"Build a gingerbread house with me. Ple-ase!" came a voice right in my ear.
I let out a small groan and rolled over, a few soft clumps of hair falling into my face as I did so.
"Come on! You're always so boring! And to un-boringify you, you must make a gingerbread house fo- with me!" came the voice once more, this time a bit louder.
The only thing I said was "is boringify even a word?" and fluttered my azure eyes open, then turned my head to look at the source of the voice, meeting vivid emerald eyes that belonged to someone no other than my little cousin Lizzy.
She simply tugged on my arm, letting out little wails as she did so. "Please! Pretty please! Pretty please with sugar on top! And cherries! And whipped cream! And ice cream! And more whipped cream, and, and, um, chocolate!"
"No," I replied hastily, letting my head fall lifelessly back into a normal position where my neck wasn't straining itself to stay upright.
"I'll tell my mommy on you!" She victoriously raised a finger, and I knew she had won. No one ever dared go against Aunt Francis. Ever. To do so was like making a deal with the devil; whatever you gained you lost quicker than when you got it.
"Fine. I'll make a dumb gingerbread house with you," I said with slight defeat laced into my voice.
A small grin spread onto her face, as she now knew she had won, and then she pulled my arm once more so hard I could swear I felt the bones dislodge slightly before I landed onto the hardwood floor.
"Let's go!" With that she grabbed my arm once more and dragged me out of the room, through the corridor, down the stairway, and into the kitchen. By the second we got there I couldn't feel my legs, back, and arm.
"I already got everything designed Ciely, so all you have to do is make it for, I mean, with me!" she yelled elatedly, pulling me up by my arm yet again and making me face the table.
An intricate blueprint was laid on the table tidily, as well as a bunch of cooking materials and ingredients. Just looking at the plans she had made me feel sicker than I already felt from being dragged across the house.
First there was a large castle, three feet tall to be exact, and then smaller two foot towers to top it with. She also had plans for a gingerbread princess labeled 'Elizabeth', a knight labeled 'Sebastian', a servant labeled 'Finny', another labeled 'Bard', a maid labeled 'May-rin', and a grotesque blob labeled 'Ciel'. Each of the people were to be one foot tall, except for the repulsive blob, who was supposed to be a centimeter tall… er, short.
"That's very offensive," I stated, grabbing a pencil and erasing the blob named after me. I then drew an awfully attractive gentleman and wrote for him to be one foot tall like the others. Elizabeth shook her head, making her locks go flying all over her face.
"No, no, no! You've got it all wrong. You're hideous, so your blob will be ugly. If you try to make yourself look hotter than you really are then I'm gonna tell my mommy on you!" she literally shrieked right in my ear, making me cringe.
"Gee, calm down. By the way, is telling Aunt Francis on me just about your only excuse?" As I said this I reverted the Ciel plan back into the one she wanted.
"Nah, I just don't want to waste good excuses on you." She intently watched me draw the ugly blob and one centimeter plan back, making sure I got every slight detail right.
\
Once I completed that, I began planning out how to make a three freaking feet tall gingerbread house – no, not house, this was a castle only befitting of a princess who without a doubt wasn't Elizabeth – in my mind. Once that thought traversed through my mind a small smirk spread onto my face, only to melt off when a certain someone's hand flew around in the air in-front of me.
"Earth to Ciel! Important message! Lizzy wants to begin making her gingerbread house stat!" she yelped, stopping her flailing and screaming once I sighed and grabbed a few ingredients.
"Okay, so how are yo- we gonna do this?" She leaned over my shoulder and looked at the ingredients in my hand carefully as if they were going to develop wings and flutter out the window any second.
"Um… Well… First we have to make the dough?" I said with a small shrug and she grunted.
"You don't know anything about making gingerbread houses, do you?" Her foot tapped against the ground impatiently.
"I know everything about making these suckers." That was an awful lie, but it would keep her from flipping out. Hopefully, anyways.
"Okay…" Uncertainty was laced into her tone, but she wasn't accusing me of lying and telling her mom to chop off my head, so I was good. With a sigh of relief I began dumping random stuff into the large bowl on the table.
"Isn't the confectioner's sugar for the icing?" she asked, glaring at me with prickly emerald eyes.
"It's for the dough and the icing," I lied while keeping my best poker face and continuing to dump stuff into the bowl. After that I emptied two bottles of molasses, three bottles of lemon juice – really Lizzy? –, a container of Old Spice – no idea why she laid that out –, and a bunch of ground cinnamon into the bowl.
I then grabbed a whisk and furiously beat the ingredients into submission while she stared at me like I was a lunatic.
"The Old Spice is for the popcorn we're having later and the lemon juice is for the fish sticks mommy said she was gonna make! I was testing your cooking abilities! You know nothing!" she screamed accusingly.
"I think this could make pretty darn good gingerbread," I stated before dumping in a bunch of ginger. It was called gingerbread for a reason, right?
"You'd better be right." With a smug flip of her hair she grabbed a spoon and began poking at the monstrous goop I was calling gingerbread dough. Suddenly she let out a shriek and jumped back, pointing at the goop. "Oh my God, it's eating my spoon!"
I glanced over at where she had been poking and had to hold back my laughter by biting my tongue so I wouldn't die of oxygen loss. The "dough" was swallowing her spoon like quicksand would swallow a twig – it was gradually condescending into unknown depths.
Thankfully it wasn't as persistent as quicksand and I was able to pluck it out easily. When I handed it to her she stared at it for a bit, then licked it stupidly and choked. She darted into the bathroom while her face tinted green, and this time I couldn't hold back my laughter and fell onto the ground.
Once she got back she glared at me. "That is not gingerbread! That is called poison! I could have puked my insides out, like literally!" She only made me laugh harder and I hit my head on the wall.
"It… It can't be that bad," I said once I had calmed myself, occasionally snickering slightly.
"You try it!"
She dipped the spoon into the goop once more and shoved it in my mouth, and once the ghastly, sickening, no, more like slayer "dough" met my tongue and soaked into my taste buds I regretted laughing at her. Dear Lord this was horrific.
I shoved her away and ran into the bathroom, puking up the nothing I had eaten as she laughed like some sort of demented maniac.
Damn, guess I'm not cooking ever again.