Puzzling

Clive removed his hat from his head, letting it rest on the table in front of him as his eyes roamed a piece of paper laid out in front of him. The piece of paper was torn into nine parts with words scribbled recklessly and sloppily all over it. It was a puzzle that was given to him by Professor Layton. The professor had to go out and had given him that to solve, telling him he had to put the pieces of the paper back together like any ordinary puzzle. So far, he was getting frustrated and was unable to complete it.

"What is this?" He growled to himself, his features morphing into a look of anger.

"What is what?"

Clive jumped in surprise at the new voice, turning his body around in the chair he sat in to gaze at Flora who was staring at him with her large eyes. She was holding a plate of cookies that looked like they had been in the oven for far too long.

"Flora…" Clive muttered slowly, eyeing the cookies uneasily and swallowing hard. He hoped he would not have to eat any of those cookies.

Flora gave him a sweet smile and stepped over to him so she was now standing at his side. Her eyes moved to the puzzle on the table that he was trying to solve. When she realized it was a puzzle, her eyes lit up and her smile widened. "Oh!" She squeaked. "Is that a puzzle? I love puzzles!"

"Unfortunately, you will not take a liking to this one." Clive sourly informed her, removing his attention from her and letting it rest on the puzzle once again. He felt like pulling at his hair because the puzzle was frustrating him so much.

"It looks easy enough." Flora commented, her smile still present on her facial features. She sat her plate of burnt cookies onto the table and then started to solve the puzzle.

Clive watched her curiously, observing.

"Hmmm...does this sound right?" Flora asked after a long moment of figuring the puzzle out, putting the pieces of the paper together.

Surprised, Clive looked at the complete puzzle. How was Flora able to figure the puzzle out, but he was unable to? He put his gaze back on the girl and she gave him a sweet smile, extremely giddy that she had gotten it correct.

"Did you see that?" She giggled, clapping her hands.

"I did…" Clive muttered out, feeling stupid.

"That was easy!" Flora exclaimed in elation, proud of herself. The female grabbed her plate of cookies and handed it over to a gloomy Clive who reluctantly took it.

"What's going on in here?" Luke suddenly entered the room, looking around curiously.

"I solved a puzzle all by myself, Luke! It was easy too!" Flora announced proudly, smiling brightly.

Luke grinned. "That's excellent news, Flora!"

Clive just stared at the both of them, holding the plate of Flora's burnt cookies. He was still feeling stupid due to not being able to figure out the puzzle.

As the two children celebrated, Clive put his hat back on his head and looked down at the cookies on the plate that Flora had given him. Moody and disappointed in himself, he took a cookie and decided to have a bite.

The taste made him want to choke.

Flora noticed that Clive was eating her cookies and her face lit up brilliantly. She hurried over and smiled hopefully. "Do you like them, Clive? Do you like them?" She wanted to know.

"They're…great." Clive fibbed, forcing the burnt thing down his throat.

"That is splendid!" Flora giggled jovially. "You can have them all!"

Luke started snickering after hearing this, knowing Clive did not like the cookie at all. The professor's apprentice could tell by the horrid look on Clive's features.

"Come on, Luke! You can have some too if you want!" Flora remarked loudly, grabbing her friend and pulling him over to the table.

"Oh no…I'm full." Luke protested, eyes going wide.

"I insist!"

Luke pouted. "Oh alright…"

Clive grinned because of this, glad that he did not have to eat all of the cookies by himself.

THE END