I giggled from behind the shed as Alicia searched for me inside the house. Her voice echoed, 'Come out, come out, wherever you are..'
But I stayed hidden with a big smile on my face. Alicia was really bad at hide and seek, and I was the complete opposite.
It's been about ten minutes since I'd been hiding in this place, but Alicia was nowhere to be found. I strained my ear to hear her footsteps- if they were getting closer or not. But I couldn't hear anything.
This meant that she was too far, as in like three houses away. But that didn't make sense, we were only playing around our house today.
So I slowly walked out of my hiding place carefully, my eyes searching around me for Alicia. I had just made it past the shed when Alicia popped out from around the other corner of the shed and said, 'GOT YOU!'
I screamed and fell to the ground in a panic. While Alicia was laughing so much that she fell and rolled around in the mud. I pouted and pointed at her, 'Cheater!'
But she kept on laughing with tears spilling out of her. I crossed my arms and said, 'That doesn't count! You stopped playing!'
She opened her eyes mid-laugh and smirked at me, 'Just accept defeat, Aly. You could never be as intelligent as me.'
I huffed, even though the last part was true. Alicia was bad at following the rules, but her roundabout ideas were always cunning.
Pulling myself to my feet, I brushed my hands on my clothes to get rid of the mud. I sniffed and moaned, 'Mm, what's that?'
Alicia came up beside me and sniffed too, 'Yum, that smells really good.' We exchanged a grin and ran inside.
My mom was baking jam cookies and they smelled heavenly. When she saw us rush in, she took the baked batch of cookies and placed it high in the air so we wouldn't be able to reach for it.
'Mom!!' I said in protest, jumping around her in hopes of getting the cookies somehow. Alicia was doing the same beside me.
'No, not yet. They're too hot. You two will burn yourself.' My mom was stubborn and her face was set in a firm line. That meant there was no use arguing with her. We might've had more success arguing with a wall right now.
So, we sat down at the dining table sullenly. As mom took the prepared cookies and placed them in the freezer.
She gave us two a glass of orange juice and said with a smile, 'Here, drink this for now.'
'You're too cool, aunt.' Alicia murmured from the other side of the table, and I chuckled.
My mom, on the contrary, narrowed her eyes at Alicia. She tapped her head lightly, and Alicia rubbed the spot.
She went away and put on her oven mitts, 'Go watch a movie, I'll bring over the cookies.'
I looked at Alicia and asked, 'Frozen?'
She looked at me in disgust and goes, 'No! I want to watch Ninja Turtles.'
I pretended to think about it for a second then brightened up with another idea, 'Happy feet?'
She mirrored my excitement and nodded, exclaiming, 'Yes!' So we were off to my room to watch the movie.
We settled on the bed as the movie started playing. Halfway through, mom came in with the cookies and we snatched the plate from her. She shook her head at us with a smile and left.
'God, these are so good.' Alicia said while chewing, and I made a sound of agreement because my mouth was too full to speak without spilling.
I didn't know when but I drifted off to sleep at some point during the movie. Through sluggish eyes, I think I saw Alicia's eyes glowing in the dark. But I was too tired and figured it was just a trick of the mind. Sighing, I settled comfortably into my pillows.