I hang up the call and put my phone away. I sigh and head to class. See, what Garu doesn't know is that I'm getting destroyed here. The stress and lose of hope here everyday. My uncles told me it would be like this, but I still came. My cooking is horrible, everyone knows that. I sit at my counter with my partner. He doesn't talk to or even like me, I don't know what I did to get on his bad side. The only things he says to me is what ingredients to get, what to do and spitting out my attempt and yelling at me. I guess he comes from a great cooking family cause his skills are out of this world. He's really good. Sometimes he takes over my work as well so we won't get in trouble or lose the competition.

"Alright everyone. Today we will be cooking Sukiyaki. Go to the pantry and collect your ingredients."

My partner looks at me, "make sure to grab beef, soy sauce, sake, mirin rice wine and sugar. I'll take care of the vegetables." I silently nod. A lot sound goes off and we know what it means. We all run to the pantry, me with my speed I get there first. I grab the beef and look around for sugar. I find it beside the flour and put it in my basket. I grab the soy sauce, sake mirin rice wine. They are all close to each other so it wasn't a big problem. I run back to our counter and begin cutting up the beef in thin but not too thin slices about 1/8 inches thick each.

My partner is finally heading back towards our counter. I move the beef to one side and begin making the sauce. I grab a small sized sauce pan and begin to measure the ingredients. 1 cup sake, 1 cup marin, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 cup soy sauce the ingredients begin to boil as I stir them together. Perfect, I set the sauce aside, Hikaru begins to work in the vegetables. I grab a small pot to warm up or cook the udon. The water is boiling and I know it's time to drop the udon in. After they loosen I put them in iced water to prevent over cooking and then set in a plate. I begin to cut up the tofu into small squares, I cut 10 just to make sure. Hikaru begins prepares to cook the meat. Pouring 1 tablespoon of oil into a portable gas cooker.

He places the meat, it soon begins to sizzle and he sprinkles brown sugar on top. I pass him the sukiyaki sauce I made earlier and he begins to pour some on top. He takes a slice and eats it, for once this year I have seen him smile. He looked at the beef but I heard him mutter a sentence. "You did a good job on the sauce Pucca..." I smiled to myself as he said those words. Usually he would spit out the food I made and begin yelling at me, so this is a serious improvement. He pours 1 1/3 of sauce exact, he has serious eyeball measuring skills. He then sumberges 2/3 of the meat in a cup of Dashi still on the gas cooker. I begin to add the ingredients as he submerges them as well. All except for the udon. He places a lid over it and we wait until we hear it boil. We don't plan on bringing the whole cooker up to our sensei so we begin to carefully put it all in a bento.

The meal looks delicious. I went for a piece of meat but Hikaru slaps my hand, "Don't touch that. We could lose some points."

"R-Right! Sorry!"

"Here.", I turn to look at him and his hand, he holds up a small plate with what remains from our cooking. My eyes widen as a smile spreads on my face, I grab the plate and thank him. "Yeah ok." I begin to eat and my taste buds exploded! The taste was remarkable! I left some for Hikaru. I handed him the plate, "you still left some." I smiled sweetly, "I want you to enjoy some too!" He smiles. Again and begins to eat.

"Alright hands up! No more cooking!"

I look around and see people groan and look like they are to cry at any moment. "I will call you up one by one, you and your parents are to bring your sukiyaki up for me to taste." I begin to worry myself. We did finish before time was called and were able to enjoy the remains of the dish. But will sensei like it as much as we do? Only one was to find out!

Sensei clears his throat, "alright. Oliver and Ryuk. Come up and show up your Sukiyaki."

Oliver and Ryuk nervously head to the front, sukiyaki in hand. They place it infront of sensei. He grabs his chopsticks and takes a piece of the beef. The tension in the room grows. The suspense killing us all. He chuckles. Oliver and Ryuk look up at him. "Is this what you call Sukiyaki!? Who cooked the meat?"

"I did..." Oliver looks down. "The beef is undercooked. Oliver I expected better. Who made the sukiyaki sauce?"

"I did." Oliver answered again. "The sauce is just right, so what did Ryuk do?"

"I um...I cut everything and placed everything together."

"I see.." a loud silence grew in the room. "Well. I say this is an ok meal."

The two boys sigh and return to their counter.

Other students were called up. Some getting horrible reviews and even yelled at, others were told they did excellent. Finally me and Hikaru were the last pair. "Hikaru and Pucca. Please come up and show us your dish." I carried the bento box and Hikaru stood beside me making sure I didn't drop anything or even trip. We got there safely and I set the bento box on the table. He takes a piece of the beef and some udon. Eating him carefully and slowly, savoring every flavor. His eyes widen. We both grow nervous as we have never seen this reaction before. He smiles and I swear I saw a sparkle in his eye as if he ate a piece of candy for the first time as a child. "T-This is amazing! Who made the sauce?" I slowly raise my hand, "Pucca! You did great the sauce is absolutely perfect! Who cooked the food? Both of us raise our hands. "Team effort, perfect. He looks over our heads and shouts at the class. "You see these two worked together perfectly! Why can't any of you mother fricking children can't!?"

Everyone's eyes widened. He was so close to cursing at up, it wouldn't be the first. But as a teacher he wasn't allowed to really do that so he had to limit his cursing. "You two impressed me this evening. Congratulations, you two won't cook the next round instead, you will be choosing what these other students cook." Me and Hikaru look at each other. For the first time we weren't yelled at. wasn't yelled at! We both thanked him a man behind him led us to a room.

I wonder if I return my uncles would let me cook this...maybe Garu will like it too!

I use my phone as we watch the others cook, I dial Dada. "Hey Pucca!"

"Hi Dada! How are you and our uncles?"

"I'm doing fine, our uncles busy as always."

"Can you tell them I want to share some news?" Dada nods and places the phone down in the distance I can hear him calling out for our uncles. They all come over to the phone and I smile. "Hello Pucca! Dada told us you want to share something?" I nod happily. "So my teacher made us cook sukiyaki. Me and Hikaru had the best score! I ACTUALLY COOLED SOMETHING EDIBLE!!!" My uncles' eyes widen. They begin to cheer for me. "Congratulations sweetheart! We knew you could do it!! We can't wait for you to return and cook Sukiyaki for us! We would love to try it!" I giggled. We said our goodbyes and I put my phone away humming a little tune.

"Family?" I look up at Hikaru, "o-oh yeah! My cousin and Uncles. Hey why don't you call your family?" He shakes his head and sighs. "They're too busy..." I tilt my head, I know he's lying but I don't want to force him into talking. "Oh...ok then.." he looks at meI guess he noticed the sadness in my tone. He gives me a reassuring smile and look back at the other students. I smile and look back at the others as well as they compete to impress sensei.