HO HO HO HAPPY VDAY!

SATURDAY, 13 FEBRUARY, BREAKFAST WITH THE GANG

No one felt that my vday greeting was appropriate.

"Ho ho ho! Happy Vday!" I tried on Jessica first since she was seated next to me at the breakfast table.

Jessica's face froze in an awkward expression before she hurumphed and smiled, "Sam... Nobody says hohoho at Vday."

I was quite sure that Saint Nicolas would have laughed "hohoho" on Vday. Actually, he would've laughed "hohoho" every other day of the year too and not just Christmas Eve, unless he was a sad, sad, man for 364 days of the year.

But Jessica accepted my gift. I handed gifts out around the table to everyone except Dean because he wasn't here yet. Typically, the guys opened up the small package and ate them immediately.

"Not bad, Sam." Shannon told me, "Did Savy help you make them?"

"No, I made them myself... Well kinda. Ki helped." I had to admit.

"Oh. Whew." Jonah blurted out after swallowing his share, "For a moment there, I worried."

Worried? What would they worry about?

And Jonah's stomach could digest a brick (he often said so himself), so coming from him, it was kind of insulting.

The guys laughed. The crumpled plastic packaging discarded on the table among breakfast plates. Tim was still paused with the open bag of fudge squares, but his eyes were twinkling when he said, "Okay, nobody died. I guess it's safe to eat."

"Hey! Don't use us as your guinea pigs!" Shannon protested.

Cue laughter again.

This was becoming seriously annoying. Why did those guys like to make fun of my presumed lack of cooking ability? It's not like I've ever cooked something that resulted in a horror story before. Actually, it's not like I've ever really cooked before either, but that's my point. At the very worst, I was simply untested. Untested and failure are two very different levels.

But now that they were done mocking my cooking skills (I was NOT just about to tell them that it was no-bake), the guys finally moved on to more pressing issues.

"Okay, so here's the thing." Jonah suddenly turned serious, "My mum baked banana bread for the bake sale. It's ah... not good. Actually, its really bad."

"Your mum bakes s***." Tim agreed, "Uh, but it's urm... good s***." Tim had to quickly back peddle the moment he saw his young gamma's expression change, "You know I love s***."

"Just shut up, Tim." Shannon advised.

Tim decided that was the best course of action after all.

"Anyway," Jonah continued, "when you buy something at the bake sale, just make sure you buy one or two slices of my Mum's banana bread. I'll return you the money for it."

"Wait, you want us buy your mum's banana bread for you?" I asked.

"Uh no. I don't want them. I'm just paying you the money to buy them." Jonah said.

"You're sponsoring us to buy your mum's banana bread?" I didn't get it. Why?

"Cos no one else would buy it." Tim asserted.

"Yes, but my mum can't know." Jonah said, "You can't let her know about this ah... it's a top secret mission. Yeah. Top secret."

"Okay, sure." Shannon seemed to have gotten the drift, "But there are like a hundred different boxes - how would we know which one was made by your mum?"

On the other side of dining hall were two long tables stacked with boxes and boxes of baked products. Ben had dropped by the Alpha house just now to collect the two large boxes of chocolate fudge squares. Ki had written Ben's name on one box, and my name on the other. Lizzy and Savy had also brought two large box of macaroons, each one with their names on it. It seemed there was a standard box for each person to contribute and how to label the boxes. I'm sure the details were in the email somewhere, but I had read "blah blah blah" and only sped read through it quickly.

"We could just look for the box with Jonah's name on it." I suggested.

"Nope." Lizzy shook her head, "I've heard Mum discussing with the teachers. They're going to face the boxes so that buyers can't see who made them this year. Something about not creating unfair sale advantages for certain boxes."

"That's true." Jessica agreed, "Esther's box is always sold out first. And of course everyone will support our Luna's box, or if a pretty girl like Lola baked, the guys all zoom in on it."

Paradoxically, it also created sales disadvantages for other boxes. Some names just didn't sell baked treats. Last year, at a bake sale for something else, Savy and I both made chocolate chip cookies. Okay, mostly Savy, but I helped with the mixing and we made two boxes. Savy's box sold out pretty quickly. It was the second year she was baking and her first year was a huge hit.

My box however suffered dismal sales. Later on though, I was told it was "surprisingly okay" by Jonah who had bought it out of goodwill. Jonah was the type of guy who would buy the least popular boxes just because he felt sorry for them - the food, not the bakers. Ben, who knew that the cookies were made by Savy, came over to our house after the bake sale to help me finish eating them.

"You can't miss it. It's brown, and hard, and there are long beans in it - like worms." Jonah told us.

"Ewww..." Lizzy said, "I mean, no offense, Jonah."

"Uh, yeah, its okay. It's true." Jonah was not the type to take offense at the truth, "So if you see it, or if you happen to be handling a box with my name on it, then just ah... point it out, ah... but not too obvioiusly."

"Let me get this straight, you're going to pay us back if we buy your mum's long bean things?" Tim clarified.

"Banana bread. It's supposed to be banana bread, with added health points." Jonah said, "And yeah, just don't let her find out - or I won't give you the money for it."

"Look, just help him." Ben almost sounded like he was backing his best friend, until he smirked, "It'll save everyone else from food poisoning too."

"It's not poisonous." Jonah defended his mum, "It's just inedible."

"Something that even Jonah finds inedible..." Lizzy made a pretend shudder, "I thought you said you could digest a brick?"

(I told you so.)

"This.. is a little harder than a brick." Jonah admitted. He actually looked apologetic.

"Maybe we should ask the other table for help too." Shannon suggested, "This way there'll be enough of us to buy them up without looking too suspicious."

"Yeah, my mum can't find out - none of the adults can know." Jonah said quickly, "You know how adults are, once one of them find out, all of them would know."

"So no one is allowed to chuck it into the bins, or leave any evidence behind." Ben decided to set the rules, "Throw it away when you get home."

"Yeah, yeah." Jonah nodded vigorously, "Or bury it with the rogues."

This was how OPERATION BANANA BREAD started.

We managed to rope in the next table - Tim's sister, Angela and gang. She was all for it.

"Alright, I'll buy it for free if you buy my mum's doughnuts."

"Deal!" Jonah was never one to pass up a good deal. It was an open secret that Angela and Tim's mum "baked" doughnuts that looked and tasted EXACTLY LIKE KRISPY KREME'S. Don't ask anything. If it's not broken, don't fix it. If nobody asks, it would continue to be on the bake sale menu.

The little bell chimed, but this time, it wasn't calling us up to the Lycan Study Group classes. It was signaling for us to gather up front where the stacks of boxes were.

Dean, Drew, and Darlyn weren't here yet, as usual, but Hank gathered us together, and we watched Esther open each box to check the items and set the sale price on the box in red marker. E.g. $1 each, or $5 for 2, depending on what she found in the box.

Mrs Beta, Teacher S.O, and Teacher Rose pulled away from their mini pow-wow and turned to face us.

Mrs Beta took the lead, "Thank you all for volunteering to man the stalls at our bake sale. I know you're all very excited and I'm very glad that so many of you contributed your home baked specialties. This is for a good cause, the Gate City Hospital does community outreach to the various minor packs and free wolves living in the Green Packlands, providing access to medical and dental care and services to the communities living around us. This fund will enable them to continue their good work."

Link and the older teens had to drive the baked goods into the down to Gate City's Hospital where the bake sale would be held. This would be the first batch, made by the teachers and students in the Lycan Study Groups. The other ladies would contribute their boxes by lunchtime and they'd have to come back after lunch to transport the second batch over.

Based on previous bake sales, there were only two boxes you should zoom in on if you wanted to purchase something amazing: Savy's and Esther's. If you bought anything from their boxes, it would definitely taste like a piece of heaven. But this year, (just as Lizzy had leaked), we would have a new rule where the boxes would be displayed with the contributor's name turned inwards, so only the volunteers manning the stall would see it.

There would be six stalls from Night Leaf, three stalls from Morning Light, and another eight stalls from Lorent. This and the few more stalls set up by some of the minor packs. In total, we had 32 stalls spread around Gate City Hospital's lobby, and entrances. Night Leaf stalls were decorated with a leaf shaped sign board and we would all be given random boxes to sell. Hopefully, this would give us variety at each stall.

The first box from each stall to sell out would win special goodies, so we needed to write down the time the first box sold out on the box.

The stall who raised the most funds would also win special goodies.

I hoped "special goodies" didn't refer to the leftovers that nobody wanted to buy. In which case, OPERATION BANANA BREAD would save the winners from one less inedible item.

By now, we had suddenly accumulated multiple missions:

OPERATION BANANA BREAD - in which we had to find a way to procure the banana bread baked by Jonah's mum and show it to him to get an instant refund.

OPERATION WINNING STALL - in which we had to make sure our stall raised the most funds.

OPERATION WINNING BOX - in which the first box sold out at each stall needed to be noted and have the time recorded on it.

With all this going on, I started to wonder if there was a possibility of me getting my hands on any of the goodies. I had a twenty in my wallet, but now I wasn't sure if I'd get a chance to spend it.

"Now let's not waste any more time. We've got a lot to do. I want all of you to get into pairs.This would be your partner at the bake sale. There would be two pairs per stall, and you would be working in two hour shifts. Esther, the teachers and I will be walking around in case you need any help." The moment Mrs Beta said "get into pairs" though, the mindlinks around me started buzzing like mad. It was so bad I covered my ears, not that it helped keep it out. It's going to crack my mind shield!

"I'm with Sam!" Ben raised his hand and declared.

"Hey!" Jonah protested, and then promptly changed his mind when Ben mindlinked him with narrowed eyes, "Uh yeah, good. Divide and conquer."

He looked at Lizzy and Savy, and then turned to the first other person he saw, "Shannon, you with me, okay?"

"Sure thing, gamma." Shannon nodded amiably, "I don't know what you guys are up to but count me in."

Unfortunately, Mrs Beta heard it. I think she immediately realized that her son was plotting. It was pretty obvious, even I knew Ben had to be plotting something. He was always plotting something. She looked sharply over at our direction. Shannon made a whoopsie face. Hahaha.

Mrs Beta was not amused. She decided that she had to enforce some preventive measures immediately. I'm not sure what kind of preventive measure to use when preventing something you had not idea entailed, but Mrs Beta's method of dealing with unknown youth group plots was the tried and tested "Just throw a spanner in their works" method.

"While I did say you may choose your partners, I will be choosing the pairs for each stall." Mrs Beta decided.

Ben sighed and he and Jonah exchanged quick looks. They were really being too obvious about it. Now Mrs Beta was going to assign us to different stalls for sure.