Here's a bit of fun. :) Thank you everyone for your kind words, favorites and follows!
Chapter 5: Baking
Whatever Kendra was making in the kitchen, it smelled wonderful. She had taken to baking lately and found it to be not only relaxing but very rewarding. It gave her a sense of accomplishment to be able to turn out breads, pies and cookies that looked just as good as the pictures in the cookbooks. Well… maybe not quite as fancy. She wasn't very skilled at decorating or frosting, so her cakes looked simple and her cookies were lucky if they were coated with a simple glaze. She loved to share her work though, and the people (as well as certain satyrs) that lived at or visited Fablehaven seemed to appreciate acting as her taste testers.
She hadn't baked much before Seth had left to deliver Vasilis and the wraith to the Singing Sisters; she'd been a nervous wreck waiting at home for news about her brother's quest, although she tried not to show it too much. Mom had been nervous too and she managed to cajole Kendra into helping her make bread to pass a little of the time and perhaps take their minds off of Seth for a little while.
It didn't really work as a distraction, but she quickly found that kneading dough was a great frustration reliever and measuring ingredients at least helped her feel like she was doing something constructive with her time. She kept picturing her brother and the small party that went with him – Warren, Vanessa and Bracken – coming back to homemade treats and before she knew it, she and her mother had made not only the couple loaves of bread they had initially planned on but also several dozen cookies and a lemon meringue pie. Dad kept himself busy by continuously smuggling cookies – which earned him several quick swats on his hands and shoulders from his wife – and which also prompted the two women to bake even more.
"If we keep this up, the brownies might get jealous about not having any cooking to do," Kendra had joked, to which her mother replied, "Mmmm… Brownies sound good. Let's make some of those next!"
Kendra's grandmothers and grandfathers had periodically stopped by to either join in or taste test and wonder aloud about what they were going to do with all of these baked goods when Marla finally had enough of her husband's treat-thieving and sternly insisted that Stan take his son outside to "work off those calories by doing something useful like milking the cow or whatever it is you do all day."
A couple of hours later, they counted up their work: two loaves of wheat bread, two loaves of cinnamon-raisin swirl bread, three dozen glazed sugar cookies, fourteen apple-cranberry muffins, two pans of caramel toffee brownies and the lemon meringue pie of course.
"Yep. We're all going to get fat," Kendra said with a large grin on her face.
"Oh probably," Marla responded happily, wearing a matching smile.
Then, turning slightly somber, Kendra asked, "Seth will be happy to see all of this once he gets home, don't you think?"
"Ha! I'm sure he will! At least he'd better… Baking like this is no small chore." Then she winked at Kendra. "Bracken will probably be pleased too, don't you think?"
"Mom," Kendra said, rolling her eyes.
"What? Do unicorns not eat or something? Should I have known that? Is that why he doesn't eat my lasagna?"
"Mo, Mom. Unicorns eat. Well… at least Bracken does, anyway. I don't know any other unicorns well enough to know if they do."
"Why doesn't he eat my lasagna then?"
"There's meat in it. He's a vegetarian."
Marla screwed up her face. "Your boyfriend is weird. I don't think I've met a teenage boy who doesn't eat meat."
"He's not my boyfriend," Kendra responded a little hastily. And he's not a teenager, she thought.
"Fine then, he's your boy friend. Emphasis on the fact that those are two different words. Boy… Friend. A friend that is a boy." She winked at Kendra. "I can keep going if you want."
"Oh please no," Kendra responded, shaking her head as a light blush covered her cheeks.
"Don't you want him to be your boyfriend? He comes over every two weeks almost like clockwork, and he's not made a trip yet that didn't include spending time with you," Marla said. "You are sixteen, you know. Seventeen in a few months. It's normal to be dating about now."
"I know," Kendra started. "I do want to date him, I just… I don't think he's ready for that yet." She paused and then continued, "He did say that he wanted to wait a while before we see where our relationship goes."
"Uh-huh. And how long ago did he say that?"
"Last spring," Kendra said, biting her lip.
Marla thought for a moment before she spoke next. "He's wise," she said simply. Then she patted Kendra on the shoulder affectionately. "I approve," she smiled. "What do you think about that, though?"
"Oh I agree," she responded honestly. "I don't want to rush into something."
"I believe you," Marla said. "But I think you're a little less patient than you're letting on."
Kendra looked like she was going to object, but her mother interrupted her before she could say anything.
"I see the way you look at him, Kendra. You glow. It's really pretty cute – makes me smile. Does he kiss you?" Kendra's eyes grew wide at the very blunt question that seemed to have come from nowhere.
"No," she answered, face turning a little bit of a darker shade of pink. "He sort of cuddles sometimes, but… no."
"Well, your father will be glad to hear that," Kendra's mom started, causing her daughter to gape and protest, "Don't talk to Dad about this!"
Marla laughed and continued to tease her daughter, the memory of said teasing causing present day Kendra to shake her head and chuckle a little under her breath.
She was currently trying her hand at a cream pie by herself in the kitchen. The crust had just finished baking and while it was cooling, she was getting ready to start making the pudding for it – everything from scratch, as her mother had taught her from day one, insisting that everything made from scratch always tasted better than the store bought ready-made or abbreviated versions.
Kendra measured out the sugar she needed and dumped it into the pot she was going to use to make the pudding. She turned to the side to reach for the flour on the counter when she noticed something move out of the corner of her eye and her body immediately tensed up by instinct. Her head snapped around to look at whatever she saw move, and she smiled with relief when she noticed it was only Bracken.
"You scared me," Kendra said. "You're really good at sneaking up on people – I wish you'd stop!"
"Sorry," he said sheepishly. "What are you making?"
"Banana cream pie. One of the characters in the book I've been reading was talking about it as one of his favorite things to eat, and it sounded good so I thought I'd make dessert for tonight."
"I don't think I've ever tried that before. What's it like?" he asked.
"Delicious," Kendra responded. "Well… so long as I don't ruin the pudding. That's the hardest part about the whole thing."
"You've made one before?"
"Nope. I'm assuming it's the hardest part because the recipe says it takes around 30 minutes of constant stirring. I know milk burns and spoils easily, so I'll have to be careful."
Bracken smiled. "I know how to mix. Can I help?"
"Of course," Kendra grinned. "I don't like stirring things." She measured out the rest of the ingredients the recipe called for and dumped them into the same pot as the sugar, then turned the stove burner on to medium heat and handed Bracken a rubber spatula. "Your turn," she said, signaling toward the pot.
Bracken stepped forward and began stirring at a good pace. "How long did you say this takes?"
"The recipe says about 30 minutes. Until it thickens. Why, do you think you'll run out of muscle power before that happens?" she teased.
Bracken laughed, Kendra joining in. "I never know what to expect from you," he said.
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"No no, it's good. You keep me guessing. I like your fire."
"Yeah… I probably get that from my mom. Maybe from Seth, too."
"I would have to agree with you there." Still smiling, he said, "I don't think your dad likes me much."
She shrugged her shoulders. "He doesn't talk about you when you're not around. At least not with me, anyway."
"Like I said… I don't think he likes me much."
Kendra walked over to the refrigerator and pulled out a few eggs. "I don't see why he wouldn't."
Bracken looked at her skeptically. "I'm obviously very interested in his daughter. Of course he's not going to like me."
Kendra's face took on a contemplative expression as she said, "True. You do kind of have this whole 'saved the world and consequently Kendra' thing going for you, though."
"Don't forget, I have this whole 'ageless non-human male' thing going against me," he responded.
"I really don't think he dislikes you," Kendra started, "But yeah, I don't exactly think he's your biggest fan either."
"On to other topics… Do you know what you're going to do for your birthday this year?" Bracken asked.
"My birthday isn't until October. It's June. I haven't thought that far in advance," she said, confusion covering her features. "Why do you ask?"
"Just curious," Bracken answered.
"You're not going to clarify, are you?"
"No."
Kendra sighed. "Well, I wasn't even thinking about my birthday, but now I'm really curious why you brought it up."
"It's going to be your seventeenth. That's a big number."
"You do know I'm not technically considered an adult until I turn eighteen, right?" she asked, cracking the eggs and separating the yolks from the whites, placing them in separate bowls.
"I'm aware," he said. "I was just asking."
Once she'd separated out the last egg, she turned to look at him and leaned against the counter behind her. "Okay. What are you planning?"
"Who says I'm planning anything?"
"You brought this up out of the blue."
"And you're the one who's still talking about it."
"It's your fault for saying it in the first place."
"You're the one who's not letting it go. I asked an honest question, and your answer was that you didn't know what was going to happen. That's all I needed to know."
Kendra paused. "Bracken, really. Why'd you even ask?"
He smiled at her mischievously. "You'll find out eventually."
Kendra was normally one who took the high road in situations, one who thought things through before doing or saying anything, one who tried to do the smart thing instead of the impulsive thing.
This time, however, she decided to act on impulse. She reached over to the open container of flour, grabbed a small handful of the white powder, and threw it at the unsuspecting unicorn.
Bracken stopped stirring and coughed a little as he inhaled flour then said playfully, "So it's a fight you want, is it?"
"Not really. I mostly just wanted to do something spontaneous that would make it clear I don't appreciate your vague hints. Now keep stirring – don't you dare let that milk burn!" She smiled teasingly at him. "By the way, you've got a little something right here," she said, motioning over her entire torso with her hand. "You might want to clean that up."
Bracken resumed stirring, however before Kendra knew it there was a cloud of white headed in her direction as he shook himself off. She quickly ran to the side to avoid the dust, then immediately realized her mistake.
She'd left the uncovered container of flour right next to her victim, who just happened to have lightning fast reflexes, unprotected.
The pie was eventually made, however there was also quite a large mess to clean up afterward. And flour was added to the list of items to buy during the next trip to the grocery store.