The Great Cookie Raid
"'Night, Jamie," I called as I passed him in the long hallway.
"'Night, Wanda!" Jamie hugged me quickly then passed his bedroom to go down the hall.
"Um, Jamie?"
Jamie turned around. "Yeah?"
"Your bedroom's over here." I pointed to the door next to me.
Jamie rolled his eyes. "I know that. I'm not going to my bedroom."
"Where else would you be going at 11:30 at night?" I laughed.
Jamie smiled guiltily. "Well, Kyle told me there were a few leftover cookies from dessert tonight…"
I groaned. "What are we going to do with Kyle?"
Jamie raised his eyebrows. "Are you saying you're not going to come raid the kitchen with me?"
I smiled and grabbed Jamie's arm. "Of course I'm coming. Let's go!"
We raced down the hallway, waking up several sleeping people in the process.
As we reached the kitchen, we slowed down and began tip-toeing. Jamie started to say something, but I quickly covered his mouth.
I peered into the dark kitchen and saw a few silhouettes whispering and munching on cookies.
"Aww, man, they got here first," Jamie complained quietly.
"Who?" I whispered. "Kyle?"
Jamie pulled a flashlight out of his pocket and flipped it on in response.
"Save any for me?" he asked, strolling into the kitchen.
The flashlight lit up the faces of Kyle, Jared, Aaron, Brandt, and Melanie. No surprises there.
But the last face surprised me.
"Ian? Why are you here?"
"Same as you," he replied, stuffing a chocolate-chip cookie into his mouth. I shrugged. Midnight cookies made sense to me.
I took in the scene. There was a small plate of chocolate-chip in front of Ian...some M&M in front of Mel...another platter of assorted kinds on the back table...holy cow, the room was FILLED with cookies! I tried to count, sixteen, eighteen, twenty-one plates, but soon gave up.
"A few leftovers?" I hissed to Jamie, whose mouth was hanging wide open. Okay, he didn't hear me. That's cool too.
"I was the first one here," Mel informed us, her mouth full. "Jared heard me get out of bed, and then he told all them about the cookies." She glared.
"You couldn't have eaten them all by yourself," Jared retorted. "You needed us."
"Wanna bet?" Melanie raised one eyebrow.
"Yeah. I do."
"You're on!" Melanie and Jared each stuffed cookie after cookie in their mouth, gobbling madly.
"Hey, save some for the rest of us!" Jamie whined, reaching for a cookie but having his hand be shoved away by Mel.
"Hey. Guys. Back. Away. From. The. Cookies." Kyle growled.
Melanie and Jared took a few steps back, holding their hands up in surrender.
"Thanks, Kyle!" Jamie ducked around the others, grabbed a cookie, and began munching happily.
"It was obvious I was going to win, anyway," Melanie told Jared.
"No way! Besides, it was only because you were eating the smaller ones so it looked like you were eating more."
Melanie whacked Jared's arm, laughing. Jared scooped Melanie up and carried her like a sack of potatoes over his back, and was running around the kitchen. Melanie pounded his back with her fists, still giggling uncontrollably along with the rest of us.
Suddenly, Sunny popped out of nowhere, grabbed an oatmeal-raisin cookie, and dashed away.
"What the-?" Ian choked on his cookie, and looked at Kyle, cracking up.
"Cookie relay time!" Kyle shouted, grabbing a cookie and chucking it at Ian's head.
Jamie, Aaron, and Brandt were shoving cookies into their mouths, getting sugar-high and literally bouncing off the walls.
Jared was still running in circles, causing Melanie to bounce up and down. I was afraid someone was going to barf, either from cookie overdose or from laughing so hard.
"Put her down, Jared." A low, threatening voice came from the entryway of the kitchen.
Jared, eyes wide, put Melanie down and backed away.
"And the rest of you," the voice continued, "hands off the cookies."
I quickly chucked my half-eaten sugar cookie on the counter and took a fearful step back, wondering who the voice was.
On cue, the figure stepped into the light of Jamie's flashlight.
"Jeb?" At least five voices gasped incredulously at the same time.
Uncle Jeb was standing in the doorway, aiming his shotgun at all of us.
"My place, my cookies," Jeb replied, taking a bite of a peanut-butter cookie.
"That's not fair!" Jamie protested.
Jeb pointed the gun at Jamie. "Quiet. Back to bed, all of you."
We all filed out of the kitchen, not daring to whisper. Jeb had finally gone mad. Over cookies, of all things.
Back in bed, I whispered to Ian, "Do you think Jeb was kidding?"
Ian stroked my hair. "Have you ever met him? Of course he was."
I nodded into his neck. "How did he keep a straight face?"
"Because he's Jeb."
Sure enough, loud laughter erupted from somewhere else in the caves. I could barely distinguish the voices of Jeb, Maggie, and Doc.
"I hope they enjoy their cookies," I whispered grumpily to Ian.
Ian shook his head, just as annoyed as I was. "And to think that I could have beaten Kyle in a cookie relay."
I looked at him questioningly. "Cookie relay?"
Ian looked embarrassed. "It's something we used to do as kids."
I gasped excitedly. "No way! Ian O'Shea did something stupid and probably totally embarrassing as a kid! C'mon, tell me all abou-"
Ian cut me off with a kiss, hoping to distract me.
It worked.
He kinda tasted like chocolate-chip cookies.
Please review!
xoxo.
~KaleidoscopeKate