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*Chapter 19*

Not Dated

 
 
Monday morning was cold, no it was COLD, dry, bright but definitely COLD, the white encrusting everything frost rather than snow (well except for a few accumulations in the edges). Gab snugged her hat down over her ears and adjusted her gloves before launching the Schauff down the drive and onto the road, the first time she’d used it for school in weeks. It was only a couple of minutes before she squealed to a halt outside the bakery, her steed soon lined up with the others waiting.
“So how much did we take?” Brid enquired.
“Er,” Con checked the sheet again, “one thousand and twelve.”
“Wow.” Nena allowed.
“That’s as much as we got in total last year,” Pia told us.
“We have to pay for materials yet,” Con pointed out.
“And we need to do a load more baking or you’ll run out next week,” I added.
“I thought you guys had done enough?” Steff opined.
“So did we,” I sighed, “we need to do a stock count, we probably need more coffee and we def need some more cola.”
“We need to pay Chris’s mum for what we had already, we can get more from Dad I think,” Pia suggested.
“Well I need to get some stuff in town this afternoon, I can check the stock at the cabin, can you check what we have left here, Con?” I suggested.
“Sure,” my BF agreed.
“Here, you’ll need these,” Steff told me dangling the keys to our hut.
“You girls are gonna be late,” Therese told us.

We were all on bikes today and it turned into a frantic dash along the cycle track, picture six girls on huge city bikes giving it all the slipstreaming and so on more usually associated with the Tour de France!
Screeeeeeech!
“Beatcha!” Nena crowed as I rolled to a stop.
“Not huh, been huh, riding for huh, weeks,” I pointed out.
“Give it a week, Nen and we won’t get near her,” Steff suggested.
“Pah!”

“Ah girls,” Frau Boxberg greeted us as we entered the building a few minutes later.
“We’re not late,” Steff mentioned.
“Well not quite,” the Head allowed, “how did the stall go?”
“You mean apart from the robbery?” Pia posited.
“Robbery?”
“This guy attacked Gab with a knife after we shut Saturday.” Brid embellished.
“Are you okay, Gaby?”
“It wasn’t that bad, he tripped over and bashed his head.”
“So he didn’t steal anything?”
“Only his freedom, the Polizei were after him for some other stuff so he’s locked up.”
“Trouble seems to find you eh, Gaby?”
“Sometimes,” I allowed.
“You’d best get to registration, you’ll be late.”
Grrr, we wouldn’t be if you hadn’t stopped us!

School was school, nothing more or less, unless you were at the market last night my new title would’ve passed you by, we are in Germany after all. We are definitely into revision for the exams in the New Year; Herr Viessner even had us doing a mock paper – aaargh, English verbs!

“Wait up, Gab,” Max yelled after me as I pushed my steed out of the bike sheds.
“Wassup?” I queried as I waited for him to join me.
“What’re you up to?”
“Up to?”
“Well you know,” he gabbled.
“Well I need to check some stuff at the cabin then I’ve got to get some presents to take to England next weekend.”
“You want some company, we could get a coffee or something.”
“Or something?”
“Could run to a burger,” he allowed.
“It’s not a date,” I stated.
“No, no, of course not, just er in the same place at the same time like.”
“Here,” I thrust my bike at him, “you can push Stella for me.”
“Stella?”
“She’s a right star,” I giggled.
Actually the model of the bike is ‘Stellar’ so it’s nothing weird, all my bikes have some sort of name after all.

We went to the cabin first, the council have employed a security company to patrol the closed market, Max went to clear it with them while I opened the door. It seemed a bit weird being here without loads of activity, the smell of coffee – oh bum I need to sort that out.
“Gab?”
“Over here.”
Max flicked the lights on, “what were you doing in the dark?”
“Eh? Oh just thinking. The Gaggia needs stripping and I need to audit the stock.”
“I’ll do the coffee machine.”
“You know how?”
“Work in restaurant? Coffee boy? Course I do.”
“Whatever, I think some grounds have got inside somewhere by the noises it was making.”
“’Kay.”

To say we worked in silence would be a lie, I was humming to myself – Bohemian Rhapsody for some reason and Max was clanking around as he dismantled the Gaggia. The takings certainly only told part of the story, we had sold a good number of biscuits but it was interesting what the split of cakes was. The mince pies had certainly done well, we had two containers of fifty left, I liberated a couple for the workers, even cold they are yummy.
The fruit cake was hardly touched but we only had one full Stollen bar left, the gateaux of course was all gone, they’d actually run out yesterday afternoon. It wasn’t too bad, Stollen and gateaux were straightforward, they’d just have to run out of pies as there wasn’t any more mincemeat. I scribbled the numbers down – we could compare them to the sales ledger later.
“A ha!” Max announced.
“What?”
He held something up, “this was in the inlet.”
“What is it?” I asked going over to where he had bits of machine strewn on a table.
“Looks like a St Christopher, must’ve dropped in when someone had the top off.”
“Might be one of the girls I suppose.”
“Best get it back together, five minutes.”

So jobs done we locked up and headed to Niederhutstraße for my shopping.
“Christmas prezzies?” my guardian enquired.
“Uh huh,” I allowed as I eyed up some trainers, “wait here a minute.”
I left Max with Stella and dived into the shoe shop.

“I thought you were buying for other people?”
“I am but I’ve had my eye on these for weeks.”
“Girls,” he muttered.
It was after four by the time we got to Maccy D’s, I had got a couple of bits, looks like I’ll be hitting the duty free on Saturday for the rest.
My Handy went while Max was at the counter getting our food; I’d commandeered a table as far away from the playpen as possible.
“Bond.”
“Gab, where are you?”
“In Maccy D’s,” I allowed.
“Thought you were cooking tonight,” Mand suggested.
“Mum knows I was staying in town, I’ll be back in time for cheer.”
“Guess it’s beans on toast then,” she sighed.
“Here you go, Gab,” Max stated as he slid the tray onto the table.
“Who are you with, Gaby Bond?”
“No one.”
“That sounded like Max.”
“Max? Don’t be daft,” I told Mand whilst motioning for Max to stay quiet.
“It sure sounded like him,” she pressed.
“Must be someone on another table, it’s quite busy in here.”
“Hmm, whatever, see you in a bit.”
“Yeah, tschuss.” I closed the call, “Mand,” I advised my companion.
“I guessed, you want mayo?”
“Is the Pope Catholic?”
“Eh?”
“Yes.”
“Oh right, I get it, I’ll fetch some.”
Boys!

We walked back to Dernau station, well Max hadn’t got his bike and it wasn’t fair to leave him on his own. Of course we talked a load of rubbish, school stuff, market stuff, wedding stuff – well you know, just stuff.
“This is me,” I stated, “this wasn’t a date.”
“Of course not, see you tomorrow?”
“Probably, we both are in the same class.”
“Yeah.”
“Well er, bye then.”
“Bye.”
Then he took me by surprise diving in for a hit and run kiss.
“See you!”
“Um.” I readjusted my woolly hat and hoped that the cool night air would return my face to a more natural shade before I got home.

Maddy Bell 13.02.16