Vanilla

Forty Four

A/N: Hellu Beans! I'm feeling better ^^ and I realized that even if I was in tip-top condition last weekend to write my life away, I wouldn't have been able to do the 7.5k words you're about to read anyway. Hehe. I realized that I'm much better suited to be writing plot chapters from Monday to Thursday rather than giving myself the Friday to Sunday time slot with less time.

So I'll be changing plot updates to Thursday 22:00 GMT+8! I'll always be updating my schedule on Instagram anyway. Short stories are now going up on Sundays ^^ the next one is about the Honeycutt-Jaxon family spending a day at the beach and it will be up on Inkitt.

Enjoy the dramatic chapter that is likely to make your tummy rumble with a rumbly (' v ')/ hehe. I love writing these chapters on an empty stomach because I just go all out with the description and detail every single thing I can think of.

-Cuppie

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[Vanilla]

As a wholehearted, introspective observer who prefers watching from the sidelines to direct intervention in the unfolding of events beyond the invisible glass separating myself from the world, I had, in the span of four months, surprised myself and everyone else familiar with my personality.

I now apparently have friends. I also have an intimate companion. I am also apparently very capable of removing the invisible glass and stepping into the other side of the world. And at the very same time developing a temporary, spontaneous ability to voice my opinions publicly in front of a very big crowd as long as I wasn't looking at them. For some reason, I am also able to incite a brief 'suspension of disbelief' in which I would so logically conclude that as long as the crowd remained beyond my field of vision, I would, as well, remain beyond theirs. No one witnessed the tremble in my fingers or the redness of my ears; any external manifestation of my nervous disposition was not observed.

"Your feet were shifting." Leroy Cox was a liar and he couldn't possibly have observed such a detail as minor as shifting feet but here he was, walking alongside myself as we made our way to the practice kitchens.

"Ah, now you're making things up." I said, opting for a tactical subject change. "I'm just surprised I got away with speaking like that to you and by extension the rest of the... well, those of higher ranks since technically you'd all agreed to be sorted according to your draws. I... you're not offended, are you...?"

He snorted, going for my forehead. "You realize that saved our asses."

"It's a feasible plan of eighty-five percent working probability. Everything else would depend on the strategies of the other schools and how the guests respond to having a hundred and fifty food options," I told him, speeding up a little to catch up with Chen who was leading the way. The other schools were filing out of their assigned lecture theatres and heading to the practice kitchens as well. "We could discuss this further when we're at your station."

Participants were given five minutes to move from left wing to Roth Hall where the allocated kitchens and stations were before spending a maximum of sixty minutes refining their recipes. Fortunately for Leroy, the top thirteen students of each school were given individual practice kitchens for focus and privacy.