My Almost Best Friend

Chapter 18

Chapter 18:"

Back at the house the three of us sat crisscross applesauce on my bedroom rug.

"So what should we do now?" I asked, waiting for suggestions.

"I don't know," Emma answered.

"Uh," Caden mumbled, "We could go to Taco Bell?"

"Seriously Caden? We just ate!" Emma whacked him with her purse.

"We could..." I paused as the three of us smiled knowingly. In unison we all said, "Hotels!"

Ah, Hotels. Our beloved childhood game. Well actually my mom's since it was made in the 80's. Whoever decided to discontinue making them was missing out on a fortune.

Lucky for us, my mom had kept onto hers.

"I call red!" I shouted quickly. Haha, the lucky game piece was mine.

I received very frustrated looks from the two of them.

We lay out the board, set up the land deeds, and distributed money.

Basically the game was an amazing version of Monopoly, however way less boring and dull.

In Hotels, the object of the game is to buy land, build up the hotels that belong on them, and place entrances in which the lucky person landing on it had to stay at the hotel and pay you.

Pretty simple, but extremely fun and intense. Also, occasionally demoralizing. Let's just say our family is mostly made up of big fat cheaters.

"Ha, 6!" Emma cheered. "I get to roll first."

She rolls a 3 and lands on the buy Boomerang spot.

"I think I will," she says slapping $2500 in the bank.

Caden goes next, rolling a 4.

"Darn, it's build," he grumbles. You see, you can't build if you don't have a hotel deed.

Hours later, Emma's gone bankrupt, and it's between me and Caden.

I have President, (the best hotel in the game), Waikiki, and Safari, whereas he has Le Grande, Taj Mahal, and Fujiama, and is dangerously low on money.

"Your turn," I say and he lands on an entrance to President.

"How many nights?" I say evilly.

He rolls the die and cringes. "It's a 6."

I laugh like a physco path. With presidents charge of $1200 a night, his roll leaves him moneyless, and I am the champion.

"Yay!" I scream, then immediately cover my mouth, remembering the 9 sleeping children in my house.

Checking the clock, I see that it is now almost 2am.

"My mom had better not make me go to school tomorrow," I yawn.

"I'm going to bed," Caden mutters, as he trudges out to his place on the couch.

"Night," I say to Emma. No response.

"Emma?" I hiss.

I see that she has fallen asleep on my bed.

Oh no. This will not do. So I kindly, pick her up and chuck her on my beanbag chair.

I sleep like a princess.

========================

I wake up to golden rays of sunshine streaming through my room. My phone reads 10:00.

I smile to myself realizing that my mom has decided to let me skip school today.

Emma yawns and sits up. "I'm starving."

"Me too," I realize.

As we enter the kitchen I notice something.

"Do you here that?" I say.

"No, it's silent," she yawns.

"Exactly."

She looks around, bewildered. "Where is everyone?"

I shrug, as I scan the pantry.

"Whole grain Cheerios, Cream of wheat, and V8 juice are basically our only options."

She sighs. "What about pancakes?" she asks pointing at the half empty bag of mix.

"Um," I hesitate, cooking isn't exactly my specialty, but it does sound amazing. "Why not."

She preheats the oven and gets out a frying pan.

I decide to handle making the batter. Okay. 1 cup of batter, 2 cups of water. Easy peasy. I dump the contents into a small bowl, like a pro. Piece of cake.

However, it doesn't look like enough, so I repeat the steps.

Emma walks over and frowns. "It looks too soupy."

"Yeah, it kind of does. I'll add another cup of batter. Actually, two."

I do this, but now it looks a little bit too dry. Maybe a half cup of water would work better.

Digging through the drawer of baking supplies, I can't find it anywhere, so I just fill the cup up about halfway. It spills all over the counter, so I do it again.

I repeat this process over and over. Too dry. Too soupy. Too much. Not enough.

Finally the bowl is filled to the rim and looks like it could overflow at any second.

I slowly walk over to the stove, where Emma is impatiently waiting. "That's a lot of batter!" she laughs.

"I know that," I grumble.

She scoops the batter onto the pan and flips them perfectly. "Now that," she says matter of factly, "Takes skill."

"I could do that too," I brag.

"Then do it," she says raising her eyebrows.

"Fine." I take the spatula from her, and inch it underneath the pancake. It splits apart like jello.

"It's not ready yet," she laughs.

"Fine, I'll wait," After a few minutes I ask, "Is it done yet?"

"Oh it's been done."

I glance down at the steaming brown pancake and frantically try to flip it. Oh I flip it alright. Right into Emma's face.

"Ow!" she shrieks. "Hot pancake in my face."

I try to stifle a laugh.

"This isn't funny!" she protests, and before I know what is happening, she's chucking the other pancakes at me.

Oh I see how it is. Kitty likes to scratch. Well two can play at this game.

Using the big mixing spoon, I fling a glob of batter in her face.

She returns the favor by drizzling chunky batter off the whisk and into my hair, so I dump the bag of flour over her head.

Screaming, she dumps the whole bowl of batter down my shirt.

We probably would've done worse if our moms didn't walk in right at that moment.

"What on earth!" they shout in creepy synchronization.

"Bree Thalia Willows!"

"Emma Avory Mecham!"

Ouch, the middle names.

"What were you doing!" Aunt Marin screeches.

"Making breakfast," Emma sighs.

"Where were you?" I ask.

"Picking up breakfast!" my mom says, aggravated. "And now, neither of you will be getting any of it. Caden, and all of the kids behind them, begin laughing at us.

"Now go wash up!" Aunt Marin says.

"And when you're done, I expect this kitchen spotless!" My mom shrieks.

This is why I don't cook.