Hello hello! I don't know if it gives notifications, but I've been going back and editing some chapters. I've made some pretty big changes, so I'll write them down here.

-Changed Chris's name to Evan

-I found out that Elizabeth is actually the youngest, and I kind of like that, so I've changed her age to six and Evan's age to eight. Michael is still the same age.

-I made William stop picking favourites so much, and made him a bit more neglectful.

-I made Fritz and Susie's deaths a little more like the animatronics (Fritz losing an eye like Foxy, Susie losing an arm like Withered Chica.)

-And instead of the ghosts in this act looking like their kid selves, they look more like their animatronic-ghost-human-form selves, just cause they look like that in the games.

I recommend you guys read Strawberry Vanilla Ice Cream again, because I made the most changes to that chapter.

Reviews!

MoonTheMagical: Good one! Also, wow, my writing did that? Thank you, I'm honored!

mixsii: I almost exploded reading that one.

Qxr: The collab of the century. Yeah, I think they'd be pretty good friends!

SomeRandomRobo: Ooh, those are really good! I'll definitely use them.

EnterUsername270: GASP! That insult...it's so powerful...

Naughtycat9: Nice! I like them all.

Enjoy!

Chapter 51

Batter Up!

Jojo was on her stomach, feet in the air, drawing a picture with stubby crayons. She stuck out her tongue in deep concentration as she coloured in Mari's black hoodie, drawing oval-like squashed circles for buttons. Jojo switched to a yellow crayon, which was broken in half from Bonnie accidentally sitting on it, and added sunshine in the background. Jojo held up the paper and inspected it. She grinned. Perfect. Mari would love it.

From across the room, Malcolm was playing with his toy cars and a couple paper dolls holding hands, some big and some small. They were all smashing into each other at light speed. That was one of his favourite games.

"Hey Mal, wanna come with me? I'm giving this drawing to Mari." Jojo asked.

Mal nodded. "Sure. This one's Berry." He held up the greenish gray stegosaurus. Completely off-topic.

Jojo sighed, Mal always strayed from the original topic. But he was still very young, so she let it slide. Mari had said she was very mature for her age, which was cool. Maybe that meant she was as cool as the big kids!

"C'mon! I think she's with Cassidy in the right hallway." Jojo coaxed, grabbing his arm and tugging him ahead.

To be honest, Cassidy kind of scared her sometimes. Like when she got cross with Jojo for pestering her about why spicy candy was spicy, or when she yelled at William last night. The walls in this place were very thin...it was scary hearing her so mad. But Cassidy could still be nice, so Jojo knew she should try and be friends with her. You should always try to be friends with people.

Malcolm squirmed out of her grasp and grabbed Berry, then followed her out of their room.

They ran down the hall and to the right, and heard Mari and Cassidy talking from behind a wall. Jojo peeked around to watch what they were doing. Nothing much, just chatting.

"Hey, did you talk to Chica today? She said they found an old kitchen, with flour and eggs and stuff!" Mari spun around on her chair. Cassidy grinned.

"Really?! That's cool! I mean, we can't eat, but I know how much Chi and Foxy like to bake."

Jojo ducked out of the way, her picture close up to her chest so as to not wrinkle it. A kitchen? She had always wanted to bake something. At her and Mal's foster home, food was always prepared for them. True, their foster siblings Gary, Alissa, and Eliott always got the most syrup on their waffles or the last slice of pie, but that was because they were their foster parents' real kids. But they'd never gotten to cook real food, only cut a couple apple slices once. And once Jojo had died, she never needed to eat food, so she never got to cook. But now...maybe she could make something for someone! But who to cook for…

"Mal! Mal! Guess what." Jojo sped into the room that he'd wandered off into. Malcolm didn't look up from his cars.

"Mm?" He hummed, obviously completely uninterested in what Jojo had to say. He grabbed the blue car and made it drive up the wall and do a backflip off.

"There's a kitchen here! Do you wanna make something?" Jojo asked. Mal frowned.

"Can I bring Penny and Kenny with me?" Mal asked. Those were the names of his cars. Penny was the red one and Kenny was the blue one.

"Sure, sure. C'mon! We don't want anyone finding out. It'll be a surprise!" Jojo tugged him away impatiently.

The two of them reached the kitchen. How they knew it was the kitchen was the sign reading 'Keep Out of the kitchen!' filled by three mad faces and a heart, probably put there by Chica.

But the thing was, Jojo wasn't that good at reading. So the sign really didn't apply to her or Malcolm. With pride at her finding the loophole, she pushed open the door and shut it as quietly as she could, Malcolm following behind her.

Well, it certainly wasn't the best kitchen. It looked very run-down, with peeling powder-blue wallpaper, suspicious stains on the floor, dusty countertops, and burn marks on the stove and oven.

But Chica was right. Inside the small fridge were eggs, butter and milk. And even the cupboards contained flour, salt, baking powder, and sugar!

Malcolm, noticing something, pulled a sheet of printed paper off the fridge and off its sunshine magnet. "Pancake recipe. Huh. Looks like we have all the supplies…"

"Let's do it!" Jojo's sky-blue eyes lit up with determination. She snatched the recipe from her brother and read it over with some difficulty.

Malcolm tilted his head to the side. "But who are we cooking for? None of us can eat."

Jojo frowned and put a finger on her chin. "Hmm...how 'bout Ruby? I bet she likes pancakes."

"Mm-kay." Malcolm hummed, plopping down on the floor with Penny, Kenny, and Berry.

Jojo scanned the ingredients section. "So first it says we need 1½ cups of flour, one pinch of salt...and one tbsp of baking powder and one tsp of sugar?!" She squinted in confusion. "What's tub-spuh and tis-puh?"

Malcolm shrugged. "I dunno. Kinda sounds like 'tub'. Maybe they mean to give the powder an' sugar a bath, or something?" A spider crawled curiously over Penny and Malcolm picked up the spider, examining it.

"Worth a try." Jojo poured a decent amount of sugar and baking powder into a large silver pot and filled the pot with warm water. She stepped back and sat cross-legged on the tile floor, her chin in her hands. She waited a minute. And another minute. And another minute.

"How long do we have to wait?" Jojo whined. "This is taking foreverrr."

"Taking a bath doesn't take super long. I think you can take 'em out now." Malcolm told her.

"Okay." Jojo walked over to the pot and observed it.

"EWWWW! The water's all icky!" She squealed. The baking powder and sugar had mixed in with the water and now it was a strange milky white colour. Malcolm jumped up and tried to look in the pot, but was too short. Jojo, noticing, picked up the pot and showed her brother. He wrinkled his nose.

"The recipe calls it 'dry' ingredients. I think you did it wrong." Malcolm observed. Jojo rolled her eyes.

"Duh! Okay, so maybe they just mean a lot of baking powder and sugar. Sometimes that's what tub means." Jojo grabbed what was left of the small can of baking powder, and a big cup of sugar dumped them in. She looked around to check that nobody was watching and stuck a bit of sugar in her mouth. Mmmm...maybe a little more.

Just a pinch more.

Just a tiny bit more.

Okay, now she really had to stop.

Only a teeny tiny little baby bit more.

Maybe just a couple more.

Okay, last one.

Jojo blinked. Uh oh...she'd eaten the whole bag. Hopefully nobody would notice…

"Okay, now it says one and one-two cups of flour." Malcolm read. Jojo frowned.

"What's that mean?"

"Maybe like, 1+2? So, 3?" Malcolm suggested. He was very proud of his math skills. Freddy had become a teacher for both the seventeen-year-olds and the elementary-aged kids, and Malcolm was exceeding in math.

Jojo nodded. "Mm-kay. So, four cups of flour." She pulled out a pink flower-printed sippy cup and unscrewed the lid, filling it to the brim with the flour. The dusty powder floated up into the air and onto Jojo's face.

"A...a... achoo!" She sneezed, and the flour flew into the air like a dusty cloud in the sky. Jojo sniffed and wiped her white face onto her T-shirt sleeve. Malcolm watched her and giggled at how silly she looked.

"Mm-kay, good. So now we're supposed to add a pinch of salt an' then mix it all together." Malcolm read off.

Jojo nodded, finding the cow-shaped salt shaker and shaking about a pinch in, then grabbed a large wooden spoon and mixed all the ingredients together. It looked good so far.

Malcolm read off the next set of instructions.

"Now we need two large eggs, beaten. Then two tub-spuh melted and cooled butter, and one and one-three cups of milk."

Jojo ran over to the fridge and carefully grabbed a clear jug of milk, a carton of free-range eggs, and a stick of butter.

"How long does it say to melt the butter in the microwave?" Jojo asked, her fingers hovering over the buttons. Malcolm frowned.

"It doesn't say...maybe a few minutes? Like seven?"

Jojo nodded. "Okay." She pressed the buttons for seven minutes and set to work on the two large eggs.

Hmm... beaten. That probably meant smashed. Jojo grabbed a particularly large brown egg and smashed it onto the side of the bowl. She squealed at the squishy texture and let the yellow yolk float in the puddle of thin transparent goop, eggshells scattering the bowl. Jojo repeated the process with the second egg and added the five cups of milk the recipe called for.

Beep! The butter was ready. Jojo dashed over and stood on her toes, pulling open the door...oh no.

The sunshine-coloured butter was bubbling and steaming hot, splashed all around the tiny microwave room. If she listened closely, she could hear a slight hissing, like a stray cat when you tried to rub it's fluffy tummy.

Some of the butter was still, luckily, in the cup, so Jojo picked it up carefully by the handle and poured it into the mixture. It looked like a bit less than two tub-spuh's, but it would have to do. Malcolm scanned the sheet.

"Now it says to mix well and pour into a frying pan. Then you're 'posed to flip it after a few minutes until both sides are an even brown."

Jojo grabbed her flour-covered spoon and began to methodically mix the pancake batter. Batter was a funny word for pancakes. It sounded like you were playing baseball with breakfast. Jojo giggled. Who was playing with their food now?

She looked down at the mixture...it wasn't pretty. It was a yellowish-beige colour, lumpy in some parts, soggy in others. Little bits of granulated sugar and cracked eggshells floated in the blue mixing bowl. Jojo frowned. It would probably look better once it was cooked.

She wandered over to the oven and pulled up a small Tinker Belle stool that was left there. She climbed up on it and ran her blue gaze over the small knobs and buttons all over the stove. Mal passed her a turquoise frying pan, which Jojo set on the heat and, after a moment's consideration, set the heat to a solid 10. She grabbed the heavy bowl and poured some of the mixture into the pan. Jojo concentrated hard, and when she was done, she had batter shaped in the letter 'M'.

When she showed Malcolm, he grinned in delight. "M for Malcolm!"

"No, this is for Mari."

Mal stuck out his lower lip. "Aww."

"I'll make another one for you," Jojo promised, setting the frying pan down and watching it closely, like a vulture set on its prey. Well, most vultures ate carrion or trash, so it wasn't much of a hunt. Jojo knew this from watching the National Geography Kids channel on their tiny television in the makeshift night guard's office.

It was a cool episode. They learned how turkey vultures were extremely important to the environment, 'cause they ate up all the dead animals. Plus, there was some bloody stuff, which was cool. Mari usually didn't let them see gore, but Freddy convinced her that it was educational, so she let them watch it.

Jojo tilted her head to the side and frowned. The batter wasn't brown yet. The pan sizzled nicely, but the top of it was still the same boring beige that it was last time she checked.

"You should flip that," Malcolm suggested. Jojo grinned. This was the exciting part. She'd seen chefs on TV flip pizzas and pancakes, omelets and crêpes, and it always looked so fun. She warily picked up the pan by the handle.

"Woo!" She cheered as she threw the pancake into the air…

And it promptly landed and stuck on the ceiling.

The two kids' eyes darted up. Batter dripped steadily onto the floor. Malcolm shrugged and went back to his cars. Jojo just winced. Nobody's gonna notice…

All of a sudden the door was jiggled open, followed by a bang, a few muffled curses, and suddenly Springtrap was standing in the doorway. His eyes trained upwards at the mess on the ceiling and he whistled.

"Chica's gonna kill you two."

Jojo grumbled. Okay, so one person noticed. That wasn't the end of the world.

"What are you doing here?" Malcolm asked, a slight edge to his voice. Jojo knew Malcolm didn't really like Springtrap, which she guessed was understandable.

Springtrap shrugged. "I saw a sign that said Do Not Enter. Any chance I get to piss off Chica, I'll take it. But it seems like you two did the job for me."

Malcolm rolled his eyes and went back to his toys.

Jojo sighed. Besides, it was good Springtrap was here. She'd been meaning to ask him a question.

"Spring-y? I have a question." Jojo crept tentatively over. Springtrap nodded.

"Sure, what is it? Make it snappy, I have a book to attend to."

"Why are you in a bunny suit? Last time I saw you, you were just an old man."

Springtrap snorted. "I'm not that old."

Jojo remained deadly serious. "Yes, you are. Just tell me, why are you a bunny?"

Springtrap gave her a half smile. "Hm, well, let's just say that karma's a bitch, okay Joey?"

Jojo frowned. She rolled it around, testing it out. "Buh-itch." The word felt funny in her mouth. "What's that mean?"

Springtrap smirked. "Why don't you ask Mari next time you see her. I'm sure she'll be delighted to hear you've expanded your vocabulary tremendously." He turned and wandered out the door, shutting it behind him. Only moments later, Jojo heard rustling and some voices, before the door swung open again.

"Yeah, so I told him that he's gotta buy the-"

Mangle's sentence was cut off when she and Mari walked in. Mari gasped at the scene in front of her. Both Jojo and Malcolm were dusted with copious amounts of sugar and flour. The walls and ceiling were splattered with butter, spilled milk, and pancake batter. The kitchen was a disaster, to put it simply.

Jojo smiled sheepishly at the two.

"We made pancakes for Ruby."

Mangle nodded, mouth still agape as she took in the scene in front of her. "Yeah, uh- good job with that."

Mari glared down at the two.

"You need to read the sign! Chica's going to be very mad at you two for this! And you've made such a mess in the kitchen and used up so many ingredients, that's a lot of wasted food!"

Jojo made her blue eyes go very wide, and willed her lower lip to tremble.

"W-we're very sorry, Mar-Mar. We just wanted to make some pancakes for Ruby 'cause she's so nice." She sniffled and looked down at her feet in what she hoped was a pathetic, sorrowful puppy look.

Mari gasped as ran over. "Oh, Joey...I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to get cross with you two. Come here…" She scooped Jojo up into her slender arms and held her close. Jojo smiled to herself. Nice. No punishment.

Malcolm jumped up and down. "Up!" He whined, grabbing at the air. Mari laughed and scooped him up with the other arm, not without great difficulty though.

"Oof...you kids are getting big. You're growing up!"

Malcolm grinned. "Soon I'll be as tall as you. Maybe even taller!"

Mangle sighed, noticing how the threat of punishment was completely forgotten. "You're such a pushover, Mar."

Suddenly, Jojo remembered! How could she have forgotten this? Jojo ran around to the back of the counter, opening up a drawer and pulling out the large sheet of paper. She ran over to Mari and showed her the picture, drawn in large, waxy crayons.

"I drew this for you! It's got sunshine and flowers, and that's you!"

Mari gasped in awe, taking the picture to look at it for herself. "You drew this?! This is absolutely incredible! I'm going to hand it up on our door, okay? Wow...this is so beautiful!" She looked down, meeting Jojo's gaze. "C'mon, lets go put it up."

Jojo beamed with pride and laced her hand through Mari's. "Okay."

Malcolm joined them, and they walked out the door to go hang up the beautiful drawing, the messiness of the kitchen forgotten. Until, of course, three hours later, when Chica's scream could be heard miles away. The lions in Africa roared. Aliens in space were plugging their ears. And all Jojo and Malcolm could say was;

"Oops."

A/N

Oh, Jojo and Malcolm...so wholesome and cute. I get cavities just writing about them, jeez.

Also, feel free to use this pancake recipe, it makes some really tasty ones! Just don't botch it like these two did.

Question/Challenge: What's your favourite food? I don't think I've asked this before... mine's crêpes!

Have a great day/night, and remember to stay hydrated!

-Ghost