Chapter 2

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A frown formed as his eyes glided over this room number. Why didn't he just focus on winning that arm wrestling match? He could have been swimming. Now he was going to have to play Betty Crocker. A light tugged on his arm made him aware that he had company. Reid turned his head away from the taunting number and saw Thea with a big smile. Dang, he so wanted to be mad at her for putting him in this situation, but who could resist being mad at her with that contagious smile. "Welcome to Hell's Kitchen," she said.

Thea laughed at her joke as she pulled him into what indeed could be close to what Hell was like. They joined the group of students that were surrounded by many refrigerators, ovens, stoves and lots of counter space. In the corner, the teacher stood up from his desk saying, "Good morning class! I'm Mr. Filbert and you're in the second half of home economics. Now in this course we are going to learn basic cooking skills and safety tips and make simple, yet great recipes that you may use later in life. So I'd like you to pick a partner and head over to an island or counter and read these packets for the basic terms of cooking/baking and safety tips." Reid shifted over to Thea, who was holding her balance with the island and reading the packet. Bored already he glanced around the room observing who else was in his class. Claire, she's cute. Amber, hot. Betty, unfortunately ugly. Hillary, smoking hot. As he went further the outcome of being in this class didn't seem too bad; actually it was in his favor with the ratio of more women than men. He continued over the other side, Kate, yuck…I think my penis just shrivel up just thinking about it. So this must mean…ah, yes, Pogue's here too. He's totally whipped. Hmm…there's Rae and oh my god, this is just too good.

Reid smirked and almost burst out loud in laughter, "Hey man!" Caleb's head shot up and you could tell internally he was not happy that Reid knew he was in this class. "So why did you pick this class? I'm here because I lost a bet. What's your excuse?"

Rae snickered and Caleb death glared at her, "I decided to take the course because Rae begged me. Plus I don't want her to burn anything down."

Rae shrugged her shoulders, "It's true." She leaned closer to the island and whispered, "I've been banned from cooking in seven states."

Reid laughed, but Rae's face held only seriousness, so he switched to a cough. He quickly turned to the packet Thea was still reading. "So anything interesting?"

She shrugged her shoulders, "Nothing new for me, but you should look at it so you can be caught up." He quickly scanned the paper:

-Be careful of super heated vapors from pressure cookers, steam pipes or boiler for they can cause severe burns.

-Keep 2 fire extinguishers and a first aid kit in an accessible.

-Keep handles of pans on the side; never let the handle stick out over floor or accidents could occur….

Dropping the packet to the counter he said, "Yea I got this. What's this?" Thea placing cooking spray, cupcake container, bowl, spatula, and said, "That paper in front of you says we are making cupcakes and has the recipe on it. Want to get the ingredients?" Reid nodded his head as he picked up the list and headed toward the refrigerator. He passed by Rae, who was staring at the list.

Rae said to Caleb, "Flour? Sugar? Milk? What gives? Doesn't the box just ask for the mix, eggs, veggy oil and a…water?"

Caleb placed the ingredients down and stated, "We're cooking cupcakes from scratch."

Rae glanced over at him astonished, "From scratch?"

Caleb, re-reading the instructions again said, "Yep."

Rae mumbled more to herself, "That's stupid. Why would I do all that, when I could get them from a box and have them done faster with less work." Caleb poured the flour in the cup and was diligently leveling the flour to ¾ cup by patting it down one section at a time. After ten minutes, Rae glanced around seeing most people mixing their batter and Rae asked, "How many more cups do we have?"

"This is the only one for flour. Next is sugar."

Rae tapped her fingers trying to be patient, "Can I do the sugar?"

Caleb glanced up from his leveling, "You want to try?" Yes! Noah could have built his ark, found each pair of animals and shoved them in the boat before Caleb gets done with 3/4ths cup of flour.

Rae shifted her eyes to the eggs and mumbled to herself, "Didn't I just say that?"

He went back to his measuring, "Sure." A minute passed, "Rae can u hand me that bowl; I think I'm done leveling it?"

"Hell no."

Caleb's head shot over to see Rae eyes slowly un-dilating. Vision. "Rae?"

She waved her hand at him indicating it was nothing and said, "Is it my turn?" He shook his head and as he turned to give her the bag of sugar when the sound of an intake of breath and cracking echoed the room. Rae was bent over the carton of broken eggs and she muttered, "Shit." He came over with paper towels and Rae said, "I'm so sorry. I'll clean it up."

Caleb gave her an inquiring look, but then waved her off, "its fine I got it; why don't you start the sugar." Rae nodded her head and got up toward the counter. A smile enveloped her face as she poured the sugar into the measuring cup and quickly poured it into the mix. Yep, fifteen minute job for Caleb cut down to a minute all because of me. Mission accomplished…Damn I'm good.