Archive of Our Own

Time seemed to freeze in that moment. Flour clung to Dot's purple ribboned pigtails, coating them in a white that floated in the air around her like smoke.

This is not how she expected the evening to go.

Earlier, the doorbell had rung, loud and prolonged. With no one else home to answer it, Dot's trek from one side of the house to reach the door seemed irritably long.

She wasn't in the mood to deal with people. Whoever it was, she would likely send away. 

Dot was in mourning. Grieving the loss of what should have been a spectacular evening with her friends. The night should have been filled with laughter and gossip, terrible movies and entirely too much candy. Their sleepovers usually were. 

However, after everything that had happened at school - Susan's odd alliance with those Pink Ladies but then driving against Jane Facciano in a drag race - everything else was kind of pushed aside. Or rather, forgotten. Dot was forgotten. Again. 

Thus, in albeit a slightly dramatic move Dot was in mourning. Already in her purple pyjamas despite the early hour and having gone through at least six lollipops already, Dot was using her time alone in the house to mope.

So when the doorbell rang, forcing her to drag her fuzzy slippers across the polished floors, Dot was unamused.

Frowning, she swung open the door, immediately surprised to see Susan on the other side.

"Hey! I'm so sorry I'm an hour late. My dad was taking his sweet time and if I dared try to rush him he'd bring up my Driver's Ed mishap."

Dot blinked at her. She had her yellow overnight bag slung over her shoulder and Candyland tucked under her arm. "What are you doing here?"

A grimace of pain flashed over Susan's features. "Do you not want me here? I know we planned this before everything at school went down but..." There was an uncertainty in her voice. A vulnerability. "It's totally fine if you don't want me here. If you'd prefer to just be with the other girls. Do you mind if I use your phone? I'll call someone to pick me up."

"No!" Dot's voice rang out, surprising the both of them. "I mean, you can come in... but... the others aren't here."

Susan straightened up, eyebrows creasing. "Why..." 

Susan's eyes fell on Dot and she realised it must have been written all over her face despite her efforts to hide it. 

"Oh. They forgot."

Dot just laughed, a cover up spilling from her lips. "I forgot too! Silly us. Seems you were the only one who remembered."

Susan wasn't laughing with her. She was watching her with a serious expresssion Dot had never really seen on her before. "Would you like me to stay?"

Even after everything that had happened at school, whatever "betrayal" Rosemary liked to accuse Susan of, Susan was still her friend. A friend who remembered their plans and followed through with them. Dot nodded, stepping aside to let Susan in.

Susan knew her way around. She knew this place as well as her own and yet Dot found herself leading Susan up the stairs.

After putting her belongings down on the floor of Dot's room, Susan pulled something from her bag and held it up as a suggestion.

"We said we'd make cookies, remember?" In her hand was her blue polka dot apron. Dot had a matching pink one.

Dot had gone through just about every flavour of lollipop she had until only the less than appetising green ones remained. Cookies were sounding great at that point.

Before long, the two of them were in the kitchen in matching aprons, bowls scattered across the countertop and food colouring stained their fingers. Nowhere in the recipe did it call for food dye, but when Susan suggested the cookies be pink, Dot couldn't think of anything more perfect.

Baking with Susan was different than when they baked with the others. The kitchen was crowded when they were all in there and Peg usually took over, annoyed with how everyone else was working haphazardly. With that many people gossiping as they mixed up their chocolate chip cookie dough, Dot often found herself left behind. Pushed aside in favour of more interesting topics or, better yet, jokes at her expense.

With just Susan, the attention was all on her and, for once, in a good way. It reminder her of when they were younger. They'd stuck together like taffy. Two sweet little kids fighting the boys for the swings on the playground. Dot would chase them around until they gave up their spots, her pigtails flying behind her like a superhero's cape and Susan would cheer her on. Her personal cheerleader. The one she'd share the swings with when they emerged from the chase victorious. 
With just Susan, Dot felt noticed.

"No, no. At this point, I am done with boys. They're not worth my time and, frankly, they're all stupid." Susan was saying as she pushed the tray of cookies into the oven. 

They always spoke about boys at sleepovers. Well, the others would. Anything Dot had to say about boys was always taken as some kind of joke that would come back to bite her later. She'd learnt to just listen to their boy talk and not expect her turn to come.

Taking off her oven mitts, Susan turned back. "What about you, Dot? Is there anyone you like?"

When people say their mouths dropped open, it always sounds like an exaggeration until something happens that results in exactly that. Dot's jaw dropped. "Me?"

Susan laughed. "Yeah, you. Who else?"

A pink flush pooled in her cheeks. "Oh. Maybe there's someone... but he's taken."

Susan's eyes lit up. "Dot! There's someone! Who is it and why have I not heard about this sooner?"

Neither of them would mention the distance that had come between them that year. Not when reconcilliation was this much fun.

"I don't want to tell you. It's embarrassing." Dot giggled, feeling like she was in middle school all over again.

"Crushes are always embarassing! That's the point of them. Plus it's exciting! I feel like we never get to hear about who you are into."

There's a reason for that but it seemed like that was slowly changing. Maybe whatever went down with Susan and Jane Facciano was turning out to be a good thing. 

"Please, Dot! I won't tell anyone! I'm dying to know!"

Dot smiled, giving in to Susan's puppy dog pleading. "Fine. It's... it's Potato!"

"No... way! I can see it! It's so sweet! You two would have been so good for each other!" Susan was beginning to tidy the kitchen, putting the sugars back into the cupboards she knew so well before grabbing the flour. "It's so unfair that we crush on taken guys. At least give us a chance -"

Susan's rambling was cut short when she slipped on something on the floor. She managed to steady herself before she went down but wasn't fortunate enough to salvage the flour which flung from her grasp and towards Dot, coating her in a sheet of white before it thudded on the floor.

Susan stopped, her hands to her mouth in shock and an apology sliding quietly off her tongue.

Dot just laughed, loud and real, as she wiped the flour from her eyes, only laughing more when she realised it was clinging to her eyelashes.

Eventually the tension left Susan's shoulders and she began to chuckle too. Dot took that moment to catch her off guard and slung a handful of flour excavated from her hair at Susan.

She gasped in mock offence before breaking into an uncontrolable laughter.

Hysterical in a cloud of flour was not quite how she'd anticipated her night of mourning to go but she had never been more thankful for such an unhinged change of plans.

An evening where, for once, she wasn't the one disgarded. Where she was the star. Where she was noticed. 

It was sweeter than all the candy that the Candy Princess had.

For once the Candy Princess was more than that. 

Dot was seen.