•Behind the Scenes• Walker Scobell x OC

•Cinnamon•

THE NEXT HOUR WAS SPENT EATING and talking, catching up with each other and learning new things. The moment felt like a memory that would stay for a while. Candles were lit everywhere, and a warm hue was cast on the room. The sound of comfortable chatter and clinking of utensils was nice, not too loud or too quiet.

"I would love to learn how to bake, I can currently only make ramen right now." Leah said, scooping some salad onto her plate.

  Piper perked up. She actually enjoyed baking a lot. "Oh, we can make something together!"

  Leah looked up at Piper, just as excited. "Do you think we can make something tonight?"

  Piper thought. Chocolate chip cookies were super easy and simple to make. Uncle Rick must have overheard their conversation because he piped up. "Of course, we have tons of recipe books in the back."

  Piper exhaled. "How about chocolate chip cookies?"

"Can we make them blue?!" Walker asked excitedly beside her.

"Who said you were making them with us?" Leah smirked.

  He cocked his head towards Piper. "Um, Piper did. Pass the salad?"

"Um, Piper didn't." She said, picking up the salad bowl and setting it in front of him.
"Can I help make them too? I'm a pro baker." Aryan said with a big smile on his face.

"Okay, you both can help Leah and I." Piper gave in. She had the chocolate chip cookie recipe memorized, she made it all the time back at home. Baking was a good way to fill her time when she was bored in the house.

  The two boys gave a little cheer and started clearing their plates, putting them in the dishwasher. Piper and Leah soon followed, heading to the kitchen to get their ingredients.

  Walker was already grabbing ingredients from the cabinets, stuff like flour and sugar. Piper leaned on the counter, watching the boys try and figure out what would be in chocolate chip cookies. Aryan had the brilliant idea that perhaps chocolate chips would be in the cookies, and rushed over to where the chocolate was kept. Piper quirked up an eyebrow when she saw Walker bring out the cinnamon from a drawer. "Walker, these are chocolate chip cookies."

"Yeah, I know." He scoffed like it was obvious, placing the cinnamon next to the flour.

"Cinnamon is not chocolate. I've never made chocolate chip cookies before but I'm not that dumb." Leah said next to her. She reached to put the cinnamon back in the drawer but Walker grabbed the bottle before her.

"It's gonna make the cookies ten times better, trust." He said while nodding confidently. Piper was about to reach over and put the cinnamon back in the drawer but she heard a thud behind her. She turned around to see that Aryan had dropped three bags of chocolate chips.

"Oops." He said, reaching down to pick up the bags off of the tiled floors. Thankfully, none had opened and spilt chocolate all over. Piper helped pick the bags up, confused. "Why three bags?"

  Aryan looked down at the three in his hands. "Milk chocolate, white chocolate, and dark chocolate."

  Walker made an extremely exaggerated shudder. "Put the white chocolate back, you monster."

  Piper had to agree with Walker. White chocolate was overly sweet and tasted fake. Aryan made it obvious that he disagreed. "White chocolate is the best, what do you mean?"

  Walker just shook his head sadly, putting his hand over his heart like he was hurt. "Bro, how could you do this?"

  Aryan played along, sniffling like he was holding back tears. "Man, I'm sorry I didn't know how to tell you. It's me, not you."

  Walker let out a big sigh and fanned his eyes, trying to dry his 'tears'.

  Leah completely ignored their dramatics and put the white chocolate and the milk chocolate back, leaving the dark chocolate on the counter. Piper got out a piece of scrap paper and copied down the recipe.

"You get used to it after the fifteenth time." Leah spoke in a monotone voice. After working with the two teen boys for a season, Piper could guess that she was done with them.

"Okay, we are going to add all of the dry ingredients together." Piper said, pulling the boys back into reality.

"Hmm?" Walker said, with a lost expression on his face. Piper pointed to what she wrote on the paper. He walked up next to her and leaned his head forward, above her shoulder. Piper really hadn't been this close to a boy, except for when she had to take those horrible dance classes as a child that made the boys do lifts with the girls.

  She saw Leah in her peripheral vision raise an eyebrow at Aryan, signaling something silent.

  Piper quickly slid the paper to the left of her, allowing Walker to scooch over and look at the paper a little bit farther away from her. Walker cleared his throat and started gathering all of the dry ingredients, and Leah turned on the music to fill the unusual silence.

  Walker persisted, trying to get Piper to let him add cinnamon to the batter. After he asked about thirty more times, Piper let him add half a teaspoon to the mix.

  Rihanna played faintly in the background as Piper taught them how to properly crack an egg, instead of just smashing it against a bowl. After thirty minutes, the cookies were in the oven and a sweet smell was wafting through the kitchen. The adults in the other room chatted while having drinks and paid no mind to the kids at all.

  Beeping from the oven came just as they were finishing cleaning the last of the dishes they dirtied. Piper headed over to the oven, slipping on a cute pink oven mitt before opening the oven. She reached in and pulled out the golden brown cookies.

  She placed the rack on the counter and watched as the group stood over the cookies, admiring their work. Walker had already started reaching for a cookie on the edge of the rack when Piper slapped his hand away.

"Let them cool." She muttered, slipping off the oven mitt and putting it back in the drawer.

  Walker sighed and mumbled something incherhant before sitting on a stool next to the counter. Aryan, Leah, and eventually Piper joined him on different stools, waiting for the cookies to cool down.

Not even a minute later the kids gave up on waiting and grabbed a cookie, shoveling the sweet into their mouth. The chocolate was still warm, and was spread on everyone's mouths.

Piper would never say it out loud, but the faintest trace of cinnamon actually tasted good. No one said a word to Walker though because heaven knows how big his ego would get. A minute of silence followed after they all chewed their food, save for Walker making noises every bite he took.

  Leah scrunched up her nose in disgust in response to Walker's noises. "Ew Walker, Stop!"