The expansion of clear cool water seems to go on endlessly to my left and right. The far shore is a solid green, speckled with various tints and shades of the color. Splashing coming from behind me awakens me from my deep and distracting admiration of the scenery, and I submerge myself in the shallow lake. Pale legs approach me, those I recognize to be the ones of my kidnapper, and as I try to silently swim away, they advance towards me rapidly. I disregard my previous plan and thrash through the water to the shore, disturbing the calm exhibited before my attempt at a violent escape. Panting, I heave myself up onto the yellow sand and flop to the ground in defeat.
“Fish out of water!”
I get up and smirk at a drenched Lexi, her blue and green bathing suit sagging under the weight of the water.
“Well...” I see her grin at me as I strive to make up an excuse. “Julia and Isabelle have been sitting on the beach the whole time.”
We see two distant figures, one wearing red and blue, and the other dressed in purple, wave in our direction and head towards us.
“Whatever. Why don’t we play tetherball?” As the girls reach our location, we inform them of our plans and walk to the pole with the string and ball hanging from it.
Lexi gets to pick teams, since it is her birthday, and being cousins, chooses Julia.
As we play, it is clear that Isabelle and I have an advantage due to our towering height, compared to our friends. The sides continuously adjust to support fairness in team skill until the four pairs of hands are red and have swollen to twice their original size. After Lexi announces that she has to use the bathroom, we decide to take a break from our intensive game to talk in the playground.
Left to think to ourselves among the old-fashioned wooden equipment, I stare into the rich green forest surrounding us. A light breeze catches my hair and it glints in the sunlight as I shift my gaze to the dazzlingly blue sky. This is the cause of my eye resting on a peculiarly shaped cloud, which gives me an association.
“Hey guys,” Julia and Isabelle turn to look at me. “Why don’t we–”
Just then, Lexi bounds toward us over the twig-littered ground.
“What did I miss?” she says.
“Nothing really,” we reply in unison.
“Hey Lexi,” I add. “Could you stand in the forest for a bit? I have something to tell Isabelle and Julia.”
“Hmm…” her dark brown eyes stare into my caramel ones suspiciously, as if she is trying to read my thoughts. “Okay?”
She trudges through the wood chips blanketing the ground and heads toward the tree-line, seeming somewhat disappointed.
“So here's what I was thinking: why don't we make some cupcakes for Lexi, since it’s her birthday? We could do a play on a chocolate covered orange peel by making a chocolate cupcake with orange glaze.”
Julia, who is now perched on the monkey bars, tan legs dangling from in between the green metal beams, purses her lips. “I don't really like chocolate.”
“How about vanilla then?”
“Alright… I’ll go ask Aunt Stacey.”
“Ask ‘Aunt Stacey’ what?” asks Lexi as she emerges from behind a slide.
Isabelle and I plaster on sweet smiles that reveal all of our teeth, and look innocently at our friend as Julia runs to Lexi’s mom.
“Nothing!” we both say, managing to keep our excitement hidden behind our grins.
“Hmm…” Lexi looks to me, then Isabelle, followed by another glance back to me, scrutinizing our facial expressions. “If you say so,” she says, and walks back to her towel.
Soon after, we see Julia sprinting back.
“Aunt Stacey says that we can make the cupcakes, but that we should buy cupcake mix so we don’t spend too much time on the batter.”
“Alright,” I say. “Let’s head back.”
We reach the towel where Lexi is beginning to pack up our stuff. We throw on shorts over our slightly damp bathing suits. Then we head to the car, putting all of our belongings in the trunk.
Reaching the store, we split up into the same two teams as we compete to see who can retrieve ingredients off of a list in the least amount of time.
“Ready…” Stacey gives us all a hard stare, narrowing her brown eyes. “Play fair. Go!”
Isabelle and I run at the speed of light to get the orange juice, then sprint back to Stacey, waiting to hear what we are to search for next. The game continues until all of the food items on the list have been checked off.
Of course, Lexi and Julia are faster than my team, being the more accustomed to the store.
As we round up the gravelly driveway, the large black-and-red-painted country house comes into view.
Eager to dress ourselves in dry clothing, in a short amount of time, we find ourselves in Lexi’s partitioned bunk-bedded bedroom, one by one getting ready to take a shower.
As Lexi is still cleaning herself up, we decide to begin making the cupcakes.
I start to make the batter, beginning by adding milk to the floury mixture from a box. Thick clumps form in the blend, but after the spoon scraping through the bowl countless times, a light beige colored paste-like concoction is formed, which can only be identified as a successful cupcake batter.
I fill a tray with my creation, although some of it doesn’t make it into the container, landing on the counter and floor instead, then place it in the oven. Soon, the heavenly scent of sugar and carbs waft up from the baking goods.
“I smell cupcakes!” says Lexi.
“No you don’t!” I reply.
“Prove it!”
We hear shuffling, and right as she is about to step through the wooden door frame, Isabelle tackles her to the ground, pinning Lexi’s limbs onto the soft carpeting of her room.
“Get off me!”
“Ow, she bit me!” shrieks Isabelle. “Maya, come help me!”
At this point, Julia and I are dying of laughter, and observing the scene in Lexi’s room doesn’t help the case.
After settling down, we inform Lexi that she is to stay in her room until we tell her otherwise. She sighs in consent and gets to examining her birthday gifts.
At this point, the cupcakes are ready to be taken out of the oven. We set these on a counter to cool, while Julia begins on the toppings. We empty the contents of a pre-made vanilla frosting package into a container, getting some in the sink. This we mix with orange juice, until it has a seemingly “perfect” consistency. To our blend, we add orange food coloring, and some marshmallows I had cut up beforehand.
While Isabelle begins to blow up multi-colored balloons with a pump, I start to set the table. Each person receives a single cup of orange juice, along with a birthday themed napkin and plate, to assist herself with cupcake-eating. I place a platter at the center of the dining area with room for our treats.
In the kitchen, the girls pipe the frosting, after retrieving piping-bags. Unfortunately, the icing was very liquidy. For this reason, beautifying the cupcakes reveals itself as quite the challenge.
“Maya?”
“Yeah Julia?”
“We have a problem…”
There is Julia holding a hand torch (used for torching marshmallows) that has mysteriously stopped working. I get the contraption to brown the remaining decorations, which smear outward onto not only the plate they were on, but the table too. Then another dilemma presents itself. There is Isabelle holding a cupcake with frosting dripping down the sides of the colorful wrapper. The icing is unsalvageable, and has already covered the counters with sticky orange mess. We are forced to use it, attempting to pipe an orange swirl on the top of the cakes, but managing to smear it across the walls instead. We move our cupcakes to the platter on the table.
Julia goes into the bedroom and ties a blindfold over Lexi’s eyes; I can hear her shout.
The two come stumbling into the dining room and collapse by the large oak table. They stand up, and the covering is ripped off of Lexi’s eyes.
“Surprise!” we all yell as Stacey snaps a picture.
We light a candle to be placed on the birthday girl’s cupcake, and sing Happy Birthday, in honor of the special day. After blowing out the small flame, we all sit down at the table to enjoy our creation.
“Wow,” Lexi says. “These are really good!” She then glances at the kitchen. Her eyes widen and her jaw drops.
“What did you do?”
