Ezra's POV

Walking to the bakery this early in the morning is always a rather interesting experience. Not because of the magical night life that you hear about when living in a city, because frankly, there is not enough people awake at this hour for anything spectacular to happen. No, rather it is the very lack of people that makes this time so unique. Without the constant sounds of cars driving, or people playing music loudly or even the cries of a baby, the city becomes enveloped in a cloud of blissful silence. Absolute serenity. The perfect conditions to clear a mind fogged with sleep.

Waking up before the sun was not a choice, it was a necessity, unfortunately. One that I had to do four out of the six days that the bakery was open. Just one of the perks of being a baker’s apprentice I suppose. Someone has to wake up and bake all cakes and cookies to appease the ravenous stomachs of sleep deprived workers. Not all heroes wear capes, you might be surprised to know that some of them wear aprons. Calling myself a hero might be slightly conceited, but the mere fact that I have to wake up earlier than the general population, deserves some type recognition, maybe a gold medal; In my humble opinion. 

I slowed my pace as I approached the exterior of Dolphin’s Bakery. Strange name, if I do say so myself, but then again, the owner was a strange individual. Ah yes, the renowned owner, Michael Stewart, or as I like to call him, Mikey. There was no sentimental reasoning behind the generic nickname. Honestly, it stuck with me because on the faithful day I met him, he was wearing a Michelangelo T-shirt. My best friend Mikey was an eccentric man with the imagination of a toddler. 

Opening the doors to the bakery is always a riveting experience. The mouth-watering scent of baked cookies and cakes is enough to have my knees shaking. Regardless of how long it has been since the last desert left the oven, the smell still permeates through tiny shop. Needless to say, I wasn’t the only one who appreciated the heavenly scents, as soon as Babe stepped through the door, her little tail wouldn’t stop wagging. 

Without being told to, Babe beelined to Mikey’s office that was located at the back of the store . She started barking and using her little paws to scratch at the door in an attempt to get Mikey to open up and let her into his sanctuary. Then finally after a few agonizing seconds, for Babe and me, Mickey finally opened the door and put an end to Babe’s incessant whining. Without wasting a second, my overly active dog ran through the barely cracked door and jumped on the couch, perched in front of a small TV where she will remain until its time for her to eat again. 

Mikey did a double take, looking at me, then Babe and then back at me again before running into my arms, delighted as if he hadn’t seen me in several years.

“Oh my god! Ezzy I haven’t seen you in so long.” He laughed, releasing me from his arms.

“Mikey! You saw me yesterday. What are you talking about?” I laughed along with him. Something about his joy and his laughter was contagious; to the point were it could make a man who is having the worse hair day of his life, laugh uncontrollably.

“I know I did, I just missed you like crazy.” He was smiling so wide that I thought his cheeks must hurt. But then I saw my best friend’s eyes shift upwards and his smile faltered. It basically fell right off his face.

With me being already insecure about my hair, my hands automatically reached up to shield my deformed curly puff from further scrutiny. When I turned my back towards my friend, I heard his gasp and then he started fumbling around to find the correct words, but it was too late, the damage was already done.

“No, No, No Ezzy. Your hair looks completely fine.” He lied straight through his teeth.

“No! It doesn’t…” I quickly spun around. “…when I woke up my bonnet was on the floor and I only had 10 minutes to do my hair. 10 MINUTES Mikey, that’s not even enough time to detangle it and I even had to lie to myself Mikey, I had to lie just so that I would leave the house this morning and be on-time for work!” I said in one breath before I threw myself in his arms.

“Ok, OK! We’ll figure it out right?” I nodded on his chest. “Right! So how about we bake these cookies and then we’ll save your mental breakdown until after we make some money? Does that sound good?” He asked while gently rubbing my back.

“Yeah…” I stepped away from him, “…I like money” I always loved how quickly he could switch his personality to solve a problem.

“Me too! Alright! Let’s get cooking good looking!” He shouted and ran to the kitchen.

The first pastries we decided to do were basic cupcakes that would have a buttercream icing. I did the batter for vanilla, red velvet and chocolate cupcakes. After the batter was prepared, I buttered 3 cupcake pans, which could hold 12 cupcakes each, and distributed the batter to each and placed them the the oven, then promptly set a timer. The cupcakes take about 15-20 minutes to fully bake, so in the meantime, I prepared the buttercream icing. 

I gathered up the supplies and mixed them together before tasting it to make sure it was to the standard of Mikey’s liking. After bagging the icing, I removed the cupcakes from the oven set them down to cool. Glancing over at Mikey, I noticed him shaking his hips to the beat of the music while he mixed the batter for the birthday cake our shop was catered to make.

“Hey MiKey, do you need any help? I’m almost done with the cupcakes.” I shouted over the music. He never looked up from his art making but shouted back,

“No, I’m okay sweetie, you just focus on making this cupcake as cute as possible.”

“Don’t you mean, “as tasty as possible”? I smiled over at him.

“No” came his short response as he went back to dancing and mixing.

I laughed loudly before before I started to place the icing on the cupcakes. I added sprinkles that matched the color of the paper that the cupcakes were in. This is the maximum cuteness I can offer for these cupcakes right now, seeing that my heart is still in mourning over my frightening appearance. 

Mikey also said he wanted to have some cookies for sale today, but I unfortunately didn’t know what type he wanted. Therefore, I risked a glanced over in his direction with the intention of asking him the million dollar question but he was so engrossed with his dancing and his mixing that I decided to just make the faithful decision by myself. I decided to go with Mikey’s favorite, Double Chocolate Chip, and my favorite, Oatmeal Raisin. How could I possibly go wrong with those options? I gathered the supplies and mixed the batters before scooping them out and placing them in the oven and setting the timer. By now it was almost 6 am and I only had an hour before the bakery opened up. 

One of the main aspects of this job was being the face of the bakery, therefore, it was only natural that I had to look the part. It was impossible for me to get that done if my hair looked like it had been electrocuted, and then sent through a grinder, and then given to a group of 7 year olds for them to do a piss poor job at attempting to mend it back together. 

“I can hear you thinking over there,” Mikey shouted over the music, “It does not look like a 7 year old did your did.”

I paused briefly before I looked over at him, “It’s strange that you made that exact comparison of my hair,” I squinted my eyes at him.

“What can I say? I just know everything about my most favorite person in the world.” He shrugged his shoulders in nonchalance as if he didn’t just read my mind.

“Yeah that, or you’re an alien,”

He smirked up at me and at that moment it was as if I became the alien because I knew exactly what he was going to say next…

“Well I have heard that my head game is out of this world” He winked, smiling as if just made the greatest joke of the century.  

“And that is my cue to leave” I took off my apron and headed for his office.

“What? You don’t want to hear any details?” He wasn’t even looking at me anymore and was solely focused on the cake he making. Not only the imagination of a toddler, but the attention span of one too.

“As fun as that sounds. I have to go get pretty for you and you customers,” I rolled my eyes at him.

“Oh yes!” He shouted, “I need you looking your best. Not saying you don’t look absolutely perfect now…” He quickly added, “But the customers like you better with your hair all out.”

“Yeah, yeah. I know you’re basically my pimp and can you take the cookies out when the timer goes off?.”

“Just call me a pimp named Mikey” He laughed at his own joke and gave me a thumps up as I left him alone to his own hysterics. The thing I loved about working with Mikey was the fact that he had a miniature beauty supply store in his office desk. Ironic enough, Mikey had long locs that which fell down to his mid-back. He bleached it blonde because he said, and I quote, “straight black hair just doesn’t fit the Mikey image”. He had no need for more than half the supplies he possessed. 

I glance at the couch and noticed Babe fast asleep and shook my head as I made my away over to Mikey’s Beauty Chamber, as he liked to call. I grabbed a few supplies and headed towards the bathroom, dread filling my heart with each faithful step I took. The next 45 minutes were about to be Hell on Earth.