WRITER IN THE DARK , neil perry

16

amélie and todd both walked down the aisles of valuables, looking for what they each had in mind for neil.

"what are you getting him?" todd asked amélie, silently observing her as she browsed through various different cameras behind glass doors.

"i think a camera." amé said, opening the display and grabbing the kodak box and putting it under her arm.

"wow. those are not cheap. you must really like him." todd admired, nodding quickly.

"i may or may not." amélie grinned, following todd towards the display case full of watches for men.

after looking at each watch very carefully, todd settled on a silver plated clock with brown leather straps. even after amélie had assured him multiple times that the watch was fine and neil would love it, todd couldn't help but ask the same question one last time. "a-are you sure he'll like this watch?"

"like i said, it's beautiful todd. i doubt he'd ever dislike anything you give him." amélie smiled, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"thanks amélie. i was thinking of maybe getting his initials engraved into it too." todd said with a reassuring smile. it was the biggest smile she'd ever seen coming from todd.

"i think he would really like that." she nodded. making todd smile wider.

"okay, i'll ask the shopkeeper." he nodded, walking around the counter to get the attention of the man who was watching over the watches.

"i've got to go pick up some books, but i'll come back in a second." amé beamed, walking quickly to the books section.

she was peering around for some of her favorite books to give to neil, until she saw meeks and pitts with a book in hand. "hi, what'd you guys pick out?" she warmly asked, a stack of books in her arms.

"to kill a mockingbird. we read it last semester." meeks said proudly. "i'm sure he'll love it." pitts added in. amélie nodded with agreement.

after a little while more, everyone had paid for their gifts and headed back to charlie's house to bake the cake and wrap the presents.

it was an absolute disaster.

"okay, so we need 2 eggs." amélie declared, steadily holding the mixing bowl in one hand and a wooden spoon in the other.

"here." knox said, cracking two eggs over top of the bowl and not realizing he got some of the shell in it.

"knox, you got the shell in it." marianne groaned, grabbing the wooden spoon and attempting to fish out the shell.

"that gives it a crunchy taste." knox smirked, making everyone else rejoice with disgust. "god, that's disgusting."

"we need 2 cups of milk." amélie read off the box. pitts opened the cupboard, grabbed two glass cups and filled them both to the brim with milk.

"pitts those are our nice glasses! my dad's boss is having dinner with us tomorrow night!" charlie scolded, grabbing one of the glasses, pouring the milk down the sink and frantically trying to wash the glass.

"and i think she means the measuring cup genius." meeks butted in, making everyone else crack up with laughter.

"i knew that. i was just thirsty." pitts said with red cheeks, attempting to sip the other glass of milk but getting it spilled on him by charlie who quickly snatched the glass out of his hands.

"yeah yeah. can someone just add a bit of vanilla?" amélie chuckled, mixing the bowl and motioning over to the bottle of vanilla.

"yeah, i can." charlie said, putting both glasses on the drying rack and grabbing the bottle of vanilla and tipping it over top of the bowl.

"no, i will." knox said, grabbing the bottle from charlie.

"stop it, knoxious!" charlie said, feeling knox's fingers squeeze on his making half of the vanilla in the bottle leak out.

"look what you've done." marianne gasped, watching at the big brown puddle in the cake batter.

"well, lots of vanilla can't be that bad." knox shrugged, putting the vanilla back into the cupboard.

he stuck a finger in the middle of the pool of vanilla and licked it off the tip of his finger. "see? it's not even.." he paused to soak up the bitter taste of pure vanilla, making a face at how gross it tasted.

after a bit more of struggle with the cake, the poets had successfully helped amélie bake neil a cherry chip cake, even if she did most of the work.

"this really paid off. the cake smells amazing." charlie said, marianne nodding in agreement.

"i'm exhausted." knox grumbled, falling back defeated on charlie's couch.

"can i just try it?" cameron said, bent over in front of the oven admiring it as it baked.

"no! it's for neil." todd quietly protested, pushing cameron away from the oven.

"do you guys want to surprise him tomorrow?" knox asked, his eyes focused on the back of amélie's head, who was watching cameron and todd from charlie's coach.

"yes. charlie, bring the cake over to the cave." she said quietly, not taking her gaze off of todd and cameron. todd was swatting at cameron with the spatula he was using to whisk the icing, sending little splatters of the vanilla icing onto cameron.

"ew, it'll get all soggy!" he groaned, attempting to lick all the icing off that todd had just splattered him with.

"i'll bring like a blanket and we can picnic outside of it?" charlie asked quietly, his face burning from embarrassment. he rarely made a useful contribution to the group so he was nervous to add something that wasn't just a joke.

"sounds great." meeks nodded, pitts and the others agreeing as well. charlie's somewhat tame and sweet response peaked the interest of amé.

"wow, i can't believe it! something smart is actually coming out of charlie dalton's mouth!" she teased, getting a shove from marianne and an embarrassed glare from charlie. it was all worth it when she heard the entire room erupt into laughter at her joke.