Stella stared at the oven door. How long did twelve minutes take?!

'What if they don't bake?'

'They will.' Duman seemed so confident in his friend. She wished she had half as much faith. She had never seen Anagan bake, what if he'd read the recipe off Wikipedia? Did Wikipedia have recipes? What if it didn't? What would they do?! Wait, what was their original problem? If Wikipedia didn't have recipes, they'd be fine. ...Right?

Two minutes. Stella screamed in frustration. 'Bake faster!' She knew, yelling at her biscuits wouldn't bake them faster, but she had to do something!

'Stell, chill, Anagan knows what he's doing. We did everything he said, and we didn't set anything on fire.'

'True…true…' She ran a hand through her hair, ignoring the flour. 'Okay…he gave you icing instructions? Then let's get to work on that. If there's one thing I can do, it's decorate. I saved the universe with my sense of colour theory.' Duman snorted, and she shook her head. 'No, seriously, I did.'

She turned to the ingredients, a smile tugging at her lips as she took in the food colouring and edible glitter. Oh…oh, finally something she was made for!

'Alright…Anagan says mix icing sugar with water until it forms a smooth paste.'

'How much water?'

'Just keep adding until it forms a smooth paste.'

Their first attempt, being done by them and all, wound up with a flood. Their second attempt ended with them choking on sugary mist. Third attempt actually left them with something that wasn't half bad.

'Why am I doing all the mixing here?' Stella complained, flexing her achy arm.

'Because I mixed all the biscuit dough.'

'Aw, c'mon…you got those big guy muscles! Please?'

'What kind of anti-feminist talk is that?'

'The kind that gives this feminist a break, she's spent.' Stella turned her best puppy eyes on Duman, and he relented with a sigh. 'Fiiiine…' He mixed on her behalf as she measured out the later ingredients, dropping them in and beginning to plan out their decor.

The timer trilled, and her stomach dropped. What was she about to see?

Duman quietly prayed behind her as she opened the oven, squeezing her eyes shut. Please please please…

She let out a shriek of delight as a tray of perfectly brown biscuit folks emerged atop their tray, steaming little wisps of perfection. Good thing Flora hadn't wanted to hook up with Anagan, cause Stella could kiss the guy!

'We have biscuits!'

'No way!' Duman looked, and let out a few celebratory expletives that the producers quickly bleeped. 'We might win this!'

Stella glanced around and had to admit that was true. One guy had accidentally baked his own arm and was rebuilding it with spare dough.

'They're so hot!' Stella grimaced as she touched one. 'Duman, we aren't gonna have time to ice these and let them cool!'

'Sure we will. Keep a lookout.'

Stella immediately leaned casually in front of the tray, letting Duman whisper a soft spell to cool the cookies, an icy wind blowing at her back. Yes, she'd been raised to know cheating was wrong. Yes, this was cheating. But she wasn't letting Santa down, and she'd fail at this on her own. Doing her best and failing wasn't gonna save the world, so yeah, sometimes it was better she break a few rules.

'Okay, princess.' Duman swept her a bow, stepping aside to let her access the cookies. 'Your turn.'

Stella's face split into a grin that almost bordered on the mad, and she seized the food colouring. 'Let's freakin' do this.'

From blue, red and yellow, Stella teased forth every colour and shade she could conceive of, colouring a little side bowl with black icing. Every shade of the sunset, every hue of the night bloomed in dozens of little bowls laid out like the paints on a palette. Stella's sense of colour was flawless, each shade coming together exactly how she'd seen it in her head. Peach, lilac, maroon, teal, every hue on the colour wheel was invited!

'Get me a piping bag. No!' She held up a hand. 'Get me fifty piping bags.'

Duman did as asked, stepping back and just watching, mouth slightly ajar as Stella flicked and slicked icing every which way, mixing and streaking. Hair…skin…clothes…people and features took shape on the cookies, until they almost felt too alive to eat.

'Ten seconds left!' The time call didn't shake her; she just needed a final shake of glitter.

'Food glitter!'

Duman dove across the beach, seizing it and shoving it into her hand. A quick puff later, and she laid it down just as time ran out.

'Done!'

Duman let out a slow whistle. 'Damnnnnnn…Stell, that's frickin' brilliant. Decorating like that and we might actually win this.'

'Not fairly…' she mumbled, glancing at Duman's phone in his pocket with a twinge of guilt. But Duman shook his head, smirking.

'Yeah, but everyone here'll survive. And you've said yourself how important this is.'

Stella nodded. Yeah. This was important. And it wasn't like anyone ever had to know.

'Contestants!' called the Sugarplum Fairy, calling all eyes to her. 'Please bring your biscuits to the front to be judged!'

Stella stared down at her tray, leaning in close. 'Little biscuits, you are very, very important to the fate of the world…know that I'm very proud of you, and just do your best.'

'Talking to cookies?'

'That's how I roll.' She picked up the tray, walking alongside the other contestants to place the biscuits on the judges' table. She felt a pang of sadness at the knowledge her little works of art were about to become no more than mush in a stomach, but this was for something far bigger. Though it still disturbed her that these smaller versions of the people all around her were gonna be eaten…this was so weird.

The Sugarplum Fairy beamed as the biscuits were set down, eyes widening in delighted surprise as she saw Stella's. 'Oh my…how beautiful.'

Stella glowed with the praise, nudging Duman in excitement. He grinned back, struggling not to hop up and down in excitement.

'Such stunning creations…' The fairy fluttered up into the air, beaming down at the contestants. 'And now, we put them to the true test.'

Stella had to glance away. She couldn't see them be eaten…chewed up and destroyed. But there was a gentle tinkling of bells, the same she heard in her Enchantix form. She glanced back, eyes widening to see the fairy sprinkling fairy dust all over the creations. No, it'd ruin all her colour schemes!

'…The hell?' Duman muttered, and Stella rubbed her eyes. On the trays, the cookies were…were sitting up. Sitting up and stretching.

'Am I on drugs right now?' Duman whispered.

'How would I know, but no, you're not, I see it too.'

'Welcome, welcome!' The Sugarplum Fairy beamed down at all the awakening cookies, helping them to their tiny feet. 'Welcome to the Land of Sweets!'

Stella couldn't hold back a smile. Her gingerbread people were such cuties!

'…Wait a minute…' Duman frowned. 'If…if they're alive…and they're not being eaten…how the heck is this being judged?'

Stella froze. That…was a very valid question.

'And now, to part two!' Oh good, it was being explained. 'The talent show!' Every time it seemed it couldn't get weirder.