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“Can you hand me the red icing?” John asked holding his hand out. “Marns?” He looked up and sighed as he saw that Mitch was on the other side of the room again. He stood up, ready to go retrieve his baking partner.
“Look out!” Kappy shouted and John looked over in time to see a six foot wall of gingerbread falling towards him.
John braced himself and then felt a little silly as the gingerbread stopped with a gentle bump against his shoulder.
“Thanks JT,” Kappy said coming around the side of the wall and pushing it off of John. “That probably would have broken if it had hit the floor.”
“You okay JT?” Hyman asked. “I thought you were going to put braces on the walls until the icing had fully dried?” he demanded, glaring at Kapanen.
Kappy rolled his eyes. “Yes oh master carpenter.”
“I was right wasn’t I?”
“Come on guys,” John said. “This is supposed to be fun.” They ignored him and he shook his head and continued on his way, taking the opportunity to look at the other tables. Most of them weren’t as ambitious as Kappy and Hyman’s six foot tall gingerbread church but they were all very festive. They were going to be auctioned off for the children’s hospital and John didn’t think anyone was going to be disappointed by the effort the guys were putting into their gingerbread creations.
“Hey guys,” John said when he reached Auston and Willy’s table.
Mitch looked up guiltily from where he was gluing green gumdrops along the path to Auston and Willy’s gingerbread house. “Sorry JT,” he said starting to get up.
“Nah stay,” John said. “The event planners should have put you guys together at the start.”
Mitch bounced to his feet and hugged him. “Sorry,” he apologized for bumping the table.
“I am going to steal Willy though,” John said.
“If that means I don’t have to deal with this chimney anymore I’m in,” Willy said setting aside his piping bag. “See you guys later.”
“See you Willy!” Mitch said, hugging Willy
“Thanks dude,” Auston said.
“Yeah, no problem,” Willy said with a wave of his hand.
John looked back as he and Willy started across the room to his table. Mitch had pulled his chair right up next to Auston’s and was talking excitedly while Auston grinned and piped icing along the roof. John smiled and shook his head. Those two were really too cute together.
“You’re making a train?” Willy said when they reached John’s table. “That’s cool.”
“Thanks. So what we need to do—”
“Willy?” Kappy popped out from behind one of his gingerbread walls. “What are you doing over here?”
“Switched partners,” Willy said.
“Cool! Hey, you know anything about building wall supports?”
“Not really but I’ll take a look.”
John groaned as Willy disappeared. “Looks like it’s just you and me then,” he told the gingerbread train and reached for the bag of red icing. He looked up in surprise as someone held it out to him.
“You looked like you could use a hand,” Marleau said dropping into the empty chair.
“Yeah,” John said. “But what about your own project?”
“Finished a few minutes ago. Mo said he’d deal with the cleanup then stop by to see if you needed an extra pair of hands.”
“Thanks, to both of you, then,” John said.
“So what do you need me to do?”
“I was thinking these silver beads could go along the rims of the wheels and then…” John continued explaining as they started working on the train.