Disclaimer: I do not own Maria-sama ga Miteru (that's quite obvious enough). This is fanfiction and I am making no profit from this. Thanks.

Ever Had A Cooking Disaster?

Monday

Right after Homeroom period

"Yoshino-san, are you really sure you know what you're doing?" Yumi questioned her good friend anxiously.

"Yes, just leave it all up to me," said Yoshino confidently. With still some doubts in her mind on Yoshino's abilities to pull off a task that seemed as impossible as this one, Yumi found her mind wandering back to what had happened during Homeroom period…

-Flashback-

Monday

Homeroom period

"The school has decided that for the upcoming celebration for Family Day, that happens this Friday, the 2nd years will have to participate in a food exhibition," said the teacher. She paused for awhile, trying to gauge her class' reaction to the announcement she just made.

After seeing that everyone was most likely withholding their opinions until further information on the event was released, the teacher coughed lightly and continued, "Each class will have to send in 2 groups, comprising of 4 people per group. So I was hoping that our class would be able to comply willingly with the school's request." After finishing her announcement, the teacher was still greeted with reticent silence from her class. Making a swift decision that it was better to get the class to talk about this issue earlier than later, the teacher called on the most vocal student in the class to start off the discussion: Yoshino.

"I think that our class should participate in this exhibition as other classes are going to do so too," said Yoshino firmly, the teacher nodded her head vigorously to show her approval for Yoshino's words.

"If you think the exhibition is that important, why not be the first to volunteer yourself as the first victim, Yoshino-san?"

All the heads in the class swivelled to turn to the person who had just spoken. Oh no, thought Yumi, it was Itsue-san who had just spoken. Yoshino remained calm at the challenge that was just issued to her, while replying to Itsue-san that she would volunteer to lead the first team if Itsue-san would do the honours for the second team. Yumi grimaced, thinking that this was bad; this felt like déjà vu all over again1, those two really seemed to have the affinity for antagonizing each other.

"Fine. That's a deal."

"Be sure to find your other 3 members, Itsue-san, or you won't be able to participate in the exhibition at all."

"Same to you too, Yoshino-san."

"My job will be easier. I only need to find 2 more."

"Oh, is it so? I have not seen any willing volunteers so far."

"Of course it's a given that Yumi-san will aid me in my endeavours to help our class gain top honours in this competition," Yoshino said smugly.

"Eh?!" exclaimed Yumi, gaping and gawking at Yoshino in a very unladylike manner. Why was she automatically included into this cooking competition? Cooking was not even her forte!

"Yoshino-san, it seems like Yumi-san didn't seem to have any idea that she was included in your grand scheme," said Itsue.

The quick riposte by Itsue did not even faze Yoshino, a seasoned warrior accustomed to the form of verbal battles, often using her cousin, Rei, as target practice. Yoshino stepped up to Yumi, grasped her hand and said, "Though Yumi-san is one of my closest friends, she of course does not possess the psychic talent of reading people's minds, so of course she must have been slightly shocked when I just dropped such a comment. I am a thoughtful friend, so I will now extend a formal invitation to Yumi-san to join my team." With that said, Yumi knew that she had now been thrown into a very sticky situation. While she did not really mind helping Yoshino, she could not cook at all. And if she refused to help Yoshino… no, the thought of the consequences of refusing was unimaginable if she wanted to keep her sanity.

"Yoshino-san," she whispered, "I think it's a mistake to get me to join. I cannot cook for my life."

"Yumi-san, it hardly matters. I have got everything planned out. I just need members to form the team first," Yoshino whispered back, then lowering her voice even more she said, "If you agree to this favour, I'll promise never to bug you on the issue of Sei-sama's farewell gift2 anymore."

"Wah, Yoshino-san, that's blackmail!"

"If you want the whole school to find out about it, I suggest you carrying on shouting at this volume." Yoshino said calmly, while tilting her head a little to her right, indicating to Yumi that Mami Yamaguchi from the Lillian Kawaraban was trying to eavesdrop on their conversation.

"Yoshino-san, even if I were to refuse to help you, you can't tell my onee-sama anything, after all I have not divulged to you what I gave to Sei-sama."

"Oh? But if it was nothing serious, why would you be so frantic to hide all the details? Why not come out and disclose everything? I think with the current close soeur relationship you share with Sachiko-sama, she would be rather suspicious if you were to refuse to share details about such an important issue," Yoshino paused, before dealing the killing blow, "… especially since it concerns you and Sei-sama."

"Yoshino-san… you are scary."

"I take that to be a 'Yes, I'll help.'" smiled Yoshino gleefully, turning to Itsue-san she triumphantly announced, "As I predicted, even before the negotiations with Yumi-san were concluded, it was a foregone conclusion that Yumi-san would join my team."

Making a mental note to throttle Sei the next time she saw her, Yumi decided to focus first on the current predicament she found herself in.

Monday

8pm

Home

"Yumi-san, please note that you will need to come over to my house tomorrow after we finish our Yamayurikai duties. At my house we will conduct our secret training to prepare for the competition on Friday." Yumi stared at her phone in disbelief, not really believing her ears; did Yoshino just say 'secret training'?

"What are we going to do? Besides that, Yoshino-san, it isn't a competition; it is just supposed to be an exhibition."

"It is just like a competition to me, after all Itsue-san just issued me a challenge this afternoon," Yoshino stubbornly insisted, "Besides, I managed to erm, shall we say; persuade Rei-chan to give us a crash course in cooking."

"Eh? Why would you need to learn how to cook? I heard the cookies that you baked during Home Economics were really popular for the food festival last year, they were all sold out!"

"Well, Yumi-san… that was because I bought all of them."

"What?! You bought your own cookies?"

"I was provoked to do so! Sei-sama had told me that she had made a bet with Eriko-sama about whether anybody would ever buy my cookies. Sei-sama said that Eriko-sama had bet that nobody would buy my cookies. So I just had to prove her wrong!"

"Isn't that cheating?" Yumi said, while thinking that Yoshino-san had probably played right into Sei-sama's hand, and behaved just as Sei-sama had predicted, thus allowing her to win her bet with Eriko-sama.

"Tsk tsk, Yumi-san, you still have a long way to go to learn the art of winning. It's only considered 'cheating' if you're found out. I thought that was obvious."

"But Yoshino-san, you would have to lie if they quizzed you on who bought your cookies, wouldn't you?"

"Well, they didn't ask. And I didn't lie either I just didn't mention that I was the one who bought it. All I said was, 'My cookies were sold out'. Which was the truth."

"Yoshino-san, did I ever mention before that you were scary?"

"We are digressing," said Yoshino in a bored tone, while conveniently ignoring Yumi's last sentence, "Anyway, just come to my house tomorrow after school."

"Don't you need to find the other 2 members?"

"I already have." And that was the only answer that Yumi got before Yoshino hung up.

Tuesday

4pm

Rose Mansion

"Yumi, are you in a hurry?" Ogasawara Sachiko asked. Yumi nodded while packing, explaining to her onee-sama that Yoshino and she had to leave now as they were going to learn how to cook from Rei. Yoshino and Rei had left first with Yoshino claiming that she was going to meet up with the other 2 members, and they will rendezvous at the school gate. Shimako and Noriko had already left, after packing up briskly and leaving the Rose Mansion together.

"I see," Sachiko said lightly, she paused for awhile before asking, in a casual tone, "You will be walking home with Yoshino-san and Rei?" After asking the question, Sachiko immediately berated herself for asking such a silly question. Of course Yumi would be walking back with them.

"Yes, I would be walking back with them, onee-sama," Yumi answered dutifully, looking up from her packing at Sachiko, her face looking worried, "Is something up?"

"No, it's nothing," Sachiko answered with a brief smile, "I just thought that it has been a while since we've walked back together, but since you're currently engaged with something else-"

"I'm not really that busy, onee-sama," Yumi said in a hurry while interrupting Sachiko, "I'm sorry for interrupting, but if you don't mind, we could at least walk to the school gate together?" Yumi finished off her sentence, and gave a hopeful look.

"Of course," Sachiko replied, smiling at Yumi. Yumi took a few seconds to bask in the moment of Sachiko's smile, while being in awe of her onee-sama's ethereal beauty. Linking their arms together, the two of them walked out of the Rose Mansion, making their way to the school gate. Yumi wanted them to walk slower, to take their time. She thought it was rare that her onee-sama would actually feel that they have not spent much time together these few days. Besides, she was never usually sure about what her onee-sama was feeling, especially since Sachiko was not particularly loquacious about her own feelings. Yumi remembered the many days where she had to spend time away from her onee-sama, and how she spent those times sulking over it. Could it just be, she thought silently to herself, while looking at Sachiko, that she may have just had the same thoughts as me?

Tuesday

4.30pm

Lillian High School Gate

"Wow, you packed up fast," Yoshino commented wryly, after waiting for 30 minutes her patience had run short.

Yumi bid goodbye to Sachiko, before apologising to Yoshino and Rei. But she exclaimed in shock after seeing the two people who were waiting next to Yoshino and Rei.

"How rude, is that a way to greet your fellow classmates, Yumi-san?" inquired Tsutako Takeshima, Yumi's classmate and friend, who was smiling at Yumi.

"Eh, but Mami-san is here too! What's going on, Yoshino-san?"

"Well, I have managed to convince our two fellow classmates that they should join us as our interests may lie in the same directions after all," replied Yoshino smoothly.

"Meaning that she used some underhanded means to get them to join," Rei mumbled to Yumi.

"Yumi-san, you must not believe what Rei-chan says. All I did was tell Tsutako-san that if she helped us, she would most likely be able to get the first shots of any of the food that is cooked in the Home Economics room. I promised Mami-san that we would grant her an interview on Rosa Chinensis and Rosa Foetida en bouton's thoughts on cooking. But that was all I did." Once again, and not for the last time, Yumi found herself thanking Maria-sama that she was not Yoshino's opponent.

Tuesday

7.30pm

Yoshino's house

"I really don't think it's going to work," Yumi sighed, brows furrowed as she took a look at the list of food that Yoshino had suggested they do. As it was a food exhibition, the students were given 5 hours, from 8am to 1pm, to prepare 5 dishes per team. Yoshino had suggested that they start off with the baked potato, with sour cream and bacon, followed by fried noodles, strawberries with whipped cream, a chocolate soufflé and lastly, cookies that were coated in Belgian chocolate. In fact, apart from Yoshino, it can be said that the rest of the 3 members had almost no experience in cooking. Yumi mentioned that a chocolate soufflé sounded too exotic and difficult to make.

"Actually, Yumi-san, I think that the difficulty in making one has been exaggerated. If you attempt it, I think you will start to realise that soufflés can be quite simple to make. I can write down a detailed recipe and instructions list of you, if you wish," offered Rei. Yumi thanked her, though she felt that it would be way beyond her league to even attempt to bake one.

Yoshino coughed lightly before saying that their troubles can be easily solved. For the baked potato, one of them would just need to bake it at home the night before, and then she would bring it to school, the rest of them would just need to fill the potato with sour cream and bacon bits. As for the fried noodles, she was sure that they would at least be able to handle such a simple dish. Strawberries and whipped cream was a no-brainer dish, as it did not require anything difficult, they would just need to spray the whipped cream neatly like those pictures in the magazines. As for the soufflé, with Rei's instructions they should be able to at least bake a decent one. As for the cookies coated in Belgian chocolate, she would buy the cookies and they would melt the Belgian chocolate in school, they would dip the cookies in the chocolate before placing them in the fridge to let the chocolate solidify.

"But Yoshino, then you wouldn't have done most of the cooking in school," said Rei accusingly.

"No teacher said that all cooking had to be done exactly in school, they are more interested in the end-product being displayed. If it wasn't allowed, don't you think they would tell us so literally word for word?" argued Yoshino.

"But what about the cookies? You are buying store-bought cookies, you're not making the cookies on your own!" Rei's voice got louder. Yumi, who had seen Rei and Yoshino squabble before, sipped her tea while waiting for them to finish.

"Well, it's not like they can tell the difference. Besides, I would be the one melting the chocolates, so that counts as cooking… in a way. So if I'm questioned if I was the one who made the Belgian chocolate cookies, I would not be lying if I said yes."

"You would be if you don't mention that the cookies were not home-made!" Rei shouted, and with that statement the argument intensified even more. Yumi gestured desperately at Tsutako, who had sat behind Rei, that it might be better if she re-located where she sat. However, Tsutako and Mami had been to engrossed in the on-going argument to notice anything.

"Omitting certain bits of information does not count as lying!" Yoshino rebutted.

"Yoshino, did you get a new dictionary or something? Recently I feel as if our definitions for certain words seem to clash a lot," stated Rei wearily.

"Rei-chan, how dare you!" With that, Yoshino swiftly grabbed a cushion next to her and had flung it at Rei. Before Yumi could give any fore warning to Tsutako, Rei had dodged the cushion on instinct, leaving the unlucky and unprepared Tsutako, who was behind her, to get whacked in the face by Yoshino's cushion.

"Oh, I'm so sorry Tsutako-san, I had forgotten that you were behind me," Rei apologised profusely to Tsutako, while shooting glares at Yoshino. Tsutako said that she was fine, eager to end the quarrel between the two cousins so that the meeting could end earlier. Yoshino ended the meeting by declaring that they would stick to her plan. The other 3 members having no better ideas of their own had agreed.

Thanks for reading:) If possible, please do review. I would really appreciate comments on how I can improve. Also, I would like to know if I have added too much dialogue for this fic, or if the dialogue was not needed at all. I'll probably post the 2nd (and much shorter) part a few days later, I can't really figure out the ending.

Note: I'm sorry if I messed up Yoshino in this fic. I never meant to portray her as a character that is bereft of any moral values, and neither have I thought of her in that way before. I just felt that Yoshino was kind of stubborn, so she might try to go all out to win an argument or to prove that she was right all along.

1 This is referring back to the 5th OVA or the 15th Maria-sama ga Miteru Novel where Itsue told Yoshino, who was in the Sports Festival Executive Committee, that since she wanted people to participate in the competition, she should join the competition too. If she joins, then Itsue would join in too.

2 Well, just in case you haven't read my first fic, or you haven't watched the anime yet, Yumi gives Sei a kiss on the cheek as a farewell gift.