Am I Good Enough? (DROPPED)

Cooking Class

A month has passed and my high school life calmed down. Rows of cherry blossoms could be seen from the long hallways towards the school kitchen. Their leaves have turned green.

~In kitchen class~

"Today's them is Chinese dishes! Everyone, please do your best" our teacher exclaimed.

"I'm bad at cooking, but I know a good dish when I taste one. And you?" asked Mo.

"Me? I've always been very good at cooking" I said and Mo stopped what she was doing and looked at me with respect.

"Why don't we cook some time? Together of course." Mo asked and by the tone of her voice, she was hoping I would say yes.

When I raise my head, I find a person looking familiar at me. It's one of the boys of the advertisement poster! He is snitching food here and there.

He's.. Michael Brown?

"Wow, this looks delicious. Did you cook this? Your lips are sweet too, perhaps I should have a taste of them before I take this" Michael said in a flirtatious voice that could probably work on every girl. He is what you could say a total player.

Huh? He should be a student in another class.. What is he doing here?

Michael doesn't seem to care about that others think, he puts his hand on the girl's shoulder one after another, he touches their hair and chats with them. The girls let Michael tried some of their dishes, but it was interrupted by Hunter, he grabbed the collar of Michael like a kitten and chased him away from the class.

"Hmmm, the commoners' food tastes okay" he said with an air of authority, eating a dish that was prepared for Michael.

Perhaps Hunter wants to eat it after all...

Ryder is busily cooking in silence as he ignores the joyful atmosphere around him.

"Oh my! This looks great!" suddenly shouted Mo. I was curious to see what made her shout. I turned around to where Mo's voice came from and I could see that Julian is cooking like a professional chef. The ladies who work at the cafeteria came to see the cooking class out of interest, and they all spoke very highly of Julian's dishes.

"Sky, try this" Julian holds out the dish to me as he approached me with an angelic smile. I took a bite. I didn't feel embarrassed by it because by now, I'm used to us being close since we are childhood friends and all.

"Oh My God! This doesn't just looks great, it definitely taste heavenly!"

"See?"  Julian was happy at my response that he gave me another spoonful of his dish. I happily took a bite again.

"Julian, your cooking is really great and you just keep on improving!"

"Thanks!"

I can feel someone looking at me as Julian returns to his cooking with a smile.

Huh? Ryder seemed to be looking in my direction.. Or maybe I'm just imagining too much?

When I looked at Ryder, he is still busily cooking. I can see that he is putting the chocolate and cream on the vegetables as though he's making a chocolate cake.

Is that what we're supposed to do? Not to mention today's theme is Chinese, isn't it?

I don't know much about it, but it looks gorgeous... Ryder puts them on the table full of confidence. Hunter who came around to taste every finished dish that were put on the tables, simply took a quick look at Ryder's dish and left without tasting. I guess Julian noticed that Ryder wasn't too happy about it, so he spoke Ryder.

"Ryder, the decoration on your dish looks beautiful. May I try some?" Julian took a bite, and he shuddered. Soon after that Julian's face turned pale, and he tried to swallow hard.

Seriously? Does that mean Ryder's food is bad?

But Ryder didn't feel anything even though he saw what happened to Julian. It was as though Ryder is still waiting for Julian's compliments. Julian downed the water in a hurry and tried to force a smile on his face.

The teacher clapped to catch everyone's attention.

"Everyone! The next lesson is to cook your own original dishes! It would be too difficult to cook alone, so I've decided to put you in pairs."

The teacher posted the arrangements on the board, and I'm paired with....

"With Ryder?!"

I recall Julian's suffering expression a while ago and anxiety started building within me.

The appearance of his dish looked so beautiful, yet..

I sighed at the elaborate dishes he made.

"You, don't disturb me." Ryder boasted as he intended to say that to me.

"What!? You too! Don't disturb when I'm cooking"

"Humph..."

Wha-what's that! What's with his attitude!! That egoistic bastard!

"Don't you think Ryder's attitude is bad?" I asked Mo.

"Huh? But people are saying that his seriousness is his charm." Mo said and looked at me like I grew another head on my neck.

I vented to Maruko about all the things after school. And after that, no one dared to taste Ryder's food either.

I have no courage to try it as well...

"I can't believe I'm paired with such a guy..."

"If you say that, the girls who envy you will be yelling at you very soon." I guess Mo does have a point there, but I don't care about with Ryder just because he's popular. Like hell do I care about being his partner when he's being a jerk.

I'd love to change the pairing it it's possible... I sighed. It's only making things worse if we are partners... not to mention I can't rely on his cooking too. I asked Julian about Ryder's cooking but, Julian refused to answer.

He's a guy who makes me nervous...

"Come on now, don't put on such a sour face. Why don't we get some ice-cream on the way home?" Mo offered and tried to comfort me.

"Yeah... okay." I felt a little better knowing that I'll be able to have some ice-cream after school. My steps are light as I think about how simple minded I am. And, when I passed by the music room, I heard the melodies of the piano again...

This melody...