The Royal Academy of Magical Baking

"'Singular fashion'?" Caramelle repeated, staring at Lyra with wide eyes.

"What a sugar-sack." Ginger narrowed her eyes at the door, as if expecting Palmier Dacquoise to waltz into Crumble Corner Pastry at any moment. "I'd like to bake him into a singularly revolting soufflé."

"With singularly slipshod decoration," Mac added firmly.

Caramelle directed her wide-eyed stare to the bespectacled boy beside her, whose hand she had been holding since they arrived. "Oh, Mac… that would be a truly fitting punishment." Turning back to Lyra and Ginger with a shy smile, she whispered, "Decoration is very important to Macaron. To mess up on purpose… there could be no worse insult."

"We are well aware of Fondant's obsession with making things pretty," Ginger replied dryly. "And with pretty things in general."

Caramelle blushed. Mac, who seemed to have grown a few years older over the past week, just grinned broadly and scooted his chair another half-inch closer to hers.

"I gather you two have been seeing a lot of each other over break so far?" Lyra asked, selecting a miniature croissant from the tray Ginger's father had brought out moments before.

Blushing even harder, Caramelle nodded. "As much as we can. Not as much as we'd like. My parents keep my breaks rather full of practice, remember."

Lyra bit into the croissant. To her surprise and delight, it was filled with a scrumptious blueberry cream cheese swirl, laced with rich vanilla flavor. She took a moment to savor and swallow before inquiring, "And what do Lord and Lady Meringue think of this new… development in your social life?"

"Mother and Father…" Caramelle's face was now nearly as red as her hair, but Lyra had never seen such a happy sparkle in the budding Texturist's serious eyes. "They don't exactly know yet. Not really."

"Not really?" Lyra echoed. "What does that mean?"

Ginger grinned. "Are you sneaking out of the house, Meringue?"

"Oh no," Caramelle replied hastily. "They know I'm spending time with an academy classmate. They just think it's for school."

"They assumed I'm tutoring her in Presentation," Mac explained, his grin still wide enough to outmatch Ginger's.

Caramelle's own smile bore a particularly mischievous ripple that reminded Lyra strikingly of Professor Puff. "And I did not see the need to contradict that assumption. After all, it's not entirely false. One can't be around Macaron without learning something about Presentation. Especially during break, when Fortescue is right there."

Lyra gasped. "Oh, I miss Fortescue! We'll have to arrange another party some time soon."

"Forget Lord and Lady Meringue." Ginger chose her own croissant, tore it in half, and began nibbling at the lemon curd filling with relish. "I want to know what Fortescue the Foppish Fox thinks of Fondant's new lady friend."

Mac laughed out loud. Lyra was tempted to look under the table to check if he was actually floating a few inches off his chair.

"Fortescue approves," Mac declared. "In fact, he said he's never met anyone with more exquisite Self-Presentation skills than Caramelle. He thinks I have a lot to learn from her."

Caramelle caught his eye and smiled. "We have a great deal to learn from each other."

They both fell silent, staring at each other contentedly.

Ginger set down her nearly empty croissant halves with a groan. "Is this what it's going to be like now with you two? Talk about singularly revolting."

"Don't be a thistle, Ginger." Lyra grabbed one of the discarded croissant halves to sample the lemon curd. "You're the one who was going on about 'air bubbles' and getting things out in the open. I should think you'd be thrilled."

"I am thrilled." Ginger threw the other croissant half at Caramelle, groaning again when it simply bounced off her perfectly arranged auburn coils. "I just thought you lot didn't have time for dating."

Caramelle looked away from Mac just long enough to smirk sweetly at Ginger. "This isn't dating. It's an intensely focused collegial partnership."

Ginger shook her head solemnly. "Monsters. That is what I have created. Overly sweet meringue cake monsters. With fondant icing, of course."

Lyra chose another croissant at random and took a large bite to hide her giggles.

"There is a silver lining to this confectioner sugar cloud, of course." Ginger whirled on Lyra. "Now Treble has absolutely no excuse. When is your and Berry's heart-kitchen renovation scheduled for, hmmm?"

Lyra glanced sideways at Mac, but Ginger waved a hand dismissively. "Caramelle filled him in. Speak freely."

Instead of 'speaking freely,' Lyra took her time chewing the impeccably flaky croissant, reveling in the tangy sweetness of the raspberry cream filling.

"No idea," she admitted several seconds later. "I thought we could talk over break, but he's out of town. And now, after this morning… I don't know."

"This morning?" Ginger snatched the half-eaten pastry from her hand, moving the tray to a neighboring table for good measure. "What about this morning? Have your affections been transferred? One of those stodgy old bakers catch your eye?"

Caramelle shuddered. "Now that is a singularly revolting thought."

Lyra shook her head. "I thought the big push would be over after the board meeting. That Enjoyment would be safe, and we could all stop worrying about it. But with all of it still hanging over my head… it's hard to focus on anything else."

"Not your head, you silly little overmixed custard," Ginger admonished her. "Our heads. Including Boysen's. We're all pushing through this Enjoyment recipe together anyway. Might as well be disgustingly sweet while doing so. Look at these two."

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

She nodded towards Caramelle and Mac. The latter merely kept grinning in response, but the former turned thoughtfully to Lyra.

"Ginger has a point. Especially considering Madame Bundt's particular reservation." Caramelle used her free hand to reclaim the raspberry cream croissant from Ginger and return it to Lyra. "We don't need you to be working harder on Enjoyment. We need someone else to be able to produce the magic."

"But I want to help," Lyra protested.

"You will," Caramelle assured her.

"You have." Mac somehow managed to adjust his grin from 'smitten' to 'supportive' so he could contribute more coherently to the conversation. "You've done more than anyone, Lyra. You're the main reason Enjoyment is going anywhere."

"And you got a standing ovation from the board." Caramelle's voice was hushed with awe. "That's… that's…"

"Delicious," Ginger said firmly. "And deserves to be celebrated with delicious pastry. These are my parents' Especially Delectable Croissants, Lyra Treble. Prepared only for the most especially delectable occasions. They are not to be fretted over. They are meant to be…"

She stared at Lyra, waiting.

"Enjoyed?" Lyra ventured in a small voice.

"Sweet and savory, she can be taught!" Ginger retrieved the tray from its exile and placed it emphatically down in front of Lyra. "No more fretting. Not today. Not for the rest of break, in fact. You all need a true vacation, especially Miss Changer of the Baking World here. Starting now."

Standing, Ginger spread her hands wide over the tray and proclaimed, "We are here to honor the Singularly Gifted Lyra Treble, who this morning made the Singularly Revolting Sugar-Sack that is Palmier Dacquoise get up on his feet and applaud her baking. We shall celebrate her singular awesomeness by stuffing our faces with awesome pastry. Agreed?"

"Agreed," chorused Mac and Caramelle in unison.

Lyra leaned close to the tray and inhaled, letting the rich aroma-songs of buttery pastry and sweet fillings drown out her ongoing anxiety medley. Then, in honor of Boysen, she chose the largest mini croissant on the tray and devoured it in one massive bite.

Sighing in contentment as the chocolate coffee mousse filling sang its aria in her brain, she smiled at her friends.

"Agreed."

—

The next week couldn't go by fast enough for Lyra. She knew the professors had gotten a full report on the board meeting from Rye, and had probably held a few 'unofficial' meetings with individual board members, but she wanted to talk to them about it. She wanted to see Chef Flax's response to her account of Madame Citron's support and of Palmier Dacquoise's involuntary standing ovation.

Then there was Boysen. He would be just as eager to hear the whole story as she was to share it. She'd sent him a note by Hasty Hare Express, but the furry message-runners charged exorbitant rates for such a long distance. Even pooling their resources, she and her three friends had only managed to afford a few short phrases:

It would take a while just to fill him in properly. She couldn't wait to hear his thoughts on every detail of the momentous day and amused herself by predicting which series of special Boysen-grins would appear at each point in her story. He would also have his own tale to tell. She was looking forward to two weeks' worth of anecdotes about the Berry Brothers Bistro, along with several new recipes to try.

And then, they would need to discuss certain other matters… eventually.

Alas, the Berry family wasn't returning until late on the night before the third term started. She wouldn't get to see Boysen until breakfast the next morning, right before their Monday Enjoyment session in the practice kitchen. Considering the guaranteed presence of at least two other people and the rather packed menu of conversational fare, she had a feeling they might not get to heart-kitchens that first day.

Still, she was impatient for their reunion, and for the third term to start. Enjoyment had one more major hurdle to overcome. The sooner they could all get back to the academy, the sooner they could work together to 'push through the recipe,' as Ginger had so aptly described it.

She tried hard to heed Ginger's other words. The second-years did need a vacation, at least from the constant mental sorting of such complicated and weighty ingredients. Ginger had even made all three of them promise to limit their baking as much as possible.

To that end, Lyra focused all her attention on Treble business. She sat in on a few Any Weather Bards rehearsals. She worked with her brothers to fine-tune arrangements for Rondo's new songs. She attended Thespy's latest play and even participated in an impromptu family performance at the cast party.

And, most importantly, she stayed out of the kitchen. By the time break came to a close, the only baking Lyra had done (other than her board meeting preparations) was one batch of chocolate chip cookies, to give her family a literal taste of Enjoyment magic. Though third term's filo pastry curriculum promised to be the most intensely 'layered' term yet, she was actually looking forward to working with butter and flour again.

Lyra barely slept her first night back in Shortcrust. Anticipation was playing its uniquely frenetic tune along all her nerve endings, making her feel like her whole brain was actually vibrating along with the internal melody. She was glad to get out of bed and rush off to the dining hall the next morning for a Berry wonderful breakfast.

To her dismay, Boysen was nowhere to be seen.

She joined Mac and Caramelle at the second-year table and forced herself to eat, though it was hard to appreciate Bumble's signature 'Sprinkle Spice' porridge while glancing at the door every ten seconds. It was also hard to believe her two friends' assurances that all was probably well, especially since the pair had little attention for anything but each other.

They all lingered at the table as long as they could, waiting, but the magical chime soon called them to class.

Thankfully, relief for Lyra's nerves was waiting just inside the practice kitchen.

"Boysen!" she exclaimed, rushing forward to give him a hug. "When did you get here?"

"Just now. We slept a bit late, so I had breakfast at home. Sweet and savory, it's good to see you!" he said.

The grin in his voice instantly soothed Lyra's anxious internal melodies, drawing her into the easygoing frequency of the 'baking with Boysen' air. She had the sudden urge to bury her face in his shoulder and just… stay there. For the rest of the day, preferably.

Storytelling and Enjoyment practicing could both go stuff it.

But it was not to be. All too soon, they were both pulling away so he could greet Caramelle and Mac. And then, before the reunited second-years could share even a single update, Professor Genoise appeared at the door.

"Welcome back, Aspiring Bakers! Oh, what a momentous two weeks it has been!" The Presentation headmaster clearly had not yet recovered from the news of the board meeting. His eyes gleamed with peculiar, almost feverish energy as he held up a hand. "But I am afraid I cannot tarry to muse melodiously with you upon the magnificent meaning of recent events. I must away to meet with the first-years. I stopped by only to bring you the boon of assistance!"

Professor Genoise's monocle popped out of his eye in his excitement. Ignoring it, he rushed on, "A colleague reached out to me over break and offered to help with the Enjoyment effort. And considering this baker's particular interest in experimentation, I accepted the offer with alacrity. This is just what we need to carry us over the final hill!"

Lyra glanced around at her friends, eyebrows raised.

"Ginger?" Boysen mouthed.

Could it be? But Ginger hadn't said anything over break…

Lyra's nostrils twitched. A familiar scent was wafting in from the hallway.

Is that… cinnamon? And honey?

Professor Genoise stepped aside as another figure entered behind him, and Lyra froze.

There, standing in the doorway of the practice kitchen, was the elaborately charming figure of Cardamom Coulis the Third.

"Second-years!" He flashed a dazzling smile. "Ready to make some magic?"