I count cooking as an integral part of my life. My parents met because they both took a cooking course in college. When I was born, Mama cooked most of my baby food by herself. Heck, the first time I ever cooked in my life was at 3 years old. I had made oatmeal and felt pretty proud. So cooking is my whole life, no one was going to get in the way of me getting that position.

Not even Derek Briggs.

We split into duos: Mariah and I, Derek and Ted, & Eloise and Ava.

All of us went to separate cooking stations ready to cook with whatever was in the cupboards and our fridge. I found rice noodles, raw chicken, and soy sauce. The obvious choice is to go for Chicken Noodle Stir Fry, so we get cooking.

As we boil the noodles and start chopping veggies, Mariah asks me, 'Are you and Derek close?'

'Why does everyone keep saying that? We're not. I just met him today and I've established that I don't like him.' I say slicing through half an onion.

'Sorry. I thought you two were close with how close you were to his face.'

'Don't worry about it, Mariah.' I sigh and place the onions in the bowl.

I look over to Ted and Derek and see the pair actually doing a great job which both annoyed and made me happy. I don't want Derek to beat me.

'You've gotta agree that Derek is social though.'

'What?' I turn over to Mariah and she shrugs at me.

'Everyone knows Derek since he's so sociable and smart.'

'I'm sociable and smart.'

Mariah raises her eyebrow. ' You sure about the first one, Brooke?'

I hesitate. 'Yep.'

I watch as Derek stirs his batter slowly. His sleeves have been pulled up exposing his forearms.

Stop staring Brooke.

Derek notices me staring and raises his eyebrows. I quickly look the other way, speeding up my speed of slices.

Crap...

Just then, I cut myself with the knife and blood started to flow out like water; strange since the weather is cold. To make matters worse, I instinctively winced out loud so the entire club can see how much of a clown I am.

'Are you alright Brooke?' Mariah asks. All eyes are on me.

' Yeah, I'm fine. I'm not 4 years old. I'll be fine.'

I run my hand under cold water avoiding eye contact with Derek but gosh darn it goes back to him. Derek is looking at me and his usual smirk is much wider than normal. He's amused by my incompetence.

I hate him.

We finish with our benches clean, and we all sit at the central table. The chicken noodle stir fry that Mariah and I made is good but might have too much soy sauce. That level of a salty aftertaste was enough to get even Ted to shake his head (he's the type of guy to add salt to almost everything.) Ava and Eloise made banana bread which looks exactly like those aesthetic photos on any socials. Ted and Derek made their take on savoury muffins which were unnecessarily good. Of course, that information is going to stay between me, myself and I.

Professor proceeded on his tangent of how important improvisation is in everyday life. The only person somewhat paying attention is Mariah but the rest of us were already deep or getting close to the sleeping stage.

We all vote on the best dish which just happened to be Derek's savoury muffin. Derek smirks again and walks up to me.

'Well, Coffee Addict, I guess the culinary club is fun. I'll make sure to beat you and have fun whilst doing so.' Derek grins, this time being the one to flick my forehead.

I don't respond but rather glare at him, refusing to accept defeat.

'Hey Brooke, I want to join the culinary club.' Mariah tells me as I look at her.

'Sure. As long as you let Professor know.'

Professor, two steps ahead of me, hands Mariah a form and pats her on the shoulder.

'Make sure to fill in the note as soon as possible.'

'Yes, sir.'