3rd Floor Common Room, Sunday afternoon

[chasingangela]

Angela was a girl with a plan.

She had two boxes of chocolate cupcake mix, a half-full bag of chocolate chips to make the cupcakes even chocolatier, and tubs of pink icing and sprinkles to make them the prettiest cupcakes ever.

Giggling, she opened one of the boxes of cupcake mix and poured it into the biggest bowl she could find in the common room kitchen. She was very careful and spilled no more than a quarter of it on the table.

Friends would be welcome to help.

Comments

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders was roaming the dorms, halfheartedly trying to keep an eye on as many kids as he could. (Selfish motivations, really. He had to live in the middle of whatever chaos they might cause, after all.) The sight of a wee Angela attempting to bake cupcakes alarmed him somewhat -- and made him realize what he must look like to some people, when doing the same thing.

"Hey! You want some help with that?" he asked, walking into the common room with his hands in his pockets.

[chasingangela]

"I'm a big girl," Angela said, face screwed up in concentration as she opened the *other* box of mix. "See?"

With that, she dumped it toward the bowl. Well, at least half made it in...

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders grimaced at the cupcake-mix spillage. "You are!" he agreed. "You gotta be a big girl to make cupcakes all by yourself. But I like helping. Can I help? It's fun."

[chasingangela]

"OKay," Angela said dubiously. "But we have to be really really careful."

She pointed at the baking instructions on the back of the box. "What's that word say?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders peered at it. "Preheat," he said. "That's important, preheating the oven. Otherwise your cupcakes won't turn out right."

[chasingangela]

Angela smiled and darted to the stove. "How do I pe-heat the oven?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Anders's eyes went wide. "You just turn it on," he said, indulging in a brief but desperate internal debate as to whether or not he should be encouraging her to do so. "But it needs to be the right temperature, so hang on."

He grabbed the box of cupcake mix and quickly bounded over to the stove beside Angela, putting a hand on the oven temperature knob. "Okay, it says 350, so . . . there."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

Bridge has his cellphone in one hand and is holding one of Xander's hands with the other. They're up on the third floor because... well, because there were currently no big-people around on the second floor who could help them out.

He pokes his head into the Common Room to see if there's any big-people *here*.

[soldtoarmenians]

There are! There is, that is. There's a big Anders-person.

"Hi Anders-person!" Xander waves with his free hand.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"Hey, Xander-person!" Anders replies, waving over at them. "Whatcha guys doin' up here?"

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Hi Anders!" Bridge says. "We're lookin' for help." He waves the cellphone at Anders.

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

"You need help with your phone?"

Even small children can confuse Anders. It's really not that hard.

[soldtoarmenians]

"Arms too short," Xander says, nodding unhappily.

[chasingangela]

Angela waved. "Hi Bridgey! Hi Xander! I'm gonna make cupcakes with pink icing for everybody, wanna help?"

[soldtoarmenians]

"I like cupcakes!" Xander said, nodding happily.

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Me too!" Bridge adds. "Is there any green icing or just pink? 'Cause I like pink but green is nice too."

[chasingangela]

"I only got pink," Angela said, a little sadly. Then her face brightened. "But I got green sprinkles so they can be pink and green both! And chocolate."

[bridge-carson.livejournal.com]

"Okay!" Bridge says. "Compra- comp- having both is good."

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Maureen came in after getting Angela's phone call (http://mparker17.livejournal.com/2413.html?thread=940653), bouncing with excitement. "Yay! We're baking! Yay, cupcakes!"

[chasingangela]

"Yay!," Angela agreed, gesturing to Anders. "Anders just helped me turn on the oven, an' now we need to mix all the stuff up."

She looked at the back of the box. "There's a picture of an egg," she said. "D'you know if there are any in the 'fridgerator?"

[mparkerceo.livejournal.com]

Maureen waved to Daisy and said, "Hi Daisy!" Then she went to the fridge and checked in the crisper. And the butter box. And the freezer. And on the shelves. It's always the last place you look.

"Eggs!" She brought the carton over to Angela and plopped it down on the counter. "How many?"

[chasingangela]

Angela looked at the boxes again. "This one says two, and this one says two, so..." she counted on her fingers. "Four!" she said, triumphantly. "Right, Anders?"

[cantgetnorelief.livejournal.com]

Hey, Anders actually passed math last semester. He can totally count to four.

"Yep, four, that's right!" he said. "You're pretty good at this."

[chasingangela]

Angela nodded seriously. "My daddy is the best cook in the whole world and I help him sometimes."

Sometime later

[chasingangela]

After some effort, the common room is liberally splashed with matter, Anders is exhausted, Maureen and Angela have eaten as much batter and icing as made it into and onto the cupcakes ... and, somehow, miraculously, there are enough pink-frosted chocolate cupcakes for everyone on the floor to get one.

They are stored in the refrigerator as Angela goes to the wedding ceremonies.