Christmas Cookies {Open to Autumns~}

The scent of cookies filled the air of the Autumn Dormitory. Their overzealous, Christmas freak of a prefect, had taken the task of making cookies for the entirety of the Autumn dorm. There were twenty-seven students. Give or take a few that rarely show up. But twenty-seven of them registered. The blond aimed to at least make eighty-one cookies. So every student could have at least three. 'Maybe I should round it to ninety, so Aleta could bring some to her dorm..."

Leo wore a dark red apron, and a white long sleeved shirt that was rolled to his elbows. On his head was a Santa Claus hat. His face had smears of flour on it. He looked as if someone had taken a flour bag and smacked him in the face with it. The apron itself had probably more flour than Leo's face did.

The kitchen was another story. It was obviously not made for a lot of people in it. Or even a project this size. One section of the counter held a large mound of dough, and a plastic bag full of Christmas themed cookie cutters. Another was a half done batch of dough. And the other held cooling cookies. Just outside the kitchen was the dinner table. Where a good portion of it was covered in already done cookies. The rest of the table held sprinkles, frosting, and ready cookies to frost.

Christmas music played softly in the background, and the decorations were lit. A bright smile crossed the blond's face as he turned back to the half done dough, stirring to rid it of any lumps. Blue eyes glanced over toward the mound of dough. His younger sister held a look on concentration on her face as she did her best to flatten it. Although it did not look like it wanted to cooperate.

She too had a Santa hat on leo had to force it on her, but she had on a red apron, which held the words 'Merry Christmas' on them in cursive. A rolling pin was in her hands, but it didn't look like it was doing her much good.

Leo stepped away from his dough to help Aleta. With a handful of flour, he gently took the pin from her hands, and rubbed the flour onto the pin. Once he was satisfied with it, Leo handed her back the tool and returned to the dough. Although he watched her continue to battle her pile of dough out of the corner of his eye.

Jake walked into the dorm, Pepper following. With them, was the new girl Maria. Jake took their coats and put them on a chair. "Wow, smells good." He smiled towards Leo. Jake and Pepper just came from the courtyard, both of their hands were freezing. On the way back, they met Maria, and decided to invite her in. Besides. She seems like an interesting gal. Jake walked over to the cupboard, grabbed 3 mugs, and within a few moments Jake, Pepper, and Maria were sitting at the kitchen table with warm hot chocolate. "Wow. Can't believe the holidays are here already." Maria said, looking around. Dorms? Cute. I guess.

By the time Jake had entered the dorm with Pepper and Maria, Leo had finished making the dough for the next batch of cookies. However, seeing that his sister might take a while to cut out all her dough, Leo wrapped the top of the bowl so it would stay fresh while he waited. Turning away, he took the cooled pan of cookies. Ones that were ready to be decorated over to the table. The blond greeted the three with a smile. "Would you guys mind help decorating? We have a ton more to go."

Leo took a spatula, and began removing the sugar cookies from the pan, and placed them on the table. The cookies themselves were a myriad of shapes. From a Santa, to even a dove, or a star. Once they were laid out, the prefect removed the pan. "The frosting is in that bowl over there, go ahead and use the knife to put it on the cookies." He pointed out the bowl with his spatula before speaking again. "Try not to eat these, if there are any left over, I'll let you guys have them." With a wink, the prefect turned back into the kitchen to continue the baking of the cookies.

"Sure." Jake said giving a smile as he finished his hot cocoa. Pepper gave a small giggle and pointed to his face. "Crap" He mumbled, whipping the chocolate mustache off his lips. The tall student got up walked over to the side of the table that had decorations. "God Leo. You feeding a conference or something?" He laughed. "Oh, by the way this is Maria. The new girl. I think you two already met though, right?" He motioned the frosting spoon towards the girl then to Leo.

Pepper, having mixed feelings when around Leo got up silently and walked over to the table, standing beside Jake. "How do you..." She asked, over whelmed from the tons of decorations. "Oh ya, you're not much of a cook, are you?" He gave a sweet smile. The two started decorating the cookies, Jake showing Pepper the tips of applying cookie decor.

After everyone started working again, Maria looked around, sitting alone at the table. "Well, I don't know about you guys...But there is a proper outfit for every occasion." She said, standing up. Jake and Pepper turned around, wondering what she meant. "Requip, Chef!" The girl said. With a few flashes of lights, Maria stood before them in a more casual outfit, equipped with her Maria apron.

Example of her power (kinda):

OOC: Gonna pop in here

IC: Angela amazingly found herself running to wherever the fortunate event took place. Once she finally reached it, she was panting more or less like a dog who had been running his entire life. "Hi... Ya..." She wheezed weakly, struggling to gulp for oxygen. "Hi... Maria... Hell..o... Jake..." She whimpered softly, eyes widening at the smell of cookies. "There's cookies here?" She muttered. All she knew was that there were two other students she hadn't met before.

"Please excuse my introduction. My name is Angela. Pleasure to meet you both." She extended her hand to Pepper and Leo. She felt odd to take a cookie and start frosting it since she didn't really know anybody, so she just stood there, her hands folded neatly behind her back and shifting from foot to foot.

"Do you need any help? I might be able to frost cookies if I can do anything right." She suggested, obviously making a corny joke at the end. A tiny grin found itself onto her face and stuck there, as if it glued itself onto her lips. "Cool shapes. I never had any cool cookie cutters like that. I had cutters of dogs and cats." She muttered, analyzing the rather beautiful shapes from where her feet, heavy as boulders, were perched.

OOC2: Shortness. And does anyone have any name suggestions for my username for Christmas? Thx

ooc- what about Fruit Cake?

ic- A little face peered around the door, attracted by the scent. She was barely able to make her way down the hall, following the enticing smell until she reached a room a little brighter than the others. The girl, yet to be sorted, listened to the people inside, unsure of what the bright shapes were on the metal plates. Cookies? As in Christmas cookies? Sydney slowly entered the room, frowning to see what the people inside looked like.

Her power, even after coming to the school, had not let go. She was still stuck seeing everything thermally, nothing made sense. Everyone looked the same and objects at room-temperature were practically invisible. So she bumped into the table. "Sorry," she mumbled immediately. When she realized what it was, she sighed to herself. Well, since she was already here, she should probably help out. "Hey, er, c'n I help?" she said to no one in paticular, unsure who was the ringleader in the making of all these cookies.

"Well, hopefully feeding the Autumn Dormitory." Leo began, handing the pan over to Aleta, who sprayed it down with some Pam in order to keep the next batch of cookies from sticking. She then began to place her cut outs on the sheets. Her gentle fingers carried the dough as if it were her own child, unwilling to let it fall apart. Once she finished the two pans that she was able to fit the cookies on, Aleta then slid the cookie sheets into the oven. With a few button pushes, the girl set the time for the cookies to bake.

Leo had already returned to the group of students. Maria's power reminded Leo of every time he would make his wings appear. Very flashy. The blond opened his mouth to talk to Maria about her power, when another student entered. It being Angela. Leo blinked a few times before shaking her hand. He chuckled for a moment, "We already know each other, Angela." The angel gently reminded her.

Once she was inside, Leo turned away to get Tupperware to put the cookies in. He gathered as much as he could find, and set them aside on the counter. "Aleta, do you know where I put the wax paper?"

"I was not assigned to watch it." Came a distracted response from his sister, who was making the next batch of dough. The ingredients were scattered across the counter, kitchen slowly becoming something akin to a battleground.

"Thanks." The blond muttered, hastening his search for the paper. The sound of another student entering the dorm room caught the prefect's attention. "Go ahead and help, just try not to eat the cookies. Please." His voice called from the kitchen, easily reaching the ears of those decorating the cookies.

Maria stood there, a hand on her hip. The girl could tell that Leo was impressed, but was interrupted by two other students coming in. "So. What's your power?" She asked in her "cute" voice after the blonde shook the weird girl's hand. Maria's power might has well have been mind control, for she was a master at seducing men. Great. Ms. weird freak has arrived. She wanted to sigh aloud but knew that would only cause trouble. Though trouble was what she looked for.

Jake having helped Pepper with the cookies, turned around to see Angela and a girl he didn't know walk in. "Hey Angela!" He gave a wave, his hand partially covered in sprinkles.

Pepper gave a smile to Angela, and turned back around, determined to finish the cookies. When Jake turned back around starting to work again, she couldn't help but ask "So. I heard you and Jane are going to the formal together. How did that happen?" She said to Jake.

"Pepper my dear, it's called love."

"You actually had the courage to ask her?" She teased.

"Oh be quiet." He laughed and threw some sprinkles at her that were in his hand.

ooc- that's what I was gonna say, I like Fruit Cake.

OOC: Fruit Cake it is and oops forgot Leo and Angela knew each other. Oops

IC: "Oopsie." She muttered stupidly to herself. She managed to successfully hide her embarrassment. Luckily. She slid away from Leo and wondered who Maria was talking to. Even if it wasn't her, she decided to pipe up anyways. "I can blind people if I get angry enough. I can't control it anymore, though." She shared softly, sighing heavily. "That resulted in me nearly blinding my cat twice. Poor little scrap is terrified of me." Her voice trailed away and she was warped into reality again. She picked up a random, un-decorated cookie and grabbed a loose bag of frosting. She'd gotten the Santa cookie. She smiled happily to be decorating something from her religion.

She put dabs of white frosting onto where Santa's beard, fur of jacket and hat should've been. "Hey Leo? What kind of cookies are these? They smell awfully similar to gingerbread."

OOC2: Shortness

Sydney nodded, indicating that she'd heard, but still stood at the edge of the table. She didn't know what the frosting colors were. They were all exactly the same. The girl approached the warm blob that had just come beside the table, the same one who'd called themselves Angela. "I'm sorry but... could you tell me what color every thing is?" It was awkward asking for help. The cookies, yeah, she could see, but only because they were warm. No colors here.

She picked up a warm cookie ever so gently, putting it up against her warmer hand to see its silhouette. A bird, how cute. She'd probably need white frosting. So she squinted at the bowls of frosting in an attempt to see what color they were.

Sean poked his head into the dorm room taking in the sweet smell of cookies. He pushed the door open fully noticing the over populated room. He had his suit in hand for winter formal which was wrapped in plastic, Jillian made him go with her to choose it earlier that day, which he was not a fan of. She pulled him through the tailors for hours until he agreed to try one on. It ended up being grey with a blue tie, to match her dress of course.

Sean's blue eyes peered over the room and noticed his dorm-mate, Leo. The prefect was covered in flour and a Santa hat sat upon his head. Sean slipped over to where flour-boy was standing, "So, uh, what's going on here?" he asked, readjusting the suit on his arm.

The blond looked up from his search to quickly answer Maria's question. His power? He hardly knew why it was relevant. Leo stood up from his hunched position of looking though the draws to answer. He found no reason why not to. Although it confused him a bit as to why she wanted to know. "Angel Physiology..." His voice trailed off, as he got lost in thought. Not about her asking. No, no. His thoughts went to, 'Where in the world did I put the wax paper?' His cheeks puffed out with anger as he pondered.

Angela's question brought him out of his stupor. Gingerbread cookies? Uh oh. Someone may have put too much ginger in that batch. There was only supposed to be a hint of it. Hopefully they still tasted good. "They are sugar cookies, but we put a few spices in it, ginger was one of them." His voice called out in response. After a moment, he resumed his search, a frustrated look on his face.

Keirsta had been late to the baking party, but in her defense, she had ran out to get some more supplies. Coming in with bags of groceries, she quickly spotted Leo. "Yo, Leo! I got the supplies." She called after him, setting them down on a table before grabbing things out and tossing them with precision into semi-accurate places. Brushing her hair back and quickly braiding it, her long pink locks were secure before she grabbed an apron from one of the bags and put it on.

Grabbing another bag filled with wax paper and icing, she made her way back to where Leo was before asking. "Where do you want me to put this wax paper and icing?" She asked, tilting her head slightly as she half-held it out to him.

Jake waved to Sean. "Cookie making, I guess." He smiled to his dorm mate. "Looks like someone is ready for the formal." The tall student teased.

Pepper gave a wave to Sean. She was going to answer the student's question about colors but it looked like Ange had it handled. She was actually starting to enjoy it until Keirsta came in. Almost at once she snapped her head back to the cookies and started  decorating again. Don't we have enough people decorating? Where ever he goes, she follows like a stray dog begging for food.

Maria stood there, wondering why he never fully replied to her. Ha! It's actually working! I knew he was a soft, good for nothing boy. She was going to talk to him more when another girl walked in. Maria looked over towards Pepper, who she could tell was unhappy. So...This must be Keirsta. Well, time to take out the trash. The charming girl walked over Leo's "girl". "You must be Kerista. You're Leo's gal, right?" She said with a smile. "He must have been really desperate." She said, her smile turning a bit mean.

ooc-time for the drama to start >:)

"So my name still does circulate, how interesting." She commented in response to the girl approaching her, before standing up after finishing talking to Leo. When she stood, she was easily a good three inches taller than the other girl. Taking a fast note of the way her smile crooked in an evil way at her words, a sincere smile spread across Keirsta's own face. "It's good to meet you. You must be Maria, one of the new Initiates."

Completely shrugging off her comment about Leo, she motioned towards him. "It's really nice that he invited everyone here, don't you think?" She didn't even know the girl, and while it was obvious she was trying to get under her skin, Keirsta had already placed a barrier of ice think walls that wouldn't be penetrated any time soon, and an actual shield. Danger had been lurking around Beata at alarmingly high rates, and so she would be prepared just in case.

Moving past Maria, she went over to Pepper. "Would... it be possible for us to talk, Miss Ashina?" She asked politely, her voice a slight whisper as she held out a kind hand. After meeting her the first time and getting a sense of something, and her obvious unhappiness, Keirsta wanted to make things as right as she could before the formal. While normally these things would get under her skin, she wanted to keep the festive mood... Not just for Leo, but for Aleta, and everyone else there.

ooc;
I didn't mean to mess up the posting order, but I really wanted to get this post up before anyone else posted. My sincere apologies for doing so.