Snow It Up [Shake It Up]

chapter thirteen

CeCe and Gunther stood in the kitchen, staring at each other in the dark. She wasn't sure what had just happened, but she really wanted the grilled cheese sandwich. "Did the power just . . .?" CeCe said, trailing off. 

"Yes," Gunther said, running a hand through his close cropped hair. He glanced around the apartment, his eyes dark. "I do not know what to do."

"Me either," CeCe said, suddenly nervous. She was in the dark with the boy she may have liked, stuck in her apartment, not being able to leave. She wasn't normally scared of small spaces, but the air in here was suffocating. At least, to CeCe, it was. "Maybe we should put on more clothes so we won't get too cold."

"You have a fireplace," Gunther said, pointing to the living room. His eyes were wide when he said, "We can make a fire!"

"I'm not sure." CeCe rushed over to the fireplace and stood in front of it, almost protectively. "I don't know if there's a . . . um . . . chimney attached to this apartment. I haven't asked Mom about it before because I wasn't sure and I didn't want her to think that I wasn't smart."

"I am sure she already thought that," he joked. He walked forward, placing his hands on her shoulders. For some reason, her body grew light and he moved her to the side. He produced a match from his pocket and lit it. The fire danced in the darkness before being thrown into the fireplace. It landed on the logs that her mother had placed in there, slowly smoldering. "There. We should be warm with that."

"But - but I don't know if there is a chimney!" CeCe said loudly. The feeling came back to her body, so she dropped to the ground and started blowing on the glowing embers. The embers bounced back at her, making her crash into the ground in fear. She groaned in pain, saying, "I need to put that out."

"We can always open a window," Gunther said, crouching down next to her. "Are you alright?"

The concern in his voice made her smile slightly. "I'm okay," she said, sitting up. She brushed her arm off, saying, "And no, I do not want the window open. It'll get cold."

"It will get cold if we put out the fire," Gunther said sensibly. "Which would you rather do?"

"Put the fire out. I don't want to burn down in this building." CeCe stood up and ran to the kitchen. She threw open the fridge door and gasped when she saw the bottle of distilled water. Flynn had gotten picky about his water, so her mother had bought him this bottle of water. She hadn't seen it earlier, but now it would be good use. She snatched the jug and ran toward the fireplace. She opened the jug and threw the water onto the fire, watching as it slowly fizzled out. "There we go."

"Well, now we are going to freeze to death for sure," Gunther said from behind her. CeCe stood up, closing the jug of water. He had a frown on his face when he said, "Good job, CeCe."

"Don't use that tone on me," she said, setting the jug down on the coffee table. She crossed her arms over her chest, glaring at him. "I did what I did to keep us alive. What if there wasn't a chimney? Did you want to burn to death?"

"No," he said slowly. His frown left his face, replacing it with a passive look. "Thank you for thinking ahead. I should have thought about that before."

"You're welcome." CeCe gave him a sly grin, saying, "I knew I was right. Not that I'm hardly ever right, but still." She shook her head, saying, "Enough about that. I say that we should put on more clothes so that we don't freeze to death and then light some candles."

"Would that not do the same thing that the fireplace would do?" Gunther asked, cocking his head to the side. "Do candles not produce smoke?"

"No, sir, they do not," CeCe said, laughing. "Trust me. I've used candles all of my life, and they hardly produce smoke."