Lazing About in a Dating Sim

A couple hours later Lucia and I parted ways and went to our respective dorm rooms.

The second I got to my room, I crept into my bed and drifted off to sleep, as I pulled an all-nighter the night prior and had little to no energy left in my body.

And while I planned to just doze off for an hour or two, I ended up sleeping until the sun rose the next morning.

Which meant that I had effectively wasted the rest of my Saturday.

Note to self, drink more coffee during the weekends.

After I woke up, I begrudgingly left the warmth of my bed and got a change of clothes from my closet.

“Someone seriously needs to fire whoever thought that it’d be a good idea to keep the bells ringing during the weekends.”

I mumbled with a hint of annoyance in my voice before leaving to the washroom and freshening myself up a bit.

Then I grabbed my coat, left my dorm room and started walking towards the library.

Since it was still the weekend, the hallway that led up to the library ended up being devoid of people.

Well, except for one exception.

“Lucia? What are you doing here?”

I asked, slightly confused.

“I got tired of waiting for you all of the time, so I decided to take some initiative.”

Lucia said before latching around my arm.

“How’d you even know which way I came from in the first place?”

“You always come from the left side of the library and there’s only one hallway that leads in that direction. It doesn’t take a genius to put two and two together.”

“Fair enough.”

“Anyway, speaking of the library, let’s get there before the books somehow become even more moth-eaten than before.”

“No objections here.”

“Great.”

Lucia said simply before interlocking her fingers with my own and ushering me towards the library.

A couple minutes later, we arrived, and everything seemed to be how it was usually.

That is, until a couple people wearing white aprons and chef caps exited the library carrying boxes of books in their arms.

“...Is there a book sale or something planned for today, Lucia?”

“Not to my knowledge.”

Lucia said before approaching one of the individuals exiting the library.

“Hey uh, what are you guys doing with all those books?”

“Hmm? Oh, we’re just moving them over to the baking club room.”

“Why?”

I chimed in.

“Well, we wanted to get a new club room, and since not a lot of people really use the library, the school board let us turn the library into our new club room, just so long as we move all the books somewhere else.”

“And where exactly are you guys thinking of moving the books to?”

“Where our club room currently is, the room right next to the combat class armory.”

“...You’re kidding right?”

Lucia said with annoyance evident in her voice.

“Is there a problem?”

I asked with a smidge of confusion present in my tone.

“Uh yeah, Otto. This means we're gonna have to walk halfway across the school and up like 5 staircases in order to get to the library everyday.”

Lucia whispered.

“Oh… in that case uh, is there anything that we could do to make you guys reconsider?”

I said after turning towards the members of the baking club who were currently present.

“You’ll have to take it up with the president, they’re in charge of making decisions like this.”

One of the club members chimed in.

“Are they currently here with you guys or?”

“Nah, right now they’re at the club room finishing up some paperwork-“ 

“Thanks for letting us know.”

Lucia cut them off before grabbing ahold of my hand and dragging me away from the baking club members.

And the second that we were out of earshot, Lucia sighed a little.

“Just when I thought things were going well, life decided to throw this shit at me.”

“Hey, it could’ve been worse.”

“How exactly?”

“Well, you could be dealing with this problem alone.”

“Guess I can’t argue with that… speaking of which, do you have any ideas on how to get us out of this mess?”

Lucia said before looking up at me.

“Not right now, but I’ll probably have one by the time I finish talking with whoever is in charge of the baking club.”

“Hopefully this one doesn’t involve you holding yourself hostage again.”

Lucia remarked with a mildly irritated look on her face.

“You don’t have to worry about that. A plan like that only works on a person who’s related to someone like you.”

“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”

About an hour later, Lucia and I made it to the baking club room.

And after a bit of dawdling, Lucia knocked on the door.

Not even a second after Lucia made contact with the door, it swung open and we were greeted with a girl who had freckles and orange eyes.

“Uh, can I help you two? I’m kinda busy.”

She said before pointing to the stacks upon stacks of paper on her desk.

“We were wondering if we could have a talk with the club president.”

“You’re looking at her, Samantha Folner at your service.”

“I'll cut to the chase then, could you guys not turn the library into your club room?”

Lucia asked before shutting the door behind her.

“Why? I mean no one uses it-“

“We use it.”

Lucia and I said in unison.

“Ah I see… regardless, there’s still not much that I can really do. After all, the baking club needs the bigger space, so that a Cauldronizer can be installed.”

“Pardon?” 

Lucia said, slightly bewildered.

“It’s a new type of oven that is physically incapable of overcooking anything.”

“Intriguing… will the school be providing you guys the money needed to get that thing installed, or are you guys on your own?”

I asked, while feigning interest.

“As if this school would ever invest in something like that.”

“In that case, could I make you an offer?”

“Oh?”

“Take me on in a baking competition. If you win, I’ll raise all the funds you’d need in order to purchase the Cauldronizer and if I win, you have to move your club room somewhere else. I’ll even let you pick who judges the whole thing.”

“I don’t know… that seems kinda risky-“

“What? Think you can’t beat a novice in a baking competition?”

I asked with a smug grin on my face.

“…You’re on.”

Samantha replied with conviction present in her voice.

“And since I’m less experienced than you, I'll be choosing what pastry we will be baking and the utensils we'll have access to during the competition. Unless you have a problem with that?"

“I’m okay with those terms. Just so long as this competition happens sometime during the afternoon.”

“How does Monday at 12:00 sound?”

“I can make it, if we hold the competition here.”

“Fine by me.”

“Then you’ve got yourself a deal.”

“In that case, we’ll get out of your hair now.”

I said before nudging Lucia towards the doorway. 

“I’d appreciate that.”

Samantha replied before returning to her stack of papers.

After we left the club room I expected to get an ear full from Lucia about how I made such a dumb request, but unexpectedly that ended up not happening.

“…Hey uh, shouldn’t you be yelling at me right now for what I just agreed to do?”

“If you were anyone else probably, but since you are who you are, I’m certain that you’ve got some way to make it so that we end up benefiting from this thing.”

“You know me too well.”

“Well yeah, I’m kinda your girlfriend, idiot.”