Alicia was standing at the bakery to get some pastries for the next morning when she watched the massive amount of bread overwhelm some of the workers. She tilted her head and a grin spread across her face as an idea popped into her mind. “You know, I’ll take four bags, big bags, really big bags,” she got a few weird looks but ended up with all different kinds of bread. She stopped and got some cheese and some other things before heading home.
“Laura!” Alicia called as she awkwardly pushed the front door open.
“Laura!” She called again as the dogs started barking. Alicia put the four extremely large bags of bread down in the living room as the dogs all jumped around sniffing. When she finally heard Laura come into the living she turned with a big smile.
“Want to build a bread fort?”
Laura had been in her room looking at a book given to her by one of her teachers at school before the summer break. It was one that wasn’t too advanced but challenging enough to help her improve some of her reading skills. She’d been just curious enough to flip through the pages around the time Alicia called for her from the other room.
Tossing the book on her bed, Laura got up and entered the living room where she saw Alicia unloading several bags of something and the dogs sniffing and acting like they’d just hit the jackpot. Carlos the goat even came bounding out of nowhere and jumped up to see what was going on.
“A what?” Laura got a better look at all the loaves of bread. She kinda smiled, not sure exactly how to build a bread fort, but the idea did kinda intrigue her. “How do you make a fort out of bread?”
Grinning Alicia turned to get the dogs to go out of the way enough for her to flip a bag upside down and a ton of different kinds and sizes of bread started to fall out, baguettes, ciabatta, you name it!
“We start to figure out how to piece all of these different sorts together to build our fort, we could even make two and set bread cannons up and attack Logan and Erik when they come home?” She suggested.
There was so much bread. Laura’s eyes widened a big as she watched Alicia acting all excited, and Laura couldn’t help but start to feel a little of the same even if she hadn’t outwardly shown it much yet. Then the idea of bread cannons to shoot Logan and Erik with made her break out into a grin.
“Shoo,” she said to the dogs and goat as she settled on the floor next to Alicia who was already starting to sort through all of the different loaves. “The bigger ones will work better for the wall. Rolls for the cannonballs.”
Alicia knew the idea could backfire and grinned as Laura took charge of how it would be organized. Alicia went to work and very careful to make sure things went into the right piles. She helped make sure the animals didn’t get to the bread.
As they sorted Alicia glanced over. “How are the books going?”
While she was busy stacking and getting to work on the base of the fort, Laura shrugged at the book question. “Okay. I started looking at one today.” She hadn’t been thrilled with the idea of ‘homework’ during her summer break, but she did sometimes enjoy reading books if she didn’t get frustrated working through them. “It has a pig, a spider, and a bunch of other talking animals in it.”
She picked up a long French baguette and thought about where to place it. There were a few of them in the piles, but this one was the longest that she could tell so far. “Should we use this one to help make a window to throw stuff from or use as a bread spear?”
“Charlotte’s Web or some other name’s web?” Alicia asked really hoping her mind wasn’t reaching out for the wrong book. Truthfully Alicia hadn’t ever really read it, she remembered the story from some of her muggle side of the family but that was about it.
“I think that’s perfect, how about the Bakarkhani we can use it as almost like throwing stars as well, what do you think?”
Laura nodded. “Charlotte’s Web. I think there’s a funny rat in it too.” Her teacher said she’d probably enjoy it because of all of the animals. Who knew - by the end of the book maybe Laura would want to adopt a spider or a rat this time.
“Yes,” Laura said with a grin. She really liked the idea of throwing stars. Bread throwing stars, but still. It would be fun regardless. They had a lot of the thicker loaves stacked up to form a pretty good wall, and there was a little hole or window to help see if they needed to duck down. She looked over at Alicia. “When you do think they’ll be home?”
“We aren’t getting a rat,” Alicia said quickly. “Between Carlos and the dogs, it might be a bit much for a rat.” She added just as quickly. Besides, she just really wasn't keen on having a rat around.
She paused looking down at her watch. “My guess is,” she paused again. “We’ve got about 30-45 minutes to an hour before the first one appears, we better shape our attack up!”
Laura shrugged. “Okay.” The rat wasn’t necessarily something she wanted - not yet anyway - and they were kinda gross with their beady eyes. Once she got more into the book (or eventually watched the movie) she might end up changing her mind. Maybe a goose or a chicken. But not a rooster. They were way too loud in the mornings.
“They won’t see us when they first come in,” Laura said. “They’ll have to come around the corner first and into the main room. We can get them then.” She grinned. They could practice some throwing but not too much since they didn’t need to mess up their weapons too early.
“Should we make sure it’s staged as if nothing is amiss?” Alicia asked, she fully intended to let Laura be in charge of how they were going to build their fort and attack the blokes when they came back. She mildly wondered how both of them would take it when they were attacked with bread.
Alicia followed Laura’s lead as she helped build the fort, adding little spells here and there to keep it together a little bit better. It was fun building the fort, Alicia found herself able to completely forget anything else going on other than just having fun.
Laura grinned. She hadn’t thought about adding magic to their plan, and that only made it more fun. She nodded. “Yeah, and that they can’t throw them back.” She was already laughing a little just thinking about Erik and Logan being pelted with bread. Logan might be able to slice them, but Erik wouldn’t be able to stop them with his powers. Bread wasn’t metallic.
“Maybe we should call them to ask them to come home for something at the same time. Or should we ask one to come home then the other?” It could be funny either way, but the other could always help them out if they called them at different times.
“Deal,” she laughed, she really couldn’t wait to see the expressions on both their faces when they were hit with the bread.
“I think we should get them here at the same time, any idea why we would need them both home at the same time?” Alicia asked she didn’t think doing something that would make them worry would be the best idea though.
The grin on her face widened, and Laura nodded. They didn’t technically have to know they were being asked to come home at the same time. Glancing up at the clock, she noticed that it was getting close to lunch time. “Tell them we’re making a big lunch?
They were boys, and she’d seen them eat. Especially Alicia’s cooking. Laura smiled and tossed one of the bread rolls up in the air and caught it in her hand, mischief clearly written all over her face. “We can save a few and make sandwiches after, so it won’t be a lie.”
Alicia smiled. Yeah, it was a solid plan, lunch, and she’d make sure there was good food for it. “Do you think you can finish up the fort here while I get something cooking to smell good?” She wasn’t going to do much, just throw some leftovers onto the stove.
“As soon as I’ve got the right smells going, we need to make sure that left bit is a lot stronger!” She said pointing to it nodding.
“I think you should be the one to send them the message!” She added.
“Okay, I can tell them to come by at 11:30, but not even a little bit before. Since we have to make sure everything is ready.” Laura grinned. That was true on both accounts, the food and the fort. She carefully stepped out of the fort and went to find her device, so she could send the message to Logan and Erik.
Once she was finished, she jogged back over to the fort and took a look at it from the outside, making a couple adjustments here and there before jumping back inside while Alicia got the food going. This was going to be fun.
Alicia heard Laura running around, she smiled to herself as she grabbed some of the leftover tomato sauce from the fridge and some par-baked bread for into the over, fresh bread and anything with garlic tended to make a good smell, she had options of meatballs, other meats, and things for sandwiches.
When everything was set up, she headed back to the fort climbing in carefully to sit down next to Laura.
“Are you ready?” She asked hoping the blokes would be home any second.
Picking up a couple pieces of the bread that they’d designated as their ammo, Laura grinned. “Ready.” Who knew that bread forts could be so much fun?