Snow It Up [Shake It Up]

chapter twelve

"Are you sure you're warm?" CeCe asked as she watched Gunther slide out of the covers. "Because I don't want to be responsible for you getting frost bitten."

"I am fine," Gunther said yet again, his voice growing annoyed. He stood up, stretching slightly. "I am fine, CeCe."

"If you are frost bitten, don't get mad at me," she said, throwing her hands up in the air. "I tried keeping you under the covers but you wouldn't listen. That's the story that I will tell your sister when she angrily comes and hurts me."

"She will not hurt you. It was my decision."

"Do you even know Tinka?" CeCe asked, cocking her head to the side. "She once got mad at me because I allowed Rocky to go ice skating when we had a huge dance number coming up. She's intense, Gunther. Scary, even."

"She's just like our grandmama," Gunther said, laughing. "Scarily intense and can rip off your head when angry enough."

"I am glad that I have never met your grandmother." CeCe giggled, shaking her head. "She sounds worse than your parents." She stopped moving, saying, "I didn't mean to say that! Your parents are lovely!"

"I understand what you meant," Gunther said, looking down at CeCe. His eyes were dark and his accent thick when he said, "I now realize that things that they used to do were not normal."

"What do you mean?"

"The family traditions, the food, everything," Gunther said, shrugging. "It was not normal, but that is what happens back in the Old Country. I want you to know that I did not want to go back to the Old Country. But I had to go back and things are better now."

His whole personality changed when he spoke about the Old Country. He seemed bitter about going back, and angry that he did go back. CeCe really wanted to know why he had to go back to the Old Country but he didn't want to talk about it at all. Something bad must've happened while he was gone. She wanted to make him happier, but she knew she couldn't without him talking about it. 

"I figured," CeCe said, nodding. "I'm glad everything is better."

"Yeah," he said, his voice soft. He looked lost in thought for a moment before grinning. "Let us play a game! That will be the first thing we will do during this sleepover."

"I don't have that many board games," CeCe said, standing up. She walked over to the little alcove in the corner, rummaging through the cabinet set in front of the window. "Hm, maybe I don't have any. Flynn and I don't really play board games, so Mom must've gotten rid of them a while back, I guess. Sorry."

"It is fine," Gunther said excitedly. CeCe turned around and saw him facing her, a look of happiness of his face. "I have a game we can play!"

"Okay," she said, laughing. She walked back over to him, crossing her arms over her chest. "What is it?"

"It is something I made up back in the Old Country while I was there last," he said, his eyes lighting up. "I called it Red Elbow. It is much easier playing with a bigger amount of people, but I think it can work with just us two. The premise is that one person gets assigned the red elbow. That person must prank the others without them knowing that they did it."

"So, how can we play? Wouldn't we know who is the red elbow?"

"Yes." Gunther frowned, placing a hand on his chin. CeCe watched him think, her mind racing. She tried thinking about what they could do, but she wasn't sure what they could do. She wasn't the brightest, as proved by her high school grades. "How about we prank each other? We will obviously know that the other is going to prank each other, but we can still do it. We would try not to let the other one know that the prank is coming. That would be the surprise."