Rewritten Past

Well. Let's take a step back and summarize the situation.

Unlike Mom, who only had Mama Yue and the mysterious older brother Tian back in China, my dad had a lot of siblings.

He had an older brother who had divorced his wife and whose son hopped back and forth between the two families. A younger sister who had gone ahead and gotten a master's degree in education... and accordingly was very smug. Then a younger brother who was deep into debts due to gambling and basically screwing around too much.

My dad had been a bit of a black sheep and tried to start a bunch of businesses before he fell into working in the public housing sector. Because of that, his siblings... my uncles and aunt, always held it above his head that they were better.

Eldest Uncle Long Li was a sheriff and making a respectable living while running a strict household.

Aunt Xia Hua was an English teacher with tenure and married to the principal at the school she worked, Uncle Chen Hua.

And Youngest Uncle Luo Li was a college dropout who was bumming off friends while living up life doing all sorts of crazy things.

I didn't quite remember how they were at this point in time. But I DID remember that they were all bitter in the future when I ended up doing better than all their kids.

Never got along with them. Not really.

Ah, my uncles and aunt, I mean.

I got along with my cousins decently well. We weren't close, but we were at least friendly.

But anyway.

I could see why Mama Yue thought it'd be troublesome.

Drama. Drama everywhere.

First was the fact that I was absolutely top of my class in school. My cousins were objectively not as intelligent as me. Good people, but not the brightest. Very hardworking, but no natural intuition or just mental ram capacity, you know?

Second was the fact that they would be making snide comments at my parents for pawning me off to Mama Yue while still making another baby.

I was pretty sure that this Thanksgiving was supposed to be a feast to announce the new child, but considering my current situation...

Yeah, I could already here the toxic comments.

'You can't even take care of your eldest son?'

'You had to give your son to the mother's family to watch?'

'You didn't even think to reach out to us?'

That last bit was definitely going to come up.

The answer was obvious why though.

Toxic people be toxic.

Even though my dad wasn't the BEST dad, he knew better than to toss me over on that side.

Mama Yue might be young, but she was competent and caring.

My OTHER aunt and my uncles...

Yeah, no.

"Alex?" April poked my cheek. "Are you okay? You look like you're thinking reaaaally hard."

I blinked and laughed. Then I patted her cheek in return and said, "I AM thinking hard, April. Hm..." I looked at Mama Yue. "April and Miss Serena can come, right?"

Mama Yue hummed and placed her hand on her chin. "I don't see why not. Knowing 'those' people, they'll bring some uninvited guests anyway."

Ah. Right. Forgot about the plus ones.

...Oh god, was this going to turn into a faceslapping show? Like from a Xianxia or those Chinese dramas? Please no. That was soooo dumb...

Miss Serena tilted her head and said, "...Is it really fine if we come?"

Mama Yue nodded and said, "Of course. We're best friends and we're practically family at this point."

Miss Serena immediately blushed.

Mama Yue noticed and turned red too. "N-Not because of that! I-I mean..." She coughed. "A-Anyway! It'll be fine! Just... gotta make some dishes to bring."

...Oh, that ship has SAILED.

Huh.

Well, Mama Yue and Miss Serena were good for each other, so it wasn't a bad thing.

Super funny that they were basically the trope of 'the villainess fell in love with her maid' though.

Wait. Dishes.

I looked at Mama Yue and said, "Are we cooking then, Mom?"

Mama Yue immediately grabbed onto the change in conversation and nodded. "That's right. We should make something nice to bring." She paused. "...I need to talk to Big Sis too. So it'd be good to bring proper food."

Miss Serena fanned her face to cool down. Then when she was more composed, she said, "Should I bring something too? Um..." She looked at me and Mama Yue. "What should I make? I don't really know any Chinese dishes..."

...Oh.

HUH.

That's absolutely right.

Chinese buffets and stuff weren't super mainstream yet, were they? The recipes and stuff were still pretty unknown.

Mama Yue paused. "Hm... I'm going to be making some dumplings and orange chicken. Mostly because I doubt they'll have any tasty food there. But that's a good point..."

I shrugged and said, "It's Thanksgiving, isn't it? Miss Serena can just make a ham or something, can't she?"

If I remembered right, Dad didn't care about that sort of thing anyway. Despite being a stubborn man who had ABSOLUTELY unrealistic expectations for his children, he was very much an open-minded person when it came to cultural stuff.

Like, he got along with Christians, buddhists, daoists, white people, black people, Mexicans, Latinos, Vietnamese...

He kind of had to, working in Public Housing, after all.

Miss Serena let out a sigh of relief and then smiled. "I can do that. A nice pecan pie and a honey glazed ham should be fine, right?"

April stuck her hands in the air and said, "Yay! Mom's making pie! It's suuuper yummy!"

Miss Serena laughed and said, "Thanks for the support, Sweetie."

Mama Yue nodded and said, "Alright. That sounds like a plan. I'll make some dumplings and orange chicken. You'll make a pie and the ham... I just need the stovetop, so we should be able to make both at the same time."

"Ooh!" April interjected and said, "Can we have cookies too?"

Miss Serena frowned. "Sweetie, we shouldn't-"

"Oh." I raised my hand and said, "I wanted to try a recipe I found. Do we have peanutbutter, Mom?"

Mama Yue blinked. "...Yes. Why?"

===

Yue stared at Alex with a blank expression.

'...I should really just stop questioning it, shouldn't I?'

As always, Alex pulled out another random skill out of his hat. This time, he showed April how to make microwave peanutbutter cookies.

Yes.

Microwave peanutbutter cookies. With just peanutbutter, flour, butter, sugar, and then the microwave.

"Aleeeex~!" April squeezed Alex tight and spun him around. "You're amazing! Cookies! Microwave cookies! We can make them every day!"

Alex laughed and said, "Not EVERY day, April. You'll get chunky."

April gasped and let go of Alex. "Noooo! I don't want to be chunky!"

Serena giggled and said, "It'll be fine, Sweetie. As long as it's just once in a while."

April looked at her mom and said, "Promise? They won't make me super puffy?"

Alex laughed and poked April's cheek. "We can always just play more to make up for it-"

"YES!"

Alex's eyes widened and he realized that he had trapped himself.

Yue shook her head, watching the entire exchange. While the kids were distracted, she reached over and took one of the peanutbutter cookies.

Soft. Gooey. The perfect consistency between melty and firm.

'...Damn these are good.' Yue subconsciously reached for another one. But then she remembered just how much butter Alex had put into it and stopped herself.

At that time, Serena took one herself and gasped in delight. "These are amazing!"

April bobbed her head and shouted, "YES! Alex's cookies are the bestest!"

Alex shook his head and said, "It's not THAT amazing. I think microwave brownies are better-"

"YOU CAN MAKE BROWNIES IN THE MICROWAVE?!"