression instantly turning into a joyous, excited one.

She grabs onto Jasmine in a flash, leading her far away from the stairs and straight into the massive kitchen space; the large, open kitchen space on the side of the living room.

"phew!", Jasmine's father breathes a quiet sigh of relief.

Thanks to his wife's legendary acting, they were saved, but for the moment.

…

With the click of a button, an impressive marble-top dining table lifts from the ground, complete with seats, giving off a techy, buzzing sound until…

Click! It stops moving, set in place within seconds. Ready for use.

"Alright, now sit…", Goldie's mother directs Jasmine to sit at the table, in one of the chairs.

Plop!

She pushes Jasmine by the shoulders to sit in a chair and in an instant, drops a jar and a glass of orange juice before Jasmine.

"Have some freshly squeezed orange juice while I prepare a pancake and some eggs for you, okay?..."

Instantly, Goldie's mother sets to making the blueberry chocolate chip pancakes with the batter she had thankfully already mixed earlier.

"...", stunned silent, Jasmine looks around her, dumbfounded.

Everything had happened way too fast.

All of a sudden, she was now seated and about to have a pancake. breakfast she could not decline. Jasmine felt like she had been carried by the wind in a flash.

'Mrs Markell must really be serious about her pancakes…', she muses.

If that was the case, she was glad to be of help, helping her taste it.

'I will do my very best to give an excellent review!', she reasons with a smile.

The gullible child…

Just then, Mr Markell walks up to Jasmine, placing a robot contraption that looks like a vacuum but is far more technologically advanced on the ground by her.

"While you're waiting for the pancakes, Jasmine, can you help me test this out?", he questions out of nowhere.

"Uhh… yeah…", begins Jasmine, unsure.

"Great. So, hold this.", Mr Markell instantly shoves a handle into her hand, throwing Jasmine straight into another delaying ploy. 

"Just press the red button when I say when.", he instructs, keeping her busy whilst his wife was making the pancakes, so she has no reason to go back to the stairs.

"Okay. What is it?", asks Jasmine, curious about the machine, her interest successfully captured by the weird-looking device.

"I don't know yet. It's in the making.", responds Goldie's father, shamelessly.

"See, that's the thing about inventions. You just start making things without any expectations, and that's when it starts to make sense!"

"…?", Jasmine gives a confused, questioning look.

"Exactly.", responds Goldie's father to Jasmine's gaze, and then he gets back to working on the machine.

"For now though, I call it a buzzer. Because that's all it does so far.", he adds.

"..."

Jasmine has no choice but to stare speechlessly.

'Scientists are quite… different…', she reasons, watching with interest as Goldie's father carefully rewires a part of the machine within a few seconds.

"When!", he calls to Jasmine, and instantly, she clicks the red button, understanding him.

Bzzzzt!…

The machine buzzes, giving up some sparks of electricity before going off.

"Hmm…", says Goldie's father, observing the machine.

"Press the blue button when I say now.", he instructs Jasmine.

"When. Now. When. When. Now. Now. When. Now. When. When…", Mr Markell calls continuously with Jasmine responding by clicking the appropriate buttons with each call.

And just like that, Jasmine had been made into his private assistant, doing the all-important job of clicking buttons while he worked on his thing-a-ma-jig.

"Ugh… I think it's broken!", says Mr Markell, suddenly, once he sees that his wife is plating the pancakes.

"Just give me a moment to fix this…"

He bends over the machine and grabs some little pliers from a toolbox on the side.

Just then, Goldie's mother drops a plate of steamy chocolate chip pancakes before Jasmine.

"Done! Eat up, dear."

It smelled amazing, and looked so fluffy and delicious with the syrup dripping deliciously over it… not to mention the bacon on the side! Oh wow!

"It's got blueberries and baked bacon to go with it… to taste extra special. 

Come on, take a bite and tell me what you think…"

Becky Markell urges Jasmine who seemed to just be staring at the beautiful platter before her, with a happy smile.

Taking a bite, Jasmine is all of a sudden glad that she had offered to help. The chocolate chip pancakes tasted amazing.

"How is it?", questions Mrs Markell, seeming hopeful for a good review.

"It is very fluffy and so delicious! You're an excellent cook, Mrs Markell.", says Jasmine with a smile, going for more bites as she forgets completely about her friend, Goldie who was taking so long for whatever reason.

"Really? Oh wow! Then have some more! I'll pack up Goldie's breakfast. I'm sure she would be out soon."

'Bingo!', reasons Goldie's mother with a sly smile. The easiest way to distract anyone was with delicious food.

Goldie's parents were doing an excellent job of keeping Jasmine busy.

Now they would not have to worry about Jasmine going up the stairs to find Goldie for a while.

Hopefully, Goldie uses the time they were buying for her well.

'Goldie… hurry up.', her mother, Becky, reasons within herself, a bit apprehensive.

Suddenly, as if summoned by Becky Markell's thoughts, Goldie comes flying down the stairway at full speed, ready for school.

"Finally!"

"Thank God!"

Both her parents exclaim, breathing a collective sigh of relief, glad to see Goldie downstairs and set for school so quickly.

She had readied herself for school in a flurry in just about ten minutes, taking the quickest shower of her life.

"hah… hah… I'm here.", she announces, completely out of breath.

"Oh great. Goldie…", begins Jasmine, turning around to spot her friend with a happy, satisfied smile. 

In her hand was a fork which had some delicious baked bacon attached to it as she was finishing up the last of her delicious meal.

Seeing Jasmine that way; enjoying mouthfuls of her mother's pancakes and bacon with her parents flanking her; her mother armed with fresh, steaming pancakes and her father, a weird contraption which was his recently broken indoor utility robot, Goldie could easily guess just how her parents had been keeping her occupied.

It takes all her willpower to not blurt out laughing.

But just then, she notices that everyone, her mother, father and Jasmine is staring at her with a weird expression on their faces.

'Is something wrong?...', she begins to wonder within herself.

Just then, her mother's voice meets her ears;

"Your skirt is backwards, honey."

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