Only Fools

Chapter Nineteen

"You're going down, Charleston,"

"In your dreams, Grayson,"

We narrow our eyes at each other but both break into smiles after a few seconds.

"Aspen?"

I whip around to see Dustin walking into the room with Jaxon in tow behind him. They must be Ivy's team.

"What are you doing here? Just watching, right?" Dustin questions me with a small laugh.

"No, I'm competing actually," I say confidently all while sending Dustin a look that I hope he interprets correctly, if he opens his mouth about my oven incident then he's dead. He just shrugs and walks over to where Ivy is now setting up her station, my message obviously having been delivered.

"Trouble in paradise?" Jaxon asks me as he looks back and forth between Dustin and I.

"Excuse me?"

"You and Dustin. I thought-"

"We're just friends," I tell him flatly.

"But Ivy said-"

"Oh, you know how Ivy is. Little loopy sometimes," I say with a forced laugh.

"Yeah-"

"Don't agree to that," I snap at him, while narrowing my eyes.

"But you said-"

I just cut him off by walking away, back over to my team who all greet me with smiles.

"Are you ready?" Naomi asks me, clearly excited for the competition.

"I think you should be asking yourself that. I'm clearly going to be the one giving orders around here," I say with false confidence. Margot snorts at my comment, causing me to send a glare her way.

"Says the girl who-"

"Don't finish that sentence," I interrupt Margot.

"Then don't make false claims about our roles in this," Margot snaps back with a small smile.

"Alright bakers," the teacher who volunteered to host the competition calls out.

"Wait. Aspen. What did you do?" Naomi hisses at me.

"What?"

"What was Margot going to say?" she asks in a hushed voice.

"Oh. It was nothing. Don't worry about it," I try to play it off. I can tell Naomi doesn't believe me, but she doesn't push any further.

I don't even bother listening to the instructions for the competition, knowing that I'm really only here to meet the team number requirements anyways. Naomi could probably do this singlehandedly if it was allowed and Margot is no where near as much of a hindrance as I am, she'll actually be able to help.

But Naomi clearly isn't aware of my lack of baking skills as she begins to bark orders at me as soon as we start. My eyes widen at her before I send Margot a helpless look which she gives no pity to.

"What the fuck does she mean by mix the dry ingredients. Where are they?" I hiss to Margot who's already beginning the task Naomi set her off on.

"They should be in the pantry,"

"Ok, but-"

Margot groans at my cluelessness before she pushes past me and grabs what I'm assuming to be the dry ingredients and lays them out in front of me. She then slides a paper with the measurements into my hands.

"Were you seriously not paying attention the entire time we practiced?" she asks me, clearly slightly annoyed.

"No. I was obviously too caught up in being a spectator to the singing and dancing you were up to," I respond cheekily, thinking back to the time when Margot was singing and dancing around my kitchen to rock songs I had never heard, but which I wish I had already known every line by heart.