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"So, try to take this fake wallet from me without me noticing."

"Alright."

Roguefort and Cheddar are in one of the family's training rooms, stocked with weapons of all kinds, the walls soundproof and bulletproof vests lining up closets.

It's been three days since Roguefort returned; he'd been forced to learn malicious ways to commit crimes ever since his mother suggested he become a thief on the day he returned.

"With that face of yours, perhaps you'd be able to steal more than just jewels," she had told Roguefort before his father had ushered him to a training room where he learned basic hand-to-hand combat.

Roguefort had spent the past 3 days trying to figure out what his mother meant but to no avail.

Cheddar starts walking around the room just as a normal Cookie would to on their way to work, looking at his phone and scrolling over the news.

"Hm, the detective's funeral will be on this Sunday. How funny, that's exactly on the day after the first week..."

Roguefort stopped in his tracks, his eyes widening in shock.

Sunday?

But that was the day he was supposed to go to Buttercream Choco's house!

"Hm?"

As if Cheddar had a third eye, he knew Roguefort had stopped walking, and he turned around. "Why'd you stop?"

"Sunday's supposed to be the day I go to Buttercream Choco's..."

"And what about it? You're just going there to play games, aren't you? Or are you there for another reason?"

He looked at Roguefort suspiciously and Roguefort knew that he goofed up - he wasn't supposed to tell his father Almond would be there!

Frantically, his brain tried to come up with a believable reason. Surprisingly, he managed to sound calm before saying, "Buttercream Choco knows the Nuts, and he'll probably be attending the funeral as well. I think that means it's cancelled..."

Cheddar still eyed Roguefort suspiciously before turning back to his phone.

"Alright then, you needn't have that distract you from training. After all, a persona is not easy to create."

~~

"You have to cancel the meeting?!"

Buttercream Choco's voice rang through the mobile phone, Almond calming himself from the loud noise before replying, "Sunday's the only day all my relatives are free. It's also the closest day I have thanks to Cookie traditions."

"Aw, come on! That was supposed to be the climax of our big story where we finally uncover what in the Cookie World was that book!"

"Buttercream Choco, what's been said has been said, I'm not coming and without me, it would be pointless. Help me tell Roguefort, I'm busy. Goodbye."

"Wait, hold on-"

Almond presses the end call button on his mobile phone.

He is still surrounded by notes and papers - invitations he has to make to invite Pecan's closest friends, various departments of the government(his father was a well-respected detective of the law after all), print-outs of Cookie traditions of funerals that he was never taught...

It was all just a huge workload for him, but he crawled on for his mother even with this big boulder on his back, for he believed it was time to repay her for her hard work over the years.

And finally, the letter. The letter that was only meant to be seen by him from his father, revealing truths that he didn't know. He'd planned to show his mother the letter to comfort her, but on second thought, wouldn't it be just another reminder that Pecan was...

Was...

Almond could only stop himself from thinking of the word.

It was the harsh truth, but he couldn't bear to face it yet.

"Almond? You okay?"

His mother had come down the stairs, looking much better than she was the past few days, though streaks of dried tears were still evident on her face.

"Mom, please stop crying..."

"I'm fine. How're the preparations going?"

"It'll be held on Sunday, that's fine with you, right?"

Almond looked down and saw that he had subconsciously grabbed the letter in his hands.

"Yeah, that's fine.  Do you need any help?"

"Nah," Almond replied, stuffing the letter back into a file.

"...What's that letter, Almond?"

"Nothing, mom."

~~

"Wait, hold on-"

The mobile phone only beeped in response.

"...fine."

Buttercream Choco threw his phone on his bed, flinging himself on the couch nearby.

"Buttercream, what were you planning this Sunday?"

His mother entered the jewel-filled room. Buttercream Choco was born from the richest family of the Main City after all, so it was expected that his room would be glamourous.

"Oh, that book that you picked up, I told them the story and Almond and Roguefort were going to come to our house to figure what was in that book."

Hearing the word 'the book that you picked up', Buttercream's mother's face turned serious.

"Buttercream, you cannot let them know what's inside the book."

"Eh? Why?"

"It's not just a problem between their two families."

"Really? That makes me want to see it more-"

"Buttercream, I'm serious."

Seeing his mother's stern face, Buttercream knew that it had to do with his own family as well, and that it wasn't some easy truth to be spilled.

"I won't promise you, but I have to see the story first."

~~

"Roguefort, the meeting's cancelled."

"I guessed."

"Alright then, bye."

Roguefort put down his telephone, still exhausted from hours of training.

He was to be trained in not just basic fighting skills, but also charisma and illusions, according to his mother when he was forced to choose between being a thief and a murderer.

Obviously, he chose to be a thief. He couldn't do anything that destructive, could he?

Staring at the calendar in his room, he saw that a day was marked with a star.

"Oh, my birthday's coming soon..."

Unknown to him, two Cookies had met up in a dark alley, one wielding a knife, the other holding a gun.

~~

[Originally published May 28 2020]

Finally, I got this done~! 

(I forgot to press publish, sorry for disappearing-)

Since birthdays and death-days are kind of messed up over here, I'd like to clarify how birthdays and death-days work in this Cookie universe, specifically in the main city.

Birthdays:

-When someone wants a son/daughter Cookie, they have to apply to the government, stating why they'd like a new Cookie to be born. The government approves it and the parent(s) are invited to headquarters to choose ingredients, also known as the qualities and traits of their Cookie. The government also extracts some of the parent(s)' strawberry jam(blood), containing their DNA.

-The government molds the Cookie and bakes it, and the Cookie comes to life and learns to escape the oven. The day a Cookie comes out of the oven is the birthday of the Cookie.

-This also means that a Cookie does not necessarily need to have both a mother and father to be born.

-Birthdays are often celebrated with giant bear jellies or rainbow bear jellies.

-Most people use the normal way to get a son/daughter Cookie. As for the Cheeses, someone who deals with shady businesses help them apply to avoid suspicion, bribing the worker there to add the Cheeses' DNA in the Cookie instead of their own.

Death-days:

-When a Cookie Crumbles, it means that they are dead, approved by a doctor or nurse, or even robots like Ion Cookie Robot.

-A funeral has to be held within one to two weeks of the Cookie's Crumble (preferably one, most families hold it in one week), so the Cookie's remains do not get damaged severely.

-All close family members have to be present. Everyone wears black.

-The Cookie's remains are normally kept by their families. Some choose to bury them while others dunk them into the water.

And that's it! Hopefully, that cleared some of the suspicions.

One last thing! Please spread #BlackLivesMatter on every platform you have! Racism should never be tolerated!!

I hope you enjoyed this short but tea-filled chapter and see you next chapter!

Next chapter:

The Cookies went down a series of stairs, each one steeper than the rest. Almond was extra careful; Roguefort went down the stairs without a sound, reminding the other Cookies of a ghost.

~~

The three Cookies stepped into the room. Dust lined the walls, the room echoing every step the Cookies took.

~~

The skilled reader skimmed through the ancient texts, her eyes widening at the meaning of it all.

You are reading the story above: TeenFic.Net