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"YOU'VEgot to be kidding me, mom."
Francesca Avery turned to her daughter standing in the doorway of the kitchen. Various baking supplies were spread out across the large island, from baking soda to semi-sweet chocolate morsels. She pulled out two baking sheets out the oven, licking melted chocolate from the cookies off her fingers. Shaking her head at her daughter, Francesca took out one of her best serving plates and began to place cookies on it, burning her long fingers in the process. Coraline assumed her mother was about to leave for work because she was wearing her uniform and trying her hardest not to get it dirty.
"This what we have to do to ..." Francesca waved her hands around, coming up with words that would make sense. "To stay in their good graces."
Coraline lifted a brow. "Who? The new neighbors?"
Her mother chewed on her bottom lip and looked away, continuing to pile on cookies.
"God, mom. Can't you just leave them alone? Maybe that will help us stay in their good graces."
"You see? That's what they need, Cor: God. Straight up God." She wagged her finger in her daughter's face.
Coraline walked more into the kitchen and pushed her mother's finger away. She sighed heavily, "You've never cared about religion – like, ever. Why start now?"
"Because," Francesca replied, placing plastic wrap on top of the cookie plate. "Because I'll be damned if the way I die is by some Satanists down the street sacrificing me to Lucifer. No way, Jose."
The teenager rolled her eyes, crossing her arms across her chest. "Don't you have work soon? How do you planning on bringing those over?"
Her mother smiled big. "That's where you come in, sweet daughter." She reached out and pinched Coraline's cheeks, making them turn rosy red. "I'm going to go to work – so I can successfully feed and keep us warm each week – and you are going to win over these new Satanists by taking this plate of my homemade cookies to them."
Coraline's eyes shifted to the cookies sitting in a circle on her mother's gold-lined plate. Glancing back to Francesca, she snarled, "Are you sure those aren't just some store-bought cookies that you heated for dramatic effect?"
Francesca narrowed her eyes and smirked. "Positive," she muttered, shaking her daughter's chin before clicking her heels out of the kitchen.
Coraline followed her mother out into the main foyer, ready to scream for making her do her dirty work. But the front door was already closing, and her mother was wiggling her fingers goodbye. "You can't just leave me with this!" Coraline called, stomping her foot into the cream-colored carpet.
