Chapter 6
A large group of people had gathered around the competition area, all as close as they could get without crossing the red velvet ropes. Camila had managed to find a spot with a good view of the tables where the competitors were standing, just before it got too crowded. She was almost across from where Luz and Amity were stationed, calling to them and waving.
From their table, Luz and Amity could easily spot Camila and waved back. Camila held up her phone and gestured for the girls to pose for a picture. They leaned together, Luz putting one arm around Amity's shoulders and flashing a peace sign with her other hand. Amity embraced Luz around the waist and rested her head on Luz's shoulder, smiling brightly with the hint of a blush on her cheeks.
Camila got the photo, sporting a smile that outshined Amity's. She was then joined by the others, Willow arriving first, followed by Hunter and lastly Gus. The three all waved to the couple, throwing out words of encouragement to them. Luz and Amity responded in turn, although Amity not as invested as Luz in waving back to their friends. With the competition starting at any moment, she was more concerned with being as prepared as could be and had brought out her notebook from her bag.
"Luz, do you need to discuss anything about our plan before we begin? I want to be sure we can work quickly together."
"I don't think so. We just need to follow the steps, right?"
"Essentially, yes. But as far as execution, I was thinking that you prepare the pieces for me and I set them into place. All you would need to do is follow my instructions. Would that be alright with you?"
"Totally! But just to be safe, I wanna peek at your awesome plans again."
She snuggled up to Amity's side and looked down at the notebook on their table. Amity flipped it open and Luz began to scan the carefully detailed steps on the pages. She stole a glimpse of Luz while she reviewed the plan, adoring how focused she seemed. Her attention was annoyingly taken from the sight as she noticed another team getting set up at the table beside their own. A team made up of two unpleasantly familiar faces, plus another equally unpleasant one on the side.
"Look girls, the weirdo and her partner are right next to you." Atlantica said, a snide look on her face. "Guess that means they'll have a good view of the winners."
"No. You're the ones who'll have a good view of the winning team." Luz countered confidently. "Which will be us. My girlfriend has a sweet plan that will guarantee our victory!"
"Psh, yeah right. I'll believe it when I see it." Anjela said, stepping over and peeking at Amity's notebook. "What, did you get that off some website?"
"As if I would be so lazy. I came up with this on my own." Amity replied. "Not that it would matter if I had copied it from another source. There are no rules against that."
Anjela rolled her eyes. "Nerd. There's totes no way you can pull that off in the time limit. It's way too complicated."
"That's your opinion. We'll see what the judges have to say soon enough. Now how about you go back to your team's station?" Amity flatly suggested. "Unless of course you'd like to save yourself the trouble and just forfeit."
"Please, you wish." Anjela replied, facing away and turning up her nose. "You are sooo gonna lose. We have a way better plan." She added before strutting back over to her station where her confidence quickly faded. "Okay, so their idea is, like, really good. If they pull it off, I think we might actually… lose to them!"
"Keep it down, Anjela." Atlantica advised in a hushed tone. "The last thing we need is for those losers to think we're worried they'll win!"
"It won't make a difference." Amy told them. "Luz is being much more confident than she used to be. She didn't hesitate to give us attitude earlier. Before, she'd make excuses to leave and try to sneak off. But now she's standing up for herself."
"Yeah, I noticed. It's so annoying." Atlantica said disdainfully. "I can't wait to remind her of her place in the social hierarchy. And I know just how to do it too. I'll be right back."
Atlantica walked away, headed for another of the stations which was occupied by two boys. She spoke with them for a minute, keeping her voice down. When she was finished and walked back to her friends, the boys seemed very surprised and were discussing something among themselves. Amy and Anjela exchanged looks and leaned over their table a little as Atlantica rejoined them.
"What was that about?" Amy inquired.
"Oh, just setting up a little insurance to make sure that those losers will lose."
Anjela grinned. "Ooh, I see what you did. You asked those boys to sabotage them, didn't you?"
"Guilty." Atlantica replied, sounding proud of herself. "I told them if they did it, then they could come to my New Year's party next weekend."
"Is that really a good idea?" Amy asked skeptically. "How can we trust that they won't say it was your idea?"
"Don't doubt me, Amy. I made sure to tell them that taking the blame was part of the deal. If they point their fingers at us, no party invites for them."
Over at the adjacent station, Amity was eying the trio of mean girls suspiciously. She had seen Atlantica having her little chat with the other team and had a feeling that something was up. She moved her foot over to tap Luz's and leaned over to whisper. Luz however, slightly misread Amity's signals and leaned in to briefly nuzzle her cheek against her girlfriend's. Amity didn't mind it though. In fact, it worked in her favor as her blush and loving smile from the gesture would help them stay inconspicuous.
"Those nasty girls are up to something. I just know it." She softly informed Luz. "One of them just went to talk to those boys on the station to our right."
"Maybe she was flirting with them?" Luz optimistically replied. "They are kinda cute."
Amity gave Luz a tiny scowl. The moment she saw it, Luz caught onto her slip up and scrambled her brains rapidly to amend her previous statement. And while she came up with something easily enough, she couldn't meet Amity's eyes.
"I'm just saying that I can see why someone else would want to flirt with them." She continued. "It's kinda like… Boscha. I think she's good looking, but that doesn't mean I'd want to date her. Especially not when I already have you, hermosa."
"That's better." Amity commented, seeming less miffed. "But if either of those boys comes over here, I'm keeping a close eye on them, and keeping you close to my side."
Luz blushed a little and moved her hand over to Amity's. Their pinkie fingers touched, then linked and they moved to clasp their hands together. Amity gave Luz's hand a possessive squeeze and the two let their gazes meet. The longing looks were cut short however, as Amity caught sight of something unexpected. Something that she couldn't help herself from gaping at in surprise.
"No way." She said, almost in disbelief. "Luz, the last team just arrived. And you won't believe who they are."
Amity pointed at the previously vacant station. Luz turned to see and her jaw dropped a little in surprise. At the station stood two very familiar faces, those of her adopted sister and her date. Vee and Masha saw that they had Luz's attention and waved to her, Vee sticking out her tongue playfully. A frown came to Luz's face and she began storming over to them in a way that Amity found to be completely adorable. She remained behind though, not wanting to risk leaving their station unattended for even a second.
When she reached the station where Vee and Masha were standing, Luz crossed her arms and gave Vee a stern look. She began tapping her food expectantly, raising an eyebrow while she awaited an explanation. What she got however, was an amused giggle from Vee.
"What, are you trying to act like Mom?" She asked. "You aren't really pulling it off. It's hard to take you seriously with how you are most of the time."
"Don't you sass me, little sis." Luz replied. "Don't forget that when our mom is out, I'm the one in charge."
"First of all, no, you aren't. We're both old enough to look after ourselves. And secondly, I'm older than you. So you're the little sister."
"You're too cute to be an older sibling." Luz countered. "So I'm the older sister."
"I've gotta agree with her on this one." Masha cut in. "That baby face of yours pretty much screams 'youngest in the family'."
"Masha! You're supposed to be on my side!" Vee exclaimed.
"Just because I'm on your side doesn't mean that I can't agree with the opposition." Masha told her. "And your big sister has a good point."
Vee pouted and crossed her arms, turning away from her enbyfriend. Masha put their hand onto Vee's shoulder and she shrugged them off in response. Opting to just let Vee have a moment, Masha turned their attention back to Luz, who was still awaiting an explanation.
"If you want to know why we're here, it's obviously because we're in the competition too." They said. "And if you want to know why we entered, well obviously it's because we can win it. And we will."
"We'll just see about that." Luz replied cooly, offering her hand to Masha. "May the best team win."
Masha grabbed Luz's hand. "Like I said, we will."
Luz returned to her table, finding Amity smirking in amusement. The look on her girlfriend's face irked Luz a little bit, something which she didn't hesitate to express with a small scowl. Amity took her hand and caressed it comfortingly. Luz smiled softly and turned to look at her mother and friends, gesturing to the table with Vee and Masha. The surprised looks on their faces told her that they had been in the dark about Vee entering the competition as well.
From the waiting area off to the side, the host of the competition stepped out to address the crowd. The teams all stood quietly and paid attention as the rules were explained. Overall, it was fairly simple. They each would be given a kit with a set amount of prepared gingerbread pieces and icing. There was a large assortment of candies to be used as decorations which were set on a large table behind all the teams' stations. Each team could request whichever candies they wished to use from the attendant minding the table, with no limitations. And finally, any team that did not complete their structure within the time limit would not be judged.
The host took a minute to address the teams next, should any of them have questions regarding the competition. No one had anything to ask, so the event officially began. All the teams set to work right away, preparing the first pieces of gingerbread to put into place for their structures. Just as they discussed, Luz prepped the pieces for Amity, who would set them down according to her plans. As she put each piece into place, Amity told Luz what to do with the next piece she would require. Luz wasted no time following her girlfriend's instructions, the two setting into a steady rhythm hardly even a minute after getting started.
Each of the other teams got off to a decent start as well. However, some of them just couldn't match the efficiency and cooperation of Luz and Amity's team. Some of them even got distracted a bit by the insanely good teamwork between the two. Even the pair of Amy and Anjela found themselves left in awe of the progress that the couple was making so early on.
Out of the other teams, the only pair which weren't distracted by Luz and Amity's impressive start were Vee and Masha. In their own way, Masha was proving to be very industrious. Vee found herself being very little help as her enbyfriend had taken full control of constructing their house. The most she got to do was head over to the candy table to retrieve a small list of sweets, which Masha then had her separate into piles with different combinations of different candies.
Masha scooped up one of the candy piles and started to put little dots of icing on the pieces. They fixed them together quickly and set it down on the table again. Vee's eyes widened a bit as she saw what Masha had created, a silent gasp passing through her lips. Allowing themselves a smirk at Vee's reaction, Masha pointed to the little creation and then to the other piles of candy.
"I need you to make more like this, and a couple other things too. Ready to help me with the most important part of my master plan?"
Vee nodded and set to work, mimicking what she had just seen Masha do. She repeated the process again and then Masha had her put together a new combination of candies. Those were followed by another combination, and then another, Vee becoming more enthusiastic with each one.
The five teams all progressed steadily in the construction of their gingerbread structures. Luz and Amity were furthest along, their castle more than halfway completed with more than half of the time limit remaining. Each of the other teams couldn't help but steal glances at what they were creating. Their rival team of Amy and Anjela were constantly checking their progress while struggling to work on their own entry.
A vein began to throb on Amy's forehead as she watched Amity from the corner of her eye. She had just put together what looked like a working drawbridge, using licorice strings for rope. Meanwhile, she was having a hard time trying to make progress with her team's structure. Anjela was being no help at all, spending time posting about the competition rather than participating. Amy was trying her best to keep her cool while doing all the work, but she could tell at the rate she was going, she wouldn't finish within the time limit.
"Do you think you could help me over here?" She bitterly asked of her teammate.
"I am totes helping, Amy." Anjela replied. "I've gotten really good pics of you and they are all getting lots of likes already! We are so trending right now!"
"That is not the help I meant!" Amy snapped. "If we don't start working together, we won't be finished before the time limit. Do you really want to lose to those losers?"
Anjela scoffed and turned her attention from her phone screen over to Luz and Amity's table. Her eyes widened as she saw how much progress they had made. She then looked at their own table, Amy giving her an impatient scowl as she kept working on their own structure. After a couple seconds she pointed to the spot beside her irritably, her piercing gaze on her teammate who rushed over to help.
Amity watched the other team from the corner of her eye, allowing herself a tiny smirk. She knew she shouldn't have found amusement with how they were having trouble, but it was hard not to after dealing with their attitudes earlier. That and she also still suspected that they had something sneaky planned, and that suspicion made it hard to feel bad for them.
As she continued to subtly keep an eye on them while still working, Amity noticed that Anjela looked up at someone in the crowd, giving them a bright smile and waving. Amity noticed the gesture being returned from Atlantica, who then began texting someone with her phone. Her suspicious feeling growing, Amity pretended to look at her notes, but she was merely using to shift her attention over to another team.
While she hovered over her notebook, placing one finger on the next step written down on the page, Amity watched the two boys Atlantica had been speaking to earlier. One of them had just looked at his own phone, only seconds after Atlantica had been texting. The boys started to whisper to each other and then one pointed in their direction, all but confirming Amity's suspicions. After hesitating a bit, the other boy walked away from his teammate and over to their station.
"Uh… hey." He awkwardly greeted.
"Hey." Luz replied, looking up from the piece she was preparing for Amity. "Did you need something?"
"Yeah, um… could you possibly spare some gumdrops? We're a few short…"
"The candy supply table has tons." Amity briskly told him. "Ask them, not us."
"Right, the candy table… Kinda forgot about that." He said lamely, slowly turning away from them. "Thanks…"
He started to leave, Amity watching him just to be safe. Her caution proved to be necessary as he suddenly seemed to lose his balance and fell backwards. Amity moved quickly and caught him before he could fall, onto their table specifically.
"Watch it!" She fumed, helping him regain his balance before narrowing her eyes at him. "How did you even slip? There's nothing on the floor!"
The boy didn't say anything in response. He simply avoided Amity's gaze for a moment before he stepped away from Amity. She watched closely, not liking his silence or that he had yet to walk away. Her vigilance once more proved necessary as he suddenly swung out his arm at her and Luz's castle. Amity intercepted him, but was just a second too late, his hand grabbing one of the unfinished walls and breaking off a sizable piece.
Amity let out a gasp as she saw the damage, as did Luz. Then Amity's face went red with rage and Luz quickly stepped between her and the boy. Fortunately, the judges were at their table very quickly. They didn't need any time to come to the decision to disqualify the boy and his teammate for the attempt to destroy another team's structure.
After the boys were escorted out, the lead judge, an elderly woman with gray hair and dark skin, offered to allow Amity and Luz compensation. If they wished, they could take pieces from the disqualified team's table to replace their broken ones and even be allowed a tiny extension on the time limit too. Neither of the girls needed any time to think before answering, and to everyone's surprise, they declined. Amity wasn't interested in being given a handicap, regardless of the reason, and Luz fully supported that decision. The judges checked to make sure they were certain, but didn't press it any further after that.
Luz and Amity inspected the damage to their castle, Amity scowling at the sight. The chunk torn from the wall was a big setback for them and Amity was unable to think of what to do. In her plans, she had accounted for the chance something could break, but not anything as bad as the damage that had been done. She considered using icing to fix the pieces back into place, but she knew she wouldn't be happy with how it looked. In the end, she had to accept it as the best option.
She let out a sigh and picked up the pieces that had been broken off the wall. As she tried to fit them together to figure out where they belonged, Luz held out her hand to Amity. Turning her attention to her girlfriend, Amity noticed that Luz had the tube of icing in her other hand and that endearing look in her eyes that told Amity she had a plan.
"Why don't you let me take care of that, Sweet Potato." Luz offered. "I can fix this up easy for us. If you don't mind me making a change to your plans."
"Not at all, mi flor." Amity replied.
Amity handed the broken pieces over to Luz and resumed working on the castle. Luz made a short trip to the candy table, returning with a chocolate bar and a candy cane. Managing to balance working on their structure and watching Luz, Amity saw her girlfriend take the wrappers off both items and then she snapped the curved end of the candy cane off, popping it into her mouth. She set the chocolate bar down onto the table next, facing downwards, and used the broken end of the candy cane to start tracing something into the flat surface of the chocolate.
Luz finished tracing what looked like the shape of an eight-pointed star into the chocolate and then started to scrape out the shape with the candy cane. She next applied tiny dollops of icing inside the lines of the shape and began breaking up the pieces of gingerbread. Amity finished putting her current piece into place and watched Luz working more closely.
"You're using the broken pieces to make an emblem for the castle? Are you sure you can manage that without trouble?" She asked. "I don't want you to stress over this, Luz. We can make it work without needing to go in over our heads."
"Trust me, Sweet Potato, I got this." Luz replied, not taking her eyes off her work. "This won't take long at all. It's just putting together a tiny puzzle. One where I can make the pieces and eat the extra ones too."
She let out a giggle, popping a little bit of gingerbread into her mouth. Amity giggled as well and returned to constructing their castle. Luz finished up her little improvisation and moved onto the broken section of the castle. Proceeding with the utmost care, she started chipping away at the edges of the hole, shaping it to fit the chocolate bar. Once she had, Luz fixed her addition into place with icing and then returned to helping Amity as she had been doing in the beginning.
The setback had been resolved, but they still had a lot of work to do to finish their structure. They had fallen behind the other teams, only one other team still working aside of them. Luz and Amity managed to get back into the rhythm they had started with, but time was almost up. Together, they managed to complete their castle with barely any time to spare, the two sighing in relief after putting on the finishing touches.
As the time limit ended, the sound of bells jingling filled the area. The other team that had still been working had not finished their structure and did not qualify for judging. From what Luz could see, they had been trying to make a clock tower, but had trouble keeping the tall construct stable and ultimately failed in their endeavor. She felt a little bad for them, but she did want to win.
The judges passed by the first team and moved onto the next table, where Amy and Anjela were stationed. Amy looked a mess, slouching a bit with an exhausted look on her face and her fingertips caked with icing. Her partner however, was not nearly as bad off, practically radiant in comparison. Anjela gestured to their structure, beaming so proudly that one would think she had done all the work herself.
"This is a gingerbread replica of the Bellington Ridge Country Club, including the tennis courts." She told the judges. "It took a lot of hard work to make it."
Amy shot Anjela a dirty look, which was ignored as Anjela continued to go over the details of their country club. Many of which were more about the real country club rather than the gingerbread replica, but no one bothered to stop her. The judges waited patiently for her to finish and they all made notes on their clipboards.
"Very nice." The lead judge commented. "Your piece is well made and highly original. You two did a fantastic job."
Anjela's smile grew and she let out a soft squeal of joy. She offered a high five to Amy, who accepted with a weak smile. The judges moved onto Luz and Amity's table to see their structure next. Amity grew anxious, worried about how they would do after their castle had been damaged. It wasn't that she didn't think Luz's repair looked great, she just wasn't very confident that the judges would feel the same.
"Now, what do we have here?" The lead judge asked.
"This is the Ashen Castle from the Good Witch Azura, Volume 4." Luz replied. "We both love the series and chose to do something from it for our entry. There is a little change from how it appeared in the book, but we kinda had to take some liberties."
"Well, we won't let that affect your score." The lead judge said with a warm chuckle. She then began closely examining the area which had been damaged. "I must admit, you did a great job with this. Making a decorative piece to fill the broken spot is very creative. And once again we have originality too. Not to mention we saw how amazing your teamwork was from the start. The two of you are quite the team."
Luz and Amity smiled proudly, exchanging excited looks as the judges jotted their thoughts down on their clipboards. They held hands, lacing their fingers together and leaning in to embrace each other. Their confidence couldn't have been higher as they watched the judges went to the final team of Masha and Vee.
When compared to the other teams' entries, Vee and Masha had a much more traditional one. They had a simple house, decorated just like the ones in the pictures on the kits sold in supermarkets during the holidays. It had a charming appearance, although that seemed to be its only noteworthy characteristic.
"Welcome to Eighteen-Seventy-Five MacDonald Avenue." Masha began. "Current market value, fifteen dollars, U.S. currency."
The lead judge chuckled again. "I do believe you are right. And what a lovely property it is. It's nice to see an actual gingerbread house in the competition. You've done a nice job decorating it too. Positively beautiful work."
"Oh, but we're not done yet." Masha said. "You've only seen the exterior. Please, allow us to show you inside."
Masha gave a nod to Vee, who carefully placed her fingers beneath the edges of the roof of their gingerbread house. She lifted it up ever so slightly and then Masha removed one of the sides of the house, gently leaning it on the back. The judges quickly found themselves awestruck at the sight of rooms with little furnishings made from candy. Masha grinned at the expressions on their faces and began to show off the fruits of their labor.
"Here we have a two-bedroom abode with a living room-kitchenette combo." They continued. "Currently occupied by the widow Gingerbread and her only child."
"They moved in recently, after a tragedy." Vee added. "The late Mr. Gingerbread was sadly gobbled up after being tricked by a fox. However, after collecting on his life insurance policy, they could afford this property in a much nicer and safer neighborhood."
Once again, the lead judge chuckled warmly. "I appreciate how much fun you two are having with this. It's just a shame I cannot give extra points for that. But you certainly get a very large boost to your score for this astounding level of detail. In all my years of judging these contests, this is the first time I've ever seen anyone go to such lengths with a gingerbread house. I for one believe we've found our winners."
She turned to her fellow judges, who each nodded in agreement. They declared to the onlookers of their decision and awarded Vee and Masha their prize, a five-hundred-dollar prepaid money card. Vee and Masha celebrated with an embrace and soon found themselves confronted by the streamers and the reporter. They were asked to pose for pictures for the local paper and answered some questions before attention shifted from them to the other teams. While Luz and Amity were approached with some questions, Vee and Masha went to join Camila and the others.
A few minutes later, Amity and Luz came over as well, congratulating the winners. The other teams had all gone off too and the people running the event began cleaning up. Each of the finished structures were to be kept in the mall for the remainder of the month, kept in a display case near the main entrance. They watched for a bit as their masterpieces were carefully packed up and then the group went to leave the mall.
Once outside, they started for the van. Camila had found a space a short walk from the entrance, sparing them from needing to deal with the cold for long. Gus ran ahead of the rest of the group, calling shotgun the second he knew where the van was parked. Everyone else followed at a slower pace, Vee and Masha at the back of the pack. As they neared the van, the couple fell behind a bit, Vee looking to Masha with an almost sad smile.
"I… had fun tonight." She said, a mild blush on her cheeks.
"Same here. I hope we can do a competition together again sometime. Winning with you is a pretty sweet feeling." Masha replied.
"Thanks… uh, so… do you wanna come over? We were going to have cocoa and mantecados while crafting our charamico for this year."
"Tempting, but I have to pass." Masha told her regrettably. "I promised my parents that I wouldn't be out late. We have to leave first thing tomorrow to go to my grandparent's place up in Maine, remember?"
"Oh, right… I forgot you're leaving until New Year's Day." Vee mumbled disappointedly.
"Aw, you gonna miss me?" Masha asked, a light teasing tone in her voice. "Don't worry. We can still talk every day and when I get back, I will be taking you out on a date." They added, whipping out the card they had won with Vee. "This should be enough to help make up for lost time. Don't you think?"
"Masha, you don't have to spend that all on our date…"
"Yeah, I know. But I want to." Masha cut in. "I like spoiling you, so you're going to get spoiled. Got it?"
Vee giggled and nodded, her blush growing. They caught up with the others and Camila offered Masha a ride home. They accepted and waited for everyone else to climb into the van before squeezing in next to Vee and pulling her into their lap. With all her passengers inside and buckled up, Camila started the van and slowly made her way out of the parking lot, bound for home.
To be concluded.