A cake meant to resemble the Sanrio character “Pompurin” with strawberries embedded in it. This cake was made on April 26, 2025, before Arkilis officially started the business. This photo was taken by Arkilis Rodriguez-Coss and is used with her permission.

Crafting her products with petals, sugar and her love for her “muses,” senior Arkilis Rodriguez-Coss makes spring bouquets and various sweets to share in all of Virginia Beach. 

Established in May, “Arkilis and the Muses: Sweets and Stems” is a business that focuses on selling flower arrangements and baked goods. Her unique business model comes from her never-ending search for creative freedom. 

“I always try to better whatever I am making every time. I’ll start off with something basic and then I’ll go: ‘Wait, it would be better if I added this or [that],’” Arkilis said. “I try a bunch of random things and put it together until it is up to my standards.”

Her flower assortments contain lilies, baby breath, roses and more. Her baked goods consist of cupcakes, chocolate-covered strawberries, tres leches and different types of themed cookies such as cookie monster, fruity pebble, s’mores, biscoff cookies and numerous others.

“If you have seen my logo design, it is the side profile of a person. It kind of resembles me because if you look at [the nose], it is different from the beauty standard, the perfect button nose that everyone likes,” Arkilis said.

She stated that in the past, she has felt insecure about her hooked nose, wanting it to look similar to other people’s. Now, she has finally found the ability to be confident in all of her features, but it took her years.

“I see how [insecurities] affect my little sister, and it doesn’t sit right with me because I find [her nose] so beautiful on her,” Arkilis said.

Due to this, Arkilis knew her business had to incorporate the love she had seen in her sister and found for herself because of their insecurities. 

Whenever she receives a custom order, Arkilis requests that the customer shares an insecurity they have and writes a short note on why it is beautiful to show the world that every feature is gorgeous in its own way.

She has been raising money to see her best friend because they have been separated for almost two years.

“My inspiration to make this, a big reason why I started the business, is that I moved here, to Virginia Beach, from Japan,” Arkilis said. “I left my best friend behind, and I am graduating soon. So, I wanted to do everything I could to try to fly her out for my graduation.”

Despite this, Arkilis has found her own team here inside the Ocean Lakes community. Her boyfriend, senior Christian Valdez, has helped her gather ingredients, design the logo and taste-test batches.

“She is very welcoming to everyone,” Christian said. “She tries her best to put a smile on everyone’s face. As a person, she is very outgoing and she carries her business really well. She has a lot of good people around her to help her and support her, making her confident with her business. I think that is what helps.”

On top of that, many of her teachers have also supported her business in various ways. Arkilis’s economics teacher Christina Barnhart has helped her with pricing and the management aspect of the business.

“I will say Kiki is very driven on her own,” Barnhart said. “She came up with the concept; she enjoys what she is doing. To be honest, the main advice I have given her is just to pretty much write everything out. Make sure you have goals, know what you are spending, how you can make a profit. To just keep track of everything because you’re going to need to look back and make sure that what you are doing is profitable and worth your time.”

Students and staff at the school have begun supporting Arkilis’s newfound passion in the business world which has come as a shock to her.

“I wouldn’t have thought I would have such a supportive system behind me,” Arkilis said. “[Christian Valdez], his family, my family, all my friends, people from the school who I never knew and then coming up and supporting me. I give people a price, and they will give me more and tell me to keep it.”

Fellow classmate Brianna Demarest has been a frequent customer of hers as well as a new friend.

“She puts in the very best effort she can. She does that with all of her work, whether it is the business, school [or] work. She is a very dedicated and hardworking person,” Brianna said.

Arkilis is currently working to expand her business by designing a website and fine-tuning all of her products, weaving her love into every corner of her project.

“I feel so much better about it, and I think that is why my inspiration is the Greek theme. Obviously, I am Arkilis, and everyone else is my muse,” Arkilis said.