Sunlit Reverie

Cordelia's POV

It's supposed to be another normal day, right? Wrong!

Supposedly, I should be studying about Math and astronomy by now, but no, I'm stuck here with the two boys that I am not even sure if they make my life easier or harder. It's just one of those little things that happen when I become too kind and welcoming... These boys interrogate my life.

At school earlier, we were all given a teamwork task to either cook or bake something and then based on how our teacher likes it the next meeting, we'll be graded handsomely. I mean, it's obviously not just me and these two, it's the entire class cut into trios and duos to do the task. It's for culinary class.

"What exactly do you guys even want?" I asked with a bored tone. Literally, it's been fifteen minutes since Oliver got here and nothing's still happening!

Cornelius, reading a book, showed me what he was reading and it was all about recipes. I deadpanned at him. "Okay, so you're reading about recipes, how amusing!" I sarcastically said, rolling my eyes.

"Oh, it's not just about recipes," Cornelius stated. "I'm trying to figure out if I want baking or cooking."

"Um, I'm pretty sure it should be mutually decided and not just based on your opinion." I scoffed, crossing my arms.

But then Oliver came to me and whispered in my ear. "Are you good at neither?" He asked. I shook my head at him. "No, I have respiratory infection, my Mom never lets me do chores, but I can try if we be careful." He nodded with a satisifed smile. "Okie~!"

I turned to Cornelius. "Hey, boy, we've decided on something already."

"We did?" Oliver in the back confusingly asked. I just ignored and kept talking. "We're going to try both cooking and baking!!"

"What? No!" Cornelius rejected. I frowned. "Why not? It's the perfect plan! That way, we can figure out if baking or cooking is better! Don't you want good grades?"

"I do--"

"Awesome! So it's settled then!" I beamed. I glanced behind at Oliver and he just gave me a thumbs-up for support so I happily went over to the kitchen area. "Alright, guys, let's do this!"

We tried baking first, specifically cookies. Chocolate chip cookies. I checked the cookbook and muttered the instructions. "Sugar... Flour... Chocolate..." When I understood what I was supposed to do, I ever so confidently threw a whole bar of unwrapped chocolate into the stove. The two boys were startled at the sharp bang of the chocolate bar as it hit the metal end of the stove then they looked at me as if I were crazy.

"Cordelia?" Oliver blinked. "I don't think that's how you do it."

"Wait, really? I'm pretty sure the cookbook said something about chocolate." I tilted my head.

Cornelius laughed. "Oh, this is gold!" He teased. "You've existed in the world for ten years just to become this bad for a baker!?"

I huffed. "Hey! I'm trying here! As I said, I'm sick with respiratory--"

"Yeah, yeah, we already know about that." Cornelius sighed, he already seemed annoyed so I just shrugged my shoulders and brushed it off. The entire time we were baking, there were... Multiple fights between us, most especially me and Cornelius. We can never agree on one thing.

"I say one teaspoon of sugar!" I barked.

"Are you insane!? 1 teaspoon isn't even on the cookbook!" Cornelius snapped.

"Do you seriously want diabetes??"

"Half a cup of sugar in one day won't hurt our sugar level!"

"You only say that because you never eat vegetables! When was even the last time you've ever touched broccoli or carrots!?"

"Ha! Never!"

"Ohhh, see?? That's what I'm talking about! Now I say we put one teaspoon!"

"Half a cup!"

And our arguments went on like that. Each time, Oliver would have to calm us down and act like a school counselor just to get us to stop arguing and focus on the task but every few steps followed in the cookbook, we just keep on resorting back to fighting. I mean, can you blame me? I care about my health and my body! Cornelius doesn't. He doesn't care about anyone or anything.

By the time our cookies were done, they tasted awful.

Oliver took a bite and grimaced. "Eugh! Who put salt here?"

"There's salt??" I gasped. "Cornelius, what did you get when I asked you for the sugar?"

"Um, this?" Cornelius replied as he showed me an unlabeled box of what seems to be either sugar or salt. So I dipped a clean finger on it and tasted it. Indeed, it's salt. "Idiot!" I yelled. "I asked for sugar, not salt!"

"Don't put the blame on me!" Cornelius argued. "I would've picked the right one if only some girl stopped pestering me about one teaspoon of sugar!"

"Guys!!!" Oliver shouted before I could even argue back. "Guys, what about this? All three of us bake separately and then decide at the end of the baking session which one can bake the best?" He suggested.

To be fair, his proposal isn't bad. It's actually a good idea, efficient and would keep me and Cornelius from arguing again. So we both nodded. "Okay!" We replied in unison.

Now, I don't know about those two but in my own kitchen area, I excitedly baked. The whole thing was enjoyable, until I've come across the part of the cookbook that says I must knead the dough. I don't know how to knead dough, so I thought about it for a while and realized that I can just pretend this dough is Cornelius and I am beating him up.

Perfect!

And that's how I finished kneading the dough extremely fast. I just beat it up pretending it's the boy that annoys me most in the entire planet and voila! Everything is set!

After following a few more instructions from the cookbook, I placed the tray of cookies inside the oven and turned it on. After around ten minutes, the three of us came back to our meeting at the very center of the room. Oliver made vanilla cookies, the aroma wrapping the area and giving off a sweet scent.

I hummed satisfyingly. "Mmm, wow, Oliver! That smells good!" I complimented. Cornelius on the other hand just nodded in agreement. Oliver blushed a little and turned his head away. "Oh, thanks, Delia..."

He let me and Cornelius take one cookie and have a bite and it honestly tastes good. "It's awesome!" I beamed, finishing the entire thing. Cornelius didn't say anything but he did finish the cookie so I guess that means he liked it.

Next is Cornelius. He showed us his tray and it's full of chocolate chip cookies that has so much sugar we can practically still see it sprinkled all over the sweets. I grimaced just by looking at it. "Oh my Lord, Cornelius..." I gagged. "Just how much sugar did you put there?"

"If it's sweet then it tastes good, now have a bite, you two." He urged. Me and Oliver glanced at each other but we have no choice, Cornelius is our partner too and we need to know if it's good or not, so with hesitation, we each took one cookie and had a bite. Just from the very first bite, I forced myself to swallow it and felt a burning sensation in my throat because of the sugar.

I just smiled, trying to be polite and dropped what's left of the cookie back to Cornelius's tray, but Oliver did not hold back. As soon as the painful amount of sugar hit his throat, his gag reflexes kicked in and he refused to swallow it down like I did. He threw it all up on the trash bin right next to us three. Of course, this heavily insulted Cornelius. "Woah there, Mr. Overreaction." He called out.

Oliver ignored him and turned to me. "We both agree that his baking isn't the one, right?"

I nodded. "Of course."

And finally, my cookies. Mine are just almond cookies since I want to make it as healthy and non-sweet as possible. I showed them my tray and they raised their eyebrows at the same time.

"Uhh, I think your cookies are a bit too small." Oliver pointed out.

Yes, it's true, but I did it on purpose. "Mhm, yeah, but I have my reason! Can't get fat now, can we?"

Cornelius just huffed. "I swear, Cordelia, you're done for if those cookies don't taste as good as Oliver's."

"Have a bite, then," I encouraged as the two took a cookie and bit on them. Both their eyes sparkled and they looked equally shocked.

Oliver gasped. "Are you sure this is your first time baking??"

"Yeah, cause this--" Cornelius swallowed. "--Is the best cookie I've ever tasted in my life!"

I blushed a bit from the compliments and giggled. "Really? I tried my best since I've always wanted to bake for someone."

"Well, you did a great start! You're the best baker!" Oliver complimented and giggled back.

But baking isn't the only thing we're supposed to do. Remember, as our agreement, we will try both baking and cooking. So our next thing to do is cooking. We went back to our own kitchen areas and started our meals. The meal Cornelius picked is borscht, Oliver picked mushroom soup and I picked spaghetti, my favorite food!

But as we were already cooking our chosen foods, I read the instructions on the cookbook. "Turn on the stove... Turn on the stove? Okay, easy peasy." I smiled. I went over to the stove where the oil was boiling and I'd just put the pasta on it, then I turned on the stove at max and suddenly.

BOOM!

The pasta and boiling oil shot up to the air and I screamed, almost getting hit but Oliver came to pull me back just as it was really close to my face. Cornelius came too and I catched my breath from intense anxiety.

All three of us just stared at the mess on the floor. The oil, the pasta, everything was ruined.

"... What happened?" Oliver asked, as if he were scared to actually know.

I panted. "U-Um, I-I... I might have turned on the stove at max... On all handles...?"

"Idiot, why'd you do that??" Cornelius barked. "For your information, I did what the cookbook instructed me to do!" I defended myself.

We ended up fighting again until Oliver managed to successfully get us apart from each other and stop the theatrics. So we just stuck with the cookies I made for baking and Oliver's mushroom soup for cooking.

That same afternoon, we all went to our teacher of culinary class to present to him our baked cookies and cooked mushroom soup. Our teacher took a taste of each and smiled, giving us an approving expression. "Great job, kids! You did really well. Ten points."

Ten points? A perfect score? Yay!

"Woohoo!" Cornelius celebrated as we got out of the classroom and we're all happy about the score that we got.

I wish it could be just like this forever.