Jackson arrived at our house on time. He looked bright eyed and happy to see us. 
We made our way into the kitchen and Daiyu threw Jackson an apron. The dark-haired boy looked at it in his hand with a raised eyebrow, "What's this?"
"It's an apron," Daiyu replied. 
Jackson laughed and rolled his eyes, "I know it's an apron, but why are you giving it to me?"
"Maya and I thought that we'd bake cookies," my cousin explained with enthusiasm. 
I thought Jackson might laugh at the idea of baking, but instead he looked at me and smiled before turning back to Daiyu and nodding. 
 

We all now had our aprons on and began preparing the ingredients for the cookies. 
"So what's the reason for all of this?" Jackson asked, putting a handful of chocolate chips into his mouth when Daiyu wasn't looking. 
"We thought it'd be fun," I said simply. 
"Are you going to do this with Jinhee? And the others that come?" he asked.
I shrugged, "Maybe."
Jackson looked a little flustered and turned back to the kitchen table to where the packets of chocolate chips were. 
Daiyu, my immaculate cousin was washing the worktop, placing clean bowls and spoons out afterwards for us to use. We were starting to make the cookies when there was a knock at the door. She looked confused, and then her expression clouded into a knowing one. "I'll get it," she informed us, leaving me and Jackson alone. 

I giggled at Jackson's appearance. He was wearing a baby pink apron, and had a spoon and bowl in his hand. 

"I like cooking," Jackson told me, leaning on the kitchen worktop while mixing some flour and milk.

"Really? I never had you down as a cook," I laughed. 
Jackson pouted momentarily. A face he told me he didn't want me doing, but of course for him it was perfectly acceptable. 
"Well I am, a good cook at that," he said, flicking some flour from the bag and onto me. 
I gasped in shock. "Aish. What was that for?"
Jackson shrugged and I took the opportunity to grab the bag from him and flick a good amount of flour onto him. His cheeks were covered in the white powder and I couldn't help but laugh hysterically. 
Jackson put the bowl and spoon down on the table, and walked towards me. 

"You've got some flour here," Jackson said, using his forefinger to wipe some of it. I could feel his fingertip trace from the bridge of my nose to the tip. I was almost certain he had just smeared more on my nose, but I didn't care.  

"You've got flour all over your face," I laughed. 
Before I had time to think, Jackson had grabbed the bag of flour from me again and aimed it's contents at me. 
"Don't you dare, Jackson," I warned him, backing away to get out of the kitchen. 
Jackson began to chase after me and I screamed like a small child into the hallway of the house. Just moments later I crashed into Daiyu, she was with someone. When the figure turned around I could see it was Mark. 
"Aya, what the hell Maya?" Daiyu said rubbing her arm in pain. 
"Sorry," I mumbled in embarrassment. 
Jackson followed behind still laughing from what had just happened. 
Mark stared at us in confusion, and my cousin also mirrored the face.
"Why are you all floury and messy?" She asked. 
"Long story," Jackson smiled brightly, brushing his clothes.
I was still more than confused as to why Mark was standing in our hallway. 
"Uh, can I talk to you for a second, Dai?" I asked my cousin. 
She nodded in response and led me to the living room as Mark and Jackson were left in the hallway. 
"We'll carry on in a minute," she called to the two friends.
"What the hell is Mark doing here?" I whispered in anger, "Why is he here today of all days?"
Daiyu gave me a pleading look, "We must have got the days mixed up when inviting everyone around. I wanted them to both come at the beginning of the week, but not on the same day."
"Well it's too late to do anything now. We're all supposed to be friends so lets just act like it okay?" I shrugged, walking back into the kitchen. 

2 batches later and we were all slumped on the sofa eating another failed plate of cookies. 
"We must have left them in the oven too long. One batch undercooked and the other batch overcooked. I'm usually good at baking!" my cousin whined, falling back into her seat.
I sat next to Daiyu, with the other two boys on the opposite sofa. 
"You guys are so dirty as well," Daiyu examined, scrunching her nose a little. Admittedly, all of us were a mess, apart from her. I had the remanince of mine and Jackson's flour fight left on my face from earlier; as did Jackson. Mark now had flour dusted on the front part of his hair. It looked bizzarely fashionable, like he had sprayed white onto his hair purposely. 
"I thought you said you were a good cook, Maya," Mark said quietly. 
I blushed in moritification. "Maybe I'm not great at making cookies," I murmured. 
"Why don't we team up to make the next batch? Daiyu and Mark, me and Maya. The losing team has to clean up the entire kitchen," Jackson suggested. 
Mark got his phone out and buried his chin into his chest "Do we have to?"
"Why, don't you want to be in my team?" Daiyu frowned jokingly.
"It's not that-"
"Scared we'll beat you?" Jackson interrupted.
"No. Let's just start then," Mark sighed, getting up from the sofa.

"Okay, thirty minutes starting now!" Daiyu shouted.
Jackson and I eagerly ran into the kitchen and started making our third batch of cookies.  I was mixing the eggs, milk and flour when I spotted Jackson eating the chocolate chips again. 
I tapped at his hand, "They're supposed to go in here, pour them in!"
Jackson did as he was told and continued with making the cookies. 
"Can you put the oven on, Jackson?" I called. 
Jackson was at Daiyu and Mark's side of the kitchen and put something down on the worktop before travelling back to our side. 
"Already done," Jackson leant back on the kitchen cupboard with his hands behind his head. 
I looked over to see Mark raise his eyebrow at Jackson. 
"How are you guys getting on?" I asked.
"Good. Daiyu's getting the greaseproof paper on the tray. And this cookie mix tastes like heaven," Mark said dipping his finger into the creamy substance and it. 
My cousin slapped his arm, "Yah, you're not supposed to eat that yet!"
"Yes eomma," he mumured under his breath. 
"Add more of that sugar," Daiyu said pointing to a container near the edge of the worktop.
Mark did as he was told, and they quickly scooped the mix in sections onto the tray. 

Half an hour later and we were back in our usual spots on the sofa, with a plate of our own and the other teams cookies on our laps. 
"First for the greatest team, these should be amazing," Jackson declared, taking a bite out of our cookie. We all followed his action.
Mark nodded in approval and caught my eye. "I guess you are an okay cook after all."
"We're better than okay!" Jackson said with excited eyes, "These are amazing."
Maya nodded her head. "Okay let's not be biased here. Now for mine and Mark's."
Me and Jackson picked their cookies up and took a bite. I had a massive mouthful while Jackson had taken a tiny bite, which was surprising for the appetite he had. 
I raised my eyebrows at him, before chewing. 
Daiyu ran to the kitchen, presuambly to get some water and Mark sat in silence forcing the cookie down his throat.
"I need cooking lessons," he said.
"What did you put in them?" Jackson asked.
Mark shrugged, "All the same things as you did."
I held my nose to finish the remainder of the cookie. "They're way too salty."
Daiyu came back into the kitchen with a glass of water in her hand. 
"I would have been biased if I had the chance to be. But our cookies came out terribly, Mark," she admitted.
"Jackson and Maya remain victorious," Jackson said, taking my hand and lifting it into the air. 
"What do you mean remain? You may have won once but you won't win again," Daiyu warned. Her competitive sign was beginning to show and I had to laugh as a result of this.
Mark rubbed his temples, "I don't think I'm cut out to be a cook."
"Well looks like you won't have to be, because you'll be a cleaner instead," Jackson said pointing to kitchen. 
"You lost the challenge you guys have to clean up," I reminded them. 
Mark and Daiyu looked at us in horror. 
"It's so messy in there, it'll take at least an hour to clean between the two of us!" Daiyu whined. 
I shrugged, "You lost the cooking competition."
Jackson fell back to sit closer to me, his arm brushed against my arm as he did so. "Ah, the sweet taste of victory- just like our cookies."
"Does that mean Daiyu and Mark's cookies would be equal to the salty taste of defeat?" I joked. 
Mark started laughing at my lame joke despite himself, Jackson was also laughing hysterically. The only person who wasn't laughing at all was Daiyu. 
She gave me a glare followed by Mark, so I bit my lip in order to resist the temptation of further laughter. 
Mark and Maya trailed out of the room, leaving me and Jackson alone once more.
From the corner of my eye I could see that Jackson was looking at me. I turned to him, "What?"
"They said they might be up to an hour. Why don't we go to the park again?" Jackson suggested, his eyes shining with enthusiasm.
I looked out of the window, "It's really dark." I then mentally cursed myself for saying that. 
I could tell Jackson was smirking inwardly. "You aren't scared of the dark, are you?" he said raising an eyebrow. 
"No, it's just...it's really cold," I lied. 
I wasn't sure why I didn't want to go back to the park with Jackson. Maybe it was because Mark would know I was there. 
"If you get cold, you have your coat. And if you're still cold- you can borrow mine too," he suggested. 
I smiled at him, "Fine then," I said before grabbing my coat and scarf. 
Hopefully by the time we got back, Mark would be gone. 

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Hi everyone! Thank you so much  for all the recent feedback and love I've been getting in the comments- I love you all and want to thank you for reading my story. Also thanks to those who voted in my poll, although the results between Mark and Jackson are close, it seems like more of you are leaning towards Jackson. Please remember to comment, subscribe + upvote. 

Maria xo