[General POV]
-Dunphy's house, late at night-
"My legs are still shaky." Haley whined as she walked with Alex to the kitchen. Claire was tapping on her laptop as she saw the girls, and quietly listened in to their conversation.
Claire grabbed her cup and tea and slowly sipped it. Subsequently, Alex continued replying to Haley, "With all of the grunting and moaning you did, I'd be more concerned for your throat."
Claire spat out her drink in shock, and looked at her daughter with a horrified expression as she wiped her mouth with a napkin, "W-What?"
Haley said casually, "Ignore Alex mom. She's jealous because she wasn't the one laying down on the bed."
Alex snorted and spoke sarcastically, "Yeah right, I'm jealous that I had to watch you having a 'good ti' alone. Ugh, I know for sure this...will co back to haunt again in my dreams tonight."
Claire's voice shook and she asked, "Haley...you ha– had a ... 'good ti', and you made Alex watch?"
Haley defended herself, "Well she was the one who insisted on staying. I wanted her to leave alone too. At first I thought it'd be weird, but turns out, I'm okay with it."
Claire gasped sharply and covered up her mouth as her eyes got glassy.
"Geez mom. Why do you look so anxious? You know what? Maybe, you should arrange so ti and let Ed work his magic on you too." Haley said, not thinking much.
"W-WHAT?!" Claire exclaid in disbelief.
Haley smiled and said excitedly, "Yeah mom. The way he just gets in there...and continues digging the sore spot, despite how many tis you scream...but what you really want is for him to get in there more..."
"Haley that's enough!" Claire couldn't even look Haley in the eye after that. Phil walked in at that mont and asked, "Hey honey."
"Dad. Edward, is amazing!" Haley spoke excitedly.
"Don't tell your dad that!" Claire said hurriedly and panicky.
Phil was confused and then smiled, "No wait. I already knew that. Alex told when they ca back. I texted Edward to see if I could learn from him."
[Phil's comntary]
"When Alex told how great he was at massaging, I was doubtful at first, to be honest. But then, I saw Haley with a light glow on her skin, and even her steps seed airy. Not to brag, but I am an officially recognized masseuse. But I could never do what he did."
"Claire has been working extra hard these last few months. So, I wanted to do sothing nice for her. Even if I'm not the one that's going to give it to her, I'd be fine with Edward taking over my job."
[Phil's comntary]
Haley grinned and said, "You really should learn that! Maybe learn it as you watch mom while she gets it from him. You can stay on the chair beside them like Alex did."
"OOh. I should bring a cara too so I can rewatch the whole thing at night to study the technique." Phil nodded as he was acknowledging what Haley said, but Claire was really horrified right now.
"You guys are sick! This whole family is sick!" Claire scolded before she anxiously stord away, grabbing Luke with her as she got out of the house.
"Honey, where are you going?" Phil asked. "All I wanted to do was ask Edward to show you a good ti. I know you want it too."
"NO. I DON'T!" Claire said from afar.
Alex then realized sothing, "Does mom know we were talking about a massage?"
"Hmm? What else could we be talking about?" Phil asked, confused. Haley was also confused, leaving Alex as the only one trying to hold back her laughter.
"You should really explain the topic of the conversation next ti." Alex said to Phil before she cackled. Then, she stopped and spoke sternly, "Seriously. You should go there and tell her about that right now. Or else she won't ever co back to the house."
"I got it." Phil didn't question his smart daughter and ran for Claire imdiately. The sisters didn't react much to the normal family drama. Haley changed the subject and asked, "Oh yeah. What did you guys talk about before we went back?"
"Oh. He said he was going to bake but I noticed that he was really tired already, so I said no." Alex replied.
"Huh? Tired?...wait. How did he say it?"
"He said, "I'm going to get baked, just to get your sister's voice out of my head." His grammar was already all over the place." Alex replied with a slight chuckle.
Haley widened her eyes, but then she smiled and said, "You know. Sotis, you're so smart... but Sotis..."
"Huh?" Alex was smiling at first but then was confused as to why Haley stressed out the word sotis at the end.
...
[Edward POV]
"Why did I make so dough last night?" I wondered as I checked the fridge after I woke up in the morning. It was only 4.30 am, and the sun wasn't even up yet.
"I don't know. Everyti I asked you about it, you just giggled and slapped the dough. Then, you ate a bunch of snacks before going to sleep." My dad replied as he was sipping coffee.
Usually, we get up around 5.30 to 6, but today was a special day.
"Oh. Nevermind that then." I replied, not wanting for him to realize that I was as high as a kite last night. "They are hauling your new ship to the dock right now, are you excited?"
"Excited as I'll ever be with a ship's engine so faulty, its role model could be right from the titanic." My dad joked.
"To be fair, the Titanic didn't have an engine problem. They had the iceberg problem, and most of the rich people on board were against the institution of the Federal Reserve and its ease to print more money, so you know they weren't really 'able' to live that long."
"Wait. Is that real?"
"Nah. I'm just ssing around. You hear that, NSA–agent–tapping–into–our–phones?" I joked.
My dad smiled and said, "Soone seems to be in a good mood today?"
"I'm in a good mood everyday I woke up and still have muh moneeeeyy than yesterday." I said as I did a gangsta gesture. "By the way, since I have the giant ass dough, I'm thinking of making cronuts. But it's going to take about an hour for to bake it."
"What's a cronut?" My dad asked.
I looked at him in disdain and said, "So Uncultured."
"???" My dad was really confused about this. Why wouldn't he be since cronuts wouldn't be invented till 2013, and I currently had no idea that they didn't exist in this world yet!
A cronut was a mixture of croissant and donut, hence the na, cronut. It beca viral the mont it was invented. In my past life, I was a big fan of the pastry, but I never knew the history of it.
"So, should I do it or not?" I asked my dad again.
He thought about it and then shrugged his shoulders. "It doesn't matter if we're a bit late. We're 'the boss'. So, I'd say, go for it."
"Hmm...Alright. So, go away now. I want to record the process and upload it, and you staying here will ruin the video's quality."
"I'm not sure if that's a technical term, or an... insult."
"Whenever you aren't sure about sothing, just go straight to insult. Trust your instinct on that." I smirked at him as I chased him away.
He didn't go far, and just sat out of the video's fra. While I was setting up the caras, he said, "I maybe rembering this wrong, but didn't you hate, and if I may quote you on this, 'That parasitical waste of human society– the instagram influencers', so why are you trying to be like them right now?"
I pointed a knife at my dad and warned, "Call an influencer again, and I'll stick this where the sun doesn't shine! How dare you compare soone who is giving the gift of 'food porn' to the world to soone who even the porn industry is going to reject! Just for that, I'm downgrading your cronut amount from two to one."
"Oh co on!" My dad whined. "Ugh. I hate this new dynamic between us." He fakely complained.
"Well, go get a new mother. That will for sure change the dynamics of everything." I joked/seriously said to him.
He froze for a while and let out a fake cough before saying, "Do you need any help?"
"Ummm...There's no need. I can do it on my own. But I'm going to need containers to put them in."
I pressed the record button on the cara and started cooking. However, just like with my dad, I made the whole video on the assumption that people knew what a cronut was.
My dad took out a couple of boxes from the cupboard and asked weirdly, "Why do we have donut boxes here...And why are they labeled... so simply?"
It was an orange and red coloured box with the label [Foodstuff] on it.
I rolled my eyes at him and said, "Well it's not like I'm going to open my own bakery! It's just sothing I need, and the suppliers won't custom make it if there isn't a brand na on it."
"And you think a good na for it should be, [Foodstuff]?"
"I an it IS a box for the food... and stuff... so stop bothering and go fold the boxes!"
I turned back to the cara while I was cutting the dough I had flattened and said, "I'm not going to make it circular, but instead I'm going to make it a rectangular cronut. Cause making circular ones is going to give a lot of work to re-knead them."
After I finished making the cronut, I put one on a plate and then glazed it. Then, I captured the finished product and then finally fild taking a bite of it and asking people to try it out on their own and enjoy.
Then, I turned off the cara and then started making the cronut in a large batch. As we boxed them up, my dad was following from behind with a post it notes and recorded where these pastries were going to go and for who.
"First box is for Frankie, Dwayne, Glenn, You, Dina, and the guys at the docks.." I said as I packed up 18 cronuts in 3 boxes.
"Second one is for Jay, cause he likes to try new stuff. So 3 for Jay, Gloria, and Manny."
"Third box is for Mitchell, Caron and Lily, because if they found out that I had given Jay one, and they didn't get one, there would be so much drama!!...So right now I'm torn as to whether I should give it to them or not. It's also 3 for them."
"The fourth box with the pink bows on it is for Pepper, Renaldo, Harvey and Randall. I'm sure Leo's still high, so I put another one extra for him, so 6 cronuts there. "
"Fifth one is for Taylor and Selena. They would kill if I didn't give it to them." I said as I pointed at the tiny box.
"The next box is for my friends that are still in middle school, Billie, Finneas, and Enid. I also put so for Mrs Henderson in there. There's 4 for them."
"The one next to them is for those in high school, Jenna, Elsa, Abraham, Tara, Jacob and also for Sage."
"Wait. Sage is in your school? She's a highschooler?" My dad asked, confused.
"Ah. No. She's a substitute History teacher. And her real na's Miss Anna."
"Ahhhh." My dad exclaid in realization. "Got it."
"And the last one is for the Dunphys. I'm going to go there and give it to them right now. I'm sure that Claire is already up." I said as I picked up a box. "I don't think you're going to Calexico to give Aunt Camila one, so we'll just store it in the fridge for her."
My dad went to store the boxes in the Ford Dodger that I was going to drive to school with today, and so inside his own car. But before I walked out of the door, I suddenly stopped as I realized sothing.
"Hmm...I packed up more than 30 cronuts today." I muttered with my lips curling up.
"36 to be exact... So?" My dad asked, confused.
"Nothing. It just feels funny when I think that I have more than 30 people that I'm close with. I just couldn't imagine doing this half a year ago." I said with a chuckle.
My dad smiled kindly and patted my shoulder before saying, "Yeah. Life has really turned out for the better right?"
"Ugh, don't be so la." I rolled my eyes at him and then walked out of the house.
...
*Ding Dong*
I rang the house's doorbell, and I didn't have to wait long for Claire to open up the door while still in her nightdress and robes.
"Umm...Why are you here so early in the morning?" Claire asked.
"I ca here bringing nuts." I said, causing her to be baffled. "Cronuts to be exact. Here. I can't stay here for long, so you guys enjoy this during your breakfast."
Claire was confused, "What's a cronut– You know what, I don't even care about that right now. The sll is so good!"
"Of course it's good. I made them myself. Alright. Bye!"
...
[General POV]
Claire couldn't react until after Edward had left. "Thank you!" She scread from afar.
She smiled and then said, "What a sweet kid," Completely forgetting about last night's misunderstanding.
A few minutes later in the kitchen, as Claire was taking pictures of the cronuts to share them to her family mbers, Haley walked downstairs groggily and went to the fridge.
"Oh Good morning honey–" Claire tried to greet Haley, but the daughter held her finger up, gesturing to give her a second. Then, Haley took out the big jug of milk from the fridge and started gulping it down.
Claire frowned in disgust, "Ow Haley use a glass–" However, she slowly widened his eyes in shock as she saw that Haley was downing the milk without rest.
"Ahhh!" Haley exclaid with a milk mustache on her face as she finished the entire milk.
"What the?" Claire was baffled.
"Mom. I'm starving! Do we have any at or chicken?" Haley asked, causing Claire to put her hand on her forehead to take her temperature.
"Hmm...You're not feverish. What's going on? Did you do drugs last night?" Claire asked in suspicion.
"What's this?" Haley ignored Claire's accusation as she saw the box.
" That. Edward stopped by and gave us so pastries. It's called a 'Cronut'."
"Oh." Haley picked one up and took a bite. She then exclaid, "Oh my god! This is soo goood! I'm in love with CRONUTS!" She wiped the white glaze off her lips and then licked that stuff off her fingers.
"Let try one too." Claire said as she happily picked one up and then tried it. "Oh my god. I can't stop eating this." She said.
After they finished one, Haley and Claire found themselves eating a second cronut each, leaving only 2 of them in the box.
Claire let out a gasp after she realized what had just happened. "Wait. Haley. We need to stop."
"Do we really need to, mom? Other than us, who else knows that Edward sent these little pieces of heaven directly on our doorsteps this early in the morning?"
"Ummm..." Claire hesitated for a while. "Alright. If we're going to do this, we need to make sure that we leave no evidence behind!"
"Got it!"
Then, the mother and daughter finished the last two cronuts and then threw the box into the trash after which Haley then took the trash out for the garbage truck to pick up as soon as possible.
"Wow, that's the first ti that you have ever actively volunteered to do chores." Claire exclaid after Haley got back inside.
At 7 am, Alex walked downstairs to the kitchen, and then her nose suddenly picked up a scent.
"What is that sweet sll?" She asked, causing Haley and Claire who were sipping coffee at the table to widen their eyes.
...
[Edward POV]
After I sent the cronuts, I rushed back ho to change my clothes and then drove to the port. I stopped by Jay's and Cam's, but had to use a longer route than my dad, causing to arrive 20 minutes later than him.
Frankie, who was wearing a business suit, smiled and greeted as she saw rushing over. "You're going to be late for school."
"It's fine. The principal and I have an understanding." I grinned at her. "Aww. I missed the part where the ship entered the water. Has anyone broken a bottle at the hull yet?"
Frankie replied as she thought about it, "No. I don't think they have."
"Good. Cause I want to do that." I said as I rushed to the front after dropping off the cronut box at Frankie's hand.
"May she always sail safe and sound." My dad said as I slamd the bottle on the ship's hull.
The crew cheered as they watched the sleek, classy, 50 ters long yacht with the sign, Moby Dick 2 on the back.
"Alright, alright. Let's get back to work–" My dad was trying to get the crew to calm down, but then he saw humming sothing as I watched the new ship. "Edward. What's that? What are you singing?" He asked.
"Huh? Oh, just a sea shanty. Not important." I said dismissively.
Dwayne and the other sailors who heard it were excited. Dwayne said, "Well if it's a sea shanty, then you should start singing it, and then we will all join in."
"Nah nah. I'm not a sailor–" I tried to get away, but I couldn't. Dwayne grabbed and said, "Why are you so embarrassed? You're the top singer in the country right now, and you're afraid of singing a sea shanty."
"I'm not afraid. I'm just...you know...HAVE SCHOOL!" I replied sternly.
Dwayne was a little embarrassed, but then my dad said, "Well then, you'd better sing right now, or else you'll be late."
Glenn then shouted with his high pitched muppet voice, "Or, you won't even be able to go to school today!"
"Alright alright. Now, give a guitar." I gave up as I saw their excited look.
Frankie said, "Oh. You need a guitar to sing...a sea shanty?"
"I just need sothing to knock on to play the beat. Best if it is a guitar." I replied to her. She smiled and said, "Got it. Here you go."
I started drumming on the back of the guitar and then sang the song.
[Wellerman (Sea Shanty) by Nathan Evans]
"??There once was a ship that put to sea
The na of the ship was the Billy O' Tea??
??The winds blew up, her bow dipped down
Oh blow, my bully boys, blow (huh)??"
The sailors smiled and then filled up their morning cup of coffee with liquor. I hopped on the top of the table and sang.
"??Soon may the Wellerman co
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go??"
"Rember this part!" I shouted to them. Frankie was confused and whispered to my dad, "What's a Wellerman?"
"I don't know. I think it ans traders. I'll ask him about it later." My dad replied with a whisper too. Then, I caught both of them making eyes at each other, blushing and giggling, which made confused and almost slip from the table. 'Wasn't she a lesbian?', I thought secretly.
"??She'd not been two weeks from shore
When down on her a right whale bore
The captain called all hands and swore
He'd take that whale in tow (huh)??"
"All together now!" I shouted.
The whole crew than sang together in harmony, "??Soon may the Wellerman co
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go??"
I laughed before I sang alone,
"??Da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da??"
"??Before the boat had hit the water
The whale's tail ca up and caught her
All hands to the side, harpooned and fought her
When she dived down low (huh)??"
Together: "??Soon may the Wellerman co
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go??"
??No line was cut, no whale was freed
The captain's mind was not of greed
And he belonged to the Whaleman's creed
She took that ship in tow (huh)??
"Oh god. This story is like Moby Dick's story. And even that na is here, on the new ship's bow!" Glenn shouted in a weird high pitched voice. Well, higher pitch than the normal high pitch.
Together: ??Soon may the Wellerman co
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go??
Together: ??Da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da
Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da??
??For forty days or even more
The line went slack then tight once more
All boats were lost, there were only four
But still that whale did go (huh)??
??Soon may the Wellerman co
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go??
??As far as I've heard, the fight's still on
The line's not cut, and the whale's not gone
The Wellerman makes his regular call
To encourage the captain, crew and all (huh)??
Together: ??Soon may the Wellerman co
To bring us sugar and tea and rum
One day, when the tonguing is done
We'll take our leave and go??
I slowed down the music and then sang the last verse, "??Soon may the Wellerman co! To bring us sugar and tea and rum! One day, when the tonguing is done! We'll take our leave and go??"
The crowd clapped and cheered shortly after that. Then, they returned to their cakes and drinks, which made feel a little bit like a cheap whore.
"Pffts. Sailors." I scowled in disgust as I walked to my dad and Frankie.
"Hey dad. Are you trying to teach Frankie what 'tonguing' ans? Cause you should teach her in private for that."
My dad widened his eyes while Frankie chuckled. "I know what tonguing ans Ed. But thanks for thinking about ."
I chuckled a bit seeing their reaction, and then I whispered to Frankie, "I thought you like girls?"
"Hmm? What? Why do you think that? Or ask about that?" Frankie was confused.
"Nevermind. I'm going to get to school. Bye! Oh, and dad, make sure that everything is okay with the ship first before taking her out."
"Stop nagging. Go! You're late." He chased away quickly to prevent talking to Frankie anymore.
"Ah, and by the way, I approve of her if you want her to be my new mother–"
"GOO!" My dad scolded as I tried to speak with him again in the car. Then, I drove off quickly and then stopped by the middle school first to leave the pastry to Mrs Henderson– got scolded by her for a while because I wasn't in my class, and only after that did I get to my high school.
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