Baking Lessons, Friday

[a_phale]

Despite her rather odd behavior at the pizza party the night before, Aziraphale was still expecting Annette to join him at the house for her first baking lesson. He and Wilson had set up the kitchen, the young doctor seeming a bit bemused over the whole arrangement, and teasing the angel about starting a cooking class. Then Aziraphale had summarily

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[misshargrove]

Annette was not even the tiniest bit visible under the heavy raincoat and hood, rainboots, and very large black umbrella. She knocked on the door to Mr. Phale and Dr. Wilson's residence and stood back, bouncing in the rain puddles.

[a_phale]

Hurrying to the door, Aziraphale opened it and bustled Annette inside. Despite the horrible weather, the interior of the house was warm and dry.

"Come in, my dear," he said cheerfully, helping her off with her raincoat. "You can put your wet things here in the closet, and come on into the kitchen. We're all set up to begin."

[misshargrove]

Annette smiled and tried to shake the rain off as best she could before hanging up her outerwear in the closet he showed her.

Wearing his fun Hawaiian shirt, he bounced into the kitchen. Blair grinned wide and rubbed his hands together, "This is going to be great!"

[a_phale]

Okay...

"Um...Miss Hargrove, I do realize that this is something of an upsetting topic for you, but...I don't suppose you would mind telling me why you're pretending to be...someone else? Am I supposed to guess who it is? I'm afraid I'm not very good at those sorts of games."

Aziraphale led Annette into the kitchen as he spoke, pulling up a stool so she could perch at the island in the middle of the room while he started laying out ingredients.

[misshargrove]

Man...

She sat up on the stool and looked over at Mr. Phale and felt her shoulders sag. She coughed real loud to get his attention and indicated with her hands that she could use a pen and a piece of paper if he had it.

"I'm Blair, man." She said, just in case, and for the record.

[a_phale]

It took Aziraphale just a second to figure out what Annette wanted, and then he gave her a confused look as he produced a pad of paper and a pen from one of the drawers.

"I...see," he replied, although clearly he did not.

[misshargrove]

Annette smiled a little nervously and wrote down, Are we being spied upon? Here, in your house?

She turned it around so he could see it but put her finger to her lips so that he would guess not to answer out loud.

(ooc: Annette is only pretending to be Blair and has permission from Blair!mun to do so!)

(NFB)

[a_phale]

Aziraphale looked at the note, and then looked up at Annette with a startled expression. He made a motion with his hand, and then although he spoke out loud despite her admonition not to, he spoke in a soft tone.

"No, you're absolutely safe here, my dear. No one can spy on us...well, Above can do so, but no one else. Is someone bothering you? Threatening you?"

Re: (NFB)

[misshargrove]

Her shoulders sagged in relief and she looked down for a moment. Pretending to be someone else was really hard to do. No matter who it was.

Looking back over at Mr. Phale, she smiled softly, "No, nothing so bad as all of that. It has been my assignment from Professor M. I am supposed to act like Blair Sandburg, and I have until midnight before I can be me again. I have been doing this since Wednesday evening. M wants to test my lying skills in exchange for high tech espionage equipment."

Re: (NFB)

[a_phale]

"Your teacher gave you an assignment to lie to people?!" Aziraphale exclaimed, incredulous. "Good heavens, I can't imagine why anyone would do that. Well, I'm afraid it won't do you any good to try it around me, Miss Hargrove. I can always tell when a person is lying, and I can always tell who they really are."

He patted Annette's arm and then set a cup of tea on the counter next to her. "How about we start our lessons, and not worry about the assignement?"

Re: (NFB)

[misshargrove]

Annette nodded. "Spies have to lie alot." She answered, though her expression clearly told how terribly hard it was for her. "Do you think I will go to hell for lying if I was told to do it?"

The tea was nice. She loved Mr. Phale's tea. While sipping it, she looked around the kitchen. It was nice. "I would love to start our lessons and not worry, for now, about the assignment."

Re: (NFB)

[a_phale]

"I don't believe you'll go to Hell even if you lie without someone telling you to do it. Lying isn't nice, but sometimes it's necessary, and I have a feeling that if you find yourself indulging in a lie, there'll be a reason for it. Intentions are very important, my dear."

Aziraphale smiled, then stepped back to survey the arrangement of ingredients and utensils. "All right then, we're going to begin with the gingersnaps. Biscuits are a fairly easy thing to make, because it's really just about mixing the ingredients in the right measurements and making certain not to overcook them. Why don't you take this ingredient list and measure out the dry ingredients into this bowl?"

Re: (NFB)

[misshargrove]

She beamed. "Every lie I've ever told has always had a good intention. I feel so much better now."

Getting off the stool, she stood at the counter next to Phale and took the list of ingredients, "Dry ingredients. Okay. I can do that."

Pulling the bowl towards her, Annette knitted her brows as she found the proper measuring spoons and cups that he had set out already and began to measure properly (she hoped) one dry ingredient at a time until the list called for butter.

"Is butter a dry ingredient?" She asked, looking over at him.

Re: (NFB)

[a_phale]

"No, butter is a wet ingredient," Aziraphale replied, with a chuckle. "You need to mix up the dry ingredients now, just to be sure they're all...well, properly combined, and not sitting with all the cinnamon in one lump and all the baking soda in another. It makes everything go together more evenly when you add the rest."

He set the sugar which the mun forgot about next to a smaller bowl. "The sugar and butter get creamed together separately first, because that helps to get the butter mixed in evenly. So once you mixed up the other dry ingredients, go ahead and measure the sugar and butter into this bowl."

Re: (NFB)

[misshargrove]

"Okay," Annette nodded and looked down at her bowl. Everything was just in it's own place so she picked up a spoon and stirred them until they blended. "It already smells good."

"Right, okay." Scooting the bigger bowl back a little, she took the small bowl and placed it in front of her and measured out the sugar, then the butter which was a little bit messy because Annette was having a harder time getting it all scraped out of the measuring cup. With a little twist of her lips, she tried to get the butter that was clinging too much to her spoon, off, and she gave it a firm whack against the edge of the bowl.

...and this only sent the glob of butter sailing through the air towards Mr. Phale. Annette watched this process in slow-motion.

Re: (NFB)

[a_phale]

Luckily for Annette, Aziraphale had spent a great deal of time cooking in the same kitchen with Wilson. An exercise that almost always ended up with the angel wearing whatever ingredients were being used. So he was watching her carefully as she worked, and simply took a step back and made a vague motion with his hand as the butter glob sailed toward him -- and it promptly vanished.

"You'll have to be a bit sneakier than that, I'm afraid," he said with a teasing chuckle. "I've had food thrown at me by an expert. Now...go ahead and cream the sugar and butter together, and then we'll add the other wet ingredients."