#I WROTE THIS THIS MORNING BWAHAHAHAHAAH
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camille-marshall-blog · 7 years ago
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Challenge #5
Alternately Titled: The Im-pasta-ble
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a/n: Mabuhay, Ni hao, Hello! Another fic written during another hell week in school- please excuse the grammatical and formatting errors. Thanks to @nathaniel-schreave, @clove-teasdale, @eloiseduval, @victoria-seaberg, @ladyallegrahannon for the RP! Hope you guys enjoy!! (3180 words)
Life is like lasagna: it’s full of layers, cheesy, and a combination of magic and pasta.
A few days after the ball, my heart was pounding in my ears when Nate had gathered us to announce who’d be getting eliminated. I was nervous because of the fact that Nate and I had ended well that night- that whatever was there wasn’t supposed to be over yet, but even more terrified of this growing attachment and the feeling of wanting to stay.
Nate had announced the Elite, which even worsened everything. There was a sense of madness that could drive me up the wall because of how unlikely I was supposed to be here in the first place. Top 10. I wasn’t meant to make it this far, I have never planned to be this close.
Among the ten girls that were here, one of them was going to be my future sovereign. A part of me always knew that everyone here was practically queen material, and what continued to bug me was how everyone here would probably do a better job at it than I would. Whatever I’ve learned before, and everything I am now… well.. I don’t think anyone would appreciate what I could do.
After the initial shock of making it into the Elite had worn off, we later found out that we all were going on a series of group dates with Nate and we somehow had gotten divided into two groups. Theoretically, a group date sounded a bit out of the ordinary, but somehow… I’ve come to accept that behind these palace walls anything was possible. It didn’t sound too bad for Nate either, this probably helped him save time and still try to hang out with all of us. Good lord, the lengths that boy went to entertain all of us…
I was assigned to join the cooking group date, which didn’t seem like a bad idea- but what really sucked was that I wasn’t going to be with Vee.
Venus Minerva Vale always loved talking and entertaining. She’s the closest friend I have here, I’m pretty sure she had adopted me or something. She was always a beacon for everyone’s attention, which worked to my advantage whenever I was around her. She did most of the talking between us while I was the one who often listened and observed things. Now I’m being put in a position where I’d have to interact with a lot of people without Vee being my first line of defense.
I’ve always liked interacting with people one on one, the conversations were easier and I preferred giving my full and undivided attention to that person alone. Being put in a group always made me feel overwhelmed with everything I had to keep up with, all that information and goings-on flooded my senses to some points it got overwhelming. That’s always been my struggle with people I’m not comfortable with: the unfamiliarity of their territory, the fear of overstepping their limits.
I’m not very close with the four other girls in group my date, though I am familiar with most of them, you tend to learn a lot when you’re on the sidelines watching everything happen around you. Victoria was a fierce force on her own, and despite the rocky first impressions she had with Vee, they seemed to have patched it up. Eloise was the first Selected girl I had ever met at the beginning of the Selection, and we’ve shared a few conversations here and there like during my birthday- she was. Clove was clearly Eloise’s best friend and always appeared collected and possessed some kind of air of maturity that most 17 year olds didn’t have. Then there was Allegra, who I’ve never really seen around- but I haven’t heard anything bad about her… so surely she at least must be nice. 
The low levels of familiarity was reassuring in a way, but it still didn’t change the fact that I couldn’t rely on Vee this time. I promised myself a while ago that I had to stop being so conscious about being closed off from the people in this palace, and I knew that if I really wanted to enjoy my time here, I had to start putting myself a little more out there. I have Vee to thank for that… and well Nate too. Spending time with Nate had somehow made me feel more comfortable, most especially while I was around him. He had earned my trust during the ball, and his presence did seem to make me feel a little more relaxed.
Being nervous sucks, but when Nate had come along the hallway to meet up with us, things seemed to mellow things out for me.
“Hey, Sorry I was running a bit late. The meeting went a little over…” Nate declares, walking up to the group of us.
I nod in greeting, “Don’t sweat it.”
“Yeah, don’t want to ruin the suit.” Clove remarked in her usual humor, which made me turn to her and notice Eloise half hiding behind her.
“Thanks guys, let’s go in.” Nate chuckles us as we all walk into the kitchen.
Knowing that we were going to cook, I immediately start pulling my hair up and tie it into a quick bun.
“Marshall is ready for anything. What dish are we tackling today?” Clove comments before turning to Nate.
I click my tongue in response, “Just a force of habit.” It was, really. The way things were run in our mess hall kinda asked girls to tie their hair up while cooking back in my old military school.
Nate then quickly responds to Clove’s question, “Lasagna.”
“Sounds like a plan.” I acknowledge, internally trying to remember what were the steps for making lasagna.
“Marshall could you get the pasta cooked and stuff? Allegra you could help Marshall with that. And Victoria you could…” Nate pauses to think for a moment, “measure the cheese? And Clove and Eloise can you come with me to help cut some vegetables…?” Nate began to delegate the tasks, and everyone separates a bit to work on their tasks (of course washing their hands before they did anything).
Allegra and I move over to the stove, getting things ready while Victoria measured the cheese.
“So, what’s everyone’s favourite food?” Victoria asks.
“Mac and cheese.” Allegra hungrily groaned.
“Lasagna isn’t in too bad a spot on my list.” Clove replies from a separate island in the kitchen, while cutting vegetables with Nate and Eloise.
“It’s a tie between.. burritos… and…” I lower my voice a little as I turn the stove on and begin waiting for the water to boil, “s'mores.” S’mores were always amazing, the combination of graham, chocolate, and marshmallows was a masterpiece for the tastebuds.
“Oh! That’s a really good answer! s’mores are amazing!” Allegra comments, and I nod.
Victoria nods as well, “S'mores are the best. Lasangna and mac and cheese are also great picks.”
“I’m a fan of baby carrots.” Eloise then pipes up, for the first time since the beginning of this group date. Well, things have been kinda this way since Fleur’s birthday… an air of tension and awkwardness between Eloise and Nate… things were off, and it made me worry for the two of them.
“What are baby carrots? Are they like small carrots?” Victoria turns to Eloise, and I hear a chuckle at the comment or mention of baby carrots coming from Nate, so maybe things might have mellowed out between them, I’m not entirely sure.
Allegra laughs before giving us the 411 on baby carrots, “They’re just adult carrots that they’ve whittled down. Don’t ask me why I know that.”
“Ow.” I hear from behind me, and I turn to see Eloise pushing paper towels onto her hand. Goodness, she must have cut herself while chopping.
“Eloise… are you okay?” Nate asks before seeing the blood, and I notice a bit of confusion flash through his features, “Uhhh….”
“I’m fine, it’s fine. I’m just- I’m going to go get this taken care of.” Eloise says looking down on her hand.
“Is there a first aid kit?” Allegra inquires.
Eloise turns to Allegra, “No really, you guys just finish here and I’ll go to the hospital wing.”
“Are you sure? I know how to bandage wounds.” Allegra offers.
“Um Clove could you take Eloise to the hospital wing please.” Nate instructs, and Clove sets her knife down with a nod.
“Don’t need any more blood anywhere than necessary.” Eloise shakes her head before offering everyone a small smile and leaving with Clove.
“Okay.” Allegra nods, “I hope you feel better.”
“I’ll be fine, thank you.” Eloise smiles at Allegra before the remaining four of us watch them leave out of our sight.
“Hope she’s gonna be okay…” I remark, getting hurt from a cooking accident was no stranger to me (you could blame me trying to julienne carrots for that once). I take the pasta out of the box and start setting it into the pot, “So are we making the sauce from scratch?”
Nate nods, “Yeah. Do you want to do that?”
“Yeah, I can make the sauce.” I affirm while sprinkling a pinch of salt into the boiling pasta. Weird as it may seem, but adding the salt would add a little flavor to the pasta, infusing it with some flavor while it boiled and then adding a little bit of oil to seal that flavor into the pasta- thank god for the old lunch ladies who supervised us while we worked in mess. These little hacks worked wonders for us.  
“Allegra, could you take the pasta out of the water after 6 to 7 minutes?” I ask for Allegra to take over before moving over to the counter to start working on the sauce.
The four of us continue to converse while working on our assigned component. We talk about how our days have been, what we missed about Christmas, and few more other topics I didn’t really feel invested in. I focus a little more on working on the sauce. I crush a few cloves of garlic under the blade of a knife and cut it up before throwing it in a pot to sautee, then adding the tomato sauce to let it heat. While that had to simmer, I work on the ground beef- first making sure to sweat some chopped onions on a separate pan then adding the ground beef to let it cook. Hearing the little sizzle of the beef on the pan was always a nice little pleasure of cooking.
Before we knew it, Clove and Eloise were walking back into the kitchen.
“Uh hey, how’s the lasagna coming?” Eloise asks while I was transferring the tomato sauce into the sauce pan with the ground beef- the best way to keep the juices of the beef in the sauce was to mix it well with the tomato sauce.
“I’m just about done with the sauce. It… uh needs a little seasoning.” I reply, setting the used tomato pot in a sink and brisk walking back to my simmering mix of tomato sauce and ground beef.
“Do you need something specific?” Clove asks, peering over my shoulder.
“A bay leaf and some basil would do just the trick… I’ve got everything else I need here.” I nod, adding pinches of salt and pepper into the sauce.
Eloise steps up to my side, “Anything else I can help with?”
I take a moment to remember what else I was missing and realize that I had almost forgotten something.
“Hmm… maybe get a teaspoon of white sugar?” I glance down at Eloise’s hand, hoping to see it in better shape. “How’s your hand?”
“Oh, it’s not too bad. I’ll live,” Eloise holds her hand up, with a small smile. “But sure I can get that.” She walks over to the counter and gets a teaspoon of sugar before offering it to me.
“That’s good to hear,” I nod while I mixed the sauce a little more, “You can add the sugar to the sauce.”
“I’ll let you mix it in. Me and cooking don’t exactly go together.” Eloise laughs as she adds the sugar to the tomato sauce.
Clove watches us a little before getting the seasonings I asked for, “Yeah, you stay away from fire and sharp things.”
“I’d argue, but I’ve set off the smoke alarm at home too often.” Eloise replies.
“Yeah… I guess it’s safer for you to stay away for a while.” I snort, entertained by the two girl’s banter.
“We can let her be the one to taste things.” Clove suggests as she hands me the spices.
“I’m okay with that,” Eloise agrees as she leans against the counter and my eyes shift to check if nothing sharp was near her.
“Sure, let me just add the bay leaf and the basil in,” I sprinkle some of the basil and drop a bay leaf in to season the sauce, “and let it simmer for a minute or two… then we’re good with the sauce.”
“Did you cook stuff like this at your base?” Clove asks as I stirred the sauce. The sound of a baking pan hitting the counter makes me turn to see Nate starting to arrange the pasta on the pan.
“Well… uh… sometimes me and my squad did when we got tired of the food in the mess hall… but I kinda learned this while in military school. It was kinda a boarding school where everyone had to do chores and stuff- I typically got assigned to help in the mess hall.” I explain to Clove, I really did owe most of what I know thanks to all that time claiming to help in the mess hall and trying to avoid doing laundry duty- I did not want to handle a bunch of smelly socks and pit stained shirts.
“Nate, did you check if that pasta’s al dente?” I ask, hoping that Allegra got the pasta out on time. The noodles would still need to be baked, so if it was already fully cooked, it wouldn’t be firm enough to hold up a nice shape.
He holds up a piece up and wiggles it, “Looks good.”
The sight makes me want to laugh with just how silly it looked to wiggle the pasta, usually I’d just tear a piece off and check the texture.
“Alright, I’m trusting you about that…” I snort while getting a spoon for Eloise. “Here… Eloise ,” I scoop some of the sauce into the spoon.
“Try it now.”
Eloise takes the spoon and samples the sauce, and I get a little nervous- feeling like one of those contestants on Masterchef or something. I watch her eyes widen and I’m praying that I didn’t add too much salt, or if she didn’t like the way the sugar balanced out the acidity of the sauce. “That’s delicious. Working in the mess hall paid off.”
I look down with a laugh, happy that I didn’t mess this sauce up and feeling a little embarrassed by the compliment, “Thanks… It sure beat doing the laundry… “
“Well it’s safe to say this lasagna will turn out pretty great.” Eloise laughs along.
“I hope it does…” I comment, turning off the stove and bringing the pot near Nate, ready for layering.
“The cheese is done as well,” Victoria comes up to us bringing a bowl of cheese to us- I guess we weren’t making a cheese-based bechamel sauce.. regular cheese would do just fine I suppose.
“Thanks,” Nate says as the five of us watch Nate layer the lasagna.
“Wait… did we pre-heat the oven?” I ask, not exactly remembering pre-heating an oven.
Nate turns to the ovenm “I think we did,”
I hold my hand out to the front of the oven, feeling heat radiate off it, and sigh in relief. “Okay, I thought we almost forgot about that.”
“How do you think they came up with lasagna?” Clove asks, leaning against the counter.
“How did they come up with half the things that exist today?” Nate asks back.
“wow, deep question.” Victoria remarks on Nate’s question.
I hold back a laugh while trying to answer Clove’s question “Hmmm… maybe they got bored with plain spaghetti bolognese and wanted something a little different…”
“You guys are making my brain hurt,” Allegra laughs.
“I mean, maybe it was an accident as were a lot of stuff.” Clove reasons out.
Eloise shrugs, “Someone probably just wanted the ultimate pasta dish.”
“Or spaghetti flavored cake” I mumble, noting the similarities of the way lasagna was made compared to a regular cake.
“That too.” A laugh comes from Eloise
“I like that possibility.” Clove smirks as Nate places the finishing touches on the lasagna before setting it into the oven.
The six of us spend the rest of the day conversing, sometimes asking each other the weirdest of questions that rivaled Clove’s origin of pasta question, and I’m finding myself feeling a little more comfortable with the rest of the girls on this date.
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