Swing High

3. cookies

10 years later

"Holly, are you even listening to me!?" Holly-ann was woken from her reverie by Hazel, who was standing next to her, hands on hips.

"Hmm? What do you want?"

"I was telling you about my friend. Were you not listening this entire time?"

Hazel had just finished her second year of college and the two were in the kitchen baking Christmas cookies, as it was December and the holiday was right around the corner. 

"I was thinking about something," replied Holly quietly, tearing her gaze from the kitchen window. Even thought it was December, there still hadn't been any real snow, instead, there were broken branches and remainders of autumn leaves laying on the ground outside. Holly-ann had to admit it looked pretty ugly. She wished it would hurry up and snow. She put oven mits on to attend to the oven, as the baking timer was about to go off. Ever since she was little, she had hated hearing alarms sound, and made it a pastime to stop everything right before it started screaming. She took a sheet of cookies out of the oven and set them on top to sit. 

"Wow look at this mess," she sighed, surveying the kitchen that her and her sister had destroyed in the process of creating Christmas joy. "We had better clean this up before mom gets home."

Hazel nodded and started piling dishes into the sink. Holly took out her phone and opened the Soundify app on her phone. Connecting to bluetooth, she started playing one of her favorite songs, and queued up a few afterwards. She set her phone down and got to work. 

"Not this again," whined her sister loudly. "What can't we listen to English music? And this song is two intense." 

Holly rolled her eyes and ignored her sister. If she wanted to blast Cypher pt. 4 while cleaning, nothing was going to stop her. She loved the Korean boy band BTS with all her heart, and would let no one criticize them in front of her. 

"Music transcends language. You should try listening to non-English bands sometimes," she threw at her sister, aggressively cleaning a cookie pan over the sink. She knew she was being a little dramatic, but then again, she was kinda dramatic about everything. 

Holly aggressively finished washing the dishes, wanting to forget how her mind had gone to the past for so long. She hated when something triggered unpleasant memories from when she was younger. Or from any unpleasant experience she had lived through. 

As if on queue, the cleaning of the kitchen was finished as the song ended. Holly sang the last line of Cypher pt. 4. 

"Ya player haters you should love yourself, brr."

Hazel shook her head in disgust.