Jodie kept smirking at me on the drive home and finally said "So…you hugged Aden McGowan…what's that about? I thought you hated him." I groaned and said "Oh shut up. I already regret it. I was trying to make the big oaf feel better since you said he was so sad." She replied "If you hate him so much, why did you even care if he was sad or not?" I replied "Damn girl I'm not heartless! He did look like a sad little puppy before I hugged him but after he was back to his same old smirking annoying self. Annoying but cute I guess…in his own way." There was a voice suddenly coming from Jodies phone…it was Aden. He said "Well I'm glad you at least think I'm cute." I went pale and stopped the car. "Jodie…you are going to die a slow painful death, you do realize that don't you? You set me up the entire time and I bet it was a collaborative effort wasn't it?" Aden went silent and then said "Yea, Jodie told me to look super sad when we were outside and she would handle the rest which she did. Thanks Jodie and thanks for the hug Ryan, I really needed it." I groaned and said "First thing tomorrow I'm looking for a new best friend and now Mr. sneaky…my invitation to sit at my table is revoked." Jodie's jaw dropped to the floor and Aden begged "Please don't do that Ryan, I promise not to trick you again." I just said "Yea right." I grabbed Jodie's phone and said "Jodie has to get off the phone now, bye bye" and hung up. I then glared at Jodie and said "I can't believe you did that. That's so embarrassing." She replied "Sorry Ryan. Don't take my stupid idea out on Aden. He REALLY likes you, trust me. He can't stop talking about you, it's like you're a drug and he is hopelessly addicted." I said "Oh shut up. Tell me you at least didn't give him MY number…please tell me you didn't go that far." Jodie said "Relax, I didn't do that."
When we got to her house I just dropped her off and headed home. I had a lot of homework still to do and needed to study and cool off. I got home and started dinner, I browned some ground beef and Italian sausage and put my sauce together to get it simmering and started water boiling to cook the noodles. Then I sautéed some mushrooms with a diced garlic clove and sat it to the side. While everything was cooking I did some of my homework. The water boiled and I put the lasagna noodles in to boil with some oil and salt then went back to my homework after turning off the heat on the meat and turning the sauce down low before draining the grease off of the meat and then mixed the meat into the sauce. I preheated the oven and sprayed my pans with some pam to keep it from sticking. By that time the noodles were done so I piled everything into the pans with the cheese in the layers and put it in the oven covered in foil. That would take roughly an hour so I went back to my homework after setting the timer. Mom came in just after I put it in the oven and asked what smelled so good. I told her it was my homemade lasagna and she sat at the table refusing to go anywhere else which was the same every time and made me laugh. I just added some Italian seasoning and sugar to the sauce to cut the acidity of the sauce.
My mom called Jodie's mom and 10 minutes later they were here for dinner. I'm so glad I always make 2 pans because this happens every time…more people show up. I finished up my homework and started studying just as the timer went off. Jodie was telling my mom and her parents about what happened today with Aden and I think they all thought it was funny. My face was turning more red than my sauce out of both embarrassment and slight anger. I pulled the Lasagna out and placed a pan on the table with a spatula and uncovered it. They were all practically drooling. I brought out a pitcher of sweet tea and a pitcher of lemonade. Jodie snapped a picture of me three times, once when I was carrying the lasagna to the table, once of the lasagna on the table with me in the background at the oven pulling the second out and again when I brought the pitchers in and was texting. I saw her devious little grin at her phone and said "Jodie Pope you better not be doing what I think you're doing!" She handed me her phone with a smirk and sure enough she sent the pictures to Aden who had replied 'The chef and the food look equally delicious.' I blushed more and groaned mumbling about how annoying she was and my mom snatched Jodie's phone and looked then handed it to Jodie's parents and they were all laughing. My mother…I have no choice but to love her but she told Jodie to invite him over for dinner. She did while I was begging her not to and he replied really fast with 'On my way!' I mumbled that I hated them all and pulled another chair to the table but put it across the table by Jodie and her parents being the traitors they are, they slid down one seat so the empty seat was next to me.
Before I could say much else the doorbell rang and my mother ran and opened the door smiling widely at the creepy hot guy who has been stalking me for two days and even broke into my bedroom to steal something that smelled like me. Wait…did I just call him hot again? Ugh get your head in the game Ryan. Aden stepped in and mother dearest sat him right next to me of course and even scooted the chair closer to me before seating him. I rolled my eyes and said to the entire table "I hate you ALL…just wanted to make that known before we eat. Dig in!" The adults and Jodie said "We love you too Ryan!" Aden was snickering and I narrowed my eyes at him which shut him up but he still kept smirking at me which had me trying to hold back a smile. He's just so cute, it's hard not to smile when he does something like that damn it. I waited for everyone to get their serving before taking mine. There were moans from around the table that if they weren't all in the same room with me I would have thought they were doing something else. The greatest compliment a chef can get is hearing the moan of pleasure the second the food hits everyones taste buds…at least that's what mom says. Everyone was so busy eating and taking seconds and even thirds that nobody really spoke. Aden was on his 4th piece and asked "Do you think you could make a bunch of this for a family reunion we're having in a few days? We have a huge kitchen with everything you would need tool wise and I could go with you to the store to get all of the ingredients. We'll pay you for doing it because my family would kill for this." I asked "How many people are we talking about and do they all eat like you?" Aden thought for a moment and said "Roughly 300 and most of them do, yes." I about choked on my tea and said "Just 5 of us ate almost both pans I made and if your family have your appetite it will take a TON of pans to fill them all and I can't keep them all hot long enough to cook a hundred lasagnas." Aden replied "Our kitchen could fit 6 or 10 pans between the ovens to cook at once and some of our family live on the same block and all you would have to do is tell them how long and what temperature and they could heat them at their houses and bring them back." I asked him more questions and it turns out there are roughly 35 houses within a few blocks of his house that could each cook 2 so that 76-80 accounted for. I figured if I could get 80 done at the same time and I would make garlic cheese bread and salad to go with it to hopefully fill everyone up. There was a lot of planning.
Tomorrow after school it was decided that Aden, Jodie, Russ and I would go to the grocery store with the entourage. I was officially drafted for this. Aden told me I would have plenty of help in the kitchen if I needed including him and his parents. Jodie even volunteered to help. The next day the first half of school flew by and we were at lunch. Apparently the entourage was going to help with the shopping in case we needed more vehicles and hands to carry everything. I didn't know they were his family and I didn't know they would all be at our table. I caved obviously and told him he could sit with us and he brought all of his friends…the popular crowd…'yay'…not the sarcasm. We had a great time and Aden is more fun than I gave him credit for. He also told me that his parents offered for Jodie and I to stay over Friday night so we could get a jump on the cooking. I had a lot of prep work to do so I was fine with that but told him to keep his hands to himself and he agreed.
After school we went shopping and I had to send people all over town for the aluminum pans and everything else which I wasn't expecting. This wasn't a big town so I should have known the stores wouldn't have enough in either one. Finally when we had everything they led us back to Aden's house and my god it was a huge mansion, almost like a hotel with what looked like 10 floors. When we pulled up there was a group of people waiting outside. They started unloading the cars and taking everything inside. Aden's parents introduced themselves and thanked me for helping. I told them that it was not a problem and they showed me the kitchen. I could easily fit 10 pans in their ovens at once. They showed me where everything would be when I got back over here tomorrow afternoon. Jodie and I stayed to be polite and chat with Aden's parents for a little while longer but they seemed to focus more on me which made me wonder what exactly he told them about me. By the time we left it was nearly 8pm and I had yet to do my homework but they did have us stay for dinner. We had pot roast that wasn't bad, they even sent me home with a container for my mom and Jodie some for her parents. They were overall very nice people.
After I dropped Jodie off I went home and gave mom her food which she enjoyed and did my homework as fast as I could. I finally finished around 10:30. I left my bag downstairs and trudged upstairs to my bed and collapsed onto it dead tired. When I woke up again it was 6am so still before my alarm. I dragged my ass out of bed and into the shower and got ready for school and packed an overnight bag with pajamas and fresh clothes for tomorrow and all of my bathroom essentials and my good Bluetooth speaker. I set everything by the door and got the coffee going just as my mom came into the kitchen. She smiled at me and said "You'll be doing enough cooking over the next 36 hours, go sit down and I'll cook sweetheart." I smiled and said "Thanks, I don't even want to think about all the work I have ahead of me. What was I thinking agreeing to make roughly a hundred lasagnas and salad and cheesy garlic bread for 300 people?" Mom chuckled as she made pancakes and bacon and said "You were being nice and helping someone who asked for it and you'll get paid something for it all according to what Aden said. Maybe you can put that away for a new car eventually or college cash for emergencies. Plus you get to spend some extra time getting to know that handsome young man, Aden seems sweet even if he does creepy things." I groaned and slammed my head into the table a little harder than I intended which kinda hurt. I replied "I swear it seems like you're all plotting against me." Mom laughed and said "You've never blushed in front of anyone but me until the other night and you blushed about his text and Jodie said that you called him hot so we're actually all working FOR you, not against you." My response was "Yea right. I told you guys I'm not interested in him in that way. I wish people would let me make my own decisions." I stared at her with wide eyes as obvious as I could so she knew I meant her which just made her laugh and say "We would if you made the right decisions. I don't think you've ever had a boyfriend or been on a date have you?" I asked "Why does that matter? I'll date when I'm ready. You didn't raise a pushover" She smiles and brought my plate over and refilled my coffee and we ate chatting about whatever came to mind. When she left I gave her a hug and kiss and told her I'd see her when I got back Saturday evening.
The school day flew by really fast which I was hoping it wouldn't because that means I'll be starting getting things prepared for tomorrow that much sooner. Jodie met me at the car and we followed Aden and Russ out to Aden's place which apparently Russ lives there too. When we got there Aden's mom led us upstairs and put me in the room right next to Aden and Jodie in the one on the other side of the room I'm staying in. I put my bathroom bag in the attached bathroom and laid out my clothes for tomorrow on the dresser and my pajamas on the bed and grabbed my Bluetooth speaker. I then went over to Jodie's room and she was already coming back out. We headed back down to the kitchen and ran into Mr. and Mrs. McGowan and I asked them if our music would bother them but she told me it would be fine and to just enjoy ourselves as best as we could with all the work ahead which made us all laugh. We went into the kitchen and I pulled out the very large baking sheets and the cart that had slots to place them all on and started setting slices of the Italian bread on them and then covered them thoroughly with plastic wrap to keep the bread soft. I setup my speaker and connected my phone and then put "Timber" by Ke$ha and Pitbull on without the vocals so we could sing then "Blurred Lines" by Robin Thicke. We sang just as we would at school and even danced around as we worked and then we heard somebody clearing their throat near the end of the song and looked up to see about 10 people including Aden and his parents watching us with smiles on their faces. I smiled back and asked "Did you enjoy the performance?" They all laughed and nodded their heads yes. Mrs. McGowan said "Your voice will be perfect to sing children to sleep at night when you have them." I blushed and said "Well, if I ever adopted kids it would be way down the line." They looked at each other strangely and then Aden stepped forward and said "How can we help? Put us in coach! I set Mrs. McGowan and the other ladies up to brown the meat and Set Mr. McGowan and most of the guys up to chop up the mushrooms and onions for the sauce and had them measure out the sugar and put it in a container. Aden wanted to help me so I had him scrape the butter containers into the mixing bowl while grabbed 20 garlic cloves and diced them up and tossed them into the massive mixing bowl and added a little salt and pepper before using a mixer to mix it thoroughly into a creamy garlic butter spread. I had Aden wrap it thoroughly and put it in the refrigerator. I saw they have a large warming oven that would be big enough to hold some of the bread tomorrow so that was a plus. The ladies finished browning the ground beef and Italian sausage and drain the grease off and put the beef in one huge container and the Italian sausage in another. I set Aden up slicing cucumbers after showing him how thick they should be and left him to it while setting the ladies up with cheese to grate. The other men were done with the mushrooms and onions so I set them up with the huge pot I would use for the sauce and had them open all of the cans of diced tomatoes' and tomato paste along with some cans of regular tomato sauce and told them when they finished to mix it and then wrap it thoroughly and put it in the refrigerator. Jodie was busy chopping up tomatoes for the salad and had several containers to put them in to seal them up. I started pulling the lettuce apart and putting it in its own containers standing right across the island from Aden which seemed to make him happy. Jodie was already saut��ing the mushrooms and onions for the sauce. Poor Aden was struggling with the cucumbers so I setup a second cutting board next to him after I finished the lettuce and started helping him. We started making small talk while we worked. When we finished, everything was ready that we could do tonight so I just sat the aluminum pans on the counter and set a large pot next to the sink and placed all of the noodles beside it.
I then said "In order to get it all put together we'll need the kitchen all day so you all may have to just eat cereal for breakfast and sandwiches for lunch. They all said that they were fine with that. Everything was sliced and browned and diced and put away for the night so we cleaned the kitchen and then everyone started heading for bed because it was now almost 9pm and tomorrow would be a long day. Everyone left but Jodie, Aden and I because we were cleaning the last dishes before heading upstairs. On the way upstairs Jodie said "We should all chill and watch a movie or something before bed." Aden was all for it and they decided to come to my room because it was in the middle for some stupid reason…it' not like anyone would be walking a mile but whatever. We all walked into my room for the night and I slipped into the bathroom to change into my 'True Blood' pajama pants and my baggy old wolf t-shirt. Aden looked me up and down like a starving man would look at his first meal in days. I walked up to him and pinched his arm hard to get him to stop staring. He yelled "OUCH" and flinched away from me saying "That's domestic abuse." I laughed while rolling my eyes and replied "That only applies to couples…families ya know?" He gave me his usual annoying overly confident smirk and said "You'll be mine; it's only a matter of time before you agree. Jodie just sat silently listening until finally squealing "This is better than a soap-opera." We all laughed and finally agreed to watch the first Harry Potter movie. Before we were halfway through the movie they were both passed out…in my bed of the night. I didn't want to wake them so I just said to hell with it and turned facing Jodie and fell asleep.
When I woke up I was pulled firmly against Aden with his arms tightly wrapped around my waist and Jodie was laying there smirking at me as I realized this. I slowly started to try to untangle myself from him but every time I did he would just tighten his grip and mumble something about staying in bed. Finally I had to pee so badly I started calling his name and tapping his hands that were on my lower stomach very close to a place they shouldn't be. He finally woke up and hesitated before finally letting me go. I scrambled to the bathroom because my bladder was about to burst and emptied it. I went back into the room and they were laughing and talking as they walked out off to their own rooms to prepare for the day ahead. I grabbed my clothes and took my shower quickly. It's already 8am and I'm behind schedule. As soon as I got dried I finished the rest of my preparations and when I was ready for the day I was out the door with my bags repacked. I put my bags back in my car and got to the kitchen. I started buttering up the bread and turned on "We Don't Talk Anymore"by Charlie Puth and Selena Gomez and soon I heard Jodie coming down the stairs and we were singing right away. I had the oven preheating and when Aden followed behind Jodie asking what he could do I put him to work on the bread and pulled out the meat putting those pans in the warmer to warm the meats back up. Next I pulled out the Sauce, added the mushrooms, onions, sugar and Italian seasoning and mixed it thoroughly before setting it on the stove on a medium heat. I had Jodie putting the salad together and splitting it into serving bowls. I put salt and oil in the large pot I left on the counter and filled it with hot water before putting it on the stove to boil and added the noodles once it was boiling. Aden had the bread ready so I had him start loading it into the oven 4 pans at a time. Bread was cooking, salad was done and the meats were warmed. The sauce was soon simmering and the noodles cooked and drained. We were finally ready to start putting the lasagnas together by the time Aden finished browning the last of the bread.
We were panning up lasagna until almost 5pm. I sent people out the door with the lasagnas they said they could cook at the same time at home and they took them and ran. I tossed 10 pans in the oven here at the main house and set the timer. By 6:30 the pans were all being placed on the dining room table along with the salad and bread. When the last was sat on the table we brought out several pitchers on lemonade and iced tea and Jodie and I went back into the kitchen and wiped the counters down and started on the dishes before Mrs. McGowan came in and told us that everyone was waiting for us to join them before they would eat. I apologized and we followed her back out and once again I'm somehow sitting next to Aden. Everyone started digging in as if they hadn't eaten in weeks. There were moans coming from everyone as they ate which had a cocky smirk appearing on my face this time. Mrs. McGowan saw and was snickering at me before complimenting the food which everyone agreed with and I thanked them. When everyone finished there was literally nothing left which shocked me but surely nobody left hungry; that was a TON of food.
I went back to the kitchen and was washing the last of the pots and serving dishes when Mr. McGowan walked in. He started drying as I washed and put them away. He asked me about my cooking skills and my hobbies and interests and what I thought of his son and since I'm not shy, I said "He's a bit of a creeper always staring at me and following me around and breaking into my house to steal my lap blanket for some odd reason but seems nice enough at times I suppose." He laughed at first but then got serious and asked "He broke into your house and stole from you?" I laughed nervously as I started washing plates next. I said "Yea but he told me he'll buy me a new one so, no big loss. I told him if he ever breaks into my house or steals from me again that I won't have anything to do with him and he knows I mean it because I don't beat around the bush." Mr. McGowan snickered and said "Sounds like you have him well under control." I laughed and said "I doubt that, we are only acquaintances right now because he annoys me with the stalking thing but we might become friends in time if he chills out and acts like a normal person." He replied "I think he has more than friendship in mind with you." I blushed beet red but didn't say anything.
We finished the dishes and Mr. McGowan handed me a wad of cash of hundred dollar bills and told me he paid Jodie already for her work. I started to tell him that it was too much and I couldn't accept it but he said "That was the best meal any of us have ever had and YOU organized it and it was your recipes. You got everything done on time and everything was delicious so you earned every penny. Now, I'd like to offer you a job, you don't have to answer now, you can think it over and talk to your mother and get back to me. I'd like you to cook dinner for the family on weeknights. After sampling your cooking I wouldn't be surprised if everyone shows up for your meals." I replied "I'll talk to my mom and let you know as soon as I can. Thank you, I really appreciate it. I really do need to save for college when I head off this coming summer to start." He looked shocked and worried for a moment before saying "Well, we hope you stay and cook for us for as long as possible." Soon we said our goodbyes and Jodie and I were on our way back home.