I had nearly as much to bring back when I returned to the dorms. George carried everything to the dining hall, and Mary and I took several trips to bring it up to my room. There was still a lot, but since the ice cream ingredients were used up, the return trip was a bit easier.
Over the weekend, I’d finished my hair accessory to go with my gown for the Festival of Verdure, and I’d also gotten a new pair of shoes. I’d even written a new piece for music club and practiced my accompaniments for the glee club. In other words, preparations for alchemy club were a bit of a mess.
“Maybe the bicycles would have been enough,” I wondered aloud to myself.
Since I didn’t know how much ice cream we would need to make, I was worried about the amount of work that needed to be done. Though I had a lot on my mind, there were plenty of senior division students who were a lot more anxious than me.
“I don’t think I’ll finish my gown in time, Patience,” Princess Margaret lamented as soon as she arrived at the dorms. “I may need two extra hours a week to work on it.”
She thought that she’d need to take two additional blocks of sewing during her free periods on Monday and Friday in order to finish her gown in time. Taking sewing four times a week sounds rough, not to mention that she doesn’t even like sewing. I’m sure she would be able to take music four times a week with no issue.
“How are other students doing?” I asked. I only had the class once a week, so I wasn’t sure how the rest of the class was doing.
“Everyone is panicking,” the princess replied. “Our pieces are nowhere near being gowns.”
Perhaps the teachers had overestimated the students’ skills when changing the curriculum.
“I wish there was something I could do to help...”
Ms. Cameron allowed me to point out any mistakes Princess Margaret made, but I wasn’t allowed to actually correct any of her work. That already made things difficult, but I also had six whole gowns of my own to sew, which was quite a lot. The gowns for the Harvest Festival were especially challenging, since they needed to be lined. I’d thought that I wouldn’t be able to get through this without a sewing machine, but I was already too busy in alchemy club, since we had to prepare our ice cream stall and the bicycle test rides.
“You know, reinforcing all of the edges was a lot of work...” I mumbled to myself.
Even with how well I had been doing in sewing class, it had taken me what felt like forever to finish reinforcing all of the edges of my fabric pieces. There was no way I could let Princess Margaret wear a grown with frayed edges to the festival ball.
During my previous life, there were gluesticks that could be used to hem the edges of fabric. I’d used it before on some curtains I’d had when I was living alone, which had been slightly too long. I’d used the adhesive and set it with an iron, and the hem had stayed fused even after washing.
If alchemy club wasn’t so busy, I’d ask them to help me make an adhesive, but we don’t really have time for that... I feel like I could make something usable with slime powder. What are adhesives usually made out of? This world has books, so they must use something in the binding process.
I inspected the books in my room, and as I’d expected, they appeared to be held together with some sort of adhesive.
“It would be nice if this adhesive worked on fabric...”
An adhesive would likely be easiest to use in the form of a stick, which could be achieved by hardening the adhesive with slime powder. The only problem I had was finding the time to experiment with adhesive formulas.
It was Monday, and after lunch, I headed to alchemy club. I came immediately after I’d finished eating, but I was still told that I was “late.” I can’t help it; I walk slowly.
“Did you finish the ice cream recipe?” President Caesar asked, and I handed him the completed recipe. “Hmm? I don’t think the mixture was heated in the initial batches.”
“That is correct. If I make it myself, I can sanitize the eggs with magic, which eliminates the need for any cooking. However, if we are going to sell ice cream makers, a cooked recipe would be safer. So, how many people were you planning to make ice cream for?”
“Hmm...” President Caesar groaned while thinking. “I don’t know how many students will stop by. We decided that the test rides for the bicycles will be ten minutes each. All that requires is giving out numbered tickets, so it’s not too difficult to prepare for...”
Benjamin also thought about what would be best. These two are always here.
“I think it’s best that we make more than we think we need,” Caesar said. “If we have any leftovers, the club members can buy them.”
With that decided, I had them both help bring all the items in my room to the clubroom. They couldn’t enter the girls’ dorm, so I had to make several trips up and down the stairs to bring everything to the dining hall.
“Why didn’t you ask the dorm maid for help?” Benjamin asked, exasperated by my lack of efficiency.
If I gave them a tip, they probably would move all this stuff for me, but I’m stingy.
“From now on, we’ll store everything in the clubroom and transport it from there,” President Caesar said. “Here, take this key.”
George could go to the clubroom, so transporting everything was going to be a lot easier now.
“Is it all right for me to have your key?” I asked.
In music club, only President Albert and Vice President Rupert had keys to the clubroom. If I was remembering correctly, President Caesar and Benjamin both had keys to the alchemy clubroom.
“Of course. Both Benjamin and I spend all of our time there anyway.”
Though I couldn’t say that was necessarily a good thing, I decided to hold on to Caesar’s key until the Festival of Verdure.
“I think it’ll be best if we make the ice cream ahead of time and store it in the freezer,” I said. “If it’s all right to have leftovers, I can prepare extra.”