Quite the Informal [Topic/Open]

In the midst of her mess of cookies and crumbles and sprinkles, Serenity shot her head back up over the table, watching as her friend struggled with the bag of frosting. A few little strings of white sugar stringed unknowingly across the table in front of the elder girl. "House making!" She repeated, as if it was totally obvious. Well, she was almost done with her own mansion masterpiece, she could help out Linh too, no biggie. "Look, you just need to grab a few walls, over here..." She had little issue grabbing the girl's free hand, guiding her over the stretch of the table to where the gingerbread walls were, soft and ready for their construction work. "Then the frosting is the glue that puts it all together. Easy!"

She flinched suddenly from the loud crash across the room.

---

Harmony had found herself distracted by the two little infants beside her, passing on a small toy to each-other and cheesing away at seemingly nothing, all giggles and smiles. The woman found herself grinning back down at them, her niece seemingly content on planting her butt back down onto the floor, staring the small boy down in wonder as he happily thrashed around his caterpillar. She couldn't help but be lost in nostalgia then, remembering when Seren was that small, or gosh, when Maisie was just a baby. She hardly got any sleep back in those days with her eldest child constantly keeping her hands full. Some things never changed.

The crash of the toy house snapped her out of it, spotting two of the younger children tearing up, and Chance of all people beside them with tears of their own. "Ooh..." The caretaker bit back a sigh, pulling out carefully and scooping Shepard high up in her arms with his little toy, not wanting to leave them alone. She quickly shuffled across the room, passing the baby to Mikaela. "Hold him a bit for me?" The blonde said quickly with a smile before disappearing again towards the mess. "What happened?" She placed her hand tenderly across their heads. "Are you all okay?"

---

Berlin snapped his head around, caught red-handed with a fresh pack of cookies right in his grasp. Damn. What bad timing? Had he let his guard down or did his gift run out of juice? For a few moments, he did nothing but stare at the guy, trying to think of something to say and his mind drawing up blanks. "Uh..." He shifted his eyes across the room, an uneasy grin coming unto his face. "How's it hanging, Leo?" As if he were running on nothing but a whim, the boy twisted around, sliding off the counter, all food still tucked into his shirt. "Sorry to get in your way. Shep hungry? Bottles in the fridge I think." He made a slick step around Leo's side, towards the door. "I'll just get out of your way..."

House making. They were... making a house. The very idea of it sounded too fictitious for her, her mind wandering off to conjure an image of two little girls building a mansion that was a hundred times taller than the both of them combined, blood, sweat, and tears of work to get into making such a masterpiece. Was that what Serenity was suggesting? Her parents always told her that she couldn't build houses because that was the work of adults, and she wasn't strong enough to do any of that. It had occurred to her when some people yelled at her for getting close to the drill at a construction site and wanting to try out the very loud screwdriver; kids weren't allowed to do those kinds of things back at home because they would get hurt if they weren't careful. Linh didn't try to inch away when Serenity snatched her wrist, directing her to some more mushy substances, but this time, they were a lot more firm and less likely to leave a dent if someone pushed their finger really hard onto it. House-making was that easy? How come the adults always told her that she shouldn't try it then?

Her face immediately brightened up, expression written with determination. "Okay!" She could do this. The house didn't have to be very big yet. Easy and small steps first, so it should be alright if that was the case, right? Carefully, her fingers felt around the gingerbread wall she had picked up and put in front of her - at least she was pretty sure it was in front of her - to figure out where the edges were. If she got that much figured out, all she had to do was put the frosting around the sides and make sure it stuck, right? That didn't seem hard at all. She could do that, no problem. Once Linh was positive that she had gotten it, her arm steadied itself on the table as she squirted the white coating, using a fingernail as a guide point. Here and there, she had fallen off the side and gotten some more of it on the table, but it should be alright. One down and--

CRASH!

"A-ah...!" Startled, her hands pushed down on the bag too much, unknowingly with the tip pointed at Serenity.

Mikaela blushed slightly and was about to thank Leo but he had gone off to make Chance's hot chocolate. She watched as the boy ended up wandering off and got into a fight with a couple of little girls that were playing with dolls. She almost went over to stop the fight, but was soon beat by Chance falling into the dollhouse and the doll being fought over fly through the air. 'Oh dear, she thought, 'That's not good." A few seconds later, Harmony had shuffled over to her and handed Shep over. "Oh, uh, sure. Of course!" she said, gladly taking Shepard. Still keeping an eye on Chance and the girls, Mikaela began bouncing Shepard gently and making silly faces. She still thought that he looked incredibly cute in Leo's old tuxedo. Silently, she thanked Leo's mom that she had sent the old clothes over.

The young baby seemed put off by Harmony moving him away from the other well dressed baby in the room. His features scrunched up as not only was his entertainment taken away, but his caterpillar fell from his grasp onto the floor. His bottom lip stuck out and tears sprung to is eyes. No amount of funny faces could keep the boy from beginning to cry, hot tears streaking down his chubby cheeks. His head ducked into Mikaela's chest, upset at the sudden change and loss of his newfound friend and caterpillar.

An unimpressed brow was raised at Berlin, all the while looking amused. Okay, he couldn't keep the parent look down pat. Leo had a few good years before he had to do well at it. The blond took a sidestep, blocking the boy's way. He crouched so they were face to face, Leo's head turned to the side as if proposing something. "Here is the deal. I let you get away with all of this..." The worker gestured to his food pouch. "if you let me have those mini marshmallows, and that you don't tell Harmony I let you go. Deal?"He asked, pointing a finger to a package of the mini marshmallows deep within his food pouch. It seemed like a fair deal. Normally, Leo would scold the boy and make him put everything back, but he couldn't seem to muster the energy to do so. Instead, he made a deal. Leo did need the marshmallows for Chance's hot chocolate after all.

Finally able to get up from being stuck in the house window, Chance gave a sniff and wiped his tears from his face with his shirt sleeve. Before looking up to a woman who'd come to check out the scene, he shot a glance to the stubborn girls who caused this whole ordeal. Within a few moments, the girls had explained what had happened to the best of their ability, a bit of whining and over exaggerating sprinkled here and there. When they were done, they each grabbed a handful of doll toys that laid at their feet and with a little hair flip towards the boy, made their way over to the other side of the daycare room, setting their treasured items down on a big plastic kitchen and got back to work. Geez, he didn't know it'd be so difficult to partake in a make believe game.

Turning away from the two girls, Chance looked down to his soft covered feet. "I just wanted to pway," he mumbled. Of course part of him was embarrassed for fighting over a petty doll, but even so, he was still pissed that they had been such brats over something so simple. Were guys not allowed to play with dolls or something?

Hmph, what ever, he didn't need to play with their dumb dollhouse anyway.

Remembering that he was waiting for some hot cocoa, Chance peered around the lady's legs. His blonde friend was no where to be found and now that the warm, delicious drink was back on his mind, he could've cared less about the mess he'd just made. Looking back up to Harmony with tear stained cheeks and big, curious eyes, he was positive that no one would've been able to resist his four year old charms.

"Where Leo?" the Autumn asked, holding onto her leg for support.

~~~~~~

Standing alone and watching students start to mingle, Hannah didn't really know what to do. Most of them seemed to know each other and although she didn't want to disrupt anyone's conversations, maybe this was a good time to make friends.

Taking a step towards a group of people, a loud crash made her jump and she snapped her head towards the sound, only to see some kids standing around a toppled over dollhouse. Silly children, always making a mess. With a smile on her face from thinking about the innocent little tykes, Hannah made her way over to some younger girls that were decorating cookies. Cookie decorating... she'd never done anything of the sorts, being from Ukraine and she wondered how something so messy was just as equally fun.

"Mind if I help?" Might as well give it a try, if her presence was alright with them.

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Serenity had been leaning over on the table near to the younger girl, watching closely, closely... oh-so closely, nodding her head eagerly as she watched her blind companion fight on, fiddling around bravely with the crackers. "That's it! I think you're starting to get the hang of it -" The blonde was interrupted by the sudden attack of frosting. She let out a pitiful squeak, clenching her eyes shut as it gooped into her hands and dared to mess up her hair. "O-oh..." She wasn't quite sure how to react at first, staring at Linh with wide eyes.

"Help?" Finally, she cracked a smile, holding back a few giggles. "Yeah, we need help!" She looked up at Hannah, trying to shake the sugar off her.

---

Berlin leaned towards the back counter, wrinkling his freckled nose and shooting a glance for the door, wondering if it might have been less of a bother to just make a run for it rather than have to face with whatever punishment that Leo could have come up with, or worse, having to sit through one of Harmony's long and boring lectures. (He swore that woman could talk forever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever and ever... and ever.) His green eyes perked up the instant that he realized that the angel was letting him off the hook. A dumb bag of marshmellow's for freedom? Damn, he was lucky after all!

"I can manage that," the boy near-sang, tossing the bag into his arms. "Pleasure doing business with 'ya?" He couldn't hold back a cheesy grin, swinging towards the exit.

---

Harmony tucked her arms in, crossing them across her chest and looking down at Chance with an exasperated sigh. He really was something else, wasn't he? She wasn't the type to be rude, but she still wasn't quite sure what to make of this... well, young man. Was she supposed to scold him like any other Beata student, or did she drag him to bed and leave him in an empty crib, like she would do with the other babies? Like Joanna or Shepard? It was weird, so very weird to her.

"He'll be back soon," she promised him.

"Xin lỗi, chị!" Out of panic, she blurted the first words to come to mind and while they were the right ones, it was only after they had already been said that Linh realized it was the completely wrong language. Bringing both of her hands up to cover her mouth, frosting bag plopping onto the table, the crimson heat inched up to the top of her ears. Nobody here understood Vietnamese at all - why did she just say something in her native dialect again? It shouldn't be that hard to speak proper English after how much time has passed.

Taking an almost exaggerated deep breath, her voice was dampened by her palms as she slowly moved them away. "Uhm, Linh mean 'sorry." Almost as though to save her, another person had entered the conversation - saying something about help and whatever else she didn't catch since she was trying to remember who the voice belonged to.

Serenity had responded about them needing help, and while she was trying to remember what the word help meant, Linh nodded quietly with a small smile. "Puh-lease help." She still wasn't really sure about the definition, but she should at least pretend to know.

Mikaela felt bad for Shepard as he began to cry. She hated seeing babies cry, it was the worst thing ever. She looked around and noticed that the caterpillar was sitting on the ground near where Harmony had picked him up. "I bet I know what'll cheer you up, little one," she told Shep, walking over to the toy. crouching down, she picked up the bug toy and brought it up to the baby, making it dance around. Hopefully it would make him happier. "Hey Shep, I found your friend," the Summer told the baby, smiling.

Leo fought back a grin at Berlin's reaction to his offer. While the boy had gotten away from him, there was no promise that he would get away from Harmony. With the marshmallows in hand, Leo got to work on the long awaited hot chocolate. The room smelled amazing already, and the potent chocolate smell did nothing to take that away. It even made it smell even better. For all the trouble Leo was going though to get the drink for Chance, he hoped that the boy would like it.

---

Shepard's sobs abruptly stopped as the jingling of the caterpillar pulled him out of his moment of misery. Within a few moments his face was back to normal, as if he had not cried in the first place. With two hands he explored the toy in a childlike wonder. Blue eyes wondering over the bright colors. The next moment came a pause, and a turn of his head to the other reason he had cried--Joanna. With a tight grip in his left hand, the boy held out the toy in her direction, then dropped it. The toy vanishing from his view. Shepard blinked, and cast a long look at his hand. Where had the caterpillar gone? It was in his hand a moment ago! Rather than returning to a cry, a puzzled look crossed a chubby face. Blue eyes then stared up at Mikaela, as if asking where the toy went to.

---

The cup of hot chocolate had cooled down to a drinkable temperature. Mini marshmallows floated lazily at the top. A blue Disney mug filled with the warm and comforting hot chocolate. Leo entered the main room, taking note of the messy doll area that had once been picked up when he had last left. Deciding not to ask any questions, the angel presented the teary eyed boy with his promised drink.

Looking from Harmony to the door in which Leo had disappeared through, he listened as she told him that Leo would be back soon. Well, for her sake, he better be, or else she'd be deal with a four year old boy throwing a tantrum, which wasn't fun for anyone. But sure enough, the blonde student returned with his drink and the little boy was almost bouncing up and down from excitement.

Grabbing the plastic, more or less childproof mug from Leo, Chance held grasped it in his little hands and watched as a light stream of steam slowly ceased to emit from the cup. Tiny marshmallows floated at the top of the chocolaty drink just waiting to be eaten and the smell of sweet delicious made the small child giggle. Oh lord, how much he loved hot chocolate.

Closing his eyes, he took a sip, savoring the taste as the warm substance flowed down his throat and brought a warm, fuzzy feeling to his chest. With a flash of light, the once three foot boy stood six feet tall and instead of being four years old, had transformed into his true, teenager appearance.

Still with his eyes closed and unaware of what had happened, Chance let out a content sigh and was surprised by the sound of his voice. Shrugging it off, he assumed that it was just the hot cocoa that made his voice deeper and more husky, but something felt... different. He didn't feel so wobbly or top heavy, and why in the world did the mug suddenly seem so much smaller in his hands?

Becoming aware of the odd feelings, he opening his eyes and if he hadn't be grasping the Disney mud so tightly, would've dropped it. "Whoa!" he exclaimed, looking down his body that now stood some ways from the floor. At first he was admittedly shocked, but that surprised quickly turned into joy. "Oh my God, look at me!" he laughed somewhat hysterically, now holding the mug in one hand as he did a small twirl like

motion where he stood, still observing the rare phenomenon. He... he was himself? How the hell did that happen? Well, who cared, at least he was normal again! Never in a million years did he think that he'd be able to turn back into his regular self and it happening so suddenly was a bit disarming. Was this really happening? Was he finally going to be his normal age again?

"It's a miracle drink!" the student declared with a big, goofy grin on his face as he looked from Leo, then to the mug that still held hot cocoa in it. Who knew an unhealthy drink like this could preform wonders! But regrettably, he'd spoken too soon. With another quick flash of light, the once wonderful and magical moment was put to a unwanted and abrupt end.

Back down at the height of everyone's knees, Chance took a clumsy step backward and fell on his butt, causing the hot chocolate in the mug to slosh around, almost spilling onto the semi-clean carpet bellow. What the... he was short again? Apalled and unsure of what to think about what had just happened, the small child placed the mug on the ground next to him and put his hands in front of his small stature to inspect them. Small and stubby, like always.

Looking up to Leo, his eyes starting to fill with tears once more, not able to hold them back. He... he'd turned back to his normal age, so what went wrong? Couldn't he ever just control his power for once in his life instead of it controlling him? Yeah, being a small child came with perks, but all he wanted was to be his normal, actual teenage self again, was that so much to ask for? Being in this child form, it was starting to consume him and his ability to use his gift properly, and thinking more about it, the thought of never being able to get his gift to work because of his childish inability to scared and angered him. Was he seriously not capable of getting his oh so wonderful gift to work properly? Why was it so hard and what if he was stuck this age... forever?

Thoughts and questions raced through the boy's head as he sat on the ground, surrounded by people. Confused, sad, and somewhat angry about it, Chance wiped a stream from his cheeks with his little fists. "Stubid dwink," he mumbled softly, looking from the blonde student and to the ground in front of him. He known that him transforming was a fluke and wished he hadn't gotten so excited. For some reason, the universe seemed to despise him and at this point, he might as well just accept it.

~~~~~~

Smiling at the girl who was covered in cookie decorating ingredients, Hannah looked to the other girl who'd also agreed to let her join them. Step one, make sure it's alright if she joined into their festive little project. Step two... figure out how to decorate cookies.

Turning her gaze down to the table which had a wide assortment of decorating tools, she assumed that she'd need to start with the base. Grabbing a circular, bland looking cookie from a stack where all the lonely, naked treats were, Hannah set it in front of her. Not wanted to look totally clueless, the Summer cast a glance to the small, dark haired girl next to her and quickly observed some of the ones that she'd decorated without moving her head. For what ever reason, frosting comes before sprinkles and then the other fancy decorative candies could be added. Now that she thought about it, she wondered why she'd thought cookie decorating would be so hard, for it looked pretty simple to her and who knew, maybe she'd be one of those weird "born a natural" people and zoom right through the process.

Unfortunately, whatever hopes and dreams she previously had about cookie decorating quickly went down the drain.

Having been trying to put frosting on her cookie for a couple moments, it wouldn't stay on and kept falling off as a big glob onto the table. What the heck, wasn't it supposed to stick to the sugary bread, not fall off?

"Chort zabyray!" the brunette mumbled just loud enough for the others to hear, her Ukrainian accent showing. She had pretty decent English, but when it came to being frustrated, her default language was her native one. Besides, then people couldn't understand what she'd said, unless they some how knew how to speak Ukrainian.

Setting the cookie down, she looked to the blonde girl with an embarrassed smile, assuming that looked pretty stupid. "Uh, help please?" Hannah asked, looking down to her sad excuse of a cookie that had a blob of frosting on it. So much for being born a natural at cookie decorating.