Disclaimer: I do not own Macross Frontier or any of its characters
Author's notes: This my official entry for FFCW with the theme "Lunchtime at School!"
The school bell of Mihoshi Academy rang thrice, indicating the time for lunch. One by one the halls began to fill with hungry students going to the direction of the cafeteria. Only a few were left in their classrooms, friends gathered and pulled their chairs and tables together to eat their homemade bentos. But one group of students preferred another way of spending their lunches.
"The roof?" asked a young boy with brownish hair. "Ne Alto-sempai, why do we always change places to eat during lunch? First the classroom, then cafeteria, then the school yards, then yesterday on the stairs, and now on the rooftop?"
But the blue haired hime didn't respond, instead he just munched on his bread pan that he bought from a convenience store this morning.
"It's because our hime-chan is being pursued by the dominatrix queen, Luca." Teased a handsome young guy, pushing his glasses up his nose as he shot him a grin.
"Michaelllll!!!!" a nerve was hit in anger. The blue haired hime twirled furiously around, his fist ready to punch.
"Now now, Alto-hime. Don't get mad or you'll get wrinkles on your pretty face." Michael teased again, backing off a safe distance.
"Why you---!!!"
"Ne Alto-kun, let's eat our lunches already. I think Nana-chan made a delicious bento today!" a cheerful green haired girl cut Alto off before he could jump at Michael again.
Alto's expression turned from anger to blank then calm. A sigh escaped his mouth upon seeing the cheerful face of Ranka – the super dimensional Cinderella. Alto always appreciates Ranka's show of affection and care towards him.
Alto sat back down on the floor and poked his box juice with a straw. Eating lunch with his friends was indeed more fun than eating alone. Ranka was enjoying one of Nyan Nyan's specialty dishes, two soft steamy delicious tuna buns. Nanase and Luca were eating their homemade box lunches, while Alto and Michael were stuffing themselves with bread pans from the local convenience store. But there was one person missing within the group…
"Ne Alto-kun, where's Sheryl-san?" wondered Ranka as she looked around to find her strawberry blonde haired idol.
"Don't ask…" Alto grumbled under his breath, biting angrily at his bread.
"Ara! Did you two have a fight again?"
Alto groaned and looked away. "Ever since Sheryl started to live at my apartment, she's been cooking food for me everyday."
"What's wrong with that, Alto-sempai?" Luca wondered.
"Wrong? Everything was wrong! I don't even think her food is edible!" The hime cupped his chin with a grumped face.
"You're overreacting Alto-kun. Sheryl-san is just showing that she cares so much for you." said Nanase with a big wide smile on her face.
"By making me suffer in diarrhea? Yeah right, I don't think so." Alto stuffed the last piece of his bread in his mouth and started to get ready back to class. "I'm going on ahead before…"
SLAM!!!
"Too late Alto… Fairy at six o'clock." warned the sniper expert in the skull squadron.
The door to the roof swung open and a woman with long wavy strawberry blonde hair stepped out. A slender grin was plastered on her face as the High School Queen finally spotted her slave.
"Sheryl-san!" everyone turned towards the familiar figure of the famous idol.
"oh crap…"
"There you are lowly Alto…" her hands in akimbo as she walked towards her prey, her eyes locked on her target. "I've been looking all over for you. You forgot your bento at home, so I came to give to you." Sheryl pulled out a neatly packed lunchbox from her bag and handed it to the grief-stricken Alto.
"Uhh, that's okay. I already ate." Alto subconsciously scratched his head to avoid Sheryl's penetrating glare.
"Mou~ and what did you eat? Some cheap bread products at some 24 hour convenience store? That won't do, you won't get any nutrients from those. Eat the lunch I made instead – its curry. I made it extra special for you."
Alto winced after hearing the word extra special from Sheryl. He already feared eating Sheryl's cooking everyday, and now he's too scared to know what's the special surprise it. "That's what I'm afraid of…" he mumbled under his breath
"Tada! I call this Galaxy Curry!" Sheryl opened the container and it revealed a scary looking creation. The curry's sauce has a very thick sluggish and dark brown powdery texture. The aroma of her curry was burned with the hint of hot and spicy that stings the nose. Huge chunks of meat and vegetables floats in the stew and in one glance Alto thought that something awful and alive was creeping and swimming in the curry's stew.
"C'mon Alto, open wiiiiide~" Sheryl forcibly shoved a spoonful of curry and rice in Alto's mouth.
The hime's once beautiful face first turned red hot, to disgusted purple, to pale blue, as soon as he swallowed the food from his mouth. He instantly grabbed Mikhail's bottled water and chugged it down fast to relieve the galactic explosion that he tasted.
"What the fuck was that?!" yelled the exasperated Alto. "Are you trying to kill me, woman? I felt like a nuke hit the pit of my stomach!"
The group was stunned when they heard Alto bashed Sheryl's cooking. And Sheryl herself was taken aback from Alto's merciless critics. "I-I…"
"There was too much curry powder in that thing. The meats were still hard and not tender, the vegetables aren't cut in proportions. And you didn't even peel the onions' skins! How do you think people can eat this stuff?" Alto continued to shove the curry inside his mouth as he shot Sheryl his nonstop insults.
"If you don't like it, then don't eat it!" spat a teary eyed Sheryl.
"I don't…" he said, eating another spoonful of curry. "…but you made it for me."
Sheryl's lips slowly curved up into a smile, as she saw her beloved Alto enduring her gastronomic disaster in each mouthful.