Headspace family

Day 6 : Cooking experiment

This morning was strangely peaceful, for Louis had not played any pranks and Niall had not cried everyone awake. Everyone was in the living room with the television opened, though nobody even glanced at it. Niall played with plastic food in a corner of the room, Liam had his computer on his lap and was gaming, Harry and Louis were playing with a chess game (throwing the pieces at each other, not actually playing) and I sat on the couch, drinking a coffee as I read a book.

Of course, I sometimes lifted my gaze from the pages to keep an eye on the kids, but there had been no need for me to act yet. Chess pieces apparently did not hurt a lot when received on the forehead, because the two boys had both received their lots of it but did not throw a fuss. If anything, their skin was getting slightly red where they had been hit.

The TV show for kids that had been playing changed for a cooking show and Harry stopped his actions, frowning at the television. He apparently did not know what that was. His frown quickly turned into a curious expression, then to a fascinated one as the episode progressed. He was so engrossed in it that, when they were done with whatever they were cooking, he clapped.

I should have seen it coming. When the episode was over and he walked over to me, looking all innocent before taking a seat on the couch, I should have had doubts. It was not long before he tugged on my sleeve, looking up at me with puss-in-boots-like eyes, and asked if we could make our own TV show. I giggled and shook my head, ruffling his hair lightly. "No Harry, we can't make a TV show. We don't have cameras and producers and many more things needed for those," I explained. With a pout, he turned to Liam, who stopped playing to give him his attention.

"Well, we can't do a TV show, but we can certainly cook something can't we?" Liam said, glancing at me for approval. Harry squealed happily and jumped into the oldest's lap while I bit my lip, wondering if Libby would get angry if we used her kitchen. Plus, it was a lot of work to cook a meal with children. "We can make something simple. Like a cake," added Liam, like he was reading her mind.

"Alright, I'll ask Libby," I ended up agreeing, closing my book then putting it down on the nearby table. I stood up, holding my coffee to my lips, and walked to the kitchen. The cook was sitting on a stool and writing in some kind of binder. "Libby?" I called out, leaning against the counter.

"Yes?" she replied, lifting her head from her papers to look at me. I rarely stepped into her territory, so she was surprised to see me there.

"The boys would like to bake a cake. I know you don't like others in your kitchen, but they would be very happy. I don't know if you had any dessert planned already for today..." I explained, before finishing my coffee and putting my cup in the dishwasher.

"You're right, I dislike it, but only because it returns to me like a mess. And as a matter of fact, I did not get started on tonight's dessert yet, so it's the perfect day for your little experiment with the boys. However, I am to stay here and watch over everything to make sure my kitchen does not turn into hell. I have to work on next week's menu anyways so I'll be here," she agreed, much to my surprise.

When I came back to the living room, everyone sat on the floor in a circle around Liam's laptop, looking at dessert recipes. Niall was on his lap, the most interested with the pictures of delicious sweets. He and Harry cheered when I announced that the cook had agreed and I smiled. We had not done any activity ever since I got there, so I thought it was quite a good idea.

I was about to ask which dessert they had agreed upon when Niall started tapping at the screen, only to be stopped by Liam. "That!" the youngest protested, trying to free his hand. Liam had stopped on a chocolate cheesecake recipe and now that everyone was looking at it, I knew that was what we would make. The four of them had this sparkling gaze that came with the thought of eating something with chocolate.

"Alright, let's get ready!" I told them, waving for them to follow me to the kitchen. Liam took care of printing out a copy of the recipe (it was too dangerous to keep the laptop in the kitchen with liquid and kids), and I dressed the boys with aprons that Libby had gotten out. Of course, I also wore one. Where they had come from, I had no idea.

Making a cake ended up being much harder than it should have been. I had barely started counting the eggs we needed that Louis had grabbed three and threw them in a glass bowl, breaking them in the process. I had to threw them away, wash the bowl, then do the whole counting thing again. Then we had to add water to the mix. It took about ten minutes for Liam to measure the right amount, because it had to be exactly right. I would've never thought him to be a perfectionist. When I finally had the cup of water in my hands, Louis pulled on my arm with a grin and the water ended up all over the counter.

"Louis! There's water everywhere!" Libby complained, quickly moving her papers off the counter to make sure they would not be ruined. And complain, she did. Every single thing we did, we were warned not to spill it, not to break anything and other stuff.

I cleaned up the water, Harry holding onto my hips for some reason, then measured the water myself and added it in the bowl. However, while I had been busy with that, Louis had found the flour and covered Niall's face with it. Niall, who thought he could use the opportunity, dipped his hand in the halfway done cake mix.

Half an hour later, I was no further advanced in the conception of our cake. Louis kept making messes on purpose, Harry wouldn't let go of me no matter what, Niall ate every ingredient he could catch, and Liam was painfully slow because of his obsession with perfection. All while supporting Libby's protests.

I had not given up because I did not want to disappoint the boys, but they ended up getting tired, so we never finished the cake. We did make sure to clean up so Libby would allow us in her kitchen again in the future, though.

Because even if this experiment had not been a huge success, we had laughed a lot too, and we had agreed to try it another time. Perhaps with something easier though, like a premade cake mix they sold at the grocery store. 

Hello everyone! I know my chapters are long to be out and I apologize about it. But I'm happy to say that I have already planned all of the next one. Today, I have two important questions for you. First of all, it has been brought to my attention that some of you would like to see Zayn appear. I have thought about it before I started this story and still have no answer, so I will ask you. Do you want Zayn to be there? And if yes, do you want him to be in a headspace too or not? The second question is about romance. I would like to add it to the story, but I want your opinion on it. I thank you all in advance for answering these! 

By the way, I want to thank all of you guys, my readers, because we have reached 9k reads and over two hundred votes :)