Space Cakes

CANDICE (16) and her friend KRISSIE (16) are spaced out on the sofa, having a laughing fit as they flick through various TV channels. On the table in front of them are a plate of cake slices and a bag of weed. The next morning AMBER (45) is in the garden singing along to the radio as she prepares for her tea party in the garden. Candice is woken up by her mum’s vocals, yelling down to her to turn the music down. Amber responds by telling Candice to get washed and dressed because she’s got friends coming over and that she’s going to use up the leftover cake in the fridge. Candice leaps out of bed, trying to persuade her mum not to serve it, coming up with, a lacklustre excuse that she’s saving it for later, but Amber isn’t having any of it and tells Candice to go and finish her school work. Amber relents and decides to bake a sponge instead. Candice’s eyes are drifting as she studies for her GCSEs and falls asleep from sheer boredom. And has a nightmare about Amber eating the cake. Candice is awoken by the doorbell as OLIVIA (44) arrives and is beckoned by Amber to come down and say hello. She’s glad to see a sponge baking in the oven, but Amber tells Candice that it’s just a backup and she still intends on serving the cake in the fridge. Upon greeting Olivia, Candice finds herself being smooshed up against Olivia’s large breasts. The awkwardness is turned up to eleven when Amber starts talking about the leftover cake which Olivia finds hilarious. Embarrassed, Candice storms back upstairs. Candice gets a message from her friend about going to the mall. The doorbell goes again, but when her mother doesn’t hear it, Candice goes downstairs to answer it and is shocked to see Krissie’s mum, MIRANDA (45) stood opposite her. Miranda tells Amber the drugs she found in Krissie’s room, and that she’d bought from someone at school. She then interrogates a terrified Candice about whether she knows anything. She lies, saying she doesn’t, to which Amber responds that Candice would never do that because she’s a good girl, and “…she’d be grounded for so long, her friends would forget what she looked like.” If she did, which worries Candice further. Midway through their tea Candice checks her phone, time to go, and so rushes to her room to get her bus pass. Amber, having had a fair bit of wine, goes inside to get the cooled sponge. Candice rushes back down to say goodbye, shocked to see her cake on the table, and watches in horror as Miranda bites into a slice. Candice returns home to find Amber and co. in a giggling fit on the sofa. They gawk at her standing in the doorway. Candice, on the verge of bursting into laughter, leaves the room.