Side Note: I have NEVER actually put together a gingerbread house, so a pre-apology if I got something/s wrong
"What's that?" I hear a distinctly male voice say behind me. I turn in the swivel chair to face Nine, putting down the sticky white substance in the process.
Nine doesn't wait for an answer but instead picks up the discarded box. I had long since given up on the useless instructions clearly meant for children. I was younger than the rest of the other Garde, but this was an easy task that did not require supervision by stupid human rules.
"Gingerbread House," Nine reads and looks up at me, carelessly tossing the box to the side. "I think we got this."
"We?" I question with my eyebrows raised. "I didn't invite you to help."
"Sassy Ella," Nine says, backing off mockingly, "Well I'm bored, so I guess you're stuck with me." He shrugs.
I sigh and with a roll of my eyes say, "don't you have some Mog dummies to beat up? Or why don't you hang out with John or flirt with Six or something?"
"Already punched the shit out of things, so now it's not exciting," Nine replies. Wow, I think to myself, Nine getting bore with punching stuff; that's got to be a first. "John's somewhere with Sarah, and why would I flirt with Six? She's off doing training with Sam anyway."
"So you're jealous of Sam then?" I say matter-of-factly
"What? No, Six is cool but I don't like her in that way. What would make you think that?"
"Oh, nothing." I mentally give myself a high-five and check off Six from my competition list.
"Yeah, well, as much as I hate saying so, some congratulations are probably in order for the nerd actually getting laid."
"Oh God, Nine," I groan, turning away from him and back to my work, "that's so gross."
"Whatever," Nine says as he pulls up a chair and sits beside me. I try not to look over at him as he curiously picks up a long curved red and white striped candy. "This is a candy cane, right?"
"Yeah, at least I think it is," I answer, snatching from him the hard peppermint candy. "Why are you asking me though? You're the one who spent the most time with earth culture."
"I don't know if you noticed this, but I sorta don't really bother to care about stuff like this," Nine indicates the word this as being another candy cane he's picked up. He then sticks it in his mouth like a child and grins at me. I hastily go back to what I'm doing.
The candy cane I had taken from Nine now sits glued to a sheet of gingerbread, facing outwardly from what I'm sure is meant to be the door. I place another one mirroring that one on the opposite side of the door and then tilt my head to study in a moments.
"Maybe you should put the structure together first," Nine pipes up, looking at the six sheets of baked brown cookie.
"Sure, whatever." I hold two of the pieces together that will make the back and side walls. Nine helps me apply the marshmallow "glue" and soon we have the whole house put together.
"Okay, we can eat it now, right?" Nine says.
"No!" I exclaim, "What do you think all this candy is for?"
"For eating, duh," Nine replies.
"Maybe that's what people in Chicago do, but not Ella. Ella follows the basic rules of decoration."
"And Nine doesn't care about rules, but Nine will be considerate enough to remember this is Ella's gingerbread house and not Nine's. However, Nine would like to point out that Chicago is like the rest of the world."
"And Ella will kindly accept that fact as true and thank Nine for remembering."
I go back to putting candies on the roof and Nine goofs off some more.
Finally, after several stern warnings about eating the candy, the gingerbread house is complete.
"Let's take a moment to just admire it," I say, after Nine offers to taste it.
"Admire it? And I thought you were cool, Ella," Nine jokes.
"Okay fine," I give in, "But first I want to show it to Marina."
"You two are really close, aren't you," Nine points out as he picks up the tray the house sits on.
I flush for a second. "Yeah, Marina was the first Garde I met here on earth, and she was like a sister to me even when she didn't know I was loric too."
"Cool," Nine says, "I met John first, but he seemed kinda lame at the time."
I look over at Nine and he's grinning sarcastically to let me know he's joking.
"Well John's pretty cool, but I don't think he tops Marina," or you, I silently add and smile to myself.