text: “I told you no one was going to be wearing team costumes!” Oliver whispered harshly to Kerry as the five teens walked into the big building where the competition is going to take place. They all looked at the other teams of five that had on the matching colored T-shirts while they had on elf costumes. “You’ve got to be kidding me!” Anna said when she looked at each team either wearing blue T-shirts or red or any other color. The other teams that were each standing behind their own kitchen island was now staring at the new team that walked in dressed as elves. Giggles began to fill the room then. As if Kerry’s chocolate brown skin tone could not already hide the fact that she was blushing so hard, she scooped a bunch of hair from either side of her face to hide her cheeks. How could she have made such a mistake? “We-we still got this guys.” She said turning around so that her back was to the other contestants and she was facing her four good friends. “It doesn’t matter what we’re wearing. All that matters is that we make the meanest; biggest cookie the whole of Idaho falls has ever seen!” She smiled her wide smile at them and even though Anna wanted to cry of embarrassment and Freddy could feel his elf tights riding up with every step he took and the other three were almost as red faced as Anna, they still nodded and mumbled ‘You’re right.’ at Kerry. Kerry clapped her hands together and the five of them made their way to the one and only vacant kitchen island. 8:45am. They still had a whole fifteen minutes to wait before the competition would begin. Now that the initial shock of a group actually dressing up as elves was over, the other teams seemed to have forgotten and started talking among themselves. “Okay guys.” Kerry began saying. “Do you all remember what to do?” Kerry had always been a huge fan of cooking shows and ‘Big Time Bake: Holiday Special’ was her absolute dream show. Last year the task was to bake a very moist chocolate cookie and this year the task was to bake the biggest cookie ever. When she found out about the competition last month she immediately persuaded her four best friends; Oliver, Anna, Freddy and Cassie to be her teammates. “Hold on, when it’s time for getting the ingredients I’m gonna get the uh...” Cassie trailed off as she placed one hand under her chin and started thinking hard about what her part in the ingredient snatching was. Kerry rolled her eyes. “You’ll grab the baking soda,ground ginger and baking powder.” She reminded her. “Oliver you’re collecting the flour, dark brown sugar and granulated sugar. Anna, cinnamon and butter, Freddy salt and nutmeg and I’ll get the chocolate chips and cocoa butter. Guys this is really important cause once those first five minutes are up, we can’t get any other ingredients.” Kerry could already picture the award she would win when the competition was over. She imagined placing it on the desk in her room but Oliver said they should all take turns on who should have the trophy. “But I thought I was getting the flour and ginger.” Cassie asked confused. Kerry felt like she was growing faint. Maybe bringing Cassie along was a mistake. “No Cas.” She said trying to keep her voice in check so she wouldn’t come off as though she were stressed even though she clearly was. “Remember your duty is to get baking powder, baking soda and ginger.” She said the two ingredients slowly. Like if she said it any faster it would jumble up in Cassie’s brain. “Morning contestants!” A deep voice came from the front of the huge kitchen making everyone look forward. It was George Reed. A very famous baker and the host of Big Time Bake. After him came floods of men and women holding huge cameras up and recording everything that was taking place. The teams applauded him as he looked from right to left at all of them. When he finally got to the last team which was Kerry’s team, his eyes popped open just a fraction but he quickly regained himself from his brief shock of seeing their costumes. Anna’s face was now as red as her elf dress and her blue eyes stared down at the floor. “Welcome to this years annual Big time bake off Christmas special, teams.” They all applauded. “I’m George Reed and today we have six teams with us.” Some of the camera men recorded each team as George Reed called out ‘the red team, the blue team, the green team.’ When he finally got to the last group he hesitated before saying; “The elf team!” Kerry, Oliver, Freddy, Anna and Cassie waved awkwardly at the camera which seemed to linger on them before shifting back on George. “Okay teams, We have a special guest today. She is the owner of her own five star bakery and has published several cook books. Introducing Miss Carla Adler!” More applause filled the room as a woman of about five foot two walked in from the door on the right and stood beside George. Both of them looked like polar opposites as George was tall, lean and as pale as a ghost while Carla was short, plump and darker than he was. She said a short greeting to the teams but now Kerry wasn’t paying any attention. She couldn’t wait to get started. “Can I get an hour on the clock?” George asked and the huge circular digital clock that hung behind him and Carla on the wall read; 1:00:00. Excited chatter filled the room as Carla and George began to count down from ten. Once they got to one, everyone ran as fast as they could into the store that had automatic doors that just opened up. Oliver was the first to get back to their station followed by Anna. Freddy was next and Kerry followed. When the five minutes were almost up Cassie wasn’t back yet. The automatic doors were beginning to slowly close when finally Cassie came out just in time almost tripping over twice. Oliver and Anna started on the dry ingredients. Since they aimed at making the biggest cookie the whole world had ever dreamed of, they used a lot of flour, ginger, cinnamon nutmeg and cocoa in a huge bowl. Anna handled mixing the butter with fresh ginger and brown sugar. Cassie lines the baking pans with parchment while Kerry heats the oven. The clock doesn’t stop for anyone and when it’s thirty minutes left the dough for the cookie is ready and they need to shape it. “Stop eating the dough Freddy!” Anna says. “I’m sorry it tastes amazing.” Freddy says. “Let’s shape it in the baking pan.” Oliver suggests. They all work together to shape the dough into a round shape and when they’re done they have only twenty minutes left. “We have to bake it now!” Kerry says after sprinkling the huge flat brown circle that is the cookie with granulated sugar. She rushes and drops it into the oven feeling a hundred times better that now their master piece is baking in the oven. “Five minutes left teams!” George’s voice comes. “Uhhh Guys?” Anna says uncertainly. She’s standing in front of the oven looking in at the baking cookie. Everyone gathers around her and stares in horror at the terrible sight inside the oven. “Why does it look like bread?!” Freddy asks. Kerry opened the oven and took out the baking pan bringing the monstrous cookie out into the open. She can hear Carla talking about their cookie gone wrong but she doesn’t pay attention to it as she tries to think about what could have gone wrong. Why was the cookie rising? She poked at it and it deflated. “I think I know what happened.” Oliver says. He hands Kerry a container of yeast that was beside the baking soda. All eyes turned to Cassie who’s eyes were wide open. Her hands flew up to her mouth but she couldn’t utter a coherent sentence. “I’m s-so sorry. I don’t- I didn’t- I thought.” Kerry couldn’t help but cry. This was going terribly wrong. After all the weeks of practice this awful ugly brown half risen half deflated cookie is what they show for all their hard work. “Don’t cry Kerry.” Anna said wrapping her arms around her. “We did our best. And honestly this was a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be.” “Three minutes left teams!” “Yeah Kerry.” Freddy started. “We’re dressed as elves plus we have these ridiculous bell things on our shoes. I still don’t know how you got me to wear this.” He stuck out his right foot and jiggled it making Kerry giggle. Who would have thought Freddy with the black leather jackets, greasy sleek black hair and boots would be dressed as an elf wearing shoes that had bells attached to them. “This isn’t something I’m gonna forget in a long time.” Oliver added. Kerry smiled, looked around at her friends. She was so busy taking this whole thing so seriously that she missed out on the best part which is having fun with her friends. “You guys are right.” She said finally. “This was really fun.” George and Carla begin to count down from ten and Kerry, Oliver, Anna, Freddy and Cassie huddle together in a group hug. “Okay teams step away from your cookies!” The judges start from the right, talking to the teams as they taste their cookies. The other teams cookies look great. They are big and flat and different flavors and scents fill the room. George and Carla finally make their way over to the elf team. The Camera man zooms in on the weird cookie so that everyone who is watching live will get a good look it. “Elf team what do we have here?” Carla asks. “This is a chewy chocolate ginger bread cookie.” Oliver informs her. “Well.” George says taking another look at it. “It’s huge.” Is the only nice thing he can say about the cookie. The judges break pieces from the giant cookie and chew it. When they’re done they head back to the front of the room to decide who the winners are. They are back a few minutes later. “Thank you teams. This has been a very amazing competition. We loved all your cookies. You all showed great technique. But it is without a doubt that we give the award to the team who has really wowed us today with their cookie.” He pauses for a dramatic effect before saying. “The green team!” ***** “You know, these participatory badges aren’t all that bad.” Anna says as they head back into the van that will take them home wearing shiny badges on their chests. “Yeah at least now we don’t have to worry about sharing the award.” Cassie says. They nod in agreement. “We should do this again next year.” Kerry suggests. “No way!” The four of them chorus.