The arts and crafts club is ending early today. It's the first day of school and we are just welcoming some new friends to the club. We also discussed many activities that will take place during the year. Since we had nothing better to do, Tio, Marianne, Liya, Saintess Rumia and I went to the cooking club where
"You guys are here too?" [Diana].
"The reading club ended early too, so here I am, at my second club" [Dana].
"Your sister invited me over for a cookie, so here I am" [Kara].
"Dana really is a great cook! It's really surprising!" [Veronica]
"Are you praising me or insulting me?" [Dana]
"Dana is definitely a great cook! I love her food" [Diana]
"Thank you. I was going to give this to you at home, but you can have it here" [Dana]
"Yay!" [Diana]
"Oh my gosh, you're all here today?" [Neloufa]
"It seems like almost every club has finished early today" [Mara]
"Only the cooking club seems to be going on" [Adnan].
"It smells like Dana's cookies. Can I have one?" [Princess Siti]
"Sure. Everyone please have some" [Dana]
The cooking club now has several people from different clubs, all enjoying the food prepared by its members. I can tell which ones are made by Dana and which ones are not. Some cookies are sweeter than others, but I prefer the ones made by Dana.
"I'm sure I can cook well too, some day" [Kara].
"You can. It just takes practice" [Dana].
"I remember how Kara, Mara and Marianne couldn't even boil water on our first trip. It's nostalgic" [Diana]
"Excuse me!" [Marianne]
"We feel insulted!" [Kara]
"Just so you know, as long as there's a recipe to follow, I'm sure I can cook! Even better than you!" [Mara]
"Hahahaha... Using a recipe. A sign of a weak cook! A real cook like me just needs to follow my gut. Well, it's understandable, you can't cook properly" [Diana]
"May I remind you of your strange soup?" [Adnan]
"It's not strange!" [Diana]
"Yes, it is!" [Kara]
And so Kara, Mara, Marianne and I suddenly feel the need to have a cooking showdown. Since the cooking club won't be going home soon, we got permission to use their kitchen.
"I see. Three against one. Understandable. I mean, that's my handicap after all" [Diana].
"You're becoming like a noble lady in a novel every day, very well, I'll do it myself!" [Kara]
"I will show you how wrong you are to insult my skill. Just wait, I, Young Lady Marianne of the House of Duchal, will show you that I can do anything when I put my heart into it" [Marianne].
"Alas, we are sure to win. After all, you can only cook something like a snake or a gorilla brain" [Mara].
"Ah, the sweet sound of victory coming from the three of you really gets me going" [Diana].
"You four..." [Neloufa]
"It's all right. I'll be the impartial judge!" [Tio]
"You just want free food" [Adnan]
"That's me" [Tio]
"It will be bad if this food is wasted, I will be the judge as well" [Saintess Rumia]
"I guess I will be the third. Maybe the president of the cooking club should be the professional judge among us" [Liya].
The time limit is thirty minutes. We are only allowed to use the ingredients that are in this room. This means that the ingredients I have in my item box aren't allowed. I have enough in case I get kidnapped or transported to a strange place, so I can cook. Correction, so I can cook once the frozen food in my item box magic is finished.
Then I should make a simple soup. There's duck meat here. There's also salt and pepper. I'm sure it will be more than enough to defeat them.
"Hahahaha, you say something about beating us, and yet from the looks of it, you're going to make a simple soup. At least it's an improvement over your snake soup or gorilla brain fried rice" [Marianne].
"You can't even cook spaghetti properly and you have the nerve to mock me!" [Diana]
"Marianne, it's okay. Coming third out of four is still a good performance" [Mara].
"What is this, Princess? Did you want to be fourth?" [Marianne]
"You guys... You really talk more than you cook..." [Dana]
(I can't cook but, I have to agree there) [Princess Siti]
"Princess Kara... Turn down the heat or..." [Neloufa]
"That's fine Neloufa, this way I can cook faster and..." [Kara]
"Pftt..." [Diana]
"It's written here! Don't you dare look down on a recipe book!" [Kara]
And when the time was up, we presented our results to the house. I'm sure my duck soup will be good.
"Too much salt and pepper. Rejected" [Tio].
"What!?" [Diana]
"Marianne... Is that fried spaghetti?" [Liya]
"What do you mean?" [Marianne]
(Well... She's trying to make a regular one... Anyway, how can I say this nicely...) "It's good, although there's still room for improvement" [Liya].
"Basically, it's not up to her standards" [Tio].
"Some burnt sandwich, but it's still good" [Saintess Rumia]
"No! Please don't! I shouldn't feed charred food to a saintess!" [Mara]
"And just like Princess Mara, you are also charred. I'm sorry, are you trying to make a fried chicken?"
"I see... I thought if I followed the recipe and tweaked it a bit, I'd get a faster result... I apologize for the waste of ingredients" [Kara].
"At the end of the day, I am the one with good food!" [Diana]
"Aah! My tongue... I mean... It's still nice..." [Dana]
"Dana... All right... I admit my defeat then" [Diana]
"No! No! I understand that your style of cooking is generally to put many ingredients together and prepare it for everyone, in this case you are actually putting way too much, as you usually do, without considering the portion, hence the taste..." [Dana]
At the end of the day, all four of us feel like we are the last ones.
"So Neloufa is the best cook among us, then me, followed by Adnan and sharing the last place are all of you" [Tio].
"Don't rub their wound deeper" [Adnan].
"At least you try! It's better than not being able to cook at all!" [Neloufa]
"True. I will say that what Neloufa said is true" [Dana].
(My heart... It feels like it's being stabbed by this statement) [Veronica, Princess Siti]