*knock knock*
"Riley, breakfast is ready!"
And for the first time presumably ever, Riley managed to get out of bed quickly... ish...
Still, she rolled off her bed in record time, and that's progress, even if it took her a while to stand up afterwards.
Why must gravity be so cruel.
After scrambling herself into an approximately upright shape and putting on an reasonable amount of clothes, Riley was finally ready to face the cruel reality that awaited her outside her room-
Or rather she would have been, had she managed to catch anything more than the tail end of Ella's tail as she walked back downstairs, message about Riley being late unintentionally successfully delivered.
Guess now that she was already late nobody would care much if she showed up one quick bathroom break later.
A quick dash later, Riley was already rinsing face with colder and colder water, trying to force herself awake-er with one method she knew of.
Sadly, all it did was make her feel cold and want to snuggle under the covers some more.
After maxing out the cold water knob and not making any further progress, she gave up on the whole prospect, only finally finding her success when she straightened her posture out before reaching for the towel, a handful of freezing drops sliding past the collar of her shirt doing wonders as far as brute force awakening went.
Many, many towel pats and regrets later, she was finally neither asleep nor freezing, a feat achieved only by two thirds of the world, roughly.
After doing her business and flushing the toilet, thankfully remembering to change the water knobs back to something more reasonable than a frostbite simulator before washing her hands, Riley was finally ready to join everyone else at the breakfast, and then-
Right, there was supposed to be all this cooking today. And Maddy coming over.
As Riley was about to take the first step downstairs, she felt a sudden buzzing in her pocket, quickly determining it was her phone by the process of elimination.
Unless her switchblade had some features she was grossly unaware of.
She quickly reached down and brought her phone in front of herself, screen curiously already lit up, making her worry she had forgotten to turn it off before going to bed before something much more relevant caught her attention-
'''
_________
Madeline Johnson: Morning Riley!
'''
Well this was a pleasant thing to wake up to.
'''
Riley Asher: morning!
Madeline Johnson: Still down to hang out today?
Riley Asher: yeah!
Madeline Johnson: :grin:
Madeline Johnson: Perfect, we're gonna be heading out then, should be there around 11
Riley Asher: see you then : )
'''
She wasn't good with technology.
With that little exchange having succeeded at warming her heart up, the noises downstairs reminded her of the more immediate issue, the girl cursing herself for letting something delay her even more, leaping down the stairs-
Only to find the table nearly empty, save for Andrew and Ella slowly enjoying their cereal breakfast- or at least trying to, judging by their expressions.
"Good morning Riley!" The older brother greeted her with a smile, a hint of confusion in his voice before he went back to his bowl, Ella halfheartedly waving in Riley's direction as the girl sat down in her seat, looking at them two with utmost confusion.
"H-hey, uh... where is everyone else?" She asked uncertainly, rising her eyebrow at the visible strain of the two present skunks.
"Heh, guess you really did sleep through it all..." Ella chuckled, Riley's grasp on the situation not growing any clearer until she continued-
"The chicken we had yesterday? Shoulda checked the expiration date, pretty much everyone's stomachs complained badly about that one- did you really not hear or feel anything?" Her mom asked once more, sounding genuinely surprised, even impressed a bit.
"N-no, it tasted awfully and all but guess I'm just used to meat of this... grade." Riley answered with a chuckle, Ella catching her vibe as Andrew just sat there mostly confused.
"Well, hope the rest won't be gone all day, didn't you mention cooking and all?" The girl continued, Andrew answering with a 'Mhm' before the skunk mom gave a more comprehensive answer-
"Yup. Don't worry they're gonna be alright, or at least I think so, while it did screw with their sleep, the actual food poisoning was thankfully mild enough. And even then, it's not like we bother with a turkey, most of the load can be split just between us three in the worst case."
Riley nodded softly as she finished preparing her cereal, crunching through a couple of big spoonfuls before another question caught her.
"So... what *do* you make for Christmas?" She asked flatly, only remembering turkeys and chickens and a lot of... unappealing looking mashed potatoes from most of the advertisements around this time of the year.
"Heh, as far as the main meal goes? Unsure if it even has a name; it was some recipe that Marvin got many many years ago from a neighbor as a Christmas meal and has served it since, and Rick picked it up from him. It's basically just fried cod with shredded veggies and fried taters, definitely much less hassle than bothering with an entire turkey or chicken or whatever, heh. Besides that there's veggie salad, a cake or three and of course, cookies." Ella went over the stuff she could recall on the spot, some corners of the over fifteen-year tradition murky until she actually started cooking, at which point it all became routine and obvious.
"Sounds great, never had an actually well-prepared fish before so it'll be fun to try out." Riley replied with a smirk, quickly going through her portion, suddenly more and more excited to help.
"Ha, and getting to help in making it will only make it taste better still." Andrew chimed in with a giggle, getting up with his empty bowl afterwards and depositing it in the dishwasher, unusually enough not following it up with dashing back to his room, seemingly waiting for something.
Or rather, someones to finish their breakfast.
With the two ladies at the table wrapping their portions at roughly the same time, he reached into one of the lower cupboards and pulled a large plastic bag of... many, many veggies, mostly potatoes and some carrots and... white carrots, whatever their name was.
"So, ready to start working on tomorrow's dinner?" Ella asked with anticipation in her voice after they both dealt with their bowls, Riley nodding quickly only to be offered a potato peeler and a small knife.
"Eight or so taters should be enough for now, Andy will take care of shredding. Afterwards just cut them into small slices, I'll be over here getting the fish ready."
***
Cooking was all fun until you get to be on the potato peeling duty.
Suffice to say Riley didn't exactly have much experience with either potatoes or their peelers, progress slow and frustrating, especially as the lil' bastards kept slipping out of her hand.
After managing to go through... three of them she decided to take a small break and check whether Maddy had texted her afterwards-
'''
Madeline Johnson: En route! How're you feeling by the by?
'''
She was just about ready to start typing a response before being interrupted-
"Riley?"
Andrew's comment caught her off guard, making her cheeks light up with an embarrassed blush as she hurriedly slid the phone back into her pocket and went back to working through the potatoes, somehow managing to end up even clumsier than before.
"Riley, did something happen?" He asked again, concern clear on his face, forcing his sister to at least try to come up with an excuse-
"O-oh, n-no no, j-just... f-feeling warm all of a sudden, is all."
"Just as you checked a message from Maddy?" He asked with a small smirk, Riley looking away as she quietly went back to work.
With the promise of getting to respond back to Maddy, the rest of the peeling went by surprisingly quickly, followed up by a quick rinse and cutting the things into thin slices to be fried, the task graciously taken by Andrew before Ella could even choose anyone.
With Riley temporarily not having anything else to do, she sure as hell wasn't gonna waste the opportunity, only encouraged by a knowing wink from her brother as she hid behind one of the pillars and tapped as fast as her fingers would let her.
'''
Riley Asher: i'm fine, rest of the fam is rough
Madeline Johnson: Uh oh, what happened?
Riley Asher: had to have some frozen stuff for dinner and it was bad
Madeline Johnson: Oh dear, you think we should maybe meet up some other time?
Riley Asher: well if anything were gonna need help even more
Madeline Johnson: Point taken
Madeline Johnson: Well then, if I'm gonna be helping out then at least I want dibs on the seat next to you~
Riley Asher: you got it >3
'''
Riley had to stop herself from giggling in excitement as she slid the phone into her pocket, her breath slowly calming down after the brief exchange. The smell of something mighty delicious sizzling on the pans only adding to her feeling so, so good; all of her shaking a bit as she rode down the excitement-
"Riley, why are you so happy?" Timmy's squeak brought her out of her daze, the girl reacting to the tyke's sudden appearance with a quiet yielp as she tried to think of another excuse.
"U-uh, n-no reason, promise!"
Not even the literal four-year-old bought that excuse, the kit managing to pull off the world's most adorable doubtful expression as he continued-
"You're never happy without a reason like that!"
Thanks for reminding me Timmy.
"U-ugh, aren't you hungry? You still haven't eaten breakfast after all!"
If deception fails, try diversion.
"Nu-uh." He squeaked softly as he dashed the rest of the way over and hugged her legs, the girl smiling at his adorable greeting and crouching down to give him more of a proper hug.
"Alright... promise to not tell anyone?" She asked with a whisper, hoping the sounds of food being seared on the pans would mask her reveal.
"Yeah!" He answered loudly, tail shaking a bit as he caught himself, following up with a whispered- 'Yeah!'.
Riley couldn't help but to take a deep breath and hug him tighter still, god the one thing the kit would probably never get is boring.
Or not-adorable.
"Maddy's gonna be coming over for a date soon!" She muttered out as quietly as she could despite her excitement, just getting to say these words out quiet making her relapse in blushing and giggling.
For a moment she waited for him to respond to her news, having at least three or so ideas as to how the tyke could react-
"Who's Maddy?"
And this was none of them.
"Uh... mom's friend's daughter, my age. And she's cute..." Riley forgot to cut herself off at that last point, covering her mouth with a loud slap as the universe decided to give her some musical backdrop, Lily's upstairs practice starting with a slow, almost romantic sounding piece.
"Do you like her?" Timmy asked inquisitively, leaning in closer as he caught on to his sister's embarrassment.
Sure as hell I do.
"Y-yeah, she's n-nice..." She quietly whispered out, the all too familiar blush forcing itself onto her face once more.
"Does she like youuuuuu?" He tried to be as teasing as he could, only making her want to fall through the floor some more.
"I-I-I t-th-think so..."
"Yay!" Timmy forgot to keep quiet once more, shuffling noises in the kitchen stopping a bit as his joyous squeak caught them off guard, Riley worrying about her cheeks suddenly catching fire.
How could she get out of this mes-
"Hey there Timmy! Wanna help make cookies with Riley?" Ella threw her a verbal rope, grabbing the tyke's attention as he ran up to her, Riley taking the moment to excuse herself into the bathroom until she'd calm down at least.
Cold water therapy was as ineffective at waking her up as it was at calming her down, the girl just taking her time and breathing slowly, encouraged by the livelier piece of Lily's practice.
Alright. No more embarrassment.
With a deep breath she headed back to the living room, walking out the bathroom just in time to see a car pull over onto their driveway out the window, a bit of a smile creeping up onto her face as she watched Maddy get out of the car and dash over to the front door, herself walking up to open it shortly after the ring of the doorbell filled the room, Andrew and Ella looking at the door confused as Riley opened it.
"Good morning!" Maddy's chipper voice filled the room as she stepped in, Riley's smile refusing to wash- at least until her mom spoke up-
Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
"Morning Maddy, did something happen?"
It was at this moment when Riley realized the fatal flaw of her little plan, entirely on her this time, or rather her inaction.
"D-did you forget to tell them Riley?"
The human teen's face was this close to just catching on fire from embarrassment as she facepalmed at her little oopsie, only able to nod slowly as she grumbled into her hand.
"Ugh... Maddy wanted to meet up and I suggested today and forgot to tell you all with all the family meetup and all..."
Fortunately, out of the two possibilities, Ella reacted with amusement, breaking into soft laughter, relaxing the atmosphere in the room even if she definitely did not help with her daughter's embarrassment, Riley about ready to collapse underground at that particular moment.
"Oh well, happens~. Just be warned Maddy, we're gonna be doing a lot of cooking today so there won't be a lot of opportunities to chat one on one."
"Oh don't worry Mrs. Asher, Riley told me, I'm glad to help."
"Calling Maddy to help with splitting the load, eh Riley?"
Mooooooooommmmm...
"Well, it's not like I didn't agree to it to begin with, teehee."
The couple pats on the back from Maddy definitely helped with breaking through the worst of her blush, especially with Ella being satisfied enough with the response to get back to her own part of cooking, letting Riley slip off to the side and catch her breath while Maddy took off her jacket.
"Hey Maddy, been a while!" Andrew greeting their guest made Riley realize she hadn't done that properly yet herself, making her wait until the weasel girl was done with all that before turning to face her, holding a hand out-
"H-hey, I'm glad you came!"
Maddy's amused reaction didn't help with her burning up, but she eventually went and finally returned the hand, giving it a firm shake, much firmer than Riley's own shaking one at the moment.
"As am I~ it's nice to see you again Riley."
Embarrassment gave way to a different kind of blush at Maddy's words, Riley chuckling and looking away as she let go of her paw.
"So! What's on the cooking agenda then?" Maddy was motivated to give her best now that she'd been inadvertently roped in, taking a look at the table in hope of figuring out the answer of her own.
"Cookies!" Timmy answered excitedly as he scrambled up onto a chair, just in time for Ella to place down a hefty... device, Riley having never seen, let alone used, anything similar.
"Gingerbread cookies to be precise. Simple enough, and more hands will help with rolling the dough and cutting the shapes out."
With all the ingredients being set out, Riley and Maddy could slide up to the dining table, Ella pointing to the scribbled down recipe laying down next to the giant mixing bowl-
"So first the flour, soda, ginger and cinnamon, sift them through this-" She pointed to the sizable sifter stuffed away in the corner of the table- "Then add butter and start mixing and slowly add in the sugar-" Tapping a half empty bag of brown sugar- "And while that's going on beat the egg and honey together, add to the mix and keep mixing until it starts clumping together, then just knead until it's nice and smooth, put the film on and put in the fridge for a bit."
"Why the fridge?" Riley asked a bit uncertainly, the step sounding abrupt.
"It needs to dry out a bit before cooking, helps the texture and all, it's just something like half hour. Besides, it's not like you'll be left waiting, there are enough ingredients for four batches in here, so it's just one after another, and by the time the last is done the first will be done cooling and will be ready to cut the cookies out of." Ella explained slowly, gently reaching over to scritch both the kids next to her before heading off, leaving Riley an even brighter blush as she heard Maddy giggle at that bit of affection from next to her.
She still had no idea what the clunky thing was though, turning over to Timmy-
"W-what is this thing?" Riley asked sheepishly, poking the machine cautiously, as if dealing with an armed bomb, Maddy ready to respond before the tyke cut her off-
"Food pros-prots-prosessosor!" He eventually figured the unfamiliar word out, or at least assumed he did, smiling up at his big sister cheerfully.
"D-do you mean 'processor'?"
"Yes, prossessossor!"
Got it.
"So... how do we use it?"
"I don't know! Mom just presses the buttons on it!"
"I mean, yeah that's mostly it, just add the ingredients and press the buttons, simple by design." Maddy chimed in, reaching over for the recipe and taking a look herself.
This thing has like a dozen buttons though!
Oh wait there's text above them.
"Mix... so does this one-" She managed to eventually make out the tiny text, the mixing blade things inside the clear bowl springing to life, spinning almost dangerously fast.
With another press of a button the whirling died down, Riley taking a breath before reaching over for the ingredients and getting the appropriate portions, taking some agency over the mess she's been thrown into-
"Alright Timmy, can you hold the sieve while I add the stuff in?" She said with determination in her voice, passing the sieve over to him before noticing the kit's grumpy reaction.
"B-but I wanted to add the things..." He muttered out quietly, sounding almost betrayed.
Aw darn.
"Hey Timmy, alright, you can add the ingredients in after I help you with the portions, okay?" Riley tried to placate him, the tyke sounding for a moment like he was on the verge of tears before his face lit up with a smile as he leaned in for a hug, his action acknowledged by Maddy with a quiet 'awwww'.
"Yaaaaay!"
Riley giggled quietly as she reached for the sieve, positioning it over the center of the bowl before another realization interrupted them, the unseen issue of Timmy barely being able to see the surface of the table solved by passing his lil' booster seat to him and helping him in. The kit almost spilled the flour in excitement before Riley caught him, giving them both a moment to calm down before kicking it off properly, Timmy the most focused she'd even seen him as he tried to aim all the powders at the sieve, adding them in one by one.
After letting out a wordless thank you for the kit managing to stay focused for the entire endeavor, she took off the lid of the mixer part of the food processor by the force of sheer trial and failure, eventually figuring out it was twisted on as opposed to anything more... reasonable.
All the while, Maddy got to working on the other part of the recipe, ratioing the honey and grabbing a couple eggs before beginning to crack them open, Timmy spotting her in the middle of the act and chiming in-
"Oh oh can I add an egg too?"
The weasel girl giggled in response before passing the bowl of the honey and egg mixture towards him with Riley's help, the kit excitedly reaching over to grab an egg before holding it almost comically gently, moving it over the bowl before flatly asking-
"How do I crack it?"
Both the girls blinked at him a bit dumbfounded, Maddy speaking up gently to instruct him before Riley could, her own experience with eggs limited to when she was working as a dishwasher, occasionally having brief stints in the kitchen when someone was absent.
"Tap the side of it against the edge of the bowl and then pull the sides apart."
He gently moved the egg over to the the bowl, Riley biting her lip as she hoped the kit wouldn't just shatter the egg in excite-
*bap*
Before tapping it tenderly, the barely loaded container barely even nudging in response.
"Use a bit more force Timmy, don't have to be so gentle." She unexpectedly encouraged him on, the boy needing a couple more attempts with slowly increasing force before he finally made a tiny crack on the surface of the egg, looking almost distraught over it.
"I broke it..."
Did he... not know how cracking eggs works?
"Oh sweetie, that's how cracking eggs works, you break the shell and get the stuff inside." Maddy explained patiently, both her and Riley trying and failing to suppress finding the whole situation just a bit... hilarious.
"B-but mom was sad when I broke an egg!" He was panicking a bit, his fur rising a bit before Riley leaned in and gave him a hug.
"But I'm not sad, and we need to break eggs here for cookies. You didn't do anything wrong, okie?" Having to placate the four-year-old over a cracked egg was not one of the things Riley expected to be included in cooking, but now as she felt him slowly calm down in her embrace, she definitely appreciated the addition.
"S-so... b-break the egg?" He processed the realization best he could, Riley having a slight giggle as she answered-
"Yeah, go ahead and break it, just carefully so that the shell doesn't get into the bowl, alright?"
"O-okie. Thank you Riley!" Timmy hugged her one more time, the sister smooching him on his forehead spot as he picked up the egg again, continuing to tap it against the side of the bowl as the cracks kept growing, Riley intervening when it got wide enough-
"Alright, now grab the two halves of the egg and pull them apart, okay?" She instructed calmly, eyes going wide as the kit forgot about the necessity of the bowl underneath, Maddy just barely managing to save Riley's pants by sliding the bowl underneath the egg just as he was cracking it.
Riley gave him a bit of an exasperated glare as she sighed out in relief before turning over to the weasel girl with a thankful look, seeing her blush a bit herself in return, the kit managing to completely avoid it at all, not noticing his mistake seemingly at all while reaching for the honey.
Why were neither of them surprised at that.
"Timmy, you almost cracked the egg onto my lap, can you take care next time?" Riley chided him gently, the kit freezing in place as he added two and two together, resulting in an apologetic hug and a smooch on his head in response before they continued on, Maddy joining in to lightly ruffle his hair much to his joy as she cut him off before he could add too much of the good stuff-
"And I already added the honey sweetie, we don't need to add any more."
"Oh, okay. What now?"
"I'm gonna mix the eggs and honey, I think you need the powders and mix them in the processor together with some butter before we add my mix- I think you already sieved them all, right?" Maddy answered, reaching for a spoon to mix her part while keeping watch on the remainder of the table.
Riley glanced over inside that bowl, spotting four different colors, and after checking that that part of the recipe had four ingredients, gave everyone a thumbs up.
"Yep, so now we add them to the machine and see what happens."
With bowl-ful of mixed powders added in and the twisty lid reapplied, the mixture was ready for mixing, Riley letting Timmy do the honors by telling him which button to press- or at least that's what she would have done had he not slammed the button before she even had the chance to open her mouth.
It was only then they all realized realized that the processor's mixing bowl still had an opening to add more ingredients through, by the virtue of some of the powdery mix managing to spray out through it, dusting the table and giving the air a ginger aroma before Riley reached in in panic and covered the opening with her palm, hoping that the butter would help with all this-
"Uhh, Timmy, can you cut this butter in four pieces and pass one over?" Riley pointed at the direly needed ingredient with her free hand, the kit only reacting with a tilt of his head before squeaking back-
"How?"
C'mon kid you have claws taped to your fingers, how hard's a block of butter to tear apart.
"G-go and ask mom for a butter knife, quickly!" Riley had to keep her eyes from rolling as she instructed the kit, slicing the butter in pieces herself after the tool was supplied, wrapping and all, remembering to at least tear the plasticy paper off before throwing the pieces in one by one, the powdery mix thankfully dying down afterwards.
And it even still smelled of ginger and cinnamon, making the atmosphere that much more pleasant as the trio worked on, Timmy passing his sister the butter pieces one by one.
With that done and the honey mixture mixed together, Riley was about ready to pour it into the mixer, realizing at the last minute they still haven't added in the sugar.
"Alright Timmy, now pour in a cup of sugar- just slowly, okay?" She added the latter bit after seeing him almost swing the cup in excitement, Timmy interpreting her instruction as intending for him to move in slow motion as a whole, moving the cup over more sluggishly than she thought was even possible for the overly excitable ball of fluff.
And then he just dumped the whole thing in anyway, both teens too busy laughing to be disappointed.
With an exasperated shake, Riley poured the smooth mix in, the whole concoction quickly taking the expected texture, the girl turning off the mixer after Ella walked over to check up on their progress, giggling that they've been running the mixer for almost twenty minutes now.
The entire trio took their part with kneading the dough, Timmy's part understandably smaller as Riley just tore off a fist sized piece for him before splitting the rest in half between herself in Maddy, the dough taking surprisingly more force before yielding than she expected.
A few minutes and a good shared forearm exercise later, they were was done with their portions, the three balls of dough getting mixed together and put into a separate clean bowl, before being slid it into the fridge in triumph, a realization dawning on Riley soon after.
Namely, that they'd have to do all this three times over again.
"Are you sure you're alright with this Maddy?"
"Oh why wouldn't I be, it's been fun so far."
With the reassurance supplied, Riley took her seat again, reaching for the ingredients before overhearing the second part of that sentence, Maddy having silently muttered it out-
"Plus you're cute when you get into it all."
Oh my.
***
Cooking was hard, even when her heart was fluttering throughout.
Riley's forearms ached lightly by the time they wrapped the last bowl up and got to cleaning up the table a bit, a handful of emptied bags landing in the trash bin, with the non-empty ones going back to their cupboards.
A short break to stretch their wrists and legs before starting the actual cookie cutting and baking was agreed upon by the baking duo, overruling Timmy's perpetually excited eagerness. After getting up, Riley peeked back into the kitchen much to the still excited kit's complaints, taking a deep sniff at all the sweet smells, vanilla from Ella's corner of the kitchen and peanut butter from Andrew, both ovens already occupied as they were wrapping up with their own cakes.
Still, vanilla was that much more intense, Riley's nose leading her in towards her mom's elaborate setup, an oven tray with a layer of brown pastry, wild and waving, currently being covered with a thick layer of the vanilla scented cream, the sight enough to make Riley hungry for it. Another identical-looking layer was taking its time in the oven, her question as to where would the cookies go answered as the skunk mom pulled it out, passing the tray over onto a small pile, covering the freshly applied layer of cream with the newly baked pastry before dusting the whole cake with a very generous layer of fine sugar before sliding it into the fridge.
And chuckling a fair bit at Riley just staring at the whole process like that before heading over to turn the lights on, the sun outside having already started its hasty descent.
"So, guess our cakes are done, these trays there will be for the cookies as you keep stamping them out, we're gonna get the veggie salad over with in the meant-" Ella picked the pile of trays and placed it on a couple of chairs next to the younger siblings' table, Riley reaching into the fridge to pull out the first bowl of dough as they both noticed Rick's sudden arrival downstairs, the skunk dad looking like he'd been caught with his paw in the cookie jar.
Not that far from the truth in the end.
"Well, well, well..." Ella started menacingly, tapping her foot expectantly as her husband shrunk under her gaze, opening his mouth to try to justify sleeping for so long, before realizing he was the literal last person up, his wife none too happy about it.
"Hmm... you know what. Dad can take the veggie salad on his own while the rest of us makes cookies, how's that sound Andy?" She asked with a sharp smirk, Andy barely holding back laughter as Rick nodded slightly as if he just got a beating.
Riley was sorry for him until realizing his absence was probably the reason she had to bother with the potatoes, and then she suddenly wasn't anymore.
Still, he didn't look that bothered by his punishment in the end, already busy peeling veggies with his sleeves pulled up by the time she took another glance over, Ella already having rolled the dough into a thin enough layer and Andrew having prepared all the cutters and cookie toppings, as well as the simple egg wash, spreading the former around the table for everyone to enjoy.
"Heh, your mom takes no shit doesn't she?" Maddy whispered over to Riley as she sat down while all the tools were being handed out, the human teen nodding in amusement before taking a cutter of her own.
The two kids and their guest were given most of the cookie cutting duty, Ella preferring to paint on the glaze with a small brush and Andrew decorate them with toppings before laying them out on the baking trays.
The agreement was reached pretty much wordlessly by the virtue of both Riley and Timmy being too excited let anyone else stamp the dough, and Maddy being too amused by Riley's unexpected eagerness not to join in.
As they went through the large brown sheet of dough, Riley got the chance to take a look at all the different cutters the family had gathered. Some were obviously normal and generic, a heart, a five-armed star, a crescent moon, then there were a few plastic Christmas-y ones, a Christmas tree, a shooting star, a gingerbread man-
And then there were the ones she just didn't get by the sheer outline initially, with some additional cutting bits on the inside of the shape, one S-shaped in particular making her rise her eyebrow before she actually cut a cookie with it, the realization as obvious as it was adorable.
It was a striped skunk's tail, the internal cutters clearly delineating the individual stripes, Ella only glazing and Andrew only pouring the rainbow sprinkles into the stripes confirming her guess, making her smile that much wider.
And of course it wouldn't be right if only the stripies got their tails' in, Riley quickly stumbling upon the cutters that looked much more like the spotties' tails Ella told her about, with just the white tip, and then yet another one, slightly bigger and deliberately frizzled-looking, it being all one shape reminding her of the hooded skunks she saw back on Thursday, the different details being definitely appreciated, even if she didn't have a tail of her own to wave around.
The cookie making went by rather quickly and quietly, everyone too focused on their respective parts to chit chat much, Andrew painting all the different shapes with the various topping, from sprinkles to crushed nuts to just a touch of some more peanut butter, each creation wilder than the last.
Though, despite the busywork, Riley and Maddy found some time to gradually slide over closer to each other, their chairs touching by the end of it all, the two girls almost as close to each other as possible without one taking a seat on the other's lap.
And so the day faded into the evening, the girls leaving most of the last portion of the dough for Timmy, his excitement refusing to wane despite the monotony of it all, much to their own amusement, especially since they got to just kinda lean on each other for a few minutes afterwards, the act more comfy than either of them would admit.
After getting up to straighten her legs and noticing Rick still knee deep in grating steamed veggies and hard-boiled eggs, Riley made her way over to the two ovens, pulling out a couple of finished trays of cookies and having to suppress herself from grabbing one for her-
Scratch that, trying to suppress herself from grabbing one and failing.
And then another.
And then a couple more for Maddy.
God they were so much better than she hoped for, even if they still burned her tongue a bit.
Just as she was about to reach over to steal the third one away, a loud knock on the door interrupted her, as well as everybody else, even Lily who'd abruptly stopped her practice in surprise.
With everyone else still a bit dazed after being broken out of the monotony of their actions, it fell on Riley to head up to the door and open it, a winter-clad mailman holding a small package and a form to fill-
"Uh, Riley Asher?"