A cooking contest huh? She also mentioned that Ace won't be eating our dishes but rather, we'll be having free taste for everyone and let them decided who's cooking is much better.
Even though it sucks, I agreed because I want her to stop chasing over my boyfriend for the rest of the year- well so far that is my condition when I win, while obviously for her, if she won this challenge then Ace will have to decide everything to settle things down.
"I'll just watch you here" Ace grinned and grab a chair to sit in.
"Yeah sure, as long as you don't touch anything" I said before wearing an apron.
"Alright let's begin" Mikayla smirked.
I just shrugged my shoulders at her before gathering the things I need, I decided to make something simple but I would need to put a lot of effort to get it done.
Cassava cake!
I had it grated instead of using the powderized one to make it taste a lot more delicious and started preparing the other ingridients on the other bowl.
After I was done, I took three baking trays and brushed it with butter so the batter won't stick, when it was done, I set it aside and mixed the grated cassava to the other bowl.
After mixing it, I poured it over the trays and pre heated the oven, while waiting for it to be heated, the cassava is resting by the room temperature to absorb it's flavor and of course the baking powder won't be reacting too much and grew so big.
When the oven was at the right temperature, I set the tray in and closed it immediately, 20 minutes til it fully baked.
While doing so, I took a small bowl and grated some cheese for the toppings later. From time to time, I would take a glance at Mikayla's table to see how is she doing- but it looks like she's in a mess right now.
"Don't mind her" I turn to Ace who was busy on his phone.
"I know that" I muttered and went back on my bussiness.
When the oven rang, I took a pair of towel and take the trays out the oven and set it on the cooling rack. I then, poured a right ammount of cheese on top of it and it melted slightly, that should add more creaminess to the cake aside from the sugar, condense milk and evaporated milk that I mixed in earlier.
"And done" I sighed and set my hands on my hips before turning to Mikayla who look so stress while decorating her cupcakes.
Isn't that difficult to decorate at least 50 cupcakes by this afternoon? It's already 4 and the party will be starting anytime soon.
Well she's the one who ask for this, do I have a choice? When my cassava cake has cooled down, I took a knife and sliced it into fair cubes and that's when the aroma spread across the kitchen like wildfire.
Even Mikayla stopped for a moment to take a glance on my table before giving me a judging look and went back on her work.
"You better hurry there, we still need to attend the party later" I told her.
"Shut up! I know that and you're disturbing me" she growled and clutched on the icing bag to decorate her cupcakes.
"Smells good, what's that? It's kinda weird to use that yellow thingy" Ace suddenly asked reffering to the cassava I used.
'I thought he's smart? Doesn't he know cassava?' I mentally asked but I just smiled at him as a reply.
"Cassava cake, one of the traditional desserts of our family that is always made on Christmas Eve" I replied then the kitchen's door suddenly opened.
"There I thought I smell something good" Ashlyn said, I smiled and handed her a piece of Cassava cake.
"Thanks Tine" she giggled and took a big bite on the cake.
"It's a cassava cake" I told her.
She then froze on the spot ang I started to get worried, what if some of the ingridients are mixed up? Maybe Mikayla did this on purpose, maybe she swapped some ingridients here before announcing the competition and I end up using it on my cake?
I mean that's not possible right? Ace also said that she'll just lower me down her level and beat me with everything she got.
"Ashlyn...?" I slowly called and she set the plate down before running outside.
"What the-?" Ace exclaimed and I look down at the tray in front of my table.
"Looks awful" I shot my gaze up to Mikayla who is smirking at me, I glared at her before taking a deep breath to calm myslef.
As I was about to take bite of my cake when Ashlyn came back with the rest of her group.
"Woah, that smells nice" Clyde said.
"It's freaking amazing, you guys should try it" Ashlyn cheered and picked up her plate from earlier and finished it.
What's happening here?
"I thought something's wrong with the cake?" It was almost a statement when I said it out loud.
"Yeah something is wrong, it's too delicious to exist!" She hyped up, I smiled and turn to Ace.
He smiled and gave me a thumbs up, then I watched how Ashlyn served her team with my cake and I grinned at Mikayla who just finished decorating her cupcakes.
"You guys, wanna try my cupcakes?" She asked 'kindly'.
"Uhm, guess so..." the twins, June and July trailed off before finishing their cake and walking over to Mikayla to try her cupcakes.
"Awe look at the twins" Charles chuckled.
"Always in sync at everything" Angela added before walking over Mikayla's place.
"The cupcakes are good but I still love the cassava cake" July commented.
"I agree" her twin said while nodding his head.
That's two points for me. And because of this, Ashlyn fetch over mine and Mikayla's classmates to try out our skills, of course the scores counting are doing good sometimes I would exceed to Mikayla and sometimes her cupcakes got more points than mine so it's thrilling to watch.
"Last 3" I said and set the three last pieces of the cake on the plate and set it down the counter so they can take it.
"I have to say both are good but cupcakes are common to us so we'll go for Tine's cassava cake" Louanne commented and James agreed to it immediately.
"Well looks like there only one point needed to break the tie" Clyde said and I look over Ace.
"Fine" he sighed and walk over to me as I handed him some cake.
His expression is really serious making me feel like I entered a real cooking conpetition by this, he slowly sliced the cake down using the fork and took a graceful bite on the cake.
He slowly nod his head and finished it in no time before taking Mikayla's cupcake and peeling the wrapper off to bite down on it.
He seems to like it but didn't finish it all the way, everyone of us was waiting for his comment.
"The cassava cake is delicious, you can easily identify everything that is mix through the cake especially the cassava itself, the butter that Cursetine used to brush around the baking tray is present on the surface of the cake, however, the taste of the butter kinda mixed out the balance but it turned out amazing at the end" he said, I knew it.
"The cupcake on the other hand carry out the excellent taste of fresh cocoa but it would turn out better if it's not a processed powder same goes for the icing, the icing is already sweet and yet there's too much sugar on the cupcake so my tatsebuds is getting all hyped up but I don't feel like finishing it because it's slipping out the cake- in short it didn't stick through the cake" he sighed and we obviously knew who did he pick.
"No offense Mikayla, this has nothing to do with my relationship with you or Cursetine, I just simply based it on your food since you wanted a fair competition, so Cursetine won this" he announced and I sighed in relief.
"Hmm seems like it hehe, well congrats to you two, this competition turned out well" James patted my head.
"I told you I'll win" I rolled my eyes at Ace.
"Fine, but hey, I didn't expect you know how to cook something other than ramen and ready to eat foods" he smirked and I glared at him.
"I was just kidding" he said before helping me clean up my table while everyone starting to leave the kitchen.
After cleaning everything up me and Ace left the kitchen and unexpectedly met up with Sofia and the others.
"Where have you been?" She asked us.
"Academy's kitchen" I shrugged.
"Hey! We're not done yet you wh*re!" My left eyebrow raised as I faced her.
"You think you've won that stupid competition just like that?! You played it dirty just to get the winning point" she pointed at me, oh how I wanted to break it.
"There was no foul there Mikayla, just accept the fact that you lose" Ace growled but I held him back.
No matter how much I put it, I have no plan on arguing with her, but since it has come to this then I guess it's time to ask for a payback.
"Mikayla..." I hummed.
"You're a two-faced b*tch! Acting so kind but you're actually the opposite of it" she smirked, well everyone knows that aside from her.
"Well that said, I have a lot pf personalities but none of them likes you" I frankly said earning a few 'ohh' from the background.
"DJ was mine first! If you didn't show up maybe we're still together, you're a leech!" She yelled at me, I dramatically covered my left ear acting like it was aching.
"Geez calm down, I didn't know snakes could be this loud" I rolled my eyes at her.
"By the way, you said it yourself, he 'was' yours, if you didn't drop your act then you two should be happy now- gladly you dropped it now he's running after me" I flipped my hair making her more pissed- plus the smoking effects.
"Why you-!"
"Mikayla enough, you're just embarassing yourself, you are a girl, you're not suppose to be arguing desprately to get the person you like back, have standards at least and be more mature will you? You're beautiful and such and can have all the boys running after you, so can you respect us? Or rather respect our relationship, can you do that?" I confronted her.
Her expression changed into an unreadable one before grinning like a total psychopath.
"You don't tell me what to do Belfour" she chuckled sarcasly before turning her back against us.
"This is just the beginning darling, I have a lot more suprises coming up for you" she said before walking away.
"Well it's worth a try confronting her" I sighed.
"Stop stressing yourself out, Sofia, accompany her back to your dorm and get ready for the party later, we'll just fetch you afterwards" he ordered her.
"Roger that" Sofia smiled and we both walked towards our building.
When we reached there, Sofia joined me as I entered our dorm where my friends are gathered, I look all over the room and they all stopped on their bussiness.
Dresses on both our beds, make up kits are scattered over our desks, curling irons are on the vanity and the heels are messily laying on the floor, I sighed and closed the door behind me.
"You should take a shower now, you smell like kitchen" Liz grinned, I rolled my eyes at her before grabbing my towel and headed over the bathroom for a refreshing bath.
When I was done, I wore my robe first and dried my hair using a towel before walking out the bathroom to see them preparing theirselves.
Guess what? Having 6 people changing in here- plus me, is kinda great, though our room is a little small for us to move freely.
Thea handed me a bloodish red v-neck dress with black laces at the back and black belt creating a ribbon at the back and it's length lasted below my knees.
I thanked her first before walking back to the bathroom to change, of course I also wore some safety shorts, after that I walked out the bathroom as Sam pulled me to sit in front of the vanity.
Sofia took my feet and slipped the bloody red heels with a black ribbon on its back over my heels and Sam tied my hair into a high ponytail using a red ribbon, my side bangs getting curled up on either side of my face then some light make up to complete my look.
"Why am I wearing all red? Happy birthday to me?" I joked and just then I realize something.
Sam is wearing blue, Liz is white, Annie is black, Loraine is green, Sofia is yellow, and Thea is pink.
They smiled at me and Thea took a step forward and handed me the Core Society necklace, I smiled and let her lock it over my neck.
"It's almost time" Sam looked at her wrist watch.
"Alright let's start heading out" Sofia said and we walked out the room.
"Is it really okay that you're not with your group?" Loraine asked the two leaders with us.
"Of course they are, they're already grown ups, simple intructions is enough for them to understand" Thea giggled.
"Thea, the group has assembled" Kianna then came on her violet outfit, she look so gorgeous than her usual look.
"Great, our youngest is the best, you look pretty by the way sweetie" Thea pinched her cheek and Kianna frowned.
We may not notice it during our time together each practice, these two are really close and Kianna would always run to Thea directly if problems would occur.
We took the elevator to take us down to the ground floor where the other ladies are waiting, after making sure that we are complete, we marched off towards the ball room.
Of course we're a little early because the venue is located on the east part of the academy, though I assume that most of my schoolamtes will be passing the party to have their rest and prepare for the resuming of classes next week.
I really wanted to skip too actually but since I'm already one of the known students, then I should probably attend it, especially that it was requested by the 1st Card.
We stood the entrance of the door as the loud music from inside was blocked by the 10ft double door in front of us, we chose to use the back door to avoid catching attention for our entrance.
"Well I spotted my Icer, see you ladies" Sam waved and skipped over to where Icer is.
He is currently talking to someone fron another school, which I kinda familiarize as his opponent on his chess game.
The rest of us walked over to some table and decided to sit there for the mean time before the party begins.
Where the hell is that Ace?! I rested my arm on the table and set my chin over my palm, this is why I hate parties if it's not my family I'm with.
"I'll get us some drinks" Sofia said and left the table with Thea and Kianna.
"Hey, chocolate fountain?" Liz nudged me and my eyes flew over the buffet table and at the end of it was a 2ft tall chocolate fountain.
"Lemme get one" I said and rushed over the table where Liz is trailing me behind.
"Aish these kids! Don't get too overwelmed on sweets" Sam appeared behind us.
"We know..." we both pouted and out less sweets on our plate after dipping it on the fountain.
"Hey Sam, you should meet my cousins" Icer called her and she immediately walked over towards him.
Me and Liz just smiled at them, before walking back to pur table, the other's also came back with the promised drinks on their hands and our group shared it happily.
Maybe I'll just interact with other people from other schools later when the party officially started.
"I've never had anything this wonderful to savour in a while" Sofia giggled.
"I know right!" Thea exclaimed.
"Just as we thought, you girls did sneak out without waiting for us" Sofia stood up and turn to the person behind her.
"Oops, guess we're in trouble" I grinned.
"Oh you are" I immediately shut my mouth when I heard the seriousness on his voice.
"What do you say Xiena?" Pierce sat on the free chair beside her.
"Uh- sorry? We got hungry so we left immediately after preparing" Annie lied, nice one girl.
"Guess it can't be helped" Ace sighed and I felt him kissed the top of my head, I look to him and smiled.
"You took so long to prepare- you look handsome by the way" I shift the topic and he grinned back at me.
"You just finished up early, I'm actually suprised by your color my little devil" he complimented and I was flusterred in red.
"Thank you" I smiled and look down on my plate to eat some chocolate coated strawberries.
A few moments later, the not-so-loud music stopped playing and the room darkened because the disco lights are turned off and only the spotlight is on- pointing towards the stage.
Once again, the 1st Card appeared on the mini stage to give his thank you message and wishing everyone to enjoy the buffet and party after our hard works.
Some of the students occupied the dance floor and our friends started to leave the table to interact with others or go out dancing and eating.
I was down enjoying my drink when Ace suddenly stood up catching my attention as he offered his hand to me.
"Can I have this dance?" He asked politely, I smiled and accepted his hand.
Carefully walking towards the center of the dancefloor as the music turn into a mellow music and our eyes locked together.
He took both of my hands and wrapped it over his neck before resting his own hands on my waist pulling me closer to him, I giggled at his gesture which he just returned with a pleasant smile.
We swayed side by side, silently looking at each other's eyes, those eyes, it looks like I'm being stuck at the time where I can't see anything else but the stars glowing inside it cause by pure love and happiness.
If I had knew his intentions all this time then things would probably turn out differently, but either way, I'm glad to have him here with me as my first dance.
"You know, you're lucky that there's a lot of people here tonight" he grinned.
"And why's that?" I scoffed, he shrugged.
"Who knows? You, wearing red is hotter than the flames of hell, good for you I have all self control because if not then probably I'll have to set our wedding" he smirked, what the he-?!
"Shut up!" I blushed and hid my face on his chest.
"I was just teasing you" he chuckled and took both of my hands and kissed the back of each of my palms.
"But jokes aside, that v-neck line of your dress is showing too much skin, don't you think?" He questioned, a little serious this time.
"Well I thought it's okay since my cl*vage isn't visible" I grinned slightly.
"I know that, but it's still a turn on" he smirked maliciosuly.
"Come on Ace, stop that, I thought you have full self control" I chuckled and he laughed.
"I do, but I don't know when it will last" he shrugged then someone pat my shoulder causing me to look back.
"Cayden... hi!" I greeted him, Ace let go of my hand and tucked it inside his pants.
"Can I dance with her for a moment?" He asked Ace, he stare gloomingly at him before taking a deep sigh.
"Can I talk to you for a moment?" Mikayla also butted in.
Now what on earth is happening right now? I nod my head to Ace while he gestured to Cayden that he's watching his every move before walking out with Mikayla.
So as said, Cayden took me dancing. His right hand held my left hand as i placed my right hand over his left shoulder and his left hand on my waist, swaying with the melody of the music.
"You have a possessive boyfriend there" he smirked.
"I couldn't tell more, Ace is just Ace I guess" I simply shrug, truthfully, it's cute to see how his emotion changes in front of me no matter how furstrated or tired he is and the way he would threath others upon having close contact with me.
"And you're quite supportive when it comes to him" he commented.
"Our relationship is totally balanced, we wouldn't lasted this long if we didn't talk things out and trust each other" I told him while he nod in understanding.
"So how are you? Still single?" I grinned at him.
"Precisely, well our school has a lot of pretty girls but none seems to catch my attention, probably my soulmate is in another galaxy" he frowned making me laugh.
"Why not go for that volleyball captain? Jeanna right?" I questioned.
"That sadistic one? Oh please, she's this close from killing me the last time I mistaken her water bottle as mine during our P.E. class" he complained while showing me the little distance between his thumb and index finger.
"Ooh, an indirect kiss? Haha you should pursuade her" I nudged him and he frowned.
"No way! She's gonna be the death of me" he hissed and i just smiled.
Looking back to our previous practice match and the way he comforted her, I don't think it's a normal love-hate friendship of theirs, he was totally down for her and here he is, denying everything I witnessed.
"Oh look there she is" I look behind him and saw Jeanna talking to Ashlyn and the other two captians of the volleyball teams from different schools.
"What the h*ll?" He blurted out, I knew it, in denial or such, look at how protective he is by just looking at her clothing? Sounds like Ace to me.
Jeanna was wearing a backless silver dress that hugs her body perfectly plus the slit on the back part of the dress, perfectly match her silver wedge and the silver beads that is use to hold her hair up.
"Excuse me" he smiled and bowed to me before making his way over their table.
I watch him removed his coat and covered her shoulder casually as he joined their conversation, Jeanna didn't even bother looking at him nor removing his coat, and he's still gonna deny this one?! How dare him.
Now he's gone, and the girls are getting busy interacting with the others, so probably I'll just enjoy myself tonight too.