Disclaimer: J.K. Rowling owns Harry Potter, not me
Summer Musical
Chapter 7: Kitchen Duty
It was Tuesday evening and Lily was reporting to the kitchen. She was not at all excited about having to help prepare dinner and clean it up as she trudged to the kitchen without MJ.
Walking inside the building, Lily saw that Potter was already there as well as a stout woman, both waiting for her.
"Hi, I'm Lily," she said looking at the middle-aged woman.
The woman nodded at her and said, "Nice to meet you. I am the head cook here at camp. My name is Mrs. Freda."
After the introductions, Mrs. Freda set both Lily and James off to set the tables in the Mess Hall which was connected to the kitchen.
James lead the way into the Mess Hall and held the door open for Lily. Lily was angry at James and rudely shoved past him. James shrugged and began to set the tables in silence.
After twenty minutes, all of the twenty tables were set and ready to be used to eat. The two teens reported back to Mrs. Freda to see what else could be done.
"One of you could pour the lemonade into a pitcher for each table," Mrs. Freda listed off, "and the other could… hmm… they could help me carry some of the food to the serving counter."
Both James and Lily seemed to want to mix the lemonade as neither of them wanted to have to talk to Mrs. Freda. She seemed like a very nice person, but was very talkative.
"Potter, I got here first, let me serve the drinks," Lily fought.
"You did not get here first. I think that you should go over there and help with the food," James argued back.
"I don't want to," Lily hissed childishly.
The two stubborn teenagers quietly badgered each other until James gave in.
"Fine, Evans, serve the drinks. It's pointless, all this fighting." James stomped over to Mrs. Freda where she immediately began chatting to him.
Although Lily wouldn't admit it, she felt slightly embarrassed as she realized that Potter was acting more mature than she was.
"Finally, it's over," Lily sighed as she sat down next to her friend MJ and prepared to eat.
"How did it go?" MJ asked Lily.
"It was extremely boring but that was only expected. If it was fun, we would have never been assigned the punishment in the first place."
"Yep, that's true. So how was James?" MJ asked conversationally.
"I didn't talk to him much so it wasn't terribly bad. He is normally really annoying but if he keeps quiet and doesn't talk to me at all during our punishment, then I think I just might be able to get through the week," Lily shared.
"Hey James!" James turned around, hoping that it wasn't Sarah. He sighed in relief when he saw that it was his friend Nick. Sarah had been trying to talk to him since the group performance yesterday. James thought that she was a snooty little brat and he didn't want anything to do with her.
"How was kitchen duty," Nick asked as James joined him at their regular table.
"It was pretty dull. It wasn't as bad as I expected though. All I had to do was set the tables and help put out all the food," James addressed his table.
"How was Lily?" Nick pressed for information. James' roommates had questioned him about the fight yesterday and so he decided to tell them about his and Lily's confusing relationship.
"Well, she seemed to be in a foul mood. She isn't one to get in trouble so she was fuming at me because I got her in trouble."
"From what you told us about the fight though," Zack said, "it seemed like it was her fault you got in trouble. It was more of a one-sided fight. You didn't really say much," Zack shared his opinion.
"Well, the fight never would have happened if it wasn't for Sarah," James expressed sadly.
The guys all sympathized with him because they all knew that Sarah was a bitch and was only trying to get in the way of James' obvious feelings for Lily. They tried giving him advice to help him win her over but it was just the same things that his Marauder friends had told him on the train at the start of summer. James just figured that Lily was a lost case and he should move on to other girls excluding Sarah.
After an uneventful dinner, James and Lily entered the kitchen, prepared to do more work.
"Hello kids, enjoyed dinner," Mrs. Freda asked curiously.
"It was delicious," Lily replied.
"Yes, thank you for the food," James added politely. They were both being honest when they said the food tasted good. It was not at all what people expected to eat at camp.
"Okay, you two can wash those pans over there," the kind lady pointed towards the sink. "When you are done, you may leave."
The teenagers nodded in understanding and set to work.
"Hey, Evans, do you want to wash or dry?" James asked.
"Umm, at home, I usually wash."
"Okay, that's cool. I usually dry the dishes at home with my mother." James paused as he just realized something, "Wow, for once Evans, we didn't fight over something. That's an improvement!" James exclaimed excitedly.
Lily and James were very productive and finished their work rather quickly without much conversation. They left the kitchen when they were done and bid each other goodnight.
The rest of the week went by similarly. James and Lily would report to the kitchen before dinner and set the tables and do anything else that was needed to be done in preparation. After dinner. The two did the dishes without complaint and only talked to greet each other and say goodbye.
It wasn't until the last day of kitchen duty that anything new happened. James and Lily had just reported for their last clean up when Mrs. Freda said, "Hello. I hope you two don't mind but I need to rush to the grocery store so you two will be by yourselves for tonight. Okay? I trust that you two will get all of your chores done before you leave. Thank you for helping me this week. Now, I best be on my way." Mrs. Freda grabbed her car keys and stormed outside to her car. The kids watched in amazement as the car left the driveway and was eventually out of their view.
"Okay," James said awkwardly. "I guess we should get to work then."
"Yeah," Lily added stupidly.
James and Lily began doing the dishes when James gathered up enough courage to start a conversation with Lily. "So, what made you decide to come to Voice Camp,"
Lily jumped, startled that their silence was broken but after careful consideration, decided that there was no harm in answering his question. "Well, my parents thought that camp would be good for me and they knew that I loved to sing. They secretly signed me up. I didn't even find out about it until the beginning of summer. At first, I really didn't want to come here as I was too nervous. Yeah, actually, you know MJ," Lily waited for James' response. He nodded his head so she continued, "well, she is my neighbor back at home. It turns out that she was signed up for the camp as well so I decided to give this camp a try. So here I am, what about you?"
James was very glad that they were having a civil conversation. He told her about how he originally thought he was going to a rock camp. She giggled shyly and listened intently to what he was saying.
The two began to loosen up around each other and when they were finished with the dishes, they were conversing like old friends.
Lily had never known that Potter could be so nice. She was also shocked by the way she was acting around him. She was laughing at his jokes and added her opinion to certain things he said.
James was smiling from ear to ear, as he told Lily about some childhood stories, and stared into her emerald green eyes as she shared some stories of her own.
Both of them were very upset when their clean up had ended. Lily, feeling very bold, whipped some soap from the sink at James' head playfully as he ready to leave.
James was shocked by this action and responded with mock anger, "Lily Evans, how dare you throw soap at me. Why I ought to…"He paused because he couldn't think of anything.
"Do what?" Lily interrupted.
"Do this." James grabbed some soap and tossed it at an unprepared Lily. Pretty soon, the two teenagers were covered head to toe in water and soap suds as well as the floors around them.
Lily fell to the floor and rolled around with laughter, not having this much fun in a long time. James joined her.
Suddenly, light filled the semi-dark kitchen as Mrs. Freda returned from shopping. James and Lily panicked, looking around at the mess they made and knowing that they should have been done hours ago. Not to mention that if they got caught, they would probably have another week of cleaning.
James quickly got up and took out his wand. He vanished they soap suds and grabbed Lily's hand, leading her out of the kitchen and into the Mess Hall. They secretly snuck outside and crept back to the cabins.
Once they reached Lily's cabin, they said goodbye. Lily thanked James for his quick thinking and they went off to get some sleep before morning.
A/N: Sorry it took me awhile to update, I just got back from vacation. I want to have this story done by the end of the week, before I go to camp. Don't forget to review please!- Thanks!
