[Neo Zone] Population: 23 Kids

Rice Krispie Atrocity

Ten froze in his tracks as he walked into the kitchen. All he wanted was to fill up his water bottle before he headed to the dance studio, but now he was pretty sure he was witnessing the preparation for a murder.

"What in the world is that?"

Hendery and Xiaojun whipped around with wide eyes before Lucas and Mark reminded them they had to hurry at the same time.

"Rice Krispie treats." Lucas answered for them, watching from the side.

Though it was more like Rice Krispies with a very tiny bit of marshmallows to hold them together. So they pulled out the marshmallow fluff to compensate for the half a bag Hendery ate before they knew what they were doing.

"Are you sure you're supposed to be baking when the lunch rush is about to start?"

"We don't need the oven and Johnny said we would be fine up here." Mark explained, skipping the part about the four of them having been told to be baking only with supervision.

Deciding it might be safe now, Ten continued on the completion of his reason to even be in the kitchen. He sat on the counter while his water bottle filled up, watching in amusement as they struggled to get the rice krispies to lay nicely in the pan because it kept sticking to the knife.

"If you butter the knife it won't stick. And make sure you let them stiffen up enough before you cut into them." Ten advised.

Xiaojun immediately grabbed the butter and started putting it on the sides of the knife with his finger, handing it to Lucas for him to deal with. They were warned this entire time to be quick with what they were doing so the marshmallows wouldn't stiffen on them in the middle of mixing in the rice krispies, and they were taking it a bit too seriously.

Hence why there were rice krispies on the floor and supplies everywhere. If Ten hadn't warned them to not cut into it immediately, they most definitely would have.

"You going to the studio?" Hendery asked, leaning against the counter now that his job was taken from him.

Ten turned off the faucet and jumped down from the counter.

"Yeah, thought I'd get there early to work on one of the dances." Ten took a sip from his water bottle because he filled it up a little too much. "Is Taro downstairs?"

"I think so."

Ten nodded and left the kitchen, leaving the twenty year olds to finish this on their own.

"What if we cut it in half and put marshmallow fluff between the two layers?" Xiaojun suggested, eyeing the tub still on the counter.

"Do we have chocolate to melt and cover the whole thing with?" Lucas asked.

Hendery ran to the cupboard, practically crashed into it, and pulled out the bag of chocolate they always kept for drizzling on top of things.

"And then we'll need sprinkles on top too." Mark added, so Hendery grabbed those too.

Lucas was about to cut the pan of rice krispies in half right then and there, but Xiaojun stopped him before he did. They still needed to set up a bit more.

They cleaned up while they were waiting, unsure of how long they had to wait. Mark kept poking the pan to try and see if that would help them determine it, but they still had no idea.

So instead they sat in the middle of the floor and played an extremely competitive and aggressive game of duck duck goose. An almost thirty minute long game of duck duck goose that ended in everyone exhausted.

"Think we can finish this now?" Xiaojun asked, nudging Mark's head with his foot because they were sprawled out.

"Probably."

The four of them helped each other off the floor, washing their hands again as they stared at the pan of rice krispie treats.

"How do we get them out?"

"Like this." Lucas answered, taking the pan, holding it upside down and jiggling it until it fell onto the counter in one piece.

Hendery got out a cutting board to slide under it so it wasn't just on the counter, and from there they cut it in half (after arguing about where half was and having to get out a ruler). Xiaojun and Mark started slathering the top of half of it with marshmallow fluff while Lucas and Hendery got the chocolate melted.

Turns out it's very possible to burn chocolate while trying to melt it. They thought the trick to put a cup of chocolate wafers in a bowl of hot water was just a fancy way to do it.

So they had a few visitors coming up to the kitchen to ask what was burning.

In the end, it looked like a brick of sprinkles because Hendery accidentally kept dumping sprinkles over the chocolate they coated it all with.

They were pretty sure they'd never need another lick of sugar after a piece of that.