Despite losing to Akira in the finals of the fall selection, Ryo had found something to look forward to, His 2nd period class run Chef Diego Montoya. Chef Montoya came from Spain, and had a vast wealth of culinary knowledge, especially when it came to seafood. Chef Diego's class was an "auxiliary" period, designed to fill the relatively rare gaps in a student's schedule. Since so few students had gaps that needed filling, auxiliary often had no more than 5 students per class, making it almost a private tutoring session. Ryo had found out from Alice( who had insider information thanks to her status as a Nakiri), that he had only 1 classmate in the entire class. Honestly, he didn't really care who the other person was, he just wanted to cook.
The first day of the auxiliary class, affectionately dubbed "seafood 101" was exactly 1 week after the fall selection had concluded. Unfortunately the classroom felt like it was in the middle of nowhere. The room was in a small building that was only used for these auxiliary classes. As Ryo entered the room he noticed it was very small, this made sense as the man only needed room for 2 students.
"Hola Amigo" Chef Montoya cordially greeted the first of his new students to arrive.
"Nice to meet you Chef Montoya," Ryo responded calmly.
"You can just call me Monty, I find "Chef Montoya" to be a bit of a mouth full" The energetic Spaniard responded.
Monty was a tall, muscular man, with long brown hair, and his general demeanor was somehow both laid back and hyperactive at the same time.
"Now we're just waiting on the other one, she better get here soon or she'll be late to her first class with me" Monty remarked in an almost playful tone.
Suddenly the door to the small cooking room flew open and bolted none other than Megumi Tadokoro.
"I'M HERE" she said while she gasped for air, "I'M HERE, Please don't mark me late sir"
"Ay ay ay relajarse chica( relax girl)" Monty replied. "there's still a whole minute and a half before this period officially starts you know"
"Oh Thank goodness" sighed the exhausted girl as she finally regained her composure.
Unfortunately for Megumi her composure went straight out the window as soon as she noticed the only other person in the classroom was Ryo. Though she did her best to hide it, her embarrassment, her best wasn't very good.
But at the same time it wasn't like Ryo was bothered by her presence, in fact it was quite the opposite. Judging by the fact that she seemed to be rushing to get to class, she hadn't had time to do her hair into her signature pig-tails. The young man already thought Megumi was pretty with her pig-tails in but seeing her without them was somehow even more attractive.
" Take your seats please and I'll give you your first cooking assignment for this class" Monty's words had managed to break the awkwardness enough that both of his students could return to functionality.
"First things first, Welcome to my class, my name is Diego Montoya but you can call me Monty or just Chef is fine. Anyways, now that you know me, it's time for me to get to know you by watching you cook. In my class students work with an assigned partner, since there are only 2 of you, finding your partner should be fairly easy."
A slight shot of excitement went up Ryo's spine when he found out that he would be working with Megumi on a consistent basis, though he was curious to know how she felt about working with him.
"Today you will be making one of my favorite dishes from my home land ," Monty announced. "Today's assignment is to make me a perfect Paella."