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“Allie, it’s eight in the morning on a Saturday- why are you up?”
“Well! I’m here because I want to make something sweet for our friends! And you-” Allie pointed the wooden spoon at her glowing friend, “are going to help me.”
The freckled brunette had shown up at Mayari’s dorm room early that morning, practically buzzing with excitement. Mayari was definitely a little intimidated by her seemingly endless amounts of energy, if nothing else.
“Wouldn’t you rather have someone else’s assistance…? Like Sir Valentine, or maybe Mallow-?” she rambled, not quite fully awake. Allie twirled the spoon, grimacing at the thought.
“...Yeahhhhhhh… nope,” she sighed, popping the p dramatically. “Love 'em to death but I wouldn’t even trust them with a salad. Last time I asked for Valentine’s help he accidentally broke two of the bowls we were using and nearly set the kitchen on fire- but at least what he made was edible. I can't really say the same for Mallow…” Allie shuddered at the thought of the first and only time Mallow was given access to the kitchen. Even Mayari, who didn’t really cook much, had heard stories about “The Incident”, which had caused her friend to be banned from the kitchen for life. “And Valentine’s busy, anyways. He’s got a date with uh… the influencer guy from one of the other classes. Which leads me to you! I know you can cook, and we’re not making anything too difficult, plus I want to get to know you better! Does that sound alright?”
Mayari blinked, slightly overwhelmed by Allie’s rambling. The thespian certainly loved to talk, and it was hard to stop her once she got going.
“Uh- yeah! That sounds good-” she stuttered, to Allie’s delight.
“Awesome sauce! Meet me in the kitchen in fifteen minutes or so. You don’t need to bring anything either. See you in a minute!” And with that, she was gone. Mayari sighed, shutting the door so she could go get ready.
What in the world had she just agreed to?
…
Mallow woke up to an unusually empty dorm suite. Her roommate was a lot of things, but quiet certainly wasn’t one of them. Allie wasn’t usually up super early, and when she was, it didn’t exactly lead to peaceful mornings. Something was clearly afoot.
If her work on detective shows had taught her anything, it’s that there were always clues to be found at the scene of the crime. Footprints, missing items, bits of destruction-… oh. Taped to the fridge was a pastel pink sticky note, familiar neat handwriting printed onto the paper. Far more disappointing than the dramatic twist she was hoping for… but still an answer nonetheless.
(Hi Mallow! Sorry for being gone this morning, I’m busy with a project downstairs in the kitchen. DO NOT come try and help, we don’t want a repeat of last time :) -Allie ♡)
There was even a little doodle of a ferret with a flower underneath her name. Cute. The message itself wasn’t as cute, though.
“You put one fork in the microwave one time…” She muttered, sulking. It was true, though; Mallow was a crummy cook and she knew it. Her culinary skills were limited to peanut butter sandwiches and microwave noodles, though she’d definitely forgotten to put water into those once or twice, much to Allie’s annoyance. If there was someone with the ability to ruin literally any kitchen she tried to cook in, it was her.
Allie on the other hand, made really really good food, and Mallow wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity to scavenge the kitchen while she worked. Course, she didn’t want to completely disregard her roommate’s wishes, but she did see a loophole. Allie made this far too easy for her.
…
Mayari hadn’t expected to be in the kitchen that morning, but life was full of surprises. Thank goodness this was one of the better ones. She watched as Allie tied her hair back and pushed it out of her face, before flipping through a heavily decorated pastel-orange binder. All of the pages had doodles and chicken-scratch scribbled in the margins with colorful pens, along with the recipe itself.
“You don’t have any allergies, right?” She asked, finally settling on a page she seemed satisfied by.
“No, I don’t think so. What are we making?” Allie did a dramatic little flourish with her hands, before taking the sheet out of the binder and handing it to Mayari.
“Chocolate chip cookies! Pretty easy recipe to follow, extremely tasty!” She exclaimed, getting out the ingredients. “Can you go ahead and preheat the oven for me? 375 degrees, please.”
Mayari did so, moving the knobs as she heard footsteps coming towards the kitchen. A familiar mess of green hair bounced as she walked, before sitting down at the kitchen island with a grin from ear to ear.
“You weren’t supposed to be in the kitchen, Mallow. I specifically asked you to stay out while I’m cooking-” Allie sighed in affectionate annoyance as she walked over and batted the director’s hand away with the whisk she was holding. Mallow muttered something about Allie not appreciating loopholes.
“You didn’t say I couldn’t be here, just that I couldn’t help. I won’t touch any of your stuff! I swear-” Mallow exclaimed. She attempted to stand up on the stool to emphasize her point, but stumbled and nearly fell onto the floor. Mayari giggled at her, while Allie simply shook her head, badly trying to hide a smile.
“Mallow. I love you, but you are a walking disaster-”
“I can be good! That one didn’t count, I promise.” Allie rolled her eyes at the statement, but Mallow could tell she wasn’t really annoyed.
“Aw, I don’t think she’s doing much harm, Allie. Let’s give her a chance?” Mayari said, very clearly entertained by the shenanigans. Allie sighed, giving in to the test subject’s defense of her friend.
“If she touches so much as a spoon…”
“What harm could she do with a spoon?” Allie’s face formed a grimace. Those were the eyes of someone who’s seen things, someone who was present for the “Metal-in-the-microwave incident”(Which, according to the director, totally wasn’t Mallow’s fault). Mallow smirked, trying to look as innocent as possible.
“Absolutely none”
“I’m sure” the thespian sighed, moving on to mix together the dry ingredients, while Mayari handled creaming together the butter and sugars. From there, things actually went relatively smoothly, while the three engaged in polite conversation and gossip. According to Allie, apparently, Mr. Dog, the current teacher of their theater-related classes, was rumored to be in a relationship with Mr. Littlewood, their homeroom teacher. Mallow revealed some drama going down in her film classes, something about two students fighting over having the same idea for a project… Mayari wasn’t really paying attention though. She was never one to gossip, typically ending up on the other side of it due to her interesting talent and weird glow. So while the other two were getting into a debate about something irrelevant(whether they’d rather care for a dog or a cat, which was kind of odd considering the school’s “no pet” policy), Mayari handled the rest of the recipe. She was about to start washing out the bowls they had used when she heard a disturbance in the conversation from where the other two girls had been chatting.
“Mallow, I told you- You can’t eat the raw cookie batter-”
“Cookie dough is edible though! That’s proven, isn’t it?” the director rubbed her hand where Allie had batted it away with the spoon. The brunette was normally down for her roommate’s shenanigans, but here she looked like she was losing her mind while trying to stop a cat from eating plastic.
“You’re thinking of the cookie dough that’s specifically made for eating. This has raw eggs in it- you’re going to get sick. Mayari, can you put these in the oven? I don’t want her getting into the batter again” Mayari sighed, and hesitated while staring at the oven.
“...I’m actually not that good with heat- can you do it Allie?” the thespian nodded, sliding the cookie tray onto the oven rack, before closing it with a smile and a dramatic flourish. She set the timer, grabbed some wipes to clean off the counter as she got right back into her conversation. Mayari used the time to space out, getting lost inside her own head as she so often liked to do. She didn’t realize how long it had been until the director was waving a hand in front of her face and snapped her out of it.
“Heya! Earth to ‘Yari! You’ve been awfully quiet since we started, what’s going on?”
“Huh? Oh- just thinking.” Mallow and Allie shared a look, a massive grin on the latter’s face.
“Thinking about something? Or… someone?” she said, raising and lowering her eyebrows. Mallow looked like she was trying really hard not to laugh.
“I don’t think you two get to talk. You guys haven’t stopped flirting since Mallow got here-” she was uncharacteristically teasing much to Allie’s immediate stammering defense. The poor girl was flustered, barely able to string together a comprehensible sentence while Mallow lost her composure and cackled at her roommate’s plight. After an uncomfortable thirty seconds, the oven beeped, leaving Allie to rush back and pull out the cookies, thankful for the distraction.
“I wouldn’t worry about it too much, Mayari. I know you’ve got your own things to deal with, we’re just teasing you” Mallow smiled, fidgeting with an egg timer that Allie forgot to put up. Mayari blinked at her in confusion. Did they seriously think she was affected by that?
“You guys know I’m not a baby, right?-” She started before the sound of a tray slamming down interrupted her.
“Annnnnnnd we’re done here!~” Allie exclaimed, taking off her oven mitts. “Just gotta wait for them to cool, that actually took a lot less time than I thought!” Mallow grinned at her, immediately forgetting whatever she was talking about.
“Nice! Do you guys have any plans for the rest of the day? I already finished the short film we had due so… I’m completely free” Allie thought for a second, before her eyes lit up with an idea.
“Do you two want to watch a movie in our dorm? We’ve got all day, we could marathon one of the best movie trilogies of all time....” Mallow let out a groan in anticipation. Mayari had heard her complain a couple of times about her roommate’s… questionable taste in movies.
“Al- High School Musical doesn’t even come close to the ‘greatest film trilogy’-”
“BUBUBUBUBUBUB NOPE I DON'T WANT TO HEAR IT” She waved a finger in Mallow’s face, hushing her. Mayari giggled at their antics, interjecting.
“Allie, maybe pick something different? You’ve suggested High School Musical 2 every time we try to have a movie night…”
“UGH fine… only because you said so, not because Mallow did.”
The three of them were curled up on the dorm couch, sharing a bowl of popcorn and a plate of the cookies they made. Allie had made herself into a little ball, resting her head on Mallow’s shoulder, while the director played with her hair. Mayari sat on the other side of the couch, feeling a little bit like a third wheel but enjoying the movie nonetheless. She’d never seen this one before, but the other two were fully invested. Some sort of pirate had just tricked a man into drinking poison so he could save a princess… or something. Apparently it was one of Allie’s favorites, though, so she did her best to try and understand it.
It was a serene moment. A nice moment, something she’d have to cherish. She wanted every moment like this before… before she…
“May-may…… you’re not paying attention” Allie whined, turning her head away from the screen. Mallow turned Allie’s head back, grumbling about her messing up the hair she was braiding. She smiled sheepishly, but didn’t complain about the director starting over. It was nice. All of them were happy, all of them were together… Even the bad thoughts couldn’t ruin it at the moment.
Mayari turned her eyes back to the movie, taking in the comforting feeling.
(You’ll always remember this.)