Peculiar Plans

And standing there in the middle of all that mess was my dear, old friend, with the most peculiar look on her face. 

“Maple?” I called tentatively, stepping over a tray of half baked cookies.

“Fiona.” replied Maple, and her voice sounded just as peculiar as her face looked. Neither her face nor her voice, though, were as strange as where she was standing. She was standing in what was technically the school kitchen, though it was scarcely recognizable. Every surface was covered in either a half-baked baked good, or an ingredient or utensil. On top of all of that, there was a fine white dust coating everything, including my dear old friend, Maple.

    I stared at all of this for a good two minutes before I could find any words other than “Maple?”. Finally, it was Maple who first spoke.
“Lock the doors and don’t say anything to anyone” she commanded. 

Maple had always been a bit peculiar, in fact that was probably the reason that we were friends, but this was new. 

“Maple?” I asked again, still lacking words.

“I said lock the doors” She commanded, more insistently this time, though not crossly. 

“What is happening here?” I asked, finally able to form my confusion into words.

“I’ll tell you after you lock the doors, '' she offered.

I did as I was told, and then asked again “What is happening here?”

“First you have to promise me that you will not speak a word of this to anyone, not even a turtle.”

“I promise!” I promised, half giggling in my confusion. 

“I’m trying to reinvent the cafeteria’s menu, and make a hit youtube series about it, all in secret!’

“Oh my!” I exclaimed “But… you cannot cook” I remarked bluntly. 

“I know,” admitted Maple, “but I really want to go viral on youtube like my hero Rie!” 

“That is a new one” I remarked. Maple’s hero changed every few weeks. We had known each other since we were infants, so I was used to it, just as she was used to the way I talked.

“Yeah, she’s a youtuber whose catchphrase is ‘make it fancy’, well that and ‘I’ve never tried this before’. Oh, and ‘ok, here's what I got’ and  ‘from the pantry I got’.” Maple informed me. “Yeah, she’s got a lot of catchphrases” she reconsidered. 

“You have not been answering my electronic messages,” I reminded her.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I was busy with all of…” she waved her hand around vaguely in the air “this,” she finished “Also, they’re called texts,” she teased. She knew that to me, they would always be electronic messages.

“So, would you like me to assist you in ‘going viral’?” I inquired. I was quite good at cooking, so I thought she could use my assistance.

“Yeah! I’m actually not sure if I’m happy or sad that you caught me. On the one hand, I wanted this to be totally secret from everybody, even you, but on the other hand, you are a much better cook than me” Maple told me. 

“I believe that you should always try to be happy about things that you cannot change, if you can” I decided.

“Stop saying wise things and start unruining my baked goods, '' Maple teased.

“I shall” I agreed, and began baking.