Third floor common room- Monday morning

[seriesofbaddecisions]

Sabine had been pretty scarce after the whole Toymaker thing. Even after she felt better about it, she hadn't much wanted to deal with people. But new kids would be here soon and classes would be starting and so she finally decided she had to get out of her room. It was breakfast day, anyway, maybe she could hang out and see if anyone hated her?

So she went up to the third floor and... no Wayne, no breakfast.

"Well, that's new."


[Someone had to! Open!]

Comments

[thishouseishaunted]

Mae held up a box featuring bright colors and a grinning cartoon character. "Brightly colored balls of sugar," she said. "It turns the milk into a muddy rainbow."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina considered that.

And considered her gloom about Wayne.

"You know what," she said, meandering over to the fridge to see if there were eggs. "I think I'm going to make ice cream for breakfast instead. You, like, want any??????????????????"

Because if the cereal didn't give Wayne fits from afar then her ice cream definitely would.

[thishouseishaunted]

". . . yes. Yes I would."

She bet the cereal would turn the ice cream all sorts of colors!

[bookbeltof_love]

"Oh, good," she said, already more cheerful now that she had a plan.

The fact that it was a futile and ineffective plan to irritate Wayne really didn't matter. It was a plan.

Nina picked two eggs out of the fridge and wandered over to the stove, pulling out... a wok and a pot.

Cooking was a weird, weird thing in her world.

"I like vanilla best," Nina said, "but, like, what flavour do you want???????????"

[thishouseishaunted]

"Vanilla's good," Mae said, staring at the pots with fascination. "Are you cooking it?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Yeah!!!!!! This is how we make ice cream back home!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" she said happily, getting out a few bowls. "It'll turn out cold though, like, don't worry about it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[thishouseishaunted]

"That is so counterintuitive," Mae said. "I love it."

She came over to watch, hopping back up to sit on the counter. "Can you show me?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Yeah, sure!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, figuring the whole counterintuitive thing was yet another 'this world was weird about cooking' thing since, obviously, her world made total sense. "Okay, like, so to make ice cream, you need one egg, a wok, and a pot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Like, I have two eggs here, but I can't make them both at once or else I'd get cake, not ice cream!!!!!!!!!!!!! And, like, if I had one egg and a cup of sugar, then I'd get pudding!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

There were so many reasons why Nina's cooking gave Wayne headaches, Mae. So many.

[thishouseishaunted]

"That is definitely not actually how food works," Mae said cheerfully. "Shouldn't you need cream? Also maybe . . . ice?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Nope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Nina said, just as cheerfully, as she turned the stove on, crossed her arms, and tapped her feet impatiently. "I've got all I need right here!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

She... had not actually added the egg into anything yet, no. Or even cracked the shell. And there was definitely nothing in either the pot or the wok.

[thishouseishaunted]

It was like watching a small child with a kitchen playset.

"So . . . what would you need if you weren't making vanilla?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Nothing else," Nina chirped, tapping her toes a few more times, for good measure, before abruptly flying into a flurry of action.

The pot now had something that looked like stew in it, which she stirred vigorously (and not spilling a drop!) before she stopped and tossed what looked like fried rice in the wok. Nina alternated between the two of those things with that egg--that she still hadn't actually touched--disappearing in the mayhem of what she was doing to the stove.

[thishouseishaunted]

". . . Then how do you know which flavor you're making?"

[bookbeltof_love]

"Because I decided on what flavour I was making before I started!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Did that make sense? No! But also yes!

And, as she tossed the rice (where had it come from?) and stirred the stew (again, what?) one last time, she dumped them both into the bowl and... and...

Abruptly as she'd started cooking, she was done.

And in the bowl perfectly delicious looking vanilla ice cream.

"Tah-dah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

[thishouseishaunted]

"I'm pretty sure you just broke so many natural laws," Mae said. "But I haven't taken a science class in forever, so whatever."

[bookbeltof_love]

Nina set the ice cream by Mae, since there was still another egg to use up for making ice cream for herself.

"Summer says it's, like, black magic," Nina mused, starting the whole cycle over again. "But, like, everyone at home cooks this way????????????????? Wayne and I had a big argument when he said ice cream has sugar in it?????????????? And I was all 'um, no??????????????????' because when I make it, it really doesn't???????????????"

[thishouseishaunted]

"The way you make it it seems to involve fried rice and stew," Mae said. "Which seem to lend themselves less to sweet flavors than sugar would."

[bookbeltof_love]

"I guess," Nina said, a little doubtfully. "I mean, like, it's just how it works??????????? If I had beef and a cup of sugar I could make a cream pie?????????????? But it would still look the way I cooked ice cream???????????"

[thishouseishaunted]

". . . What does it make if you actually use cream?"