Sugar High [Dark][Finished]

[Bee]

It was the most beautiful cake Fifi had ever seen. Three enticing layers—enough to feed seven little girls—of the purest, fluffiest white, encased in a thick coating of strawberry buttercream, shot through with gooey strawberry filling. Mommy had then hidden it away in a high cabinet, because it was for later. Fifi hated when things were for later when she wanted them right now. No amount of wheedling had gotten Mommy to acquiesce, either, and wheedling was Fifi’s specialty.

This called for unconventional maneuvers.

This called for cavalry.

This called for her sisters.

“Girls,” she said, very importantly. “Today is our darkest day. Today, Mommy told us we cannot have cake until later, which we all know is basically forever. You have seen the cake. You desire it as badly as I do. I say…I say we refuse to lay down, sisters, and subject ourselves to the whims of the dictators who would call themselves our beloved parents. We outnumber them seven to two. Even now, at half our strength, we still have double their numbers. I say…I say we seize this cake, and show them that we are not to be trifled with!”

[Bee]

Eulalie had no idea why Fifi was getting so majestic about the cake but she really liked cake and it had made her weep inside in her special sad place when Mommy had informed them that it was going to be hours and hours before they could eat, and she knew that Mommy wouldn’t relent because this hiding plan had Daddy’s backing and when they teamed up it was baaaaaad.

She fidgeted excitedly on the floor. Briefly she was distracted by the tassels on the rug and batted at them happily for a moment before she remembered that her true objective was cake and nothing shiny would distract her because cake was the shiniest shiny thing of all shinies.

“Ooooooh that sounds like a good idea!” she exclaimed. “I could eat so much cake that my insides would turn to cake!” She imagined having strawberry buttercream for blood and giggled.

[Bee]

Liadan had trudged over to the secret meeting place with more a sense of resigned curiosity than anticipation. She was perfectly content to wait for her piece of cake. She did not even particularly enjoy strawberry. But when Fifi wanted something and concocted a plan to get it, it was best to keep an eye on the whole situation, as sisters were doubtless dragged into the madness. Usually Fifi employed more subtle manipulations to get what she wanted, but apparently this time her charms had failed.

She debated speaking. This plan was ill-advised at best. She just wanted to curl up in the attic and read her book. And she knew that if Fifi was able to rile her sisters to action, Myfanwy would be the most vocal supporter, propose the most radical plan of action. She said, delicately morose, “Fifi, Mommy and Daddy are still in the house. We won’t get anywhere near the cake before they catch us.”

[Dark]

Myfanwy felt the denial of cake as keenly as her sisters—perhaps with the exception of Liadan, but Myfanwy knew that Liadan wasn’t overly fond of strawberry anything—but she was more concerned with Fifi’s displeasure. Myfanwy strived to ensure her siblings were happy at all times, and this denial of cake was preventing one of her dear sisters from contentedness, however briefly. Later just would not do; and as thus the travesty could not be allowed to continue any longer, Myfanwy resolved herself to the abolition of the cake-ban.

“What we need is a distraction. Eulalie, you are to divert the attention of the parental units with a frontal attack; I want you to employ your best spazz. I have faith in you.” As long as the dear girl didn’t spazz herself right off topic.

“I shall scale the counter when they are properly distracted, and hand the cake down to you,” she gestured to Fifi. “Liadan—” she considered a moment, “you’re good where you are.”

“Let’s do this.”

[Bee]

As this was largely the plan that Fifi had in mind—especially for sweet little Eulalie, whom Fifi would not trust to hold onto an old penny, let alone a whole cake—she let Myfanwy articulate the battle plan, and murmured her approval. Her sister would make a competent military strategist one day. A handy thing to have around, especially if they were of your own blood.

“Our sweet sister speaks true! Eulalie, remember,” she added, gently, as she prepared to send her sister off to battle, “the prize here is the cake. Keep it in your mind always. Is a frog as tasty as a cake? No! Is a butterfly as tasty as a cake? No! Is a bottle cap as tasty as a cake? Certainly not! Do not allow yourself to be sidetracked by these temptations, as they are false shinies placed there to lead you astray.” She patted her sister on the head. “I have faith in you also.”

[Bee]

Eulalie felt that this was an awful lot of responsibility—keep Mommy AND Daddy occupied, how was she going to do that, she didn’t know she could possibly “spazz” about long enough to throw them off the scent—but if that’s that her sister wanted—if that’s how it was going to be—then by all things pink and tasty, she was going to succeed! She flew out the secret meeting place with energy and determination, surged into the living room where Mommy and Daddy were having cuddles on the couch and—

And then she saw outside the window and it was so bright and so so vivid and the grass was just so very green that Eulalie needed to roll in it immediately and she wailed, “Mommy, it’s so sunny, it’s so sunny I wanna go outsiiiiide I want Daddy to plaaaay with me please please and oooooh then you can take me to Coralie I haven’t seen her in three whole hours and I’m dying of sad oh pleeeeeeease!”

[Bee]

While Fifi and Myfanwy sneaked off to the kitchen and Eulalie worked herself into a frenzy in the living room, Liadan decided to follow Myfanwy’s orders as well, and remained right where she was. She leaned back against the wall and opened her book, and commenced to largely ignore the commotion going on around her. It took her roughly two minutes of easing herself into her imaginary world to completely block out the one she actually lived in.

The book was the tale of an Avington with a blackened tree, striving to prevent Cardkind as they knew it from being wiped out by a mad magical storm originating in the Hisstor Wastes, where of course, according to the author, the magnetic oddities could pervert free-range magical energy if given the proper incentive by the proper mad scientist with an omnicidal bent. The plot was somewhat farfetched. She was, she supposed, just attracted to outcast protagonists.

[Dark]

Myfanwy wasn’t particularly tall, and the counter was, mockingly so, and it took several false starts before she was able to scramble up onto it. This delay was upsetting, and her whole body was tensed by the time she succeeded, convinced she would be discovered at any moment. She wasn’t particularly worried about getting into trouble—her sisters could easily be pardoned by sacrificing herself and denying their involvement, and were well out of the line of suspicion, besides, having not played a direct role in the proceedings—but she would hate to fail before completing her goal. She was more than happy to be punished, but—after cake.

She maneuvered herself across the counter and with a leap and a scramble climbed on top of the icebox; this advantageous position placed her right next to the cupboard holding the cake.

And there is was, in all its delicious strawberry cake glory. It was breathtaking in its sugary perfection.

She moved it in steps—first onto the icebox, then climbing back to the counter and lifting it down after her, and finally handing it to Fifi.

Mission accomplished.

[Bee]

Fifi tenderly accepted their cake, wondering for a moment why on earth Myfanwy wouldn’t use her limited flight capabilities on a mission like that, it was part of the reason why she wanted her to be the one to do it in the first place—but she had managed, and she imagined Myfanwy got a greater sense of accomplishment from physically conquering her obstacles rather than using a “cheat” like flight. Who was she to deny her sister her moment of glory? They had gotten the cake, and in the end, that was all that mattered.

Now they needed to get it somewhere safe. The secret meeting place would not be the best secret hiding place. If they could perhaps get their prize up to the attic, where Liadan liked to be left alone to be literary and antisocial…that would be a good place. They could convene there, and eat the cake together.

She informed Myfanwy of this plan, and started off, sneaking out of the kitchen.

[Bee]

It was a tizzy now, a real tizzy, and Eulalie was bouncing on the couch and running loops around her parents and trying to push them to the door and they were saying no, no, now was not the time for playing in the grass, now was quiet time, and if all her sisters were being quiet why couldn’t Eulalie? They tried to calm her down but it was to no effect. The outside! The outside was the only thing that mattered.

Then she collapsed onto the floor in a heap, fascinated by a pattern in the carpet that looked almost like an ice cream cone. She pawed at it experimentally. Ice cream was one of the best desserts and she liked it a lot even though it was messy—maybe especially because it was messy, it was a very interactive dessert—and the thought of eating ice cream made her hungry, which made her think that she had forgotten something because there was hunger earlier for something else but it wasn’t ice cream and—

--there it was!

Cake!

This had all been for cake. She rolled around on the floor as her mommy gently patted her on the head and told her to go take a nap. Eulalie rolled to her feet, gave her mommy and then her daddy a snuggle, and wandered out of the living room in search of her sisters.