Eboseremen held up a frying pan and smiled at everyone who were all seated in the Parlour section of the house. She had made Asike apologize to her sister, despite his reluctance, for what had happened and even though her Mother looked like she would have beaten him if he was her child, she had to forgive him likewise her sister. Although, there was still a lingering bitterness between Efosa and Olasupo, she hoped it would be solved.

She was happy that they had all each been able to have little hearts to hearts and the next set of activities would be able to go well especially since Asike had promised to quit the pranking. With the knowledge of that, a small smile graced her face, this was also her last chance to make everything alright, after everything that happened during the day, she planned to make sure this Boring Christmas was till by far the most memorable of all the christmas.

"We are going to bake pancakes," she let the bright smile take over her face as the rest of the people smiled, licked their lips or shone their eyes in anticipation. "And each Family is to choose their contestants."

"Are we not one family?" Omoruyi raised a brow in her direction, "minus your friend of course." She wanted to face palm in response to both the two statements he had made.

"Fine, Nuclear Family choose your contestants."

Uncle Iredia and his wife chose Nnenna because the other child who was around could not cook. Ebose was glad also because her uncle and his wife had been stern with her about their little girls knee when she and Osemudiamen awoke. The little girl had gone to her mother repeating the word 'Issh' out of pain or maybe just to let her know the knee had be grazed. But the best thing was that they had not carried out their actions yet and her Mother was still oblivious. All she had to do now was impress her Mother so much, she would not get angry when she's aware of Chetachi.

Uncle Osaze chose Omoruyi with how much his wife enlightening him on how much the boy was the worst cook in their family. He gave responses like 'he needed to learn to cook unless he would starve to death when he left his house which would be soon'.

Everyone in Eboses family told her to be their contestants and man the cooking because, well, she was the best pancake maker in the house. And the last family was Asike's represented by him.

"Okay since I am one of the contestants, someone else has to be the MC," She suggested as she wore the aprons she had made available for them. Her mother jumped at the opportunity like she were a lioness who saw a look gooding dear and could not take it eyes off it. Lionesses never take their eyes off dears particularly because thats a good looking hell of an animal for food. The woman began to order them rather than suggest, on what to do.

Soon, they all began with the ingredients the event planner had brought out for them. She kept everything on the kitchen table and whosoever needed would have to get to the table and take whatever they needed.

One after the other they took enough or what they each thought was enough for them to make Pancake or what looked like. Ebose concentrated well on her flour, her hands stirred in the mix process with her intuition prescribed right amount of milk, egg and sugar, she made sure it was light enough and smooth enough. It would make frying and flipping easy.

She had first learnt how to make pancake when she to made a light food for her Catering and Craft Project. While the other olofofo in the school cooked Eba nad Egusi soup, Amala and Ewdu, Vegetable Pounded yam and the rest of the heavy meals not asked of them. She had done Pancake because she of her intensive research on what light meant. It was that period she knew people just liked to imagine nonsense when they did not understand something.

"Omoruyi, egbami, calm down na," his mother cried with the addition of her native tongue.

"Mummy you calm down, I am a chef," he responded as he beat the mixture so hard.

"Chef? You still can't boil water," the woman turned to her husband who shook his head, not in shame but in pity. "Honey, I fear this boy will just burn this house today!"

"Woman don't proclaim bad things here," Eboses uncle responded and the rest chuckled in response.

"So because of that you have to call me woman?" There was a brief silence and Ebose thought it was because the man had wanted to find a way to avoid a mini argument, if he did not see her statement as a joke.

"Woman are you not woman?" The youths who were not contesting began to laugh.

"So?"

"Mummy Supo," The father of Ebose, with laughter in his eyes called to her, "I call my wife woman every time."

"Come again?" Eboses mother turned to look at her husband, "when did you ever call me woman?"

"Haba na, don't I call you?" The man laughed.

"So you're telling them you call me old and I'll just accept it?"

"Old ke? Who called you old?"

"What does Woman now mean?" Omozelle responded and the children laughed again.

"Sorry, young girl," her father corrected himself quickly with laughter in his throat.

"Old people don't like to be old sha," Nnenna said out loud as she made her mixture.

Ebose looked at Omoruyi and found that he had began to pour his mix into the frying pan already without the making sure oil went round the pan. She heard his Mother exclaim again and stifled a laugh as she continued to mix her items properly. The boy just liked to deoend on others to eat and he would suffer it at the end of the day.

"Shebi you see what I told you?" Omoruyis mother said loud as the rest of the watchers laughed, "Who taught you to fry egg then add flour?" His mother continued to exclaim.

Ebose continued to mix until she was sure it was ready. The gas was a four header just enough for all of them to fry together but that would not be possible as they would not all finish together.

Nnenna had began to fry her own pancake and it showed that it would appear good. Soon she was done and Ebose took her frying pan to the gas at the same time as Asike. She had slightly forgotten he was there, he said no word since or made no extravagant sound which was unlike him but Ebose was grateful. He smirked at her as they decided to do a little contest of who would finish frying on their own. They each poured a very bit amount of oil into their frying pans and let it roll around to make it oily enough. Then at the same time they poured their mix and waited for it to fry.

"So you can make pancake," she was utterly surprised because she had expected that his own would have been worse than Omoruyis.

"There are so many things you don't know about me babe." he gave a much more noticeable smirk as she turned her pancake over. He did the same thing. They continued to fry the mix in silence and she finished on time because her mix was a lot smaller than his.

"Done, see ya," she turned her part of the gas off and moved to take the finished result to the judges who had tasted everyones own just as they brought it. It was not su[posed to be so but the new MC had made it so.

"Wow, the perfect one," her Mother had started to comment when Asike popped his over hers.

"Another perfect one, this is so much fun to taste," everyone agreed with the Mc even Omoruyi who had flour allover his body. They ate both of theirs in silence except for the occasional, 'hot' and 'hmm'.

"Mine is always perfect," Ebose looked at Asike who smiled in her direction.

"Well, you've met your match, I guess,"

"How many of the things I can do can you do?"

"For starters, I know I can plan this Christmas day well," Asike gave a smirk at he as she took in the words. She would have laughed if everyone were not right at their front.

"You could not even plan how to spend your money well," it was true, he spent his break money extravagantly on soft drinks mostly. She still wondered if he did that with alcohol too.

"Could not but I can now," his smirk increased and " I can take care of you more than you can."

She paused briefly, confused with his statement, "because you're me?"

"Nada, I can do that without being you,"

"How na?"

"If you want to spend your day talking we can leave you o," her mother spoke loud. Her statement was not in any way nice as her voice made it to sound.

"Sorry ma," Asike grinned at her, probably to pull of his angelic charm.

Fake smile, Ebose said mentally.

"Who is the winner?" Ebose smirked in Asikes direction.

"Command or Request ?" Supo spoke loud since they had began the cooking. She was not sure if he and Efosa were on good terms but she trusted the MC to take care of that with the sitting arrangement as she kept the two quarrelers together. They may or may not have settled but it sure looked like they had as Efosa laughed loud after his question.

" Question!" Omoruyi who had sat down now fake sneezed. Ebose shook her head at their display of childishness.

"Mumm-"

"Ehn ehn, call me MC," Ebose opened her eyes widely as the rest of the people around fought their laugh and won. If anyone had laughed, they would have incurred her wrath.

"MC," Eboseremen cringed, "who is the winner?"

"Well, its hard to say when the two of them are the right shape and taste-" her Mother stopped and began to sniff the air,

"What is that smell," Ebose sniffed the air and caught the whiff of smell, it smelt like a cloth was on fire, she turned around to locate the smell and found a cloth truly. It was a napkin on fire or rather, napkins on fire. Shocked, she watch it spread slowly to the othr napkins they had used and left on the counter near the gas and slowly, the kitchen became engulfed.

"Eboooose leave there," she was dragged out of the kitchen as her heartbeat increased. She was not scared that the fire had come, she was scared that she had been the cause of the fire by believing Asike when he lied about not pranking her again. He had to be the one to have done this.

She had let her guard down and he had done something much mire terrible. It was far worse than a prank, it was like he wanted to destroy her life. The girl felt like the fire her eyes saw laughed in her face and said 'You fool'. Irabor men struggled to get the fire extinguisher while the children were sent out of the house with the mothers. She turned to the boy and released all her anger.

"Is this what you call not pranking me again?"

"I promise you I di-"

"I do not care about the excuse you want to give, don't you ever talk to me again, don't." She loosened the apron from her body and threw it on the floor. She had only one thing to do and one place to go so she ran, even whilst her Mother shouted her name. She ran far away from the house, far away from the whole ordeal. She had tried to create a perfect Christmas, even after it never seemed like it would go well, she had tried to make it memorable, in a good way.

But there was one person who was always there to ruin it, if only he had not come. She knew this was the end of her dream, she could not bear to see the look of disappointment in the eyes of her Mother or everyone. She hated the day, she hated herself but more importantly she hated Jagajaga who came to do what his nickname stood for.

°°°

Merry Christmas. Enjoy this yo.

Last and Final Chapter soon.

Lots of Love,
Emmanuella.