Sugar Cookies [OPEN]

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

She stared at the egg carton, briefly wondering if she would be able to juggle two or three of the eggs. It was basically just playing catch with oneself, wasn't it? If she did drop an egg or two, it wouldn't be too hard to clean up...

Willow glanced at the tiled floor of the kitchen for a moment before her gaze wandered to the cupboards and small closets of the room that no doubt held mops, brooms, and other cleaning supplies. She obviously wouldn't mind cleaning up a mess that she created herself--

The oven abruptly beeped as it preheated, reminding Willow of her original reason for being in the kitchen. She gathered an egg and some butter and shut the refrigerator before making her way back to the counter with the rest of her ingredients.

She could learn to juggle another time.

"Okay, let's get the flour, baking soda, and baking powder all set..." Willow mixed the dry ingredients in a small bowl before setting it aside and bringing the larger bowl closer to her. The larger bowl was soon filled with sugar, butter, the egg, and vanilla extract, and Willow cheerfully beat the mixture.

It was about an hour before the first day of school, and what better time than to make sugar cookies?

[Apollo de Costa]

A p o l l o { s h i e l d } D e C o s t a
>> ftm >> mutant >> 21 >> teachers' aide

Why someone was baking when Apollo wasn't even fully away was a mystery. /How/ they were baking, really, was the question the mutant asked himself as he yawned widely, rubbing his eyes as he moved around the long island in the middle of the room. Standing in front of the pantry, he picked out a pack of pop-tarts, dropping the silver wrapper into a trashcan and taking a seat at the counter island as he tried to wake himself up.

The olive skinned girl was clearly wider awake than he was - and happy about it. Apollo couldn't imagine why - maybe she really liked baking, or perhaps she was genuinely excited about the first day of school. He himself was nervous, though Apollo admitted that their situations were rather different - all the students had to do the first day was get to class and not blow anything up. And she was talking to herself, the teachers' aide noted, biting along the crust of the flat pastry.

Frankly, that was the least of the oddities he saw on a day-to-day basis - as long as she wasn't setting something on fire or trying to blow up her booklet on the rules of the school, he wasn't going to say anything or interfere. Baking was harmless - right? "What are you making?", Apollo found himself asking. Easy, normal question - and he was curious, having a definitive lack of cooking skills himself.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

"Good morning!" Willow said cheerfully to the young man that had entered the kitchen, amused at how sleepy he seemed to be and hoped that he didn't walk into any chairs or tables while yawning.

She made sure to stay out of his way as he got food before plopping himself at the counter island and continued with her baking. At the rate she was going, she would be able to have all of the cookies out of the oven and on the cooling racks before classes started. People would be able to enjoy them throughout the day (as long as, of course, she got at least one or four).

"I'm making sugar cookies," she replied with a grin while mixing all of the ingredients with a devious delight. She then divided all of the batter in half, throwing one half into another waiting bowl. "I'm going to have half of them plain because I don't know too many people from this year yet and who knows who has what kind of allergies. The other half will need some candy or something..."

Willow paused, mulling over the decision about candy, before moving again and starting to form the plain batch into small ball shapes to start baking. Once she threw the first rack in the oven, Willow began looking in all the cupboards that she could reach.

"This place does have candy, right?" she asked, half to herself. She glanced up at the couple of cupboards placed atop the refrigerator and abruptly morphed into an eagle to fly up. Using talons, Willow opened the cupboards and gave off a happy screech upon finding a bag of M&Ms. A well-aimed smack of a wing brought the bag down to the floor where it miraculously stayed in one piece before Willow landed next to it, back as a human.

"I hope these weren't for Halloween," was all Willow said before dumping the bag of candy into the second half of the sugar cookie batter.

She brought the bowl over to the counter island and hopped up on the seat next to the young man. While stirring the M&Ms into the batter, she said with a smile, "I'm Willow Foster, by the way, a sophomore this year. Nice to meet you. I think we met a couple of days ago, near one of the parks...?"

[Apollo de Costa]

A p o l l o { s h i e l d} D e C o s t a
>> ftm >> mutant >> 21 >> teachers' aide

He'd seen stranger, Apollo knew. People with scales and tentacles and horns. He'd seen plenty of birds, too - even an eagle, once, from very far away. That didn't prepare him for the two colliding - nor the sight of a student flapping up as a bird to get down a bag of what looked like sugar. Apollo was half out of his chair when the girl - bird - student - landed and was once again the perky brunette he'd met a few days ago. Settling back down into his chair, the man mechanically took a bite out of his pastry.

He thought about scolding the girl, but stopped himself. She hadn't broken or knocked anything over - excepting what she'd meant to knock over - and she'd been observant enough to realize that some students would have allergies that she wouldn't know about. So, instead, after he'd swallowed another bite of his breakfast, the teacher-in-training spoke up. "I, ah, think there's a stool in one of the cupboards down there.", he commented mildly, scooting over a little as she took the seat next to him. He wondered if saying what he had could be construed as not wanting a student to practice with their powers? He didn't like his own, but that didn't necessarily mean that he wouldn't want others to not use their powers if they wanted... Apollo mused over the question quietly, almost missing Willow's comments as she stirred.

"Oh - oh, yeah! Hello, I didn't recognize you.", he admitted sheepishly, half-grinning at the shape shifter as he moved a bit in his seat to half-turn towards the other mutant. "How have you been lately? I haven't met many of the students yet - I'm still meeting some of the teachers.", he chuckled. his eyed the mix as he waited for a reply, wondering if they would turn out alright after she was done.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

Willow blinked then giggled at her fellow housemate's light comment about a stool being in the cupboard, subtly hinting that she could use that for further endeavors whenever she needed something up high (and, judging by her short stature, that could be often).

"Sorry if I wasn't supposed to fly in the house," she joked, "but I can't help but fly when I can. It's such an amazing experience! Good to know about the stool, though. I'll try to  remember it for next time."

She finished up her mixing and brought over a second sheet for the candy sugar cookies, plopping little balls of the dough evenly over the pan. "I've been doing good, thanks," she said. "Just getting ready for school and all, really. I was bored this morning, though, as you can see." She gestured widely over the cookies with a grin. "This is your first year here, right? If it is, get used to seeing random baked goods everywhere. I like to bake a lot. What kind of treats do you like?"

Willow finished placing the cookie dough balls on the baking sheet and checked on the candy-less cookies that were baking. "Is that all your having for breakfast?" she asked, looking at Apollo's pop-tarts. "That's not going to last you throughout the day. I'll make omelets. What do you want in yours?"

With that, Willow was back in the refrigerator, gathering up the carton of eggs, some butter, the milk, cheese, and what looked like pieces of ham from the dinner the night before.

[Apollo de Costa]

A p o l l o { s h i e l d} D e C o s t a
>> ftm >> mutant >> 21 >> teachers' aide

“It’s okay.” Apollo said, shaking his head to indicate that she wasn’t in trouble. She hadn’t blown anything up or set anything on fire, so he wasn’t going to give her detention or anything. It had been a reminder, really – and who could blame a person for wanting to fly? Given a choice, Apollo knew he’d trade his mutation-given power for flighty any day of the week. And she’d mentioned using the stool next time, which put him at ease – he might actually be listened to, for once. The thought amused the young man as he ate some more of his breakfast, watching as Willow plopped her bits of cookie dough down onto the pan with what was clearly skill born of repetition.

He smiled as she continued to talk, nodding along at the appropriate intervals. Cooking when you were bored was better than eating when you were bored, he thought. Maybe not for everyone else, though… “Hm? Oh, yeah – yes, it’s my first year here since I graduated.” Apollo replied, pausing to think when posed with a question. “Uh – I like peanut butter cookies a lot. Anything with peanut butter, really.” He glanced up from his mostly eaten breakfast as Willow grilled him on omelets, and he shook his head, raising a hand. “I’m fine, this is more than enough.” he denied. “I don’t need anything else til lunch.” He protested.

“And, ah, is a bird the only animal you can – turn into?”, he asked, grasping for a change in conversation. The young student seemed determined to make more food, and Apollo both didn’t want to feel guilty for someone else making him breakfast, and didn’t want to let her make him breakfast. It was probably inappropriate on some level, he was sure, Willow being a student and everything, even if she was merely trying to be kind. It was a nice gesture, which he could appreciate - but not take.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

The young woman nodded to Apollo's responses as she cracked a couple of eggs and began to whip them up for the omelets.

"Peanut butter is good," she said with a grin. "I approve. Ooohhh, I have this peanut butter crunch cake recipe! Maybe I'll make that tonight in case someone wants it for dessert!"

She momentarily abandoned the cooking omelets on the stove to check the cabinets for peanut butter. She frowned when she found only half a jar and mumbled something about shopping later before returning to the stove and tossing in cheese and pieces of ham into the omelet.

"If you say so," Willow said in response to Apollo claiming that a pair of poptarts would sustain him until lunch, although she didn't sound too convinced. Pointing to the large portion of omelet that she slid onto a plate, she added, "If you change your mind, I'm willing to share."

Willow switched out the batch of cookies from the oven, moving the candy-less ones to a rack to cool off while throwing the M&M batch into the oven to bake, before pouring herself some juice and plopping herself down next to Apollo for her own breakfast.

"I can change into a lot of different animals," she said, "but birds are one of my favorites. Actually, whenever I try to shift into a bird, it's always an eagle. It's the same with dogs. I always morph into a golden retriever. I wonder why..."

[Apollo de Costa]

A p o l l o { s h i e l d } D e C o s t a
>> ftm >> mutant >> 21 >> teachers' aide

"Crunch cake?", Apollo echoes, amused at the name and slightly confused; he'd never heard of it, although anything with peanut butter in it the man would try, at least once, strange name or not. "I'd try it." It's a kind of apology, or maybe a way to let Willow test her skills. She clearly wants to make somebody something, and why not make the class a cake? He didn't feel guilty or weird, and she was clearly in her element when baking - not that he quite understood how, as most things more complicated than soup were beyond him. "Where did you learn all of that, anyway? Most of the students here can barely turn their homework in on time."  he joked, leaning back into his chair as she took a seat and switched out the cookie pans.

And he would be the person to know - homework was what he spent a good chunk of time going over. Biology, Health class, and his personal favorite, English. Some of the answers he saw - well, clearly not everyone had read the material. Not his concern, of course; it wasn't his material. But it could be annoying or amusing by turns, and he pitied the teachers while trying to learn from them to make his own lesson plans.  Eyeing the plate of eggs, the young man shook his head. "No thanks. I might have some for lunch, if there's any left." He wasn't going to bet that there would be - anything even semi-edible and pre-made was usually cleared out of the fridge by lunchtime; living with a school full of teenagers made that a regular occurrence. And the adults in the school certainly didn't mind a snack or two between classes, either - something he was guilty of from time to time, too.

As Willow spoke up about here powers, Apollo nodded. He didn't understand it either, but then again, the 'why's and 'how's of mutation-given powers was still a hotly debated topic - among the people who understood that kind of thing genetically. "Maybe it's a mental thing? Like if your favorite dog is a golden lab, I guess that's what you'd want to turn into, instead of a poodle or something.", he suggested, shrugging. The aide wasn't particularly sure how his own mutation worked, but the theory was the first one to pop into his mind that was in any way useful. 'Maybe you're just stuck with them' probably wouldn't be much of a confidence booster.

[Deleted]

C R I T T E R
> > willow foster

She grinned when Apollo agreed to try her cake, whenever she made it. Hopefully she wouldn't forget...

Willow ducked her head and chuckled when the aid asked how she learned all of this cooking stuff. "It's actually kind of due to my mutation," she said. "I have a really high metabolism, it's why I'm small, but I eat a lot and instead of having to wake up my parents to feed me, they ended up teaching me how to cook. I just always kept up with it. I experiment a lot, but most of it is edible."

In between words and sentences, Willow continued to eat her breakfast, downing about half of her omelet before rising again to check on the baking cookies. The candied sugar cookies seemed done to her, and they soon joined their candy-less counterparts on the cooling rack. She swiped one of the plain sugar cookies to test it, seemingly satisfied with the results, before returning to her omelet, smirking when Apollo mentioned if there would be any left for lunch.

"Hmmm..." Willow pondered on Apollo's idea as to why she could only transform into a certain breed or species of an animal. "I hope not... I'd like to think that I don't have favorites like that. Although, I don't like bugs. It was very interesting being a butterfly, the one time I tried it, but being a bug seems to be easy to die..."