"I'm not really sure how to feel about it, something in the way you move makes me feel like I can't live without you. It takes me all the way, I want you to stay."
-Stay; Rihanna ft Mikky Ekko
Mikala POV
After getting off the bus, we were guided to this huge hotel and told to head to the auditorium. The building was huge and by the looks of it extremely expensive, and that coming from me. The son of two multi-millionaire chefs.
Since I did not wish to be lost, I stuck close to Akira, who didn't seem to mind. Walking into the hall, I immediately was met by silence, feeling the heavy weight of the tension made a shiver run down my spine. Shaking off the feeling of dread I looked around and saw my dorm mates all gathered together talking to the blonde haired girl from the shokugeki, Ikumi, I believe her name was.
Before I could walk over to them, the lights dimmed causing all eyes to focus on the stage. Walking onto the stage in his stainless white chef outfit, was Chapelle-sensei, his usual frown arched on his wrinkled face. "Good morning students! I will now give a summary of the camp." Hearing his words, I decided it would be best to actually pay attention, I'm sure that if I missed something important it would cost me my time at Tosuki. "You Are scheduled to stay here for five nights and six days. In that time you will be split into several groups and take on daily cooking tasks. Student's whose instructors evaluations fall short below a certain baseline will be failed, sent back to the academy, and expelled."
Hearing his words, several students let out small but still audible gulps. "As for how your tests will be judged, we have invited guest lecturers." As he said this a bunch of people in chef uniforms walked onto the stage, once again many students let out gasps. "They're Totsuki alumni who have agreed to take time out of their busy schedules to join us." By now most of the hall was full of gasps, however this time in fear and admiration.
"They're the 1% the headmaster spoke about."
"All are from successful and huge restaurants."
"I've seen most of them in magazines."
The hall was full of chatter as the chefs on stage scanned the crowd, all of a sudden a voice broke through the chatter, "You over there, nine rows back with the scar on your eyebrow." Walking to the front he pointed to the area, looking over to wear the spectacled man was pointing, I saw Soma with a confused look pointing himself, "Wait no, sorry the one next to you. Yes you, you're expelled." Gasps filled the hall along with chatter once more.
I swear these people don't know how to do anything but gasp and whisper, looking back over at the commotion, I saw the red-haired man now standing in front of the very upset student, "You shampoo is a circus scent, it will disturb the aroma of the food."
Hearing his reasoning, the brown-haired boy got even more upset, "You're seriously going to expel me just for that?"
"Just that is enough to lose customers, now tell me, are you trying to destroy my restaurant?" The man glared over his shoulder, making the brunette discouraged as he sunk down to his knees.
Walking back to the stage, the red-haired man pushed up his glasses before scanning the crowd once more. Chapelle-sensei was about to speak once more when another commotion broke out, this time it was between the blonde chef with an impressive butt chin and Megumi.
Sighing, I looked over at Akira for his reaction only to find him sniffing cinnamon while looking at the stage. Well, that explains his cinnamon scent. The feeling of a hand grabbing mines caused me to look over at the culprit in alarm.
Turning around, I saw the familiar sparkling face of Hinako. "Mikala! You finally joined the academy!" Her voice was loud, causing all of the eyes to snap onto the two of us.
Feeling nervous because of the stars, I removed the older woman's hands from my own, "Hinako-san, please lower your voice and go away." I tried, hoping she'd take the hint and go away. Apparently, she didn't and began to yell out at someone on stage.
"Fuyumi-chan, Shinomiya-senpai, it's Mikala!" Whispers filled the air as she continued to yell. Feeling my heartbeat increase, I began to struggle to get out of her hold.
"Laisse-to ma Vieille!" I missed out, speaking in French since I knew she wouldn't understand, therefore she wouldn't harm me for the name calling.
Hearing a loud snort, I tried to turn to the source only to be suffocated by Hinako wrapping her arms around me. "Hinako! Donato! Please, release the students and return to the stage!" Chapelle-sensei spoke into the microphone, I don't know about Donato, but I felt Hinako stiffen before returning to the stage.
SIghing in relief once free, I looked towards the stage trying to ignore the eyes that were on me. A few seconds after the duo went onto the stage, a tall, buff man walked onto the stage. He began to give a speech but I couldn't focus on it, instead, I was lost in my thoughts, once again.
I knew Hinako before coming to the academy because of my pere, it was about five years ago when I last saw her. According to pere, he knew her back when he worked in Japan. That was the year that pere had gone away for five months. I didn't know what he did for those five months until Hinako arrived a week after my eleventh birthday. She had told me that pere had been one of her teachers back in Japan and how she came to tell Pere about the restaurant she opened. Back then I was really attached to her during the month that she stayed, she taught me a lot about Japan, even some of the language.
Now seeing her off the stage with the other alumni's awakened a realization in me. If pere taught her during her high school year, then doesn't that mean her taught here? I had thought he only attend this school but now I realized that attending wasn't all he did. What else have pere done here?
"Now, please head towards your groups and meet up with your first instructor to be taken to your first challenge location. I wish you all the best of luck." The intimidating man said, the students following his directions, not even a second after he told us.
Pulling out my schedule, I checked the location where my group would be. I was in group J, sadly no one from my dorm was in the same group as me. I didn't even get a room with any of them, sighing for what feels like the trillionth time, I walked to where the page said to meet up at.
Adjusting my bag, I began to walk towards the west side stairs, where group J would gather. When I arrived at the stairs, I felt relieved upon seeing that both Akira and Ryo was in this group. Walking up to Ryo, I was about to greet him when the white-haired girl popped up in front of me, a huge smile on her face as she grabbed my hands.
"Ah, Mikala, I've been wanting to talk to you since the entrance exam but we had no classes together. Plus you're a hard person to talk to," She pouted at the end, her cheeks puffing out and her eyebrows furrowing. Not even a second later a smile appeared on her face, washing away the pout as if it were never there.
Pulling me along with her as we were lead to our first challenge, she continued to talk, "I hear that you got Erina to say your food was delicious. I bet you were jumping in joy when the God tongue complimented your food. Anyway, My name is Alice Nakiri, yes Nakiri. I am Erina's cousin and the chairman's granddaughter. I'm sure you've met Ryo, he told me the two of you worked together once. But that's not what I wanted to talk about, I wanted to talk about-"
"Alright, everyone grabs a paper." The white-haired girl was cut off by the loud voice of Chef Shinomiya, I hadn't even noticed we entered the exam site. Walking to the front, we all grabbed one of the papers that laid on the desk as Shinomiya began to introduce himself and the dish we were to make.
Toning out his voice, I read over the recipe we were given. The recipe was fairly simple, we had to make a nine vegetable terrine. After scanning the recipe, I looked up at the head Chef just as he was ending his speech, "-That being said, this is a solo assignment. We will not be working in pairs. If you even exchange tips with others you'll be expelled, understood. Now, in the back are the nine main ingredients, you are free to choose any one them. Also, a small tip, it would be wise to consider everyone in this room as an enemy for this challenge." A dark smirk appeared on his face causing most of the students in the room to let out a small gasp or step back. "You all have three hours..starting...now."
I was just like that. Once second everyone was still and calm and the next they were running over each other and panicking. It was utter chaos, it took me a minute to process but once I did I dashed towards the back to pick out the ingredients.
While scanning the tables I noticed there were some rotten and unusable products, this discovery made me scowl. This test was made to eliminate more than half the class because of the ingredients alone. On top of that, he will fail anyone whose dish does not meet his expectations.
Feeling more nervous than before, I grabbed the freshest vegetables I could find. Most of the class had already finished and were beginning to cook. Thankfully, the panic messed up most of their decisions because there was plenty of fresh ingredients for me.
After grabbing what I needed, I headed to my station that was behind Akira's yet beside Ryo's. Alice's station was to the left of Ryo's while mines were to the right. Ignoring everything else, I placed my headband securely over my bangs before beginning my dish.
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"Bon appetit," I muttered while placing my dish in front of a seemly surprised Shinomiya. I had finished my dish fairly early, about an hour and some minutes after we began. As I said, it was an easy dish, it was popular in mere's restaurant so I would often help the staff make tierre. It was a different type than this one, yet the concept was the same.
Humming, the speckled chef looked down at the dish while unwrapping his knife and fork. While he cut a piece he looks up at me, "You. You're the child Hinako-Senpai was cringy to during the opening ceremony. Mikala was it."
Nodding, I looked directly at him, maintaining eye contact trying my hardest not to feel intimidated. "Yes, Mikala Park."
The redhead hummed once more, closing his eyes as he took a bite from the dish. He chewed for a while, the whole room seemed to grow quiet, save for my thumping heart. All of a sudden, his eyes snapped open, a small, barely audible sound of pressure coming from the back of his throat as he scanned the dish once more. I flinched in surprise when his eyes snapped to me, "Boy, did you change the dish?"
My heartbeat increased as a shook my head no, there was no way I'd risk changing the dish when he didn't tell us to, but then again he didn't say we couldn't. Either way, not changing it was playing it safe. Furrowing his eyebrows, the chef took another bite, confusion growing further on his face.
"You're right, it doesn't taste as if anything changed, so why.." Trailing off, continued to stare at the dish in awe. As if realizing something, he snapped out of it and cleared his throat, "Anyway, good job. You pass with flying marks. I half expected you to fail since you were among the last to grab ingredients, but I guess this was to be expected of their children." The last bit was whispered but I managed to catch it. Smiling soft, I decided not to comment on it and instead I walked back to my station and begun to clean up.
After my station was spotless, I walked over to the side of the room and sat on the floor, making sure I was out of the way. Glancing up at the clock, I saw we still had about an hour and a half left. So instead of just sitting there, I pulled out my earphones and phone and begun to play music. While listening to the soft yet powerful voice of Jimin, I allowed myself to drift asleep deciding to take a small nap before my next class.
***
Spicy Breakfast Burrito
Laisse-to ma Vieille! - Letgo you old hag! (French)
Also, thank you for over 500 reads, it's literally only been a month. I'm so happy this story is growing so fast. Keep it up!