Declassified: Avatar Next Generation

Chapter 42.3: Stalling for Frosting

Three days later, the house was...completely quiet. Josh wandered down the hall. Not a creature was stirring, not even a hungry Nate. Usually they at least tried to coordinate their meals together. Mella was nowhere to be seen, which was also weird. Josh knew she liked her space sometimes, but she'd been quiet and invisible for most of the three days, except to cook stuff. He went down to the stairs, before he was greeted by Nate from behind.

"Hey, surprise practice downstairs." Nate came up to Josh's side, putting a hand behind the kid's back, making sure he kept walking past the double doors.

"Is breakfast out of the question?" At nine in the morning, Josh sure hoped it wasn't.

"Won't take long at all." Nate said, leading him down to the training room, and away from the ballroom.

Mella pulled her ear away from the door. That had been close. She had been holed up for the good part of the three days in the ballroom, getting things ready for that night. Mella never wanted to mess with that much dust ever again.

She was actually almost done. All that was left was presents and cake. Once Mella was sure Josh was gone, she slipped out of the ballroom and almost collided with Sam.

"Easy, Ice Queen. You need something?"

"Yeah, wrapping. The stuff's in there."

Sam nodded and pulled a streamer off Mella's head. The waterbender had been busy. "Sure thing. Which one's mine?" Sam had a gag gift for the Avatar, but she didn't know what Mella found.

"Comic books. I'm gonna eat and get baking." Breakfast was an idea too.

Downstairs, Nate was running Josh through a custom obstacle course. Racing. "Keep going!" Nate called, jumping a flat, wooden six foot fence.

Josh was still trying to get across the monkey bars, two obstacles away. "Seriously, this couldn't have waited until after breakfast?" He breathed. Barely up and going all out intensity wasn't his thing. It wasn't his thing at STAR and it still wasn't his thing now.

"Oh you're fine. After this we have some bending combat." Nate jumped down from the climbing wall. As Josh started attempting to pull himself over the fence, Nate checked his phone. Nothing from Mella yet. So, stalling time was to keep going!

Back upstairs, Mella popped the cake pan into the oven and pulled out the muffin trays. After they cooled she put four of them in a clean towel and headed downstairs. It had been a while since Nate had gone down with Josh. They'd definitely need food, or at least something to keep Josh from getting majorly grumpy.

Mella walked in and instinctively ducked. A wayward fireball had hit the door frame.

"Oh yeah, that was great. If I was standing about twenty feet to the left. Don't kill the cook next time." Nate taunted, air blasting Josh a couple times. Someone had to be the tough teacher. And he was more than happy to be that teacher. Even if it wasn't a real training session.

'The cook' could only be one person. Josh looked back towards Mella. "Thank g-" He was knocked off his feet by an invisible air attack.

"Oops." Nate jogged over to help Josh up. "See? Not that long." They followed Mella out.

"Jeez Nate. Don't kill the guy." Mella chucked a muffin towards him.

Nate caught the muffin and started eating almost instantly. "I'm not. Don't worry."

Seriously dude, it's his birthday. Knowing Nate, Mella should've expected what his version of stalling would involve.

Mella turned around as soon as they were clear of the stairs and held up another muffin, still walking. "Josh, catch." Josh jumped slightly and just barely caught his, nodding his thanks. Mella kept talking. "Both of you, I'm trying something new in the kitchen, so if you guys would stay out, that would be great." It was more of Josh had to stay out, but calling the birthday boy out would be a dead giveaway.