N. R. Tucker

There are no plot spoilers in this Farseen Chronicles Flash Fiction.

*****

Lucas stood in the middle of the kitchen with his hands on his hips and glared at the crime scene. The pie pans that had housed three perfectly baked desserts contained nothing but crumbs. He looked to the left into the sunroom where the guys played Pirates of Catan. He wouldn’t put it past his friends to invade the kitchen during his punishment.

He looked right into the the family room. Cinnamon, his sister, sang along with a musical. She was probably off the hook, along with the others who were singing about being hopelessly devoted to someone. Then again, perhaps they ate the pies to restore their strength for the next round of songs.

Some of the clan were in the work out room, but surely they wouldn’t have eaten the pies before working out. Of course they would. Anyone on the property over the last hour was a suspect, including his parents. They weren’t above purloining a pie or two. Shape Shifters ate any and everything, after all.

With a heavy sigh he pulled out a mixing bowl and grabbed the basic cookie recipe. He wouldn’t get another set of pies done by dinner but he could toss out some quick cookies.

He measured and mixed. As he started to drop spoonfuls of dough onto the baking sheet a brilliant thought entered his brain, pan cookies, no dropping required. He would be done in half the time. He made three batches of pan chip cookies, mixing things up by using different flavored chips in each pan. That should be enough of a dessert, even for the clan.

He sat in the kitchen, waiting on the cookies to finish baking. No way would he leave these treats unguarded. Bad enough he was on kitchen detail because he mouthed off, he would not be accused of shirking his duties. That would result in more chores. Sitting firmly in his pity party, he listened to laughter from all over the house. Darnel’s pirate ship trapped Logan’s setters. The musical crowd danced around the room singing something about ‘the one that I want’.

“Whatcha doing?”

He jumped because he hadn’t heard Mia’s approach. “Nothing.”

“I smell cookies.” A slow smile spread across her face in anticipation of a treat before dinner.

“Yeah, someone ate the pies I baked.”

“Un-uh, no one would do that. They were for dinner.” She dropped into the bar stool next to Lucas.

“Well someone did.” He pointed to the pans.

“That’s mean. Who did it?”

“Don’t know, but they won’t get these.” He checked the cookies and pulled them out to cool.

Mia looked down toward the sunroom. “I’ll bet it was Mitch and Michael.”

“Just because they’re your brothers doesn’t make them thieves.”

“Doesn’t mean they aren’t either,” Mia replied knowingly.

Lucas nodded. She had a point.

“Cookies?” Asilia, Mia’s mother, held the door open for Tempe, who carried a large bag from the Cheesecake Factory. Tempe placed the bag on the counter and proceeded to pull out three cheesecakes.

“What’s going on?” Lucas demanded.

“We took the pies you made to a fundraiser so we moved them to disposable pans, and picked up cheesecakes to replace them.” Tempe closed the fridge door. “Why are you baking cookies?”

“Why? Because the pie pans were empty.” Lucas glared at the women. They were the last people he would have suspected. “I thought someone ate the pies and figured I would be in trouble for not fixing dessert.”

Eyebrows creased, Tempe said, “We left a note. We forgot to make anything for the fundraiser.”

Lucas waved his hands around. “Do you see a note? I sure don’t.” Shrugs were exchanged as it was obvious there was no note.“What’s up?” Logan asked. The guys joined the group in the kitchen.

“It appears someone played a prank on Lucas,” Tempe said.

“Prank?” Mitch winced.

“Mitchell Everett Taylor. What did you do?” Asilia turned an angry stare on her son.

“It was a joke,” Michael explained. “We thought Lucas would blame us and we could have a laugh when we handed him the note.”

“Why didn’t you tell him about the note before he baked the cookies?” Tempe pressed her lips together to keep from smiling.

“Well… they’re cookies. Figured we could help eat ‘em,” Logan explained.

Asilia looked at the boys. “You guys can think about what you should have done while you make dinner tomorrow night.”

“Dinner. All Lucas had to make was dessert,” Logan growled.

“And all Lucas did was mouth off. You guys played a prank on him and didn’t come clean even when you knew he was doubling his workload for no reason.” Tempe smiled at Lucas, “And you get to decide who shares in the cookie spoils this evening.”

Lucas smiled.