A/N
After 3 long years... I'm back bitches ;)
Let's just get on with this chapter and see if I still have it in me!
Isabelle and her brother had spent his short visit catching up on life since they'd last seen each other. It wasn't the same over text and phone calls, and Isabelle rarely had time to visit home where Marcus and the rest of her family resided.
2 weeks had passed and Isabelle continued to do what she always did: work, stream, sleep, repeat. It's not like she hated what she did, she loved it in-fact, but her dream was to quit her daytime boring waitressing job and focus on streaming full time. Maybe even properly start her own YouTube and post regular content that wasn't just stream clips.
Isabelle and Harry had been texting occasionally but nothing ever came of it. From the frosty start in the club, to the drinks at the pub, Isabelle had no idea what she was in for when going back to Harry & Cal's flat...
In the week before, Cal(Freezy) planned for Stephen(Tries) and Isabelle to do a cook-off of their own for his channel as the next video in the popular series. Isabelle had met Stephen on the night of Talia's album release party. She didn't know him all that well but did some research prior to filming so she knew what she was up against. There was no faith in his cooking ability but a lot of faith in his comedic ability, she knew she'd have to step up her game when it came to being on camera to match his energy. It's not like Isabelle was camera shy, she'd been streaming for almost a year now and occasionally popped into the girl's vlogs and the 'One Word Interview' she did with them on Simon's channel.
Isabelle was stood beside Stephen to the right of Cal, out of camera shot until Cal announced them as YouTube's very own Jamie Oliver and Nigella Lawson. To which received the replies of "fuck you" and "cheeky cunt" from both Stephen and Isabelle. Cal went on to explain the concept of his Cook Off videos that seemed to be a big hit on his channel. She didn't understand how she had been roped in by Cal. Maybe it was a drunken promise?
Once the brief introduction was over, the video started to get chaotic and would only continue to do so. And with that, Stephen, Cal, Sam and Isabelle headed to Waitrose with Sam filming Isabelle and Cal filming Stephen inside the shop. Isabelle had been running around frantically as if it was a race trying to find the ingredients she needed for her meal.
Even though they were given the limit of £20, Isabelle decided to buy individual spices instead of premixed, which pushed her £3 over budget, so that she didn't look like she was taking the easy road into her recipe unlike Cal would in his own cook-offs. Stephen had managed to stay well under budget which earned him some extra 'leeway' for the final decision at the end of the night.
Filming with Stephen had to be the funniest thing Isabelle had experienced in a long time. Comedy just came naturally to him, with minimal effort.
Once the four of them returned to the flat, one by one Isabelle revealed to Cal and Stephen what she had bought to cook with, revealing her meal. Despite her Italian heritage, she had decided to go with a Mexican dish to surprise her component and the judges.
"To be honest, I'd assumed you'd go with some basic pasta dish like Talia. So this is a nice surprise." Cal admitted with a smug look painted across his face.
"No, no. I'm a much more creative chef than Talia is." Isabelle said with confidence until she looked directly into the camera lense, "Talia's stans... please don't come for me, I'm family. For legal reasons, it was a joke."
Stephen had opted for Penne Alla Vodka with a twist of Red Bull. The involvement of Red Bull boosted Isabelle's confidence majorly as she knew the Red Bull would be a ridiculous addition to the meal.
Before cooking, Stephen started to fiddle with the cupboards and drawers. "Is everything alright?" Cal asked with a confused look planted onto his long face.
"Yeah, just struggling with this kitchen mate. I'm used to eating and cooking in my own area." Stephen then went on to ramble on about his experience in his GCSE Food-Tech class. "I had to share with an albino, so, bad memories." He cracked up as he continued. "He's gone a bit UKIP-y now, didn't really have a choice, did he? Bless him."
Isabelle thought to herself 'what the fuck is this guy on about'. She was quick to make her own joke, "I had to cook with a ginger, so not much has really changed for me in terms of cooking partners, has it?" She wasn't lying, except for the fact she didn't do GSCE Food-Tech, she did just regular Food-Tech in the years leading up to her GCSE's. The joke managed to earn her a laugh from Harry which was rare - who was leaning against the wall out of shot, just watching with a red solo cup filled with beer in his hand - and a jokingly disappointed look from Stephen, who tried hard not to laugh.
Isabelle thought, that for some reason that she couldn't quite pin point, the Dr Pepper jumper just looked really good on Harry, especially combined with his usual messy hair, that he somehow pulls of seamlessly. He looked like a hot mess in all the right ways. If it wasn't for the cameras and their friends stood around them, she would have pounced on him and planted a kiss right on his soft lips, but she couldn't allow herself to do that.
Once Callux had joined them, Harry finished his drink and threw his cup to Stephen who then poured a 50/50 Vodka Red Bull mixture into his cup. "Hang on a second, this isn't fair. He's already ahead of me because he was under budget, and now he's supplying drinks?" Isabelle complained at the disadvantage she'd been forced into. "Ref?" She asked, looking around to see if anybody would take her side, yet nobody did and she just huffed with a laugh. Isabelle then went on to frantically look around the kitchen until she saw a bottle of Pino Grigio. "Lux, any interest in some Pino?" She offered, hoping he'd take her offer feeling some sympathy. Freezy looked astonished that she'd just nabbed his bottle of wine and she shot him a 'I'll buy you another' look.
"Go on then, to make things fair." Lux answered as she was already pouring it into a cup on the kitchen countertop.
"On your marks, get set, cook! 25 minutes on the clock." The timer had started and Isabelle and Stephen had already began to fight over pots, pans and utensils due to the lack there of.
Isabelle grabbed a pan and rushed to get the larger chopping board and a sharp enough knife to cut the onions she'd bought. Her eyes were extremely sensitive to onions, they always had been and she never exactly knew why, all she knew was that they were her kryptonite.
Once she started chopping, she could already feel her eyes burning from the stench coming from the vegetable. Within 15 seconds of chopping, Isabelle had mascara stained tears running down her cheek. Unable to do anything about it other than dab it on her sleeve as Cal made Sam get a close up for the thumbnail. Isabelle couldn't help but laugh along with everyone else at the state the onion fumes had put her in.
Due to her eyes being filled with water, her vision was slightly blurry and she managed to slice into her finger. It wasn't major, just a little bit deeper than a papercut. The onion juices on the knife made the stinging feel much worse than it needed to be.
"For fuck sake." Isabelle mumbled out in frustration. "First I'm partially blind, now I'm bleeding." Harry left to get her a plaster as she ran her finger under the tap, trying to wash out the onion juices. Unfortunately there were none so he brought toilet paper and some cello tape and be applied it around her finger to which she thanked him for. After that fiasco, she continued trying to battle with the onions.
"My blood, sweat and tears are going into this dish, literally. So if I lose to this..." Isabelle pointed at Stephen next to her "...I'll never cook again!"
"The albino would be laughing at your shit show shenanigans." Stephen chimed in.
Due to the inconvenience, she'd lost 2 minutes and Stephen was already miles ahead of her with his meal. She took the finely chopped onions and placed them into a pre-heated pan with a drop of oil and left them to brown whilst she cut up the chicken to put in next.
"I have a feeling we're not gonna get any good meals in today." Harry laughed to Lux.
Throughout cooking, Isabelle and Harry's eyes had met multiple times, holding eye contact after not seeing each other in weeks, which she had hoped wasn't able to be recognised by the fans when the video was later uploaded.
Eventually it got to the last 30 seconds of the time they were allocated to cook. "30 seconds on the clock, best start playing up chefs." Cal shouted.
Isabelle played up her fajitas, and Stephen slopped his pasta onto a plate, placing a basil leaf on top... as if it was going to save his dish.
A/N
I feel like this chapter is so long so doing the results in the next chapter :)