By the time Dawn got out of his stupor, Clarissa was already on her dessert, and it wasn't because she started with it. She'd like to, but everyone, just everyone around, was assured that if she would, then Clarissa won't have enough space left to eat the main course.
It made no sense! Clarissa clearly remembered the simplest laws of arithmetics her mom had taught her. Three plus one equals one plus three. It didn't matter for the space in her stomach, what she ate first. Her dad explained that if she ate the tastiest part first, she wouldn't be hungry enough to eat less tasty part immediately, and would instead refuse and then get hungry again in half an hour and by that time the food would have to be reheated.
Clarissa didn't remember that ever happening, but when Beistand confirmed her dad's words, she could only acquiesce. Still, that didn't stop her from being unhappy with this every time she had to eat soup to get to the sweets.
