InsaneJournal

Who: Quinn & Mercedes
Where: Quinn’s house
What: Baking Christmas cookies
When: backdated lyke whoa - Friday, December 10th
Rating: SFW


Quinn moved around the kitchen collecting all the supplies and ingredients that she and Mercedes would need to make cookies once she arrived. She wasn’t sure how many people were going to show up the following day, especially considering all the drama that was going on lately, but she tried to remain optimistic and figured it was always better to plan for more rather than less.

Finally she heard someone at the door and made her way over there, pulling it open. “Hey! Glad you’re here,” Quinn said with a smile and moved out of the way so Mercedes could get in and out of the cold.

Mercedes rubbed her hands together the second she entered. "Holy hell it's freezing out there." She said shivering and slipping off her purple mittens. "We should make some hot chocolate or somethin' later."

After she had recovered from the cold she pulled Quinn into a welcoming hug. "Finally get to spend some time with you!"

Quinn hugged Mercedes back happily and grinned once they broke apart. “Definitely. I need to do a test run on hot chocolate for tomorrow anyway. So we can drink it until we get it just right.” She waited for Mercedes to take off her jacket and the rest of her outside gear before holding her arms out for it and bringing it to the closet. “I’m so glad it’s the weekend.”

Mercedes nodded enthusiastically, "I cannot get enough chocolate" she said grinning. "And yeah, me too." It had been the longest week of her life. The disappearance of Kurt by her side, the tension running through the club, it wasn't something she liked.

She's glad that some things seemed to have died down a little though.

This week had been rough on everyone. After last weekend things were just complicated and hectic and Quinn couldn’t wait to have a (hopefully) mellow get together where people could get over stuff. “Chocolate is the cure all for any ailment, physical or mental,” she said with a smirk, then began leading the way to the kitchen.

"Hmm you got that right." Mercedes said with a mischievous grin, "Especially if it's a nice chocolate man." It was a joke that Mercedes would never get tired of. "Get me one of those for Christmas!"

Quinn laughed and shook her head slightly. “I’d say I agree but we both know that’s not true. Apparently my type is white and nerdy. Like that Weird Al song,” she said with a giggle before adding, “But I’ll see what I can do.”

Mercedes rolled her eyes, "I swear that's like his theme song." Not that she actually had a problem with Artie. "Make sure you hook a girl up!"

“It really is, isn’t it?” Quinn agreed with a slight roll of her eyes before grabbing two aprons and tossing one towards Mercedes. “I, unfortunately, don’t know many... chocolate men,” the blonde said, before giggling. “What I do have right now though is chocolate chips,” she said enticingly and picked up the bag, waving it around.

Mercedes put the apron on before swiping the bag from Quinn's hands, "And now I have chocolate chips." She opened the bag and popped one into her mouth. "Mmmmm, these are hella good!"

Quinn was normally very careful about what she ate but she figured she would be outside in the snow tomorrow and burn off the cookie induced calories so she reached out and took a couple chocolate chips, tossing one in her mouth as well. “Milk chocolate ones are way better than the semi-sweet. I don’t know who people think they are kidding.”

Mercedes shrugged, "I like the white chocolate ones the best" she admitted. She had a huge sweet tooth, dark chocolate was not her favorite. "If we don't get started now, I'mma end up eatin' this whole bag"

“White chocolate is too sweet for me,” Quinn said as she began measuring out the flour for their cookies. “But it’s weird because I totally like the white chocolate Hershey kisses more than the regular ones. Maybe because there is regular chocolate swirled in that it evens out the sweetness.”

Mercedes had no cooking ability whatsoever, which was strange considering her dad was one of the best cooks she knew, however, she was a good extra hand around the kitchen. Quinn would just have to make sure she told her what to do. Mercedes popped another chocolate chip in her mouth before putting the bag down on the counter and turning away from it. “Yeah, the white chocolate kisses are so much better.”

Once Quinn had all the dry ingredients measured out for their first batch of cookies -- chocolate chip -- she quickly compiled the liquids and joined them in a bigger bowl. “Do you want to stir for a while and I can start making us some hot chocolate? Or we have water, pop, milk.... uh coffee or tea?” She looked at Mercedes questioningly.

“Hot chocolate will perfect.” Mercedes said smiling, hot chocolate sounded heavenly. Mercedes took the larger bowl from Quinn, stirring as instructed and watched as the mixture looked less like two separate components and turned into one substance of ooey goodness.

Quinn gathered all her ingredients for hot chocolate (the stuff from the package was okay but clearly not the best hot chocolate ever) and began mixing the cocoa powder with hershey syrup as well for extra chocolate-y flavor.

“I can’t bake worth a damn but I love doin’ it.” Mercedes said, still stirring the mixture. “Mostly because I love gettin’ to eat it when it’s done.”

“Well it’s very satisfying. Like, you do all this hard work so of course you deserve the reward of eating it at the end,” Quinn said logically as she finished heating the hot chocolate and tossed in a few marshmallows before bringing the cups over to the counter, sliding one towards Mercedes.

Mercedes shrugged, “I’m not sure if it’s the hard work or the cookies that make it worth it.” Seriously, whenever she baked with her dad, she did less baking and more eating, but then again, her dad never really wanted her in the way. “Thanks for the hot chocolate,” She said to Quinn, taking a sip and burning her tongue, “Ouch.”

“Be careful it’s--” Quinn started, but Mercedes had already taken a drink. “Hot,” she finished lamely. “Do you want some ice or something? Are you done mixing by the way?”

Mercedes laughed, waving it away, "It's all good," she said before putting the mug down and waiting for it to cool. She was not going to make that mistake again. "And I think so? Does this look good to you?" She asked passing the bowl over to Quinn.

“Yeah looks perfect,” Quinn grinned before pulling put the baking sheets, sliding one over to Mercedes, and began putting cookie dough balls onto hers. “Sometimes I think they smell better than they taste but then I actually eat one and can’t believe how silly I was to even think that in the first place,” she said with a chuckle and continued scooping more cookie dough onto the pan.

Mercedes attempted to mimic what Quinn was doing, luckily, it wasn't very difficult. "Oh god, I think it's the combination of them that makes me melt." She shook her head side to side, she really wanted cookies.

"Anyway..." Mercedes said, after a moment, getting slightly bored of the cookie conversation, sure she liked eating cookies, but there was only so much you could say about them. "What's up?"

Quinn shrugged as she filled up her cookie sheet and leaned against the counter as she waited for Mercedes to finish. “I don’t know. Just... you know. Busy with Cheerios. I really want us to win Nationals again. So I’ve been working hard. And... just, I don’t know. Stuff.” She shrugged before asking, “What’s up with you?”

Mercedes finished up and stepped back as well, turning to face Quinn. "That sounds...interestin'." Sarcasm dripping from her voice, "And nothin' much" Seriously, nothing had really been going on with her personally. She was just meddling with everyone else's lives now.

Rolling her eyes, Quinn grabbed both cookie sheets and slid them in the oven before setting the timer. “I don’t know what you’re expecting me to say. I see you almost every day. If there was a scandal you’d know about it,” the blonde said with a smirk.

Mercedes laughed, Quinn had a point, "I don't know, life is just kinda borin' right now" especially since Kurt was no longer involved in her daily routine. "Like, I got nothin' goin' on, so I thought maybe you've got somethin' to share."

“Well I’m trying not to be that annoying friend who just blabs on and on about her boyfriend, so, really I have nothing,” Quinn said, chuckling. “Sorry to be so boring. Maybe you need to do something outrageous so we have something to talk about though,” she added with a wink.

Mercedes rolled her eyes, "I don't do nothin' though!" She just listened and occasionally participated when her friends do ridiculous things, "Oh! I do have a date with this dude, but it's not big deal" Mercedes wasn't actually all that interested in him to be honest.

“With Preston?” Quinn asked, smirking. “I mean... just a guess.” Of course she knew about the date, but didn’t want to pry it out of her friend. Plus she was a little worried about it. If it didn’t go well, Preston might have some kind of anxiety issue and she didn’t want him freaking out.

Mercedes shrugged, shifting her feet around, "Yeah him," She wasn't stupid, she had a good idea how Quinn could have found out...and everyone else for that matter, they weren't exactly private about it, which was why she didn't think it was all that serious. "What's his deal by the way? He seems kinda...flaky."

“He’s just. He’s shy.” That was one way to describe it. Really he was socially stupid. But he was really nice. Or at least had been really nice to her so far. He just didn’t respond well to largely populated areas. Or big groups of people. “He’s nice though. I mean, even if you two aren’t interested in each other, he’s still good company. We saw the new Harry Potter together. He even paid. It was nice.”

Oh God, it sounds like I have a crush on him and went on a date with him. “We’re just friends though!” Quinn added hastily, hoping to fight off that look Mercedes gave.

"Girl, what the hell is it with you and awkward boys? Like seriously, is this your new thing?" She joked. Okay, Artie wasn't that awkward, he was actually a pretty chill dude, but Owen and now Preston? Where the hell did Quinn find all these boys? Sure, there was something to be said about their nervous shyness, it was kind of cute, but it was also generally awkward.

“What? I--” Quinn began protesting before cutting herself off and pouting. It was quite true. When had she become a nerd wrangler? She hadn’t meant to. In fact, she really hated loser people because they had no ambition for life and it was everything she was against. But with her vow of being nice, it sort of just happened. “I don’t know. They’re nice people. I just never gave them a chance before,” she mumbled, part embarrassed and part ashamed.

Mercedes bursted out laughing at Quinn's face, she seemed seriously appalled at the thought. She placed a hand on Quinn's shoulder, in mock comfort, "It's alright girl, you're not the one who's got a date with an awkward guy she's never met."

“Well, he’s really nice. He’s going to be at the sledding party tomorrow. You can meet him then!” Quinn said, trying to get back on the conversation and draw the attention away from herself.

Mercedes wasn't so sure about that. "I don't know if I want to, meetin' him durin' our date will be fun, and like less awkward, that way we can get to know each other." Plus, bind dates seemed kind of fun, she just wanted to see how this one would go. It'd be an experience alright.

“I guess that’s a fair point,” Quinn said just as the oven’s timer went off. “Yay! Our first batch is done. Can you move the mixing bowl so I can put these pans there?” She asked and got the hot pad to take them out.

Mercedes did as she was told, and waited, "You gotta tell me more about this kid though, don't wanna go in completely cold."

Honestly, Quinn didn’t know much about Preston. “Um, well he goes to my church. He likes classical music and plays the cello. He likes Harry Potter...” That was sort of all she could really think of. She gave a shrug before grabbing a spatula to take the cookies off the pan. “He is mysterious. That’s an appealing quality in a guy right?”

"Maybe, that depends on the guy, but it does make him more interestin'" She knew next to nothing about this guy. Scratch that, she only knew what Quinn had told her. But it couldn't hurt to go on one date could it? "I'm not like, crazy am I? To go out with a dude I don't even know?"

“No. A lot of people go on blind dates,” Quinn said as she touched one of the cookies laid out to make sure it was cool before sliding it over to Mercedes. “And if it doesn’t work out then at least you had the experience!” She was trying to remain positive and hope that Preston wasn’t going to flip out too much.

Mercedes laughed, grabbing the cookie and taking a bite out of it. "Oh my god," she said her voice muffled from the treat "these are amazing." They were, they were full of ooey gooey chocolately goodness. "Haha, anyway, it'll be some experience alright, but like, I don't think either of us are actually interested you know? Just somethin' for fun."

“Well there’s nothing wrong with that.” Preston could certainly use the social experience. She almost felt bad for thinking about it that way, but it was true. “I’m sure it will be great,” Quinn said with an optimistic grin.

Mercedes grinned as well, she was optimistic too, the date will go well dammit. “Oh it will be, trust me”

Polishing off her cookie and hot cocoa, Quinn smirked back at Mercedes. “Okay, break time is over! We still have three other kinds of cookies to make. Aren’t you go glad you volunteered to help me?” She winked then set about collecting the next batch of ingredients, happy to have this excuse to catch up with her friend.

Mercedes rolled her eyes, "Hey, I'm just hear for the cookies." It wasn't because she wanted to spend time with one of her best friends, nope. She smiled as she helped Quinn grab the rest of the ingredients.