2. Get Butter

For Maisie, college was fine.

She was having fun - sort of. She wasn't falling behind on readings - sort of. She was making tons of new friends - sort of. All her professors loved her - not even close. The first few weeks of college had been a jumbled mess and now a month in, they still weren't going much better.

No matter how hard Maisie tried, she still forgot where her classes were and became the last to get through the door. Every time someone tried to talk to her she just turned into a weird, bumbling talking machine. It was the same when she was in high school; small friend group with no other contact with anyone on the outside. But Maisie thought college would be different, that she would stop being awkward.

Once she got to know people or was in a place that made her comfortable then she was in her element. Nothing could stop her from cursing and whining. But when she was alone in a foreign area with foreign people all she wanted to do was run.

And that's exactly what she wanted to do when a man ran up behind her after a lecture.

"Hi," someone said from beside Maisie and she felt a hand on her elbow, stopping her from going further.

For some reason the discovery channel documentary Tony watched the night before got stuck in her head and all she could picture was that poor seal being eaten by a polar bear. Currently she was the seal and the unknown guy was a hungry, almost extinct bear twice her size.

"Hi," she replied and tilted her head to look up at him but stopped short.

Her eyes shot past his and went straight up his forehead to the monstrosity on his head. He had a man bun. And as Maisie took in the rest of his body she noted that he had a strangely tight-fitting button down shirt with short sleeves and weird patterns on it, very skinny baby blue jeans and a pair of Toms. Maisie fought the urge to glare at his bare ankles from the lack of socks that should have been there.

All he was missing was a full-on beard and to have started the conversation with 'hey there my dude'.

"You don't know me," he laughed, "obviously. But I'm in your psychology class, as you know, because we were just there." He laughed again and Maisie's eye twitched. "I'm trying to get to know everyone."

He held his skinny hand out and Maisie took it. "Maisie," she greeted.

"Ocean," he said.

Maisie frowned. "I'm sorry, what?"

"My name is Ocean," he grinned and Maisie nodded slowly.

"Right of course. Cool name."

"Thanks," he rubbed the back of his neck. "So which dorm building are you in?"

"Oh, actually I live at home," she explained. "My house is close by."

Like saying that made the situation sound any less sad.

"Oh that's cool," Ocean nodded. "That's totally sick, you living with your parents and all."

"Sure..."

"I live with my sisters," he carried on. "It's totally crazy. None of us can decide which candle to light in the evening. I want the apple spice but Rainbow wants the cabin wood and Starlight wants the sugar cookie candle. It's absolutely insane."

Maisie nodded slowly as she tried to process the fact that this man was called Ocean and his sisters were Rainbow and Starlight.

"Your family sounds...nice," Maisie finally said.

"Oh yeah," Ocean drawled. "They're super cool. Totally chill. It's insane. Crazy cool."

"I'm sure," Maisie nodded and wrung her hands together. "I should probably get going you know. I've got a shift soon."

"Oh, a shift," Ocean said. "Where do you work?"

"A bakery," she answered, taking a step forward so he would take the hint that she currently wanted to cave into social anxiety and get the hell out of there.

"That's totally crazy. Oh my god. I love bakeries. They're so cute and full of little old people."

Maisie blinked at him. "Right, okay. I should go now."

"Oh of course," Ocean nodded. "Have fun baking pies!"

Maisie walked away and grumbled under her breath. "I don't bake the pies."

***

"Congratulations Maisie. You got your wish."

Maisie had walked into her bakery after class expecting to come into a safe environment where she wouldn't feel attacked. Instead the door was unlocked and her stepdad was standing in the middle of the room with a shit-eating grin on his face. Behind Tony were four boys that Maisie last saw two weeks ago when they were cuffed to a pipe.

"What do you mean?" Maisie asked.

"It's community service time," Tony answered. "Right here, right now. Except under one condition."

Maisie sighed. "What is it?"

"There has to be another human being in this bakery at all times when the criminals are in."

Maisie shrugged. "Charity can sit in."

"No, she's a bad influence. She's always smiling, it's unsettling," Tony said and Maisie frowned. "I'm assigning a guy from the station to come in each day the criminals are here."

"You're paying your police officers to babysit me?" Maisie asked. "That's a new extreme."

He narrowed his eyes. "One other human in this bakery at all times or they go to jail."

And I lose the bakery, Maisie thought.

She looked behind Tony where the four boys now sat at the tables that surrounded the inside of the bakery. They looked completely out of place against the vibrantly painted walls. All their clothes were neutral colours; black, grey, white - anything gloomy. One of them had tattoos running all over his arms and Maisie could just picture her usual, Mrs Hander - a tiny, old lady - having a heart attack when a giant, tattooed man gives her a slice of carrot cake.

But if she doesn't, then what has she got? She can't run a bakery with just herself and Charity while trying to get a degree at the same time. She's already running herself to the ground and barely making a profit at all.

For Maisie, it was finally time to save her bakery.

"Fine," she nodded. "One other person at all times."

Sheriff Small seemed surprised that Maisie actually agreed and raised an eyebrow. "That's it?" he asked.

"That's it," she said.

"Small, do we actually get any say in this?" Nick called out from behind the sheriff who turned and glared at him.

"It's your punishment, criminal. Of course you don't get a say," Tony said.

"As much as I admire the freeing and artistic approach baking has on the world, I don't really want to be making strudels all day when I could be undermining the rich and inspiring the working class to take a stand and knock down the ones that repress them," Logan said with a nonchalant shrug.

"Look, Small," Keith said. "We don't wanna be here."

Maisie looked up when the last guy spoke, he was the one with all the tattoos.

"Why not?" she asked.

Keith shrugged. "No offence but, baking? It's a girl thing."

"A girl thing?" Maisie scoffed. "Have you even baked before?"

"'Course I have," he answered. "It wasn't that hard."

"Ever baked for a bakery before?"

Keith blinked. "No..."

"Alright then. You think baking is easy, that it's just a girls thing? I dare you to spend the whole day tomorrow in this place doing the shift that I do. By the end of it, if you're not sweating your ass off and still think it's only for a girl, then you can go find somewhere else to do community service."

Tony looked between the two of them. "Maisie..."

"Fine," Keith stood up and extended his hand out to her. "I'll be here tomorrow and I'll do a whole shift. And I won't sweat a single drop."

Maisie grinned and shook his hand. "We'll see."

- Tahlie x