The Huge Cookie Surprise

Title: The Huge Cookie Surprise

Author: Haripriya

Authors Note: Hello everyone! I hope you all are having a Cookie-tacular Friday! Before reading this story, I think it would be best to grab a cookie, or else you'll start to feel hungry! Even if you don't like cookies, you'll feel like eating them (maybe). So start munching on whatever you like, and read this story about a group of friends, trying to make the biggest cookie in the history of cookies. I hope you enjoy the quick read! 

Have you ever heard of true friendship? Friends that will never part, and always stick together? Friends, who always help each other in times of despair? Friends who laugh, and joke around with each other without hurting the other? Who will always be with you in times of both good and bad?

Usually, when people define friends, these are some of the first things that will come to mind to them. But, this group of friends is different, a little. Yes, they do stick together, are always with each other no matter what happens, but there is something else that makes their friendship different.

Something which truly makes their friendship spark. That is sharing a common love of food, and not just any food, but cookies. These four friends love cookies and love all different kinds of them. Chocolate chip cookies, vanilla cookies, sugar cookies, you name it and they'll eat it!

Just the simple food cookies are the ones which bonded them. Their love of all types of cookies. Not just one kind. But there is also something else they love to do, and they all usually consider it as their hobby. It is cooking. When they are free, they like heading over to the kitchen to make something delicious.

Obviously, the thing they love to cook is cookies. Whenever the friends are all meeting at one house, the host cooks cookies, and the other three friends enjoy eating it. That was one of their friend traditions to serve the "guests" cookies. 

These four friends like referring to themselves (or their friend group) as "The Accidental Four" which describes how they became friends -- accidentally. But all four of them claim that this was one of the best accidents that have ever happened to their lives, and they will never regret this.

Phoebe, Axel, Luna, and Simon are all best pals. If you actually noticed, the first letter of each of their names spells out 'PALS'. So, that was also one of the best coincidences that has ever occurred to them, but they are really happy about it because that is one of the many things that connect them. 

Now today was supposed to be like any other day. After their school was over, they could all do homework together, and hang out with each other at their hang place. Little did they know that the future had something special in store for them. 

"Hey, Axel! Are Luna and Simon coming?" asks Phoebe.

"I don't know. Their classes do end later than ours, so it might take them a couple of minutes to get out of class," replied Axel.

"I guess your right," Phoebe said and then shrugged.

After a couple of minutes, just like Axel had inferred, Luna and Simon did get out of class. 

"Hey, Phoebe! Hey Axel! Sorry, we reached a little late. It took us a while to pack everything for our science project. Anyways, what's up?" asked Simon.

"Nothing much. I'm just glad school's over! Plus, I don't have homework today. Do you have work to do?" asked Axel.

"Well, I finished my work during the last couple of minutes of lunch with Luna. I don't know if Simon has work to do though." Phoebe replied.

"I only have a quick essay to write. I'll come to the hang place a little later than expected. Sorry to disappoint." Simon said.

"Ok Simon, meet you later!" the three friends yelled.

☆☆☆

Axel, Luna, and Phoebe biked to their hang place like usual, but that's when it happened. 

"Whoah! Phoebe! Look out!" hollered Luna.

"Why Lu..." Phoebe started to ask, but the paper shoved onto her face and mouth, making her bike go in different directions.

Unfortunately, her bike crashed into a stop sign and loosened one of its wheels'. Not only that, but the pedals on her bike also broke. 

Luckily, Phoebe only fell on a pile of grass, so she didn't get hurt. It was only the bike that severely broke. So she couldn't even ask anyone to fix it because of the condition it is in right now. Later, she would have to buy a new one.

"Oh my gosh! Phoebe! Are you ok?! I...I tried to warn you about the flying, flimsy, flier freely floating, but...you didn't listen. I'm sorry your bike broke though. You know I could actually buy you a new one with my allowance." Luna spoke calmly, trying to console her.

"Yeah, Luna will pay for everything. But I hope you're fine." Axel said.

Luna shot a look at Axel when he said that she was going to have to pay for everything. She thought that Axel would help her but easily escaped. 

"Oh, no need. I'm ok though, thanks, guys! But, my bike isn't." Phoebe said as she turned around to look at her bike.

Luna lent a hand as Phoebe took it, trying to get herself up from the grass. Phoebe started to dust the bits and pieces of twigs, dirt, and leaves all over her shoes and socks. She again looked at her bike with sadness. She had never destroyed an item and made it in such a horrible state. 

Phoebe had to figure out how she could convince her parents to buy her a new one. 

She and Luna were picking up the bike and trying to place all the missing screws and other parts of the broken bike in the neatest manner they could. As the girls were doing that, Axel was more curious about the flier, rather than helping them.

"What is that flier about anyway? Was it so important enough to literally injure her?" asked Axel.

"I don't know Axel," Luna spoke gritty, still mad about what Axel had said earlier, "but let's check it out," she suggested.

Axel bent down to look at the flier. Phoebe and Luna also came a little closer to check it out. Clearly, all the friends were very intrigued to see what the flier was all about. 

COOKIE-TACULAR!!

We want people who LOVE cooking. We want people who's favorite food is cookies! If that sounds a lot like you, then you can call the number provided below to enter the "THE ANNUAL COOKIE-TACULAR CONTEST". The best cookie will get awarded, and the recipe will be named out of the winning group. So are you ready to be a cookie-tacular? The contest is only a week away! May the best cookie-tacular win!

"Wow!! That sounds like us! That really does sounds like us! We NEED to enter the competition. All four of us. I'll tell Simon as soon as he reaches the hang place. We need to get planning! Come on!" yelled Axel excitingly.

"Yes! Oh wow! I have so many ideas we could do! But just imagine us winning this competition! Our names will be lit up everywhere! I can't imagine this. It's too good! Phoebe, I think I'm going to pass out. If I do, you know the code word to wake up." Luna hyperventilated as she tried to make out words after reading the flier.

"What's the code word? Cookies?" asked Phoebe.

"Yup!" Luna yelled.

Phoebe rolled her eyes and shook her head while seeing Luna's craziness.

"Also, I do think it's a good idea to participate, but what kind of cookie should we even bake? Whatever it is, it has to amaze the judges marvelously, or else, we won't stand a chance." Phoebe said.

"Yup, but I already got a great idea." Axel said as he yelled "COOKIES" to unconscious Luna. 

☆☆☆

Now, the three friends were in the hang place (also, don't worry! Luna got up after Axel yelled the code word) as Axel was about to present his idea to the girls.

"You see, the judges want to see something extraordinary out of such an ordinary dish. That's where the creative part comes in. We have to do...have to make something unusual, yet a tasty cookie. That is where the true talent of a baker comes in. If we want to crush the other contestants in this challenge, we have to do it dramatically. So I say that instead of wasting time and working our brains so hard on coming up with a new flavor for a cookie, we can just bake a humongous cookie! That way, even if it is a normal chocolate chip cookie, it will grab the judge's attention. Come on, I mean, isn't this such a great idea?" asked Axel, who was anxiously waiting to get applause.

"Actually, you know what, Axel could be leading us somewhere. I mean what he said was true. We need to bake some eye-capturing, and everyone notices huge things, don't they? So if we bake the cookie to be really big, possibly even the biggest cookie in the entire world, we could hit two birds in one stone." Luna said.

"What two things will we achieve?" asked confused Phoebe.

"Well, sure, we could win, but, we could also get ourselves into the Guinness book of world records!" exclaimed Luna.

"No way! Wow, I...I don't even know what you all are talking about, but it sounds exciting! We could make a world record?" asked Simon, looking so interested in the conversation, but not knowing what they were talking about.

Simon had accidentally just barged in the hang place, so Luna, Axel, and Phoebe were a bit confused. But soon realized that Simon was done with his homework. 

"Simon? It was you?" asked Axel.

"Oh, I get it. You three don't want me here, do you?" he asked, looking a bit disappointed at Axel's response.

"No, no, no! It's not that, it was just...well, long story short we were trying to make the biggest cookie in the history of cookies to win the cookie-tacular." blurted Phoebe.

"Umm, ok, I'm just genuinely confused right now," Simon confessed.

"Well, you see that rackety old bike?" asked Luna.

"Hey! Watch it! That's my bike you're talking about!" Phoebe argued, feeling hurt.

"Ok, don't feel offended. I was just saying, that while we were biking to our hang place, this flier just blew up on Phoebe's face, and her bike was destroyed, but luckily Phoebe's fine. Anyways, the flier was actually a competition all about cookies! If we call this number," Luna said, pointing to the flier, "then we're automatically registered. But the condition is that we need to make an unusual, unique, yet tasty cookie." Luna explained as Simon nodded his head to show that he understood. 

"Yeah, but the best part is that the winning cookie's recipe will be named after the winners! Can you imagine? So it was my genius idea that we could bake a humongous cookie? So far, the largest cookie in history is 754 square meters. We have to beat that to win this competition." Axel said.

"You know what? I say let's do it! Let's show all the contestants that the Accidental Four is the best team in the world. Or PALS, whatever we choose to name the team." Simon said, his eyes lit up, eager to start baking.

"What are we waiting for then team? Let's show everyone who we are!!" hollered Phoebe.

"YAY!! Let's go, everyone! Start baking!" all four cheered as they rushed to get all the ingredients to bake the cookie.

☆☆☆

 Of course, they weren't going to bake the cookie inside their hang place (because it wouldn't fit), they were going to use the school's football stadium to bake it. 

The four practiced and practiced every day to try their best to make a yummy cookie, while at the same time trying to maintain it's huge height. Though the proportions and the tools all changed, they still needed the same ingredients for it to be a cookie. The baking part was quite difficult since the cookie's size wouldn't the oven. So they came up with a way to first bake the cookie small, and after it was done baking, they would try to make the cookie much larger. 

Though it took a lot of ingredients, time, and effort to make such a large cookie, it was all worth it, for they were the lucky winners of the Annual Cookie-Tacular! They decided to name their recipe "The Huge Cookie Surprise".

~The End~