Simply Can't Compete

Just about how Hallie enters the cooking contest Christian told her about a while ago, and reveals what she decided to make. Enjoy!

Simply Can�t Compete


���������It�s totally going to fall! Hallie yelped balancing one side of her extremely tall and heavy contest entry.

�No it won�t, we just need to get it onto a cart and roll it over to the display table,� David assured balancing the other side.

There were several different categories of desserts. Pies, cakes, brownies, cookies, and her section was all the way at the top floor of the Los Angeles convention center.

They slowly walked towards one of the carts, and gently placed it down. Hallie held a hand up next to it, making sure it wouldn�t topple over.

After successfully wheeling the cart into the elevator, they hoped that after getting their prized possession this far nothing would go wrong. Luckily they made it safely, and carefully adjusted it onto the display table.

When they entered the room everyone craned their neck to look at the competition, and it couldn�t have been more threatening.

The miraculous white velvet seven layered cake stood out compared to everything else. Each tier of the cake had been shaped into fluffy looking pillows and mattresses, with individually unique colors and patterns on each layer. On top of everything was a little pink frosting fashioned princess sleeping under the icing covers, thus illustrating the story of The Princess and the Pea.

Hallie had thought of it during another draining conversation with David. She thought of what a spoiled brat she was, because she was never happy no matter what he did, that no matter how much he bought to make her life comfortable there was still some unknown thing aggravating her. Of course Hallie didn�t tell David that, she just told him that she liked the story, and plus it was a great idea for an enormous layered cake like this one. It even had a black frosting headboard on both sides, and really looked like a huge comfortable bed, which Hallie couldn�t wait to climb into after the competition was over. Her Egyptian cotton bed, not the frosting one. Tired as hell from slaving for days in her brand new luxury kitchen, she did everything she could to display her talent, and it definitely showed.

�Great work,� a girl next to her complimented. She was one of those girls who was in her late twenty�s but dressed like she was five years old. The overalls she was wearing just did not scream �contest winner.� She had light mousey looking brown hair with little flowers scattered all over her head, to match her two layered daisy covered cake. While it looked nice, it simply didn�t kick a*s the way Hallie�s did.

�Thanks, you too,� Hallie smiled blushing with flattery.

�Hers sucks,� David whispered. �Plus one of the judges is a guy, he is automatically going to think you�re way hotter than that chick.�

Hallie rolled her eyes. It wasn�t about who was hotter, it was about who had the most talent. There were fifteen other contestants who made cakes that certainly didn�t suck, and as the designer of the cake she wanted to win because of how hard she worked, not because of her appearance. Hallie tried to take it as David just easing her nerves about the competition and took a seat behind the display table.

�How long is the judging going to take?� David sighed already impatient.

�They�ll go through each category, pick the winner there, and then pick the overall winner. It will be at least a couple of hours,� Hallie explained.

�Oh man,� David groaned. � I think we can just leave it here and go, what do you say?�

Hallie looked around and saw that several people had left like David said, but she had no desire to just leave. She wanted to explain her creation to the judges, and view their exact reactions when they looked at and tasted her work.

�You can go, but I really want to stay here,� Hallie stated.

�Are you sure? I bet it�s going to be boring just waiting around.�

�I�ll be fine, thanks for helping me carry everything. What are you going to go do?�

�I actually had something big in mind, originally I was going to do it on Christmas, before all our fighting began. But now that we are living together and things are back to normal, I think I�m going to go ahead and do it,� David replied with a heavy breath.

Hallie�s eyebrows raised to the very top of her forehead. Something big? What the hell was he talking about? Proposing? It couldn�t have been that they just moved in together like a week ago. Plus why would a guy let on to his girlfriend that he was planning on proposing? Didn�t that spoil everything? Wouldn�t a guy want to keep that a secret to surprise their girlfriend? Proposing just couldn�t have been what he meant.

She hoped that something �big� just meant big screen plasma TV, big ugly video game chair, even a big poster of Carmen Electra would be acceptable. Just anything but a big freaking diamond ring. Hallie�s body immediately began growing moist with sweat, and it certainly wasn�t jitters about the competition.

�Oh�,� was all Hallie could utter through her storm of thoughts.

�I�ll be back,� David bent forward to kiss Hallie on the top of her head. Hallie sat in her chair motionless trying to force a smile, while trying her best not to crawl under the table and hide.

�Good luck!� David waved.

After he was safely gone, she tucked her head between her knees like her soccer coach back in high school told her to do if she felt like she was going to faint. Not that she felt like she was about to pass out, but if David was really planning on proposing, then it wouldn�t be a case of fainting, it would be a case of dying from complete and utter shock.

It was beyond her why David even wanted to live with her, but propose? It made absolutely no sense. She knew she wasn�t going to cheat again, but how on earth was he so sure? Was he that confident to just disregard everything? It was like he had his memory erased about what happened over Christmas. Either that or he was just totally insane. Insane to propose to a girl that he knew repeatedly cheated on him only a month ago.

Someone standing directly above her loudly cleared their throat. Startled, Hallie looked up to see it was the judges, and it was her turn to be evaluated. Perfect timing. Oh well, all the best artists were out of their minds.

�Oh good you�re awake because we�re about to judge you�re work,� a short man in a cheap tailored suit said condescendingly.

�Sorry,� Hallie blushed. David was so wrong about what he said earlier. Just because one of the judges was a guy didn�t mean s**t. Yeah of course he probably thought she was pretty, but there were always those guys who�s lives consisted of being rejected by pretty girls, therefore making them more likely to take points off. You just never really knew in life, which was why counting on your looks alone to succeed was recipe for disaster.

Hallie knew that no matter how tan she was, how in shape, how perfect her make up was, it really meant nothing. The cake would just have to speak for itself.

Mr. Stick-Up-His-A*s began jotting notes on his clipboard along with two female judges. One looked like the human form of the Mrs. Buttersworth syrup bottles, complete with an apron and everything. All it had to say was Buttersworth Syrup across the front. Hallie knew from seeing her walking around earlier that she would be the one doing the tasting. How easy did that job have to be?

The other judge was much younger and was wearing a Donna Karan high-waist indigo skirt with a plunging white v-neck top exclusively from the Spring 2008 collection, even though it was winter 2009. She must have been invited to some private collection sale last year and was probably planning on wearing her exclusive purchases till the day she died. She had a Victoria Beckham style bob with a pink and green headband that horrendously clashed with the rest of her outfit. Hallie recognized her face from magazines, but couldn�t think of who she was or what she did.

�This is by far the most extravagant of the entries,� Mrs. Buttersworth commented. Hallie wasn�t sure if that should be taken as a compliment or an insult. To ease her mind she decided to go with compliment.

�Well my three year old daughter would certainly like it,� the man said as if Hallie wasn�t in the room.

�Look at all the colors! The pink, the gold, the silver; it�s so unique! This must have taken so much time! Do you only specialize in desserts?� the familiar looking woman gushed.

�Oh no, I love to cook everything, appetizers, entr�e�s, you name it,� Hallie said pretending she was being interviewed for a cooking magazine. She had talent so why not tell her about it? Plus she had a feeling that out of all the judges this was the one to impress.

Screw the b*****d who actually found some woman dumb enough to have a kid with him. What did he know? Probably a lot to be judging the competition. Whatever, at least somebody liked it.

�Amazing,� the young woman admired again, unable to hold back her wonderment. She looked closely at the detail and wrote something down without taking her eyes off the cake.

�We shall see. Now for the tasting please,� Mrs. Buttersworth tapped her ugly brown loafer impatiently.

Hallie had prepared a separate slice of the cake so as not to ruin the presentation by cutting up her work. She unwrapped the tin foil off of her gold plated Tiffany�s plate with excitement.

�Here you go,� Hallie eagerly handed the plate over. Her favorite part was watching peoples reactions when they ate her food, and she desperately hoped this would be a good one.

Picky looking Mrs. Buttersworth took her own fork out of her apron pocket, carefully wiped it down, then took a small as ever bite slowly chewing it. She blinked thoughtfully as she tasted the vanilla butter cream cake layered with homemade chocolate liqueur and ginger scented icing.

�Hmm,� she nodded looking at the other judges in what seemed to be approval. Surprisingly she took several bites much quicker than the last ones, and before Hallie knew it the slice was gone.

�Excellent work,� she finally stated.

�Thank you so much!� Hallie shrieked overjoyed.

�Don�t get you�re hopes up, you haven�t won yet. We still need to look at everyone else�s. I would say the theme of this was quite juvenile, but the overall presentation isn�t bad,� the man frigidly made clear.

Isn�t bad?

Ok so one judge thought Hallie was a dim-witted airhead for making a Princess and the Pea themed cake, the other thought it tasted excellent, and the trendy more laid back judge thought it kicked a*s. Hallie hoped it was like American Idol, where it only mattered what two judges thought, and whatever the third blunt prick judge thought meant absolutely nothing, but she was pretty sure it didn�t work that way.

�My name is Roxie Mcclure,� the young judge shook Hallie�s hand. After the competition would you mind sticking around for a while?

�Uh, no I don�t mind at all.�

�Have you done any modeling?�

�Oh not this again,� she thought to herself. Only Hallie Harris would complain about being asked to model.

�Just a little, I was in a La Perla runway show, but I really don�t have time for modeling, but that is very flattering, thank you.� Hallie politely explained. She didn�t need to be on stage flaunting herself around half naked again, no, that�s not what good girlfriends did. Nor did they cheat with their ex-boyfriends backstage. Whoops.

�Oh no, it�s something much bigger than modeling, I just wanted to know if you had any experience in the entertainment industry.�

�Come on Roxie, we have several more entries to look at,� the judges beckoned impatiently.

�I have to go, I will explain it to you after the contest!� she called as she ran to catch up with the judges.

Something much bigger than modeling? Entertainment industry? She really hoped it wasn�t porn, but that woman didn�t seem like the type of chick to be in the porn business, although she certainly had a name fit for it.

All of the possibilities ran through Hallie�s mind. Maybe she was going to get cast on some soap opera, and be forced to kiss dazzling men with names like Lance, that were secretly gay with her evil twin brother. Or maybe she was going to be in some violent action movie, and have to gain twenty pounds of muscle in order to have a convincing role of saving the world from gigantic insects while looking ridiculously hot doing it. Ok probably not, but it was fun to think about the possibilities nevertheless.

Either way she knew that whatever it was, and however she did in the contest, she owed all of her success to one person. He was the pea underneath all of the elaborate comfort that David provided her with. The one bothersome little thing that never went away no matter how much she tossed and turned. Deep down, she hoped that feeling would never disappear, because it was the only true existence of meaning in her life; and money, fame, even a gigantic diamond ring simply couldn�t compete with that.

Reviews

[MorganLyn]

NOOO!! He better not propose! I am so serious!

But the statement you threw in there about american idol was real funny, and the desciptions about the judges were too.

great write! once again I absolutely loved it!!

[Mysteral - Night Prowle..]

Wonderful chapter. Your description of the cake makes me hungry. Good writing. Interaction between Hallie and the judges was superb. Oh, almost forgot. Nice picture of a cake too.

[thecoolone52]

the greatest part was when david was like your way hotter then her,.............. hhahahahah that was good the typical guy comment........ anyway nice chapter im startin to catch up....... the last one was really good 2

[Tuff Stuff]

I agree with mintwhiskers.
TALENT!

[ShadowWolf]

"the pea underneath all"....lol! It ain't over til it's over! I love the way this is going!

[Mintwhiskers]

excellent work i think u have great talent