I'm A Big Bad Tiger

Kitchen

Me and the others are making love cookies and Dude is with us. It has taken us hours to perfect them so far. Once Ben bites them, he'll fall in love with the first person he sees. We have to make sure it's Mal.

"All right. It says that we still need one tear, and I never cry." Mal looks at me.

"I can't cry if someone sliced my arm off." I shrug.

"Let's just chop up some onions." Carlos grabs an onion.

"No. It says that we need one tear of human sadness. And this love potion gives the best reviews so we have to follow it exactly." Mal carries on stirring the dough.

"A tear's a tear." Says Jay who is starting to get really bored.

"That's not true, Jay. They both have antibodies and enzymes, but an emotional tear has more protein-based hormones than a reflex tear." Evie wows us. I do the wolf whistle while the boys look at her confusingly.

"Listen to you." Mal smiles.

"Yeah, I knew that." Jay smiles. I giggle and I lean my head on his shoulder.

"Did not." Carlos smacks his shoulder lightly.

"Yeah, I did." Jay says as Lonnie walks in. Mal covers up her book.

"There you are, Mal! I was looking for you. You know, all the girls want you to do their hair!" She sees that we're making cookies. "Midnight snack, huh? What you guys making?"

"Yeah, Mal. Why don't you tell our dear friend Lonnie here what we're making?" I smirk. Mal shoots me and angry look. She looks at Evie and then back at Lonnie.

"Nothing special. Just cookies." Lonnie dips her finger in a licks it. We all try to stop her. Stupid timing. "Oh, no, no!"

"Wait, wait, wait!" Carlos shouts.

"What? I'm not gonna double dip." Lonnie tells us.

"Ok." I sit down next to Jay.

"Feel anything?" Evie asks.

"Yeah, like maybe it might be missing something?" Mal smiles. Jay leans up against the bar nearest to Lonnie.

"Hey, there." Jay tries to be flirty. I feel like ripping off someones head.

"It could use some chips." Lonnie walks to the fridge.

"Chips?" Jay looks at me. I stand next to Evie. "Sorry, babe."

"Love you." I wink at him.

"And those are?" Mal questions Lonnie.

"Chocolate chips. Just the most important food group." Me and my friends look at each other. "Wait, didn't your moms ever make you guys, like, chocolate chip cookies?" Lonnie puts some chocolate chips into our dough. Me, Mal and Evie peek in. All of us look at Lonnie, eager for her to tell us more. "Like, when you're feeling sad, and they're fresh from the oven, with a big old glass of milk, and she just makes you laugh and puts everything into perspective and..." We look at her with sadness on our faces. The best kind of food we could have on the Isle is a piece of fruit that isn't bruised or squished or out of date/mouldy. "Why are you all looking at me like that?"

"Me and Jay don't have mamas. Well, for me, not anymore. Mine died when I was very young." I explain to her. "She died from a deadly disease. I never talk about what killed he, but it was Necrotising Fasciitis, or flesh eating bug. Jay just doesn't have one. You don't understand, Lon. We grew up different than you." I stand next to Jay and I lean into him.