TBATE: Art and Tess's Second Chance

Chapter 27: First Days

Arthur Leywin's POV:

After thoroughly destroying-I mean-teaching Tess in Sovergen's Quarrel all night, the sun was finally rising over the horizon. It illuminated the academy and our room with an ethereal glow of oranges, reds, and yellows. Tess left to wake the kids and freshen up for the day while I walked over to our new kitchen so I could whip up breakfast. My mom wasn't here to feed us one of her delicious meals after all.

Opening our fridge, I was surprised that the Director had been generous enough to stock our fridge and pantry with enough food to last us a few weeks, even if we were frugal. She really does feel like a grandmother who enjoys spoiling her grandkids sometimes, even though I'd never admit it to her smug face. I took out some eggs, ham, sausage, and a block of cheddar cheese before grabbing some potatoes, green and red peppers, and tomatoes from the pantry.

I rummaged through our cabinets until I found a cutting board, a cheese grater, and a knife fit for cutting the potatoes and vegetables. I quickly peeled and then cut the potatoes into small chunks before expertly cleaning and cutting the peppers into thin slices. Lastly, to finish my preparations, I diced the ham and the sausage into fine square pieces before grating the block of cheddar cheese.

I put two large pans on the stove with some oil lightly coating the bottom of each and turned on the heat so the food would be cooked perfectly under medium-high heat. In one pan, I dropped in my potatoes, ham, and sausage and put the lid on so they could cook and fry until they were nice, brown, and crispy. In the other went my peppers to get a nice light char. They finished quickly in just a few moments of being in the pan, so I took them out and set them aside for now to use them later on.

I removed the ham and sausage once they were fully cooked but flipped my potatoes around since they were going to take longer as the pieces were larger than the diced meats. I cracked two eggs and mixed them into a bowl to mix the yolk with the whites before pouring the mixed eggs into the preheated pan. With a satisfying sizzling sound, the egg started to solidify rapidly. I quickly added some shredded cheese to the top and a portion of the cooked sausage and ham before folding the egg on itself to make a perfect omelet.

I repeated this process three more times until I had made four perfect omelets. I didn't have to make five since Splint didn't have a corporeal mouth or stomach to eat food just yet. Once the omelets were cooked, I finished the potatoes before platting all the food for Tess, Sylv, Regis, and me. As we started chowing down, I wondered if I had inherited all of my mother's cooking talents, and I couldn't help but fear what sort of monstrous creations my sister might cook up in the kitchen if that was the case.

The morning passed in bliss, with everyone enjoying my food. Sylv had hearts and stars in the middle of her golden eyes. Once we finished up, I had Sylv and Regis do the dishes. Our joint meeting with the Student Council and Disciplinary Committee would be about twenty minutes.

After washing my face and tying my hair back up, I returned to the living room and caught a glimpse of a peculiar sight. Tess was holding onto a thin, large box wrapped in black paper with a gold ribbon tied around it. The other three were standing, or in Splint's case, floating behind Tess with smug faces.

"What's all this then?" I asked, wearing a bewildered face. After all, my birthday was right after El's, before school started, and we had a small party and everything.

"It's a gift, you dense idiot," Sylv said while dropping her face into her hand, irritated at my cluelessness.

"I know that, my sarcastic little dragon! Why now? My birthday was last week, so what's the occasion?" I retorted.

"Does there have to be an occasion?" Regis asked with a raised brow, "I mean, there is one, but you shouldn't make quick assumptions like that, princess; it's bad manners."