White Tiger (Book 1 in the White Tiger Trilogy)

Chapter 29- Exploding Pancakes

"White Tiger"

2013 Copyright © All Rights Reserved.

Stryder Sweetman. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Chapter 29

I knew that as soon as I woke up, I was going to regret it. I slowly opened my eyes, waiting for something to happen.

My body was on full alert, a bad feeling washing over me. I looked around my room and saw the door shut. The bad feeling left as soon as the door was closed.

I leapt out of bed and yanked the door open, looking around for the threat. I trusted my gut, and I was usually right when I felt that bad feeling.

As soon as I took a whiff of the air, I knew what was wrong. I bolted down the hall, following the scent that was behind my gut feeling. I raced down the stairs, already knowing where the scent originated. I burst through the kitchen door, a cloth over my nose, and prepared for what was awaiting me.

Ani's cooking.

There was pancake batter all over the stove, very little of it actually in the pan. She was furiously shaking the pre-made pancake mix, luckily the lid was on.

Through her concentration, she didn't see me approaching. I tapped her on the shoulder and she gasped, throwing her hands- and the pancake mix- up into the air.

I caught the mix as it was about to land on her head and placed it on the counter. I turned to see her head down, her eyes lowered in a sign of shame and guilt.

I rolled my eyes at her and started to clean up. It was when I was wiping the counter down that I realised something off about the pancake mix.

Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the container was bulging. I slowly picked it up, examining it in the light, and surely enough, there were bulges covering the container.

I frowned in confusion, and shook the pancake mix, the bulge became visibly larger. I raised an eyebrow, shaking the container again. It continued to expand.

"Ani... What did you put in this mixture?" I asked her slowly.

"I-I was just trying to make pancakes and it said to add water but when it came out it was really thin and it wasn't rising and I read somewhere that bicarbonate soda would make the pancakes rise, so I put some in there and I tried to make pancakes."

I turned to look at her as she wrung her hands, before pointing out, "Well, I think the mixture is expanding, and the gases inside the container are expanding, because it looks like the container is about to explode..."

She paled as she stared at the container, looking quite embarrassed. "Uh… I didn't mean to..." She muttered.

My eyes widened as I came up with an idea. "It's ok, it can be a game, how about you help clean up and I’ll tell you my idea.”

She began to quickly scrub at the stove, wiping off the crusty pancake mix. Willow entered, and without saying a word, she helped clean.

Within five minutes, the kitchen was sparkly once more. I turned to face them, Ani giving me a look of expectance and once again guilt, and Willow just looked calm.

I was seriously confused by the constant guilty looks that Ani had been giving me. Did she poop in my room again?

I shrugged it off and began to explain. Motioning to the bulging pancake container, I said, "It looks like it's ready to pop, right? Then let's wait and see how long it takes until it does."