A/N Remember my laptop problem? Well, I just had to buy a new one... RIP my bank account. Anyway, longer chapter for you guys for two reasons. 1) Classes start today and I need to get a feel for them before deciding when I can have free time. 2) I've been wanting to write this chapter for a while. So you better enjoy it lol
~*~*~
As the minutes passed, everyone found themselves busy with their tasks. Mitch and Kirstie were running around, giving people their orders, Todrick was grabbing ingredients when they got low and put food in the window, and Avi was kneeling in a chair, working the stove with the other chefs. The only ones not in a rush were Scott and Kevin.
"It's okay, take as much time as you need." Kevin said to a frustrated Scott.
He had just broken another egg too hard, getting pieces of the shell in the yolks.
"Ugh! Why is this so difficult?!" He groaned, harshly throwing away the leftover shell in the trash and grabbing a paper towel.
"It's always difficult when things don't go the way you want them to." Kevin took the bowl from Scott and, with a mini pair of tongs the kitchen gave him, started taking out the shells that fell in. "That's why you have to keep practicing."
"I just don't know what I'm doing wrong..."
"Well, if I could suggest, I'd say you're doing this backwards," Kevin explained. "Instead of picking a random force and trying to dial back, which is what you've been doing, you should try what you did when you cracked the first egg. Start out as light as you can, and slowly add more strength."
"I don't... like doing that."
"Why not?" He asked, passing the bowl now void of shells to the chefs.
"Because then I know I'm trying not to break something, and it makes my arms and muscles feel weird. Like, one wrong move and I'll shatter whatever I'm holding."
Kevin hummed in thought as he put another bowl in front of Scott.
"Well, as much as you may not like it, I'd still suggest giving it a try. At least with six eggs." He opened another carton and took the eggs out. "Something tells me that feeling comes from a lack of confidence, but if you get used to it, then it won't be so bad."
Scott sighed as he picked up another egg and gave it a try.
"Remember, as light as you can."
He nodded and hesitantly gave the egg a light tap against the table. Taking a deep breath, he continued, very slowly adding more and more force. A solid minute passed and Scott flinched, hearing a crack in the shell. He moved it away from the table and gasped at what he saw.
The egg had a hairline fracture in the shell. Scott showed it to Kevin who applauded him.
"That's great! Do it again, exactly like that." He encouraged with a smile.
Scott nodded and brought the egg back to the edge of the table, before stopping again.
"...I forgot." Scott blurted, and Kevin let out a huff of amusement.
"It's alright. Just start from square one."
Scott took a deep breath and tried again, barely using any force. Another minute passed when he flinched again at the sound of the shell cracking. Now concentrating, he continued until the egg whites started dripping out.
"W-What do I do?!" He asked Kevin in a panicked voice.
"Open it in the bowl!"
Scott quickly brought the egg to the bowl and opened the shell. The egg yolk and whites fell into the bowl, taking a couple shell pieces with them. Kevin looked at the egg in the bowl and smiled at Scott.
"Great job, Scott! You did it! There's still a couple shell pieces, but that's besides the point. Everyone gets shells in from time to time. I'm so proud of you!"
As Kevin praised him, Scott just stared at the bowl.
"... I did it." He whispered to himself. A smile slowly crept across his face. "I did it!"
"You did it!"
"I actually did it! Kevin thank you so much!" Scott exclaimed, grabbing Kevin in a hug and spinning around. "Oh, sorry! Did I squeeze too tight? Did I hurt you?" He asked, quickly letting go of him.
"No, you're fine." Kevin laughed and patted him on the back. "Let's see if you can do it again. If you can crack a dozen eggs without messing up, then we'll tackle the next challenge."
"Next challenge?"
"Yeah, you didn't think you'd just be doing it against the table did you?"
"Uhh..."
"Look, just focus on this dozen and I'll explain more later."
Scott nodded and grabbed another egg. By the time he finished the dozen, Scott had gotten pretty good at cracking the eggs. He even managed to do one without getting any shells in the bowl. He was really excited about that.
As time went on, Kevin could see him getting more confident with himself, and decided it was time for the next step.
This time, when Kevin opened another carton of eggs, he only took out half of them. Scott looked at him confused but didn't say anything, continuing his task until he was out of eggs. He waited and looked at Kevin expectantly.
"What?" Kevin asked.
"Um... aren't you gonna take out the rest of the eggs?"
"Nope. Now it's your turn. You've gotten pretty good at cracking the eggs against the table, so now you have to take them out of the carton yourself." He explained, and Scott stared at him. "Just relax, and remember, you can mess up as much as you need."
Scott slowly nodded, but he could feel uneasiness creeping up his spine. As he looked at the eggs in the carton, the weird feeling in his muscles came back. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm himself.
Feeling ready, he reached forward and only hesitated for a moment before grabbing the first egg. He trapped it between his thumb and middle finger and slowly lifted it. Letting out a breath of relief, he went to bring it to the middle of the table, when it slipped out of his hand.
The egg fell to the table with an audible 'crack', and you could see the egg whites spilling out from the side. The two of them sat in silence for a few seconds before Scott heard a snicker. Then Kevin was leaning against the table, trying and failing to hide his laughter.
"I'm sorry, I don't mean to laugh. It's just... the sound it made, and it was so quiet after." He said between his laughing fit.
Scott blushed as a chuckle escaped his own mouth. Kevin finally calmed down and grabbed some paper towels.
"Alright, here. You can throw it away."
"Really? But-"
"It's fine, Scott. They're not going to miss a single egg. Just throw it out and try again. Maybe hold it a bit tighter this time."
Scott chuckled again and cleaned up the mess. Turning his attention back to the eggs, he grabbed one again and carefully lifted it out of the carton. This time, he turned his hand and let the egg rest in his palm. He looked at it for a second and nodded.
"Yeah, this'll work." He said, then he brought it to the edge of the table and cracked it open.
Scott slowly got a rhythm going and after a few minutes, he emptied two whole cartons.
"You ready for the final step?" Kevin asked after giving the bowl to the chefs.
"Ready as I'll ever be. What is it?"
"Since you can open the eggs with ease, and are taking them out of the carton yourself, all you have to do now is use the bowl to crack them."
"Use the... bowl?"
"You can do it." Kevin encouraged. "You've already done the other things you were worried about. Just remember, relax and-"
"Yeah, yeah, I know. I can mess up as much as I need to." Scott repeated, cutting him off.
"So you should have nothing to worry about."
Scott sighed and got ready to face his final challenge. As he got the egg ready, he realized Kevin was right. Besides the occasional shell pieces that fell in with the eggs, all of his previous fears were dealt with. If he could handle them, he could handle this one too.
Kevin was watching him and noticed that Scott seemed a bit more confident. He was preparing the egg and taking deep breaths to keep himself calm. Before he actually tried to crack the egg, he tested the stability of the bowl by pushing its side. When it tilted, he held it still with his other hand. Kevin smiled when he saw Scott didn't look that worried.
He took one more deep breath and cracked the shell against the bowl. When he finished, he stared at the egg inside the bowl for a few seconds before looking at Kevin, a huge smile on his face.
"I did it. I actually did it! On the first try too! And without getting any shells!"
"I saw! I'm so proud of you, Scott! I told you you could do it!" Kevin grinned, patting Scott's back. "Now see if you can do the rest of the carton without any more shells falling in." He challenged, and Scott laughed.
"I doubt it, but I'll try."
With that, Scott grabbed another egg, the smile never leaving his face.
Over time, Kevin noticed how comfortable Scott had gotten. You would've never guessed he was the same person who was afraid to even hold an egg at the beginning. Now he was cracking them open like he actually worked in the kitchen. There were still the occasional shells that fell in with the eggs, but that was expected. No one could get it right every single time, especially when they were just starting out.
To make things more fun, Kevin grabbed his own bowl and helped out with the eggs, giving the chefs more egg whites. He even initiated a mini competition. The first one to clear a carton of 18 eggs wins. Scott took him up on his challenge and they went for it. To make things fair, Kevin was doing the egg whites and Scott would continue with the whole egg. Neither of them felt like rushing, but would always pick up the pace a little when they saw the other was ahead by an egg or two. Kevin was on his last egg when the unthinkable happened.
A piece of the shell fell in the egg whites.
Scott, of course, saw this and immediately called him out.
"Ohh! Kevin! You got a shell in your eggs!" He teased, pointing a finger.
Kevin playfully rolled his eyes and lightly slapped the hand away.
"Hush you. Besides, I never said we couldn't get a shell in our batch of eggs."
"Mhm, you're just saying that cause you didn't expect it to happen to you, Mr. I'm-Perfect-At-Everything-I-Do."
"Ha, ha, very funny."
Scott grinned to himself as Kevin took both bowls and removed the shells. He may have lost the challenge, but he had the victory of seeing Kevin mess up. Grabbing another bowl for himself, Scott took the first egg out of the new carton and opened it. What came out actually surprised him a bit.
It was a double yolk.
Curious, Scott took out his cracked phone and looked it up while Kevin took the eggs to the chefs. Finding the definition, he read the first line.
'If you're a superstitious person, getting an egg with a double yolk can signify that you or your female counterpart is going to be pregnant with twins.'
Scott chuckled at the thought of Lauren giving birth to twins. Everyone knew she was only having one baby, but the idea of two seemed funny to him. Double the mess, double the diapers, double the fun, double the trouble. He could definitely imagine how much chaos two babies would cause in the family. He shook his head as he continued reading.
'Or, if you subscribe to Norse mythology, it means someone in your family is going to die.'
Scott was silent for a moment, not processing what he just read. Then it all came crashing down on him.
'Die? Someone's gonna die?! Wait, no. It's just an egg. But what if it's actually true? What if this is the universe's way of warning me that my family's gonna die?! What if it's Lauren and she dies while giving birth to the baby? Or Robert, and Lauren has to go through the childbirth alone? What if something happens to Lindsey at her job?! What if it's Mom or Dad?! Ugh, I knew I shouldn't have left them so soon!'
Scott was freaking out so much, he didn't even read the last sentence of the definition.
'But mostly it just means you're going to have a yolkier omelet.'
"Hey, Scott. You ready for another challenge?" Kevin asked, rejoining him at the table. "Scott?"
Scott didn't hear him and ran out the back door, cradling the phone to his ear as he called his sister.
"Come on... pick up, pick up, pick up!" He muttered, now outside in an alleyway.
As the phone rang, he could feel his anxiety skyrocket at the thought of why it wasn't being answered. It only lasted for a moment when he heard a click, signaling someone was picking it up on the other end.
"Hello?"
"LINDSEY!!! Are you okay?!" He asked immediately, not wasting any time.
"I- Scott? Uh, yeah, I'm fine. Why? What's wrong? And why do you sound so panicky?"
"What about Lauren? How is she? How's the baby?! She hasn't lost it has she?"
"What? No, she-"
"What about Robert? And Mom and Dad? Are they okay too?"
"SCOTT!!!" She yelled, grabbing his attention. "Slow down! I can't answer your questions when you keep piling them on top of each other!" Scott bit his lip and stayed silent as Lindsey sighed through the phone. "You're lucky I'm on my break and was able to answer. Now, why don't you tell me what's going on?"
Scott sat down on the step and explained everything that happened so far.
"Wait, wait. They put you on egg duty?" Lindsey asked with a snicker.
"That was my reaction too, besides the laugh. Apparently, it was supposed to help me dial back my strength."
"And has it?"
"Um, in all honesty... yeah, so far it has."
"Well, that's great! So why were you calling, sounding like someone planted a bomb in our house?" Scott explained the double yolk to her and she started laughing. "Scott, it's just an egg. You have nothing to worry about!"
"Yeah, I know but-"
"No buts! Look, do you subscribe to Norse mythology?"
"...No? I don't even know what that is."
"Then you shouldn't let it freak you out, Dummy. Listen, it's only been a couple days since you left. Everyone is fine. Robert and I are at work, and I heard our parents are having lunch with Lauren today. I promise, we're all doing just fine." Scott sighed and nodded, even though she couldn't see it. "Hey, I gotta go. My break's almost up."
"Okay, I'll talk to you later..."
"Don't stress! Remember, if you need anything, we still have the group chat. We can all talk at any time. If one of us isn't responding, then either our phone is charging, or we're sleep. Or at work, I should probably say that too."
"Thanks, Lindsey. You always knew how to calm me down."
"Of course, that's what big sisters are for, Baby Buckets." Scott chuckled at the nickname, now feeling a lot better. "Talk later, don't forget about the group chat!"
"I won't. Bye, Linds. And... thanks again."
"No problem. Bye, Scooter. Love you!"
"Love you, too."
And with that, Lindsey hung up the phone. Scott sighed and took a moment to recollect himself before going back inside. He immediately went to wash his hands in the sink and saw Kevin coming up to him.
"Hey, are you alright?" He asked, concerned. "You ran out looking really upset. I wanted to follow, but I figured you needed some space."
"Yeah, sorry about that. I called my sister and got everything sorted out. I didn't mean to scare you or anything."
"I was more concerned than scared, but I'm glad you're okay. You can take a break if you'd like." He offered, but Scott shook his head as he dried his hands.
"No, I'm good... I-I can do this."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, thanks for worrying."
"Okay..." Kevin sounded a bit wary, but didn't push and rewashed his own hands.
Scott turned back to the eggs and closed his eyes.
'They're okay.' He thought. 'It's okay, I can do this.' Scott took a deep breath as he opened his eyes. 'It's okay... I can do this.'
~*~*~
A/N Welp, what did y'all think? Let me know in the comments! You can say you hated it, I promise I won't cry :) That's all for now! Love you guys, and don't forget to boop that little vote button with your nose! BAIII!!!!~