For three girls working together, the monumental task before them began with a remarkably quiet kitchen.I apologize at my incredible lack of pithy -_-;
It had been well scrubbed; Lark arrived earlier than strictly necessary to wipe down the sink, polish the handles, scrub the floors, wash the counters, clean the ovens, scrub the burners and generally assure that everything smelled strongly of lemon 7th Generation. The food was taken out; pasta boxes stacked next to several large pots all neatly and evenly aligned. Pasta sauce was next to smaller sauce pots, lids, tomato paste, mushrooms, onions, and everything else needed for that station. Several packages of chicken were waiting, already unnecessarily divided into plastic baggies by the 5’s according to relative amount of meat on each. Every spice or seasoning that could possibly be needed was taken out and organized according to height and order along.
The small talk was small when Mia and Faige arrived; the whiteboard had been carefully been written with directions for what needed to be done with what and where it would go. Lark remained terse and prickly - continuing to organize and clean even for a few minutes after the others arrived over places that by no means still needed it, more noting the directions were on the board than actually talking.
Mia still seemed quietly troubled; she still smiled her friendly smile but somehow it didn’t quite reach her eyes. She gave a concerned look to Faige, giving a little polite smile and a wave before heading over to consider the puzzle of how to make so much for so many people. Still, a little bit of friendliness and kindness could do amazing things, Mia figured, and so she broke the silence first.
“Faige, would you like to start on the pasta sauce?”
Mia took several of the jars of spices – oregano, basil, rosemary, sage, thyme. She stopped to consider taking parsley too just for the sake for the song, giggling a little as she did.
“We’re going to add the vegetables and seasoning to make the sauce a little better, right?”
Mia headed over to the sink to wash her hands as she spoke, looking across to Faige who was doing much of the same.
“Well, we already have tomato paste and some vegetables so… why not just use that?”
It was a polite smile that Faige gave when she spoke. The kind that you give to sales clerks or waitresses when they said have a nice day and you just said have a nice day back. She wiped her hands off on the towel before heading over to the sauce pans – dumping all of the vegetables into one to make it easier to carry to the stove. The pre-made spaghetti sauce was left behind; instead she took the cans of stewed tomatoes and tomato paste. Faige debated why everything was set across the kitchen like a cooking show, debated making a cooking show joke to lighten the mood a little. She debated what a good cooking show joke would be.
“So, are we all fighting over who’s Iron Chef Italy, or, are we breaking it down like I’m Iron Chef pasta sauce and Mia’s Iron Chef chicken?”
The question was enough to break the heavy sort of silence and Faige inwardly breathed a sigh of relief.
“I don’t think you can really be up for Iron Chef Italy if you can’t make lasagna… so, how about the second one?”
Mia gave a sheepish version of her smile at the remembrance of the failed dish.
“So, you’re Iron Chef chicken? Or we’re Team Italy. For the lasagna challenge you could be my sous chef, Mia.”
“I… guess, so? Sure, we can be Team Italy. Are… you making the pasta sauce from scratch, Faige?”
Faige looked down at her things, nodding and shrugging all at once.
“Aunty has a private chef. I spent a lot of time watching him cook, so, I picked up some things. Sauce isn’t really all that hard, anyhow.”
Both Mia and Lark looked over to watch Faige chop up her vegetables and begin to mix together her own sauce with at least a small amount of admiration for her effort. The awkward silence started to settle back over but it was Lark who broke it this time.
“Mother wouldn’t let me in the kitchen much. I mean, for things like making sandwiches and hors d’oeuvers and such, but, she always said that children were too messy to come into the kitchen.”
Lark had poured the spaghetti into the pot with a little bit of salt, voice quieter than its typical sound. Four burners all taken up for pasta and she wondered if it would be enough. Or if it wasn’t enough, if people would yell? Most likely they would, she figured. Pasta only required minimal attention. She focused, then, on folding napkins into little fans for place settings.
Faige looked over the kitchen and then back to Lark with a skeptical eye.
“I can see why, you’re the messiest person in the world.”
“…It is a little silly.” Mia agreed with a smile, setting the chicken in to bake. “You’re kind of... meticulously neat.”
“You’re making some… fancy herb chicken and olive oil and she’s making homemade spaghetti sauce and all I’m doing is boiling pasta. I have to do something worthwhile.” Lark gave a flippant little shrug meant to end the conversation but she kept her still puffy eyes down and away.
Still, despite Mia’s caution, Lark’s prickily attitude and Faige’s measured distance – conversation had begun and the door remained open. Sourdough was warmed and seat into neatly divided hunks on the table; tremendous amounts of pasta were boiled and strained and set into what serving bowls that could be found large enough. Several gravy boats were re-commissioned for pasta sauce and three trays of herb roasted chicken were organized into rather lovely radial flowers sat along the full table. Needlessly nicely folded napkins waited on each plate, and several cans of different types of soda waited, chilled over the course of the day. By the time the three were setting places for the football team it had even warmed into something more than just questions about what the others were doing.
Lark had the idea of dressing like serving staff and stood out making sure that members of football and cheerleading heard about the pre-game dinner and went chasing down people with Faige to make sure they got the memo; first through the halls, then in front of the cafeteria later.
Go Mustangs! Pre-Game Spaghetti Football/Cheerleading Dinner!
Menu:
Salad
Herb roasted chicken with olive oil
Spaghetti
Homemade marinara sauce
Sourdough bread
Donuts by Krispie Kreme
Mia took the time to make a menu as best she could with her arm in a cast – carefully drawing on the white poster board what was being served at the dinner. She set it up on an easel from the art room so people could see as they came in.
Dinner Presented by: Faige Harrison, Lark Lowell and Mia Cobol
Mia’d convinced them all to sign at the bottom after a little bit of urging and after a little bit of decorating, she was certain that was the best part.
