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"Where's everyone?" Lena muttered as she stood in the living room of Ernst's house.
"They were all tasked to go to complete the weekly shopping," Frederica replied, poking her head from the hallway behind Lena. "Teresa asked them to go in her place."
"Oh, and where are you going?"
"Teresa is taking me to see this film–The Cockroach Hero! I've been waiting for months!!"
The enthusiastic Frederica started jumping up and down on the stop, filled with excitement.
"A-Ah i see! C-cockroach hero huh...how exciting." Lena responded, fully aware of how fake she sounded. She hoped that Frederica wouldn't tell as she quick turned away to hodr her slightly broken smile.
Lena hated bugs. Despise them.
The way they move and look made her skin crawl.
She entered the kicthen to place down the small bag of ingredients she carried into the house.
"Teresa, is okay if I start now?" Lena shouted from the kicthen. To her surprise, Teresa entered the kitchen quicker than she anticipated.
"Miss Vladilena, yes you can," She responded. "I'll look forward to seeing how your cooking is progressing."
Lena decided to come over and show off her cooking skills after attending some classes for the past few months. The spearhead group were a bit reluctant to accepting the offer due to intel from Annette. But after hearing that she was taking classes from the same culinary school as Anju, they felt a bit reassured.
Cautious but a bit reassured.
Lena took out the contents of her plastic bag and lay them out on the countertop.
"Today, I'm going to make the greatest food creation ever. Mac and cheese!" Lena declared, pointing her finger up and striking a pose.
"Miss Vladilena, we'll see you later."
"Eh?!" Lena turned in surprise, her posing still locked in place. Theresa and Frederica stood in under the door frame to the kitchen.
"Hehehe," Frederica giggled. "I can't wait to tell Shinei about this."
The two walked away, leaving Lena in the kitchen, blushed in a bright red.
The reason why Lena is taking cooking classes you ask?
It was long ago when Lena heard how well Shin made that french toast and somehow felt slightly jealous after learning that he wasn't tok great at cooking too.
Thus, she wanted to cook something that would atleast make equal to Shin's cooking skill. It was an unexpected competitive feeling she didn't realise having until now.
Having some sort of rivalry towards someone she's...interested in is quite the lovely feeling in her heart.
Determined, Lena started to cook the famous mac and cheese recipe.
She begun by preheating the oven to 375° and buttering the baking dish.
Then in a large pot, she boiled salted water, pouring the macaroni in. Lena stirred the pot occasionally for five to six minutes. To avoid overcooking, she had placed timer.
It wasn't longer before she noticed a faint chemical smell.
"Hm? What's that smell?"
Then, in the corner of her eye, she noticed something crawling towards her on the countertop. Without fully registering what it was, Lena knew immediately.
It had a small head with a flattened and broad body, red-brown in colour. Its six thin legs moving across the countertop at a high pace.
And worst yet, several of them were there. It was remnants of the cockroach infestation that the group experienced yesterday dspite being very thorough with eliminating them.
But that didn't matter to Lena.
She dropped the wooden spoon on the ground.
"A-a-ah..." her body shivered in fear.
It was something she hated.
"Ah....Ahhhhhhhh"
Cockroaches.
"ARGHHHHHHHHHHHHH"
Outside the streets of Giad, the spearhead squadron was walking back, holding multiple heavy bags of shopping in hand. They were a few streets away from Ernst's house.
"Urgh...my arms..i can't hold them for much longer." Kurena moaned in pain.
"Quit whining, we're almost there." Theo replied, even though he was also having the exact thoughts but didn't want to admit it out loud.
"Oh my Theo, aren't you struggling as much as Kurena?" Anju teased.
"Hey, what do you mean Anju?!" Theo snapped back. "I-I can carry her bags right now to prove you wrong!"
"Oh my, oh my. You hear that Kurena?"
"Y-yeah! Thank you Theo."
Kurena have her bags of shopping to Theo and walked a bit further ahead to avoid him chasing her in case he changed his mind.
Meanwhile, both Raiden, Anju & Shin continue to carry the heaviest amount of shopping in their hands.
Then, a random question popped up in Kurena's mind.
"By the way guys, Lena's cooking at Ernst's house right instead at her place right?" Kurena asked.
"Yes. Why?" Raiden responded.
"Did you guys tell her about the cockroach infestation we had yesterday?"
"..."
"F**k" [Theo]
"Sh*t" [Raiden]
"Oh no" [Anju]
"Nope" [Shin]
Without a single moment of hesitation, the group started running.
"AAAAAAAAAA" Lena screamed as she ran to the corner of the kitchen, far from the counter she was standing in.
"Cockroaches?? Why are they so many of them??? I-I need to call Shin!"
But to her demise, she had forgotten to bring her pararaid with her. Instead, she had her cellphone...which was on the same countertop where the cockroaches are.
"DAMN IT NOOOOOO!" She screamed internally.
Lena spent a moment thinking about what she could do. However, the boiling pot of pasta started to overflow with steam bubbles and boiling water. The lid wobble over the pot, waiting to fall.
Then the timer went off.
"Oh no! The pasta! I need to stop the gas," Lena was about to take a step forward but stopped after looking at the cockroaches ahead.
"T-they're so close to the stove...but if i don't turn it off, the pasta will be overcooked..."
After firmly gripping her hands, Lena mustered all of her strength to force herself to turn off the stove.
"Okay...here we go..."
She quickly walked to the stove, her eyes lasered to the stove only. She tried her best not to look at the small crawling cockroaches just centimetres away.
Lena reached out her hands, knocking over the empty pasta boxes fell besides the stove. With hands trembling in fear, she successfully turned off the stove. Her attention then quickly focused on the cellphone. Her hands already making their way to grab it.
"Yes! Now, while I'm at it, I'll grab my cellphon-"
Her hand suddenly stopped.
Her eyes couldn't stop looking at the scene that's happening in front of her.
"T-they...they...THEY'RE MATING ON MY CELLPHONE!?!?!?!"
The group arrived at Ernst's house, exhausted from the running. Shin was the first to arrive at the door and placed his hand on the door knob.
But he then heard a faint scream, stopping him from opening the door. The scream was slowly getting louder and louder.
Shin decided to take a step back, raising his arms in front of the second person arriving at the door.
"Shin, what's wrong?" Raiden asked, stopping just behind Shin's arm
"...here she comes."
"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!"
The front door slammed wide open and a frightened Lena jumped out. Shin caught her in his arms as if expecting such a situation.
"Lena, what's wro-"
"COCKROACHES SHIN. COCKROACHES ARE MATING ON MY CELLPHONE."
"W-what?"
"Umm...what's the smell?" Raiden asked.
The three turned to the opened door.
Before realising what was the smell, the fire alarm went off. Finally, the rest of the group arrived. Only for them to see Lena in Shin's arm, Raiden running inside, and a faint trail of smoke from the house.
"W-what's this?!?" shouted a very confused Ernst, dropping his briefcase.
Ernst, Teresa & Frederica found themselves standing at the gate to their house, staring the firefighters leaving the house.
Lena and the spearhead squadron was sitting on the stairs infront of the front doors with multiple bags of shopping next to their feets.
While Lena had turn off the stove, she accidentally knocked over the empty cardboard pasta boxes beforehand. Which shortly caught on fire after she screamed and ran out of the kicthen upon the sight of the cockroaches on her cellphone.
Thankfully, the fire was contained rather quickly and Ernst gets to keep his house with minimal damages which were compensated from Lena's pocket for a few months.
And Lena's mac amd cheese? Burnt.
Another batch was later made to calm down the angry Ernst and Teresa.
In the end, Lena was banned from cooking in Ernst's house.
THE END(?)