Third Person-

For the next 45 minutes, John and Jefferson catched up. They were laughing like the old days.

John caught one final breath before regaining his composure. "I'm glad we're on good terms now, Thomas."

"Yeah." Thomas smiled.

John checked his watch before screaming, "OH SHIT! I have to go back now." John stood up. "Thanks for the coffee, Thomas. I'll see ya soon."

"See ya." Thomas waved. John exited the shop as Thomas sighed. He thought, Thank god he understood. 

Meanwhile, Alex couldn't find a way to fix the wall. He asked for help from the whole squad.

They all sat on the bed.

"We could just ignore them." Angelica suggested.

"But we could still hear their nails and fingers tapping the screen. It's annoying." Peggy frowned.

"Just pretend their not there." Aaron piped up.

"Hand me some flex tape- OW, who threw that?" Alex yelped as a roll of tape was thrown to him by a reader.

"WE GIVE UP!!!" They all groaned.  

At John's perspective, he opened the door of the Schuyler Mansion. He heard groaning upstairs, earning a light chuckle from him.

He climbed up the stairs and entered his and Alex's room, revealing all his friends groaning.

"Oh, hi, John. The readers tappy-tap-tap won't disappear." Alex chuckled softly. John laughed at his stubborn friends.

"They'll disappear once someone tells our story." John disappeared into the closet to change into warmer clothes.

"Who will tell our story?" Eliza asked.

Hercules was scrolling through his WattPad account. "I dunno. Says here, someone name 'Chloe'..."

"Who on earth is that?"

Me.

"Ohh...The voice." Realisation hit them as they said that.

"So... when are we going back to the dorms?" Alex closed the lid of his laptop, finally yielding. 

John appeared beside Peggy, who was twirling her hair on the floor. She answered, earning a nod from the rest, "Tomorrow, after lunch."

"So...what do ya wanna do for now? How you say, to waste ze time." Laf asked.

"Let's have a cooking challenge!" Peggy chirped, standing up.

"Alright." Angelica nodded, heading to the kitchen. The rest followed suit.

Once again, they were paired up. At least one of them had to know some knowledge of the kitchen.

Theodosia and Aaron. Theodosia was best known for her turnovers. So, they made cranberry turnovers.

Maria and Peggy. Being Maria, she was kicked out by her parents and cooked for herself. It tasted quite decent.

Angelica and Eliza. You already know Eliza, best known for her cookies and is an excellent baker. Everyone suspected for this pair to win.

Hercules and Lafayette. Lafayette could cook any meal. Mainly, French.

Last but not the least, John and Alex. Let's say...John was amazing at pancakes, but he learnt more than the others thought. He remembers his mother teaching him all sorts of stuff, baking, cooking, plaiting. He was almost a chef, but modest about his skills.

"What the fuck was that?" John muttered under his breath.

"Yo, we need no introduction!" Hercules shouted.

The pairs entered the kitchen. Stations were everywhere, surrounding the big space they all stood on. 

Alex breathed, "Whoa...it's grande." 

Eliza hummed then clapped her hands. "Alright, now, everyone choose your stations."

"What are we supposed to make?" Theo asked.

"Christmas-themed confections." Eliza chirped. "My dad would judge them."

John, Angelica, Theo, and Maria nodded. 

The others, who held no knowledge of the kitchen, stood there beside their partners, confused. They all said wrongly in unison, "Confessions?"

"Like we're gonna confess our deepest, darkest secrets?" Peggy asked.

"No, silly!" Eliza laughed. "I said con-fec-tions."

Alex sighed in relief. He didn't want anyone to find out about his past besides John. 

"What's a confecti-" Aaron asked but was cut off by Hercules.

"It's a  dish or delicacy made with sweet ingredients, 'cording to Google." He said, staring at his phone.

"Ya dig info fast." John mumbled. "But yeah, that's right."

"Yes, but not extremely sweet. Dad lost too many teeth already." Angelica giggled.

30 minutes later, each of the pairs planned out what they would do.

Alex's POV-

John was running around the kitchen getting ingredients, like a flash.

Finally, he settled down all the ingredients in front of us.

"wHoa." I calmed a disheveled John beside me.

"Okay...T-Thanks." He said as his breath steadied. "Alright. So we're doing 3 kinds of confection, into one whole masterpiece!" He smiled.

"Huh??" I asked, confused.

"Chocolate, flour, sugar confections." He explained. "So we'll..."

An hour later, my forehead was dripping with sweat, I probably has a few smudges of flour and chocolate at the corner of my lips.

"Why did I agree to this?" I complained, as I was mixing the 3rd batch, and thankfully last, of batter.

"I know right..." Peggy sighed.

"You're the one who suggested it!" Herc groaned.

"I regret it, then..." She muttered.

"Come on, guys! This is fun! Plus, now we have Christmas dessert for the movies later tonight." Eliza grinned, batting eggs. Truly an optimist.

"For you." I muttered, earning giggles from the others.

"I forgot about ze movies..." Laf muttered under his breath.

I placed the batter in the cupcake pan, which had parchment, to avoid sticking.

"Must we make 24?" I whined to John, who was now placing the pan in the oven.

"Peggy." He laughed. "She'll eat at least half."

"Right...What's next?" I washed my hands in a nearby sink. I turned around to only face John. We were very close. The gap between us was barely a couple of inches. 

He blushed noticing how close we were and stepping back. "S-Sorry. But, uh, you could melt the chocolate." He smiled.

"Also, you have a little bit of something there." He motioned to my cheek, smiling.

"Here?" I rubbed my cheek with my wet thumb.

"No, there." Pointing somewhere at my face.

"Here?" I arched my brow as I pointed near my eye. 

"No, idiot. Here!" 

Lafayette's POV-

"Here?" Alexander asked the second time. We were all holding our giggles and coos at them.

I was there, staring at them, holding my phone. They were 2 inches close to kissing.

2 inches. 

That's so close!

We were internally fangirling at how cute they are.

Mental Note: Send this video to TheSquad and Washingtons (aka Ultimate Lams Shipper)

John's POV-

"No, idiot. Here!" I laughed while I rubbed the smudge of flour from his face, stepping closer.

I only noticed how close we were again when a red tint spread across his face. I quickly stepped back.

"S-Sorry..." I stuttered and blushed.

"I-It's fine. You were saying?" He tucked a piece of his hair while shooting daggers to Laf.

Right...They were ALL watching. 

How wonderful. 

"Melt the chocolate?" I handed him packets of Hershey's, milk chocolate and white.

"Sure..." He mumbled before heading over getting bowls.

Squealing came from behind me. I sighed before going back to making the caramel snowflakes.

Finally, all of us were done with our creations.

It took us nearly 3 hours.

"Are y'all done?" Peggy shouted.

A chorus of affirmation filled the air.

"Alright. I'll call Dad." Eliza said, before skipping away to find their father.

Alex and I admired the masterpiece we created.

"Wow..." Alex smiled before snatching a picture.

"Wow is right." I chuckled. I ruffled his hair. He's so small. "Good job, Lex."

He rolled his eyes, "I would've burnt the house down if you weren't there."

"And I hate being small." He grumbled.

"But I like you small!"

"And I don't." He crossed his arms before giggling at how childish we were.

So let me tell you, readers, what we made. Alex and I made vanilla cupcakes, with a white chocolate snowman on top. We placed a toothpick so it wouldn't fall. Beside it was a couple fo caramel snowflakes. We also made chocolate rocks to make a setting. We sprinkled powdered sugar to make it look like snow. It was muy bonito! We plaited each cupcake at small plate.

Theo and Aaron made mini Christmas trees from chocolate. Impressive.

Maria and Peggy made cookies, common. But they looked really delicious.

Lafayette and Hercules made chocolate-filled macaroons. It was the colors green, red, and white.

Eliza and Angelica made a gingerbread house. It looked absolutely stunning. It has probably the most kinds of confections among all of us.

We all knew they will surly win.

And they did.

"Angelica and Eliza, 1st place!" Mr. Schuyler smiled.

See?

"John and Alexander, 2nd!"

As soon as Mr. Schuyler said that, I hugged Alexander, squealing and jumping.

"We did it!" Alex smiled.

"Yeah!" I grinned goofily, showing my straight teeth.

We high-fived each other.

"And Laf and Herc for 3rd. Good job, everybody." Mr. Schuyler smiled before stealing some and leaving.

"Congrats, everyone." Maria smiled.

"Now, let's eat!" Peggy laughed, carrying as much confections as she can, heading out to the lounge.

"MOVIE NIGHT!!!" Alex laughed before running upstairs to change.

I laughed, shaking my head.

I really did fall for a child, did I?