Radiklement: What if Lilo tried to throw a birthday party for Nani?
"Stitch! Let go!" Lilo whined, trying to pry the bag of flour away from Stitch who was busy trying to shove a fistful of the white powder into his mouth. He managed to wretch the bag away from her, and after successfully cramming some into his mouth his eyes went wide,
"Blech!" he snarled, and kicked the bag over spilling it across the kitchen floor before falling into a fit of babbling curses, thankfully in the strange language Lilo found impossible to understand.
"I'm trying to make a cake for Nani's birthday! You said you would help," she pouted, and picked up the heavy bag of flour, thankful enough of the stuff remained in the bag for her to make the cake. She put it back on the counter, and resumed digging through the cabinets trying to find the other ingredients listed on the recipe when she heard the refrigerator door open. She turned around and found Stitch had pulled out the carton of eggs and was evaluating it closely, "Stitch! No!" she pouted, closing the cabinet and walking up to him. He quickly popped a raw egg into his mouth before scrambling up to perch atop the refrigerator, and made a very satisfied sound as he crunched down on a raw egg, ears perked up, eyes wide with curiousity.
"Ooh…" he cooed, tilting his head at the carton and popped another one in his mouth.
"Stitch! I need those! Get down!" she pouted, and Stitch replied by throwing one of the eggs at her. She let out a high-pitched shriek, covering her head as two more came launching down at her. "Stop it! You'll waste them all!" she complained, and looked up when the rain of eggs stopped. Stitch was still perched on his throne, popping raw eggs into his mouth, ears quivering with delight. After two more he threw the empty carton back down at her, babbling curse words again.
"Oh! Now I have to go buy more…" she pouted. "That was mean Stitch…" she complained, and stormed out of the kitchen. She had her piggy bank on the dresser in her bedroom, and made quick work of pulling the plug out of the bottom of it, shaking out all the coins. She counted them out, satisfied when she accumulated four dollars before putting the stopper back into the ceramic pig before running back down the stairs, nearly colliding with Stitch halfway down. "Come on, I gotta go to the store," she complained
The grocery store was a small building about half a mile from the house. Stitch followed closely behind her as she ran there, hoping they sold eggs. She looked up and saw the boy with the cute hair that Nani was always going on about. Lilo wrinkled her nose, finding the way he made goo-goo eye sat her sister odd, but knew that him being at her surprise party would make her sister happy.
"David!" she called out, waving to him,
"Lilo! Aloha!" he laughed, "causing trouble?" he asked, and gave her… dog? a skeptical glance. He was not very fond of that thing.
"I need eggs," she answered, "today is Nani's birthday but she had to work anyway so I wanted to have a birthday party for her, I tried to bake a cake but Sitch," she paused to narrow her eyes at him, "ate all the eggs," she explained. "You should come to the party. It'll make Nani happy," she asked, a bitter little part of her hoping he would say no.
"For Nani's birthday? Sure," he smiled at her, "besides, you might need a little help with the oven,"
"I know how to use an oven," Lilo insisted. Though, she left out the part about being unsure how to use the oven without filling the entire house with smoke. But she was sure this time she could do it as long as she followed that recipe perfectly. And if Stitch stopped trying to eat all the ingredients. "The party isn't until Nani gets home from work," she offered, hoping he wouldn't follow her home. She was determined to set this party up by herself.
"Well let's start by buying those eggs, yeah?" he offered.
"I wanna bake the cake myself…" Lilo insisted stubbornly,
"What if I just come as a backup? I'll let you bake the cake," he asked. He was very familiar with this incredibly stubborn little trouble-maker, and he was a little worried she would set the oven on fire if he wasn't there as a back-up.
"Okay… but you promise not to interrupt?" she narrowed her eyes at him,
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"Spit on it," she insisted,
"Huh?" he asked, lifting a skeptical brow. She spat in her palm and held her hand out to him,
"Spit on it," she repeated. The things I do to appease kids he thought to himself, before spitting on his palm and shaking her hand, grimacing at the damp warmth and then quickly rubbed his palm against the hip of his pants.
"Are eggs the only thing you need?" he asked, gesturing to the store, and she gave him an enthusiastic nod. He took several steps and yelped loudly, stumbling several steps as his sandal was ripped off his foot, Stitch having bit his ankle,
"Stitch!" Lilo scolded, "No! Down! Give it back!" she insisted, "No cake for you if you don't give it back!" she threatened. Stitch pinned his ears, hissing at her as he hugged the sandal closer to him. Dave watched the exchange a little lost for words,
"What… kind of dog… is that?" he asked, wrinkling his nose as he carefully took his partially chewed sandal back, holding it up for a moment before deciding that going barefoot wouldn't be the end of the word.
"His name is Stitch," she answered simply, "got him from the pound. I'm still trying to train him…" she explained, and pointed at stitch,
"Good boy, giving it back. You can have cake," this seemed to appease the animal who wagged his tail and pricked his ears back up. The trio walked into the store, Lilo picking Stitch up, "Stop squirming! Dogs aren't allowed in the store unless you can carry them!" she struggled as he hissed and thrashed in her arms, "I'll make you wait outside if you don't stop!" Stitch went completely limp at this threat, lolling his tongue with a dull growl, "that's better," she groaned at the sudden shift in his center of gravity. She walked up to the cooler in the back of the store, and pulled out a carton of a dozen eggs,
"Here, let me help you," Dave offered, "carrying the eggs isn't breaking our promise, is it?" he asked, and she shook her head at him. Lilo struggled to maintain her grip on the very limp Stitch who seemed to be playing dead, and promptly dropped him onto the ground once they were back outside, getting hissed at,
"Dogs don't hiss Stitch, dogs bark," she complained, and he changed his hiss to a bark. Dave pretended he saw nothing. He was sure everyone would call him crazy if he tried to talk about this weird dog. Heck, he wasn't so sure he wasn't questioning his own sanity watching the thing. What kind of dog was blue? Must have been something the tourists brought with them and accidentally let breed. The tourists were not the most courteous of people.
Once back in the house Dave placed the eggs on the counter next to the other ingredients Lilo had managed to compile, before being angrily shooed out into the living room.
"Now don't eat them this time!" Lilo insisted, waggling her finger at Stitch who pinned his ears back again, grumbling under his breath. He sat on the floor beside her, "okay fine you can have one," Stitch looked up, a little surprised to see Lilo handing an egg to him. He popped it into his mouth, and felt satisfied with the given egg and decided to let her have the rest of them. He was full anyway.
"Okay let's see…" Lilo pulled the cookbook off the counter, struggling with the thick tome. "butter… check, sugar… check… eggs… check, milk" she continued to list the ingredients, ensuring they were all in place on the counter. Within ten minutes she had a nice wet batter in a bowl, and only a few shreds of butter wrapper and egg shells. She was coated in a fine layer of flour, distinct handprints on her outter thighs where she tried to brush them off. She had even managed to coat Stitch in flour.
"Okay… now I gotta pour it into the two cake things," she had found two flat pans that looked close enough to the cake pans in the pictures in the cookbook. One had a long handle, but it was close enough to the right shape. Once she had finished pouring the batter into the two containers Stitch quickly snatched the mixing bowl away from Lilo, loudly slurping at it, spilling more of the scrap batter than he got into his mouth. She looked up at the knobs on the oven, twisting the center one until it read 350, like it said in the book.
"Can you let me put them in the oven?" Dave asked, standing in the doorway.
"Were you watching me? I told you to stay in the livingroom!" Lilo pouted,
"I wanted to learn how to mix a cake," he insisted, feigning innocence. "Can I put them in the oven?" he asked, hoping he wouldn't have to insist to prevent the girl from either burning herself, or spilling cake batter all over the oven. That was not a mess he would want to have to explain to Nani.
"Fine… if it'll make you feel like you par-tic-y-pat-ed" she enunciated slowly.
"I want to feel useful somehow," he replied, playing along. He decided not to comment on the fact that she was baking the cake half the batter in a frying pan, the other in a pie tin. He supposed the shape wouldn't matter. The batter looked enough like a cake batter that it would probably taste just fine. "How long do we wait?" he asked, gesturing to the cookbook Lilo had placed on the floor.
"It said 30 minutes," she explained. Dave made note of the time on his watch and told her what time the cake would be done, pulling it off his wrist and handing it to her, giving her the autonomy in this baking adventure she so clearly craved. For a moment, he half expected the weird blue dog to try and eat it. But luckily Lilo snatched it before then, taking note of the time and shoving it deep into her pocket.
"What do you want to do while we wait for the cake to bake?" Dave asked, and Lilo ran into the living room,
"Decorate! I spent all morning making paper chains," she explained. Dave followed her into the room and noted that yes, indeed it looked like she spent the entire morning making paper chains. There was quite the pile of them on the couch, the table, the floor.
"Where did you even get this much paper?" he asked,
"Nani got me lots of construction paper for arts and crafts," she answered. She picked up the first chain, only to find Stitch charging at it, batting at one end of it like a cat. What kind of dog is that thing?! Dave found himself wondering for the umpteenth time. "Stitch! Stop it! I spent all morning making these!" she complained. He babbled at her, and ate three links off the end of the chain,
"Is paper safe for dogs? Are we gonna need to take him to the vet?" Dave asked, not wanting to explain to Nani why she had to meet them at the veterinarian's on her birthday.
"No, he ate paper before and was- Stitch! Down! Fine, so we don't need to go to the vet. The vet doesn't really like him anyway," Lilo explained. I can see why! Dave thought to himself. "You're tall, help me put these up," Lilo asked, handing him a chain and some tape,
"Where do you want them?" he asked, and started taping them up wherever Lilo pointed, with frequent pauses to put chains back up after Stitch ripped some down, babbling and barking at them. If the weird sound he made could be called barking. Despite this, they were having fun putting up Lilo's decorations, finding trying to race against Stitch's determination to rip them back down a game. They managed to get the last of the homemade streamers up just moments before the cake was done, Lilo having been checking the watch the entire time.
Dave convinced Lilo to let him pull the cakes out of the oven, and was quite happy to find the mess inside the oven from spillover was minimal. They certainly smelled like cakes, even if they were a very bizarre shape.
"I'm gonna frost them! Nani likes vanilla better so I got white frosting," Lilo explained. She dug a butter knife out of the drawer and moved to pop the lid off her jar of frosting but Dave stopped her,
"Whoa wait, let the cake cool off. It'll be easier to frost that way," he explained. She looked caught between pouting that he wasn't letting her do all the steps herself, or thankful that he taught her this useful tip. Deciding being mean on Nani's birthday wasn't fair she put the knife down and decided to watch some cartoons while she waited for the cakes to cool.
"Stitch!" she shouted, irritated as she walked back into the living room. Nearly half the paper chains had been torn down, several of them broken. "I worked all morning on these. Bad dog!" she scolded, gathering the broken chains and the tape to fix them. Stitch, miraculously, didn't destroy any more chains while she fixed the broken ones and Dave helped her put them back up.
"Do you think the cake is cool enough now?" Lilo asked impatiently,
"It's been long enough. Need help getting the cakes onto a plate?" he asked, and as he expected she vehemently shook her head. She charged into the kitchen, bringing the pie tin and the frying pan containing her cake halves to the table, as well as a knife and the jar of frosting. She managed to get the misshapen cake halves out of their containers mostly intact, and set to work liberally frosting them and placing them on top of eachother like in the picture in the cookbook. She had purchased a small tube of writing frosting too, and wrote
Happy Birthday Nani
in blue letters. For a moment it looked like Stitch was about to jump onto the table and devour her masterpiece, but she caught him before he could wreck her entire day's work.
"No Stitch! I worked hard on this! Why are you such a bad dog!" she complained, "you're being mean! You ate the flour, you ate or broke all the eggs, you keep breaking my paper chains! Why are you so mean!" she yelled, pushing him to the floor and balling her fists, tears in her eyes. Stitch looked admonished, startled by her anger shifting from playful irritation, to genuine hurt. His ears drooped, and he sat on the floor, eyes downcast babbling an apology that she wouldn't quite understand.
Lilo sat with Dave in the living room, watching cartoons while they waited for Nani to return home from work. Lilo's anger at Stitch had faded, as had his own mischievous mood and he was calmly sitting in her lap, enjoying having his ears rubbed. Dave had joined her after cleaning the mess inside of the oven from the cake batter than ran over its containers, and managed to make it look almost as good as new.
"Lilo? I'm home!" she heard her sister's muffled voice moments before the broken front door burst open.
"Nani!" she ran into the kitchen, "No no! Close your eyes!" she insisted, sprinting up to her sister. She looked confused, but was used to her sister's antics enough to comply.
"Okay okay, my eyes are closed," she insisted, and let her sister lead her into the kitchen,
"Sit here. But keep your eyes closed!" she insisted. Nani chuckled and sat down, and once instructed to opened her eyes, and was shocked to be sitting in front of a misshapen cake with Happy Birthday Nani written messily on top, the word Birthday written as two separate words to get it to fit onto the cake. "Happy Birthday Nani! I made you a cake!" Lilo announced proudly, and hugged her big sister.
"Did you do this all by yourself?!" she asked, startled.
"No, that guy you like with the cute hair helped me with the oven parts," she explained, "but I did all the mixing and pouring and frosting by myself!" the pride in her little sister's face was enough to bring a smile to hers.
"It looks delicious Lilo," Nani smiled, "let me get some plates and a knife and let's dig in!"
"no no, sit! It's your birthday I'll do all the work today," Lilo insisted, "I'll… even do the dishes," she wrinkled her nose at the offer, but knew it would make her sister happy. She gathered plates and knives, Dave joining them in the kitchen as this point. Lilo clumsily carved everyone a piece of cake, bouncing on the balls of her feet asking how is it how is it how is it. Nani took a bite, eyes wide for a moment.
"It's delicious Lilo!" she was quite surprised how good the cake tasted. She paused, feeling something hard on her tongue. She reached in her mouth, pulling out an egg shell. She stared at it for a moment then laughed, and dug right back into the cake her sister worked so hard to make for her. Stitch had walked into the kitchen at this point, still unusually subdued.
"It's not fair if I don't give you a piece too, here," Lilo carved a piece of cake for Stitch, and placed it on a plate on the floor, "you were such a good dog you get a nice big piece!" Stitch immediately devoured the cake, while Lilo turned her attention back to her sister,
"Happy birthday Nani,"
"Thank you Lilo, you really made my day"