"This was the best night ever!"
It was the tenth (10th) of December and Florence was with taking a walk with Milo, when her phone rang. Looking at the screen, she saw it was her mother.
"Hey mom, what's up?"
"Hi honey, I was wondering if you and your brother could go to the supermarket to pick up a few gingerbread house building kits?"
"Sure, how many do you want?"
She could hear Nora humming while she thought, "How about just two (2)? I invited Dylan, by the way!"
"That's perfectly fine mom. Are we doing like a competition?"
"Yes! Your father and I on one team. You and either Milo or your boyfriend, whoever is not on a team can be the referee."
Letting her know that was okay, she hung up and told her brother what their mom wanted them to do. Which ended up with her eardrums being screamed off and her arm nearly being pulled out of its socket.
Florence was pulled all the way to the nearest Target. When they reached, she yanked her arm back and massaged her shoulder, while glaring at her sibling. She desperately wanted to kick him in his crotch for that.
"Sometimes you act like a fucking child. That shit hurt like a bitch, do you forget you are basically a whole two (2) feet taller than me?!"
Seeing that she was genuinely pissed off at the way he pulled her, he embraced her and apologised. The younger of the two could never stay mad at her brother, no matter how wild and idiotic he could be at times.
Breaking out into a grin, she told him it was fine, but reminded him that he needed to mindful of the fact she was so much shorter and he was a lot stronger than she was. Milo promised he would learn to be more aware.
Heading inside, they searched for the biggest gingerbread house kits the store had and purchased them. Once they stepped out, the duo realised that it was snowing heavily and would be incredibly hard for them to walk all the way home.
"Fuck, who can we call to come to get us? Dylan can't cause, his parents have Eden's car and Leo's is at the mechanic's."
She watched as her brother whipped his cellphone out and dialled a number, before putting it up to his ear. Florence could kind of hear what she assumed to be a female voice speaking from the speaker.
"Hey Viv, could you do me a favour?"
"Thanks, can you come to pick my sister and I up at the Target on Main Street?"
"Alright, thanks again. See you in a bit."
Milo turned to his sister, only to see her wiggling her eyebrows at him and smiling weirdly. Rolling his eyes, he playfully shoved her and told her to quit it. She continued to just wag her eyebrows at him to annoy him, which worked.
"So, Viv huh?"
"Vivian, you dummy."
"I'm just saying, I have never seen your face that shade of red ever when on the phone with anyone. So, brother dearest, do tell do tell."
At the realisation that she saw his rose-red cheeks, his face was flushed and he was blushing again. Coughing, he quickly covered his whole lower face with his sleeve to block his sister from seeing it.
"She's just a friend, Shrimp."
He could tell immediately Florence was not buying what he was selling. Cursing inwardly at her perceptiveness, he knew he would have to tell her the truth.
"Okay. She and I are friends, but I do have feelings for her, but she does not know so shut up. Vivian also lives in Toronto actually, she's from there but her sister lives here."
Milo watched as a massive grin spread across his sibling's face. He knew incessant teasing was going to ensue from here on out and it would not end till he told Vivian or he no longer liked her.
"Interesting. Well, I do hope you tell her at some point, don't wait forever Mimi."
"Thank you and maybe I will soon, but for now drop it, please."
Assuring him that she would, they stood there for a couple (2) more minutes till their ride arrived. Once she did, they quickly climbed in and they were off. The two women were introduced and spent the hour-long drive talking and teasing poor Milo to death.
It was a couple of hours since the two Green's siblings had picked up the gingerbread building kits and Dylan had just arrived. They had decided it would be couple verses couple, so Milo opted to be the judge. It was time for them to start and everyone was basically vibrating in their seats from excitement.
Nora and Paul had not seen the size their two (2) children had gotten when they had gotten dropped off by Vivian. So to say they were surprised when they brought out these two (2) massive boxes, that would be an understatement.
Both of the younger Green's watched in awe as their parents jaws fell open and their eyes went wide. That was the exact reaction they wanted, Florence could not help herself and quickly snapped a picture of the two looking absolutely dumbfounded.
"Where on earth did you guys find these things?"
"That is not a gingerbread house, that's a whole ass edible mansion!!"
The trio all doubled over, laughing their asses off at Paul's description, clutching their stomachs, they all leaned on each other for support.
"Mum, we got them at Target, they had this huge display with all of those, so we said 'Why the fuck not?' You guys reaction was the best thing I have seen all day!"
Dylan spoke up after his best friend, "Paul, you describing it as an edible mansion. Oh my word! That was brilliant!!"
Rolling their eyes, the older couple motioned for them to get started.
"Alright everyone! Here are the rules, you are not allowed to copy one another, you're not allowed to try to distract the other side and you're not allowed to sabotage. Breaking any of these will be rewarded with a five (5) points deduction. I will be judging on three (3) categories. First (1st) use of icing, second (2nd) decoration and third (3rd) structural integrity. The team on the right are Nora and Paul, their name is Sugarplum Fairies. The team on the left is Shrimp and Dylan, their name is Snowmen Crushers."
Looking at all four (4) of them, Milo shook his head in disbelief and said, "Guys, what the fuck are these names?"
He watched as they all shrugged and murmured that they thought they were quite cute names. Shaking his head, he told then to go ahead and start.
Florence wanted their gingerbread mansion to look like one that hopped right out of the candy land board game. They had purchased several other candies and chocolates to add for variety.
She ordered Dylan to go melt some chocolate over the stove for a little chocolate pond, her plan was to surround it with peanuts after.
The young couple were working diligently together to create their masterpiece.
Turning over to the elders, Paul was leaning back in his chair and shovelling Reese's pieces into his mouth.
Finally realising what her husband was doing, Nora looked up from where she was icing the walls together and yelled, "OI! STOP EATING THE DECORATIONS AND DO SOMETHING!"
This in turn made him jump and fall off of his seat with a rather loud thud. Placing both of his large hands onto the table, he heaved his well built form up, off the ground.
Grumbling, the rest of them watched him pick up the other bag of icing and start to ice the other wall, all while still sulking.
Everyone chuckled at how he was acting, it was very childish but in the best way possible. He looked like a child who had just gotten scolded by his mother for not doing something.
A half hour had passed at this point and both teams were doing the finishing touches to their builds.
Not too long after, the four (4) builders declared themselves done and placed down their materials.
Turning to Milo, he watched them all with a blank face and stroked his imaginary beard, which caused all of them to roll their eyes simultaneously.
"Let me start with Team Sugarplum Fairies."
Getting off his chair, he made his way over to his parents table, where their build was themed after a house that was covered with snow.
The roof was decked out with icing icicles, chocolate buttons to look like christmas lights and a light dusting of icing sugar for a snow effect.
The walls were lined with white, topped off with sprinkles. Surrounding the house was more white and sugar, but on top of the white was little dots candies.
Nora had covered the door with a light green and put a yellow Reese's piece, that had not been consumed by Paul, as a doorknob.
It was fairly simple, but he liked it. Milo opened the notes app on his iPhone and gave them 98 points.
"I'm not saying till shrimp's own has been judged too, so do not ask."
All four (4) of them closed their mouths and pouted.
Rolling his eyes, he made his way over to his little sister's and best friend's building.
"Alright, Team Snowman Crushers."
The roof was very similar, however, she added a scalloped design to the top and where they connected, a little round sprinkles was placed.
The walls were covered in a blue icing, which then had different coloured m&ms placed on top. The base mansion, itself was surrounded by peppermint wheels.
Dylan had poured a thin layer of chocolate in the shape of a pond, he liked that it was lined with peanuts. Resting on the chocolate itself was some small fondant fish.
The ground was dusted with icing sugar and dollops of light pink icing was placed around. Little lollipops were stuck into them, symbolising trees.
Dylan had iced vertical pink stripes on the door and placed a small sprinkle, like the one on the roof as their door knob.
Liking the homage to their favourite board game, he typed into his phone their points.
"Alright, will both teams step forward."
Florence, Nora, Paul and Dylan stepped forward, looking at Milo anxiously.
"Both of these are incredible and I love them both a lot. However, only one can win. The team who had the most points are, Team Snowmen Crushers with ninety nine (99) points. Congratulations, you get nothing."
"How much did we get?"
"Ninety eight (98) dad."
"FUCK. Sorry, congratulations though my little flower and Dylan."
They all hugged and went on to take several pictures, before eating parts of the houses. All in all, it was a good night for them all.
"Thank you for being my partner Amore."
"Of course baby."