Last update before AP is released! :D Woo!


Kyona fell, unceremoniously, off of her bed the next morning. She stood up, looked at her night stand, and pointed an accusing finger at the contraption on top of it.

"What is with this…thing!?" She demanded. Gary woke up and flew to her side, rolling his eyes.

"It's your alarm. I set it last night so that you wouldn't be late for school," he explained. Kyona smacked him.

"Don't you know anything!? I'm a farmer by blood! Farmers have internal clocks that don't let them sleep in past six a.m.!"

"Then why did you need an alarm to wake you up at six thirty?" Gary asked. Kyona had no answer, other than smacking him. Again.

-

Kyona's mother was awake and at work when Kyona came downstairs for breakfast. Zack was at the table, eating toast and eggs.

"Here," Zack said, passing her a plate of toast and eggs.

"You… made breakfast for me?" Kyona asked, disbelievingly. Zack nodded. "What's the catch?"

"Nothing. I just don't want you setting the house on fire." Zack said.

"I would've just made cereal," Kyona said, defensively.

"My point still stands."

Kyona mumbled some unkind things, sitting down at the table, and eating her breakfast.

-

"You can't cook?" Gary asked, once the two headed out the door.

"No. And need I remind you that you can't come to school with me?" Kyona responded.

"My foreshadowing senses are tingling," Gary said, stopping.

"Shut up, Gary," Kyona commanded, not stopping.

-

The school was hustling and bustling with chatter when Kyona got there. Gill hadn't bothered to settle the class down for the lesson, yet.

Angie and Vivian were in the corner, holding a conversation, while Vivian tried to keep her magical identity a secret. She didn't quite understand what was so important about keeping it a secret, but Kyona insisted it was, so Vivian kept quiet, otherwise, she'd never hear the end of it.

On the other side of the room was Van, staring admiringly at the two girls. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that he was staring admiringly at Angie, and Vivian just happened to also be in his line of vision.

By the window, Heath, Matt and Roy were probably holding the loudest conversation in the room, though no one else could tell what they were actually talking about.

Matt saw Kyona, and motioned to her, but Kyona was being a typical shoujo heroine, so she ignored him.

In another part of the room, Lucy was fired up—more than usual, that is. She was excitedly relating her adventure yesterday to Dakota. The only thing keeping the girls' secret safe was that Lucy was talking so fast, Dakota didn't understand a word she was saying.

"Alright, settle down. It's time for class. Everyone, in your seats. Today, we'll be starting with math." Gill announced.

What none of them noticed was the monster Border collie, swiftly dashing along the table where all of the lunches were put, and eating every one of them on his way. The dog dashed out of the room, at the back of the school, where it was hit in the head by a surprise shining apple antidote attack, thrown by Kyona, who had left the classroom with the excuse of needing to use the bathroom.

It was rather surprising that Gill let her go, though. Partly because class had just started, but mostly because the school didn't even have a bathroom. Of equal surprise was the fact that Lucy did not see her chance to play the hero again, and in fact, did not even see the great beast.

-

Lunchtime finally came, and the class finally noticed the lunch theft.

"NOOOO! WHAT WILL I DO WITHOUT MY CLAMS AND GRAPE JUICE!?" Lucy cried.

"My…my shining egg is gone!" Heath exclaimed.

"The extra lunch I made for Heath isn't even here!" Dakota whined.

"Wait… Heath, you like shining eggs?" Lucy asked.

"They're one of my favorite foods!" Heath responded. They shared a meaningful look. Dakota, jealous, stood between them.

"Who could have taken our food!?" She demanded, changing the subject.

"I think an animal snuck in and ate it," Kyona said.

"All of this food? Without us noticing? Impossible." Vivian countered. Kyona nudged her, hinting. Vivian made a face of sudden understanding, "though, stranger things have happened."

"Where will we get our energy from!?" Lucy wondered aloud.

"I'm going exploring after school! I can't go on an empty stomach!" Heath complained.

"I think there's only one solution to this!" Matt said. He pointed at Dakota. "You cook for us."

"What, just because I'm a girl!?" Dakota demanded.

"… No. Because you're the only one in this room with any cooking talent." Gill opened his mouth to object to this comment, but stopped, remembering the loss of his ratatouille, and returned to silent mourning.

"Well, I won't do it. I hate cooking." Dakota said, stubbornly. Kyona put a hand on Dakota's shoulder.

"C'mon! If you cook, we'll help!" Kyona offered. Van snickered.

"They say that too many cooks spoil the soup. In this case, it helps that most of the cooks suck at it." He said, arrogantly.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" Kyona demanded.

"It means that, other than Dakota and probably… Angie," Van blushed. "You girls suck at cooking."

"Hmph. Well, we can cook better than you guys, that's for sure," Kyona countered.

"Those sound like fightin' words," Matt interjected.

"Maybe they are," Kyona said, growing competitive.

"So, how about a cooking contest, then?" Matt suggested.

"Oh, you're on." Kyona responded.

-

"Alright," Vivian said, taking charge and tying her hair back. "Dakota, you're the real cook, so you give us instructions."

"Okay~ Lucy, you chop the vegetables. Vivian, start boiling some water, and add salt. Kyona, umm… you make juice. Angie… Angie, what are you looking at?" Angie's eyes were fixated on the boys' table.

"It hardly seems fair," she said. "There are only four of them, but there are five of us." Just then, the door opened to reveal Zack.

"Zack! What are you doing here!?" Kyona demanded.

"I came here on a request." Zack said, holding up a cell phone to show her a text, signed by Matt.

"…Since when do we have cell phones on this island?" Lucy asked, in a moment of startling logic.

"That's not important! What's important is making lunch! Specifically, a lunch that's better than the boys' lunch!" Vivian said.

"But we're in trouble, now! Zack is a good cook! I should know; I just ate his cooking this morning!" Kyona said, panicking.

"He… he is?" Vivian said, star struck for a moment.

-

"You know, even with Zack here, those girls are going to annihilate us," Heath said, matter-of-fact.

"How do you figure?" Roy asked.

"Well, for one thing, they're girls; they're born with ninja cooking powers. Also, they have Dakota, who's well-known as a prodigious cook," Heath explained.

"Have any of you even tasted Dakota's cooking before?" Zack wondered aloud. The other boys had nothing to say to this.

"We've heard rumors," Matt piped up.

-

Lucy was performing her task with gusto. She cut a carrot—no one had an explanation as to where they got the ingredients—but she cut so hard that the piece flew up like a bullet, hitting Dakota in the head and knocking her out.

The other girls gathered around her.

"Does this mean we'll have to go for the rest of the competition without her!?" Kyona said.

Vivian, to the rescue, dumped a bucket of cold water on Dakota, waking her up.

"Oh my God!" Dakota gasped. "Does my hair look okay!?" The other girls sighed.

"Your hair always looks okay," there was a voice behind the cluster of girls. The girls turned around. It turned out to be Heath.

"You… you really think so!?" Dakota's eyes practically sparkled in her glee.

"Yeah! Of course! And you're such a good cook. I bet we don't stand a chance," Heath said.

"Oh, I don't think so. I mean, we're just using tomatoes, lettuce, carrots…" Dakota happily listed all of the ingredients, and then when that was done, she listed the steps for cooking. Heath, meanwhile, wrote them down in a notebook. The other girls were stunned.

"Don't give our recipe to the enemy!" They said. But Heath left, having the whole thing written down.

"Hmph. Well, if they're playing dirty, then we'll fight fire with fire," Vivian said, smirking at her cousin. Said cousin whimpered.

-

"I feel kind of bad for tricking Dakota. Why did I have to do it, anyway?" Heath inquired, at the boys' table.

"… You… really don't know?" Matt said, disbelievingly, while chopping potatoes.

"Don't worry about it. It's her own fault for falling for such a ridiculous trick," Van said, coldly, as he stirred the bulk of their ingredients together.

"Um…excuse me, Van…?" Angie said, meekly. Van jumped, and his face turned red from blushing. "We're…running out of ingredients, so…can we borrow some from you…?"

Angie walked away with the whole bowl of ingredients. Van had a blissful smile on his face.

"Van, you idiot!" Matt said, angrily. "You gave her most of our ingredients!" He looked at the girls' table across the room. "Of course you know, this means war."

And cue a cheating montage. To make a long story short, this happened:

Matt used a fishing rod to steal Kyona's fish out of her pan while she was grilling it.

Lucy dumped a basket of oranges, causing Roy to fall and spill some crucial batter.

Zack threw half of an apple into a pot in the girls' table, ruining the soup in it. Vivian was sad.

And various other deceptive acts.

In the end, both teams had an inedible mess to present to Gill, who was the taste-tester. It was a tie, in the worst possile way.

-

Kyona walked home, crest-fallen.

"I can't believe I lost to Matt…" she whined.

-

"I guess it's true that cheaters never prosper," she said, falling asleep in her bed.