Stark was where he was supposed to be for cupcake class today. Aboveground, and in the location he meant to go to, the Home Ec room. So that was a nice change for him after the past few weeks.

He was standing at the front of the room, with a box in front of him on the counter, and a stack of recipes, when everyone arrived.

“I hope,” he said, looking around, “everyone made it here without incident today. No unexpected detours.” And no holes! That was important.

“I missed our first two classes. Unavoidable. I was in the hole.” He glanced towards the door then, as if to reassure himself it was still there. “We’re all out now, and not stuck anywhere else. For the moment. Oh. I’m Stark, if you don’t know me. I think we’ve all met, by now? But introductions might be a good idea anyway. We can do that. And then cupcakes.”

“I thought,” he continued, “something that tastes summery would be good. Something that reminded me of outside but didn’t taste like grass, come on Eric that’s gross. So I have a few recipes. Similar, but not all the same. There’s lemonade in all of them.”

Lemonade Cupcakes
Pink Lemonade Cupcakes
Strawberry Lemonade Cupcakes
Raspberry Lemonade Cupcakes

“If you need help, I can help. Or, if you just want to decorate some and not bake today that’s fine. I have some already baked. It’s been a long week. A long month. Maybe you need something easy. That’s fine.”