The Bee's Knees

Chapter 14

At last, the day of Anna's audition finally arrived. She and a bunch of other kids sat in a huge waiting room filled with rows of chairs. Troughs filled with food and water for their companions lined the walls, and production staff handed out granola bars and water bottles so all the kids had something to settle their stomachs while they waited.

Not that those helped much. Anna's stomach hurt just thinking about food. All around her, kids chatted about the different desserts they'd brought. Cannolis, crème brûlées, soufflés: all these and more filled the waiting room with a sugary symphony of smells. Yet, instead of making her hungry, all those delicious-looking desserts made Anna keenly aware that she'd only brought cupcakes, something anyone could make with a store-bought mix.

The only thing that helped was most of the other kids were just as nervous as she was, at least judging from their companions. A rabbit thumped up a storm with its hind leg, and a porcupine rattled her quills at anyone who came too close. Braying echoed through the room as a donkey voiced its agitation.

Next to Anna, a kid with a bright red ponytail stroked their skunk's fur. The black and white omnivore growled softly and stomped its feet as it eyed the door to the judges' room.

"Nervous?" Anna asked.

The kid let out a shaky laugh. "As nervous as a turkey in November. Don't worry about her though." They nodded toward the skunk. "Petunia's too sweet to stink bomb anybody so long as nobody scares her."

"My bees won't bug anybody, either." Anna stuck out her hand. "My name's Anna. What's yours?"

"Reese." They shook her hand firmly, their lips quirking into a smile. "Your folks run Sweet Surprise, don't they? Grandma talks about how amazing your apple strudels are all the time. This must be a literal cakewalk for you."

"They do, but I'm not even close to being as good at baking as Grandpa is." Not to mention nothing was much of a cakewalk for anyone at Sweet Surprise these days, but she didn't want to think about that. Remembering their one customer who loved apple strudels, she quickly changed the topic. "Is your grandma Mrs. Abrams?"

"Yup, that's her. She spoiled me with a great big box of your cupcakes when I got Petunia. A lotta folks were being turds and didn't show up to the party she gave me, but hey, more cupcakes for me! They were delicious, by the way."

"Glad you liked 'em! Grandpa always says—"

A proud cock-a-doodle-doo announced the arrival of none other than Connor Voorhees. He strutted out of the judging room with a smirk and an empty plate. "Well, that was easy," he said as he made himself comfortable in the last empty seat, which happened to be right next to Anna. Of course.

"What'd you make?" Reese asked. Their skunk sniffed around Connor's shoes.

"Croquembouche."

"Gesundheit," Reese said.

Anna didn't say it out loud, but she was secretly impressed. She'd only ever seen her grandpa make croquembouche once. Held together by threads of caramel, the tower of pastry puffs had contained half a dozen different fillings from classic chocolate to a tangy passion fruit ganache. Something that fancy and elaborate took hours of hard work to make, even for a seasoned baker like her grandpa.

"What about you guys?" Connor leaned over to examine their desserts. "Cupcakes. Could have used a little fruit or something to garnish them and the frosting's a bit messy, but the lime zest adds some nice color. Not bad. And you made..." He squinted at Reese's dessert. "What is that?"