Hi. I'm Kaden, and my mom makes the best cookies in town. Today was like any other, in that Mom made a batch of cookies. But today, she took some of those cookies, fresh from the oven, and put them in her golden cookie tin.
She said to me, "Kaden, I need you to take these nutty cookies to your Aunt Nora's house."
"Okay, Mom," I replied. Now the only trouble was that it was snowing and the ground was all icy, so I couldn't ride my bike.
I called three of my friends, Kaci, Dan and Luke, to see if they wanted to help me. They all said yes, so we agreed to meet in our snow fort in half an hour.
Once they arrived, we ran into more trouble. The town bully, Sam, had also showed up with two other guys. They started pelting us with snowballs as we ran for the fort.
"What do we do now?" Kaci asked.
"I don't know," I replied. Just then, we heard Sam yelling, "Come out with your hands up and give us the golden cookie tin."
"We will never give it to you, Sam," yelled Dan.
"Then we'll have to come in and get it by force," shouted Sam.
Thinking fast, Luke said, "Let's switch jackets and run in different directions."
They all agreed, then Dan said, "Good, now let's hurry." We quickly switched jackets and ran from the fort. I had the tin of cookies, still warm from the oven.
Sam said, "Get them. Where's Kaden? There he is, no there, no there. Aw, man."
A few minutes later, Dan and I met. Dan said, "Look what I found."
"A garbage can lid?" I asked. "You're kidding."
"This is no ordinary garbage can lid, it's a snowball shield 2000!" replied Dan.
By now, we were in the park. The shortest way to Aunt Nora's was down Pikerman's Hill, across the River Menaka, and up Baker's Hill on the other side, and then it is just across the street.
Suddenly, we heard Sam yelling, "I'll get you, Kaden!"
"Hurry, down the hill!" I called to Dan.
"Not Pikerman's Hill," groaned Dan. Pikerman's Hill is the biggest, steepest hill in all of Peytonville, and worst of all, it has a river at the bottom.
I grabbed the garbage can lid from Dan and threw it down on the ground. "Hop on, quick," I called.
We jumped on and raced down the hill, gathering speed as we went.
Back at the top of the hill, a boy stood looking down, contemplating whether or not to go. Sam ran up and grabbed the boy's sled.
"How do you steer this thing?" asked Dan.
"I don't know," I replied. I stuck my hand out, the mitten popped off. I stuck my other hand out, that mitten popped off too. "Abandon ship, abandon ship!" I yelled. Dan and I rolled off the lid and started running toward a small footbridge. The lid sped on and landed with a splash in the creek.
Sam barreled past us on the sled. He crashed right into the creek, then swam to the shore.
Dan and I ran across the bridge, and up the hill. Sam was gaining, fast. We were almost there - 50 feet, 30 feet, 20 feet, 10 feet. Sam dove, knocking Dan to the ground. I fell with him. As I fell, the cookie tin flew from my hands. Sam ran over and grabbed the cookie tin. We failed.
"Awe, man, nuts, I'm allergic to nuts!" cried Sam. He threw the tin onto the ground. "I'm gonna get you, you ..."
Suddenly, snowballs whizzed through the air, right at Sam. It was Kaci and Luke. We were saved. I got up and raced to the cookie tin. I grabbed it and ran toward Aunt Nora's house. It made it! I rang the bell. Aunt Nora opened the door and said, "Kaden, how nice to see you and your friends."
I turned and smiled as Sam ran away, defeated. He shouted back over his shoulder, "I'll get you yet, Kaden."
I motioned Kaci, Dan and Luke inside. As I opened the tin, my face fell. "They're all crumbs," I said sadly.
"They'll make the perfect topping for my apple crisp," replied Aunt Nora. The only thing more famous than my mom's cookies is Aunt Nora's apple crisp.
"Why don't you all come have a piece. Then, Kaden, you can take some home to your mother."
