The Donut Shop ✔️

They Learned That...

A whiff of fresh-baked pastries and lemon-scented wood polish greeted his nose as Ethan pushed the door of Sol Bakery open. The yellow interior assaulted his eyes with its bright color, and he glanced around at all of the tables, finally spotting his friend, Tweed, seated at a two-person, wooden table. 

"You already started?" Ethan asked his friend as he came to sit across from him in the high chair. Tweed simply grunted as he continued scribbling in his math notebook. Ethan sighed as he glanced across at the mostly empty bakery, the tables clean, but deserted. 

The owner, Mrs. Heifenmeir, was seated at a stool behind her counter, reading a discount bin mystery novel. Her head lifted up as if she felt Ethan's eyes on her, and she smiled at the boys. Her creaky joints popped as she stood, rifling through a drawer for a bookmark. 

She set the book down and began bustling around the back for pastries for them. Seeing this, Ethan threw his bag down next to his chair and got up, practically prancing over to the counter. His fingers drummed on the cool surface, and his mouth watered as the smell of Spritzkuchen, his favorite pastry, wafted to him. 

"Mrs. Heifenmeir, we're dying here! Save us from calculus!" Ethan whined, and Mrs. Heifenmeir's white head of hair poked out from behind the red curtains. 

"By the looks of it, you just got here," she said as she returned to the back, humming an old German folk song. Ethan threw himself on the counter as if he was a deflated balloon, and when Mrs. Heifenemeir emerged from the back again, her brow lifted. 

"I just cleaned that counter, and unless you want me to put these pastries back, you better lift yourself off of there."

Ethan's head sprung up as he eyed the platter with a lick of his lips. Mrs. Heifenmeir's pastries were the best in town, and they were the key to passing a hard exam. He darted back over to their table after grabbing the platter from the old woman. She shook her head at the two teenagers' silly antics as Ethan grabbed a whole Spritzkuchen and shoved it in his mouth. 

"Thank you," he said with a stuffed mouth, barely keeping the vanilla cruller in. Tweed did the same thing, and they began to work on differential equations together. 

What could get better than this? Ethan couldn't imagine any other place as perfect as Sol Bakery. He hoped that nothing would ever change as he smiled at Mrs. Heifenmeir, who was laughing at them behind her book.