ORPHANED

:: sixty-four ::

"please tell me what's in the box." george had asked, pointing at the cardboard box, sapnap set on the dining table. the same box they had ventured out into a random post office in the middle of a highway to pick up.

"no." sapnap dusted his hands.

"i think i deserve to know, you brought it to my apartment." george pushed a corner of the box with his hand.

"george if you ask me, it looks like one of those human trafficking crates." quackity joked from where he sat at the table, not phased by the box as much as george had been.

"was that supposed to make me feel better?" george glared at quackity.

he shrugged, "take it as you will."

"oh he'll take it alright." sapnap laughed as he handed george a kitchen knife. "open it."

"i don't want to, what the hell is in the box sapnap?" george stared at the knife in his hands, not completely sure if this was a great idea.

"open it. open it." both quackity and karl chanted, staring at the box, excited for the contents on the inside.

george turned to dream.

"go on." dream tried to be as encouraging as he possibly could be.

"if this makes a mess wilbur is going to kill you all, one by one." george made his first incision into the box, nerves calmed after turning back from dream.

"will wouldn't kill dream." sapnap contradicted from where he stood next to george.

"that's just not true." dream responded, knowing enough people wanted to kill him he couldn't count them all on both hands.

george reluctantly pulled back the flaps of the box. quackity and karl took it into their own hands, grabbing the box from george.

"you're taking too damn long george." quackity pulled the tape off the side of the box, for absolutely no reason whatsoever.

george handed the knife back to sapnap. "what is it?" he peered over the table, hoping he could catch a glimpse inside the bubble wrap.

"that looks like a child." karl giggled from where he looked into the box.

"what?" sapnap stood wide eyed. "dream do you think we picked up the wrong package?"

george scoffed, "it's not a child, i'm not sure what it is though." karl helped him lift the contraption from the box. when it was set on the table they all circled it.

"it's an easy bake oven, you're an idiot george." quackity laughed as he picked up the spatula inside the box.

"what does that even mean?" george stared at the giant purple oven in front of him. "is this my gift?"

he turned to dream with sad eyes. dream smiled back, "no george, of course not."

"idiot, we're going to use it." sapnap pushed george out from in front of the box and into dream's side.

"what are we going to make is the question." together quackity, karl, and sapnap dug through the box, looking for a recipe they found suiting.

"why are we doing this?" george turned to look up at dream.

"dunno, thought it would be fun." dream smiled back down at george.

"what if we make breadsticks?" karl held up a package.

"have you ever tried to make breadsticks before?" george stared at the package in karl's hands.

"no."

"worst mistake of my life." george shook his head.

"well i guess we won't make breadsticks." karl set down the package. quackity turned to read the package, laughing his head off.

"karl-" he stopped laughing to breath. "these are pretzels."

the other four joined in on the laughter.

although george hadn't really wanted to bake, together they had decided to make a double decker cake for him out of the two different cake mixes they had. george and dream claimed the chocolate chip cake mix, leaving the brownie mix for the other three.

of course this turned into a competition, filled with sabotage, and messes of things that weren't needed for the mix. dream and george had the advantage of putting their cake in the oven first. this didn't stop the other three from trying to ruin their creation. at one point, karl even picked up the entire machine and ran around george's living room.

"this is sabotage." dream called out after karl as he juked him around the coffee table.

"you guys have like telepathic abilities, you're cheating." quackity yelled back as he aggressively mixed, sapnap holding the wriggling bowl against his chest.

"no we don't." george rolled his eyes as he wiped the counter, still trying to clean as they went.

"our cake is ready, put down the oven karl." dream pointed a spatula at him.

"over my dead body." karl giggled.

"that's enough permission for me. george hand me a knife."

"what no, no knives." sapnap was being the only reasonable one, that was not good.

"no fair." george set down the knife.

"i'm going to tackle you if you don't put down the oven, karl." dream bent his knees, getting prepared to tackle the pink haired boy.

"if i put down the oven will you still tackle me?" karl began setting down the oven, seemingly wanting to get tackled.

"...if you want?"

he nodded, setting the oven down at his feet.

dream shrugged, charging forward as he pulled himself and karl into the ground.

"you guys are being like children, get off the floor and go help george ice your cake.

dream stood first, dusting his thighs before offering a hand to pull karl off the floor.

the pink haired boy shook his head from where he lay on the ground. "i think i'm going to stay down here for a while."

dream shrugged again, picking up the oven and setting it next to george on the dining table. "what icing does the birthday boy want?"

"stop flirting." quackity scolded dream, glaring at the blonde from where he continued over mixing his batter.

"your cake isn't going to rise if you keep mixing it." george glared back at quackity.

"shut up you don't know anything george."