Cooking

“Lydia.”, I hear a voice whisper as I am shaken awake. Who is Lydia? Oh right, me. “It’s time to start helping with the cooking!”, The voice continues whispering as I slowly open my eyes. My first sight is the ceiling of the main hallway. I look towards my feet to see I am being dragged by the ankle by one of the caretakers. “You’re such a pain.”, Dandelion grumbles as she drags me towards what I can only assume is the kitchen. The real punishment seems to be that I have to deal with the teen girl. Why is she on kitchen duty anyways?

The teen caretaker lets go of my ankle and helps me to my feet at the closed door of the kitchen. What an annoying girl, glad I will not be dealing with her for the rest of my life. She opens the door as I rub my eyes, I do not feel as tired as I had expected. Must be from being physically a child again.

The room is rather spacious, is this where all the square footage went? A long continuous counter lines the wall next to the door all the way to the wall on the other side of the room. All the cabinets are on the back wall over the counter while a large island is in the middle of the room.

“Oh Dandelion!”, An older woman’s voice excitedly greets the teen as she walks into the room. “And our new worker Lydia!”, The woman continues as she sees me as well. “Aren’t you just adorable!?”, She adds as she walks over to me and pinches one of my cheeks.

“And who are you?”, I ask the older woman as she finally lets go of my cheek.

“Viola dear.”, She chuckles as she walks over to the back wall of cabinets. “I’m not surprised you’ve never talked to me before.”, She adds as she continues to chuckle to herself. Unlike Dandelion, I am concerned about this elderly woman. Viola should be retired not making food for a dozen children! Dandelion walks over to the far end of the island and grabs a piece of string from underneath it.

“Does anyone else help with cooking?”, I ask as I step up to the island.

“Not this early.”, Viola says as she walks over to the island with a bag of flour. I widen my eyes in surprise at the size of the bag and jump a bit at the loud thump of the bag as the elderly woman puts it on the island. “You’ll get used to it.”, The woman says giving me a gentle smile.

“And what does she do here?”, I inquire about Dandelion after I collect myself.

“I have a name.”, The teen grumbles at me as she is standing in front of an oven.

“Dandelion starts the fire for the oven.”, Viola answers my question as she bends down to get closer to my eye level. “You should watch it.”, She adds rather excitedly clearly trying to get me interested. I am pretty sure how she will do it but I turn around and look anyways.

I watch Dandelion holding the bit of string in between her fingers as she seems to be focusing on the tip of it as it ignites. She tosses it into the oven and turns back around towards Viola and I as the tinder inside the oven quickly burns.

“You know magic!?”, I exclaim slack jawed and unable to hide my excitement. Viola chuckles as Dandelion walks over to the island once again.

“Yeah, just a little.”, The teen responds clearly annoyed as she grabs a jar from the island.

“That is amazing!”, I say as I bounce up and down with energy. “Can you teach me!?”, I inquire without being able to contain my excitement.

“Now Lydia.”, Viola interrupts as she heads to a door to outside. “I need you to grab somethings from below the island. You’re the perfect height to do it.”, She orders me with a chuckle. “Dandelion knows what you need to grab and I need to get some eggs.”, She adds before she heads out the door.

-- -- --

I sit at the table in our cramped dining room and lean back in my chair. I never believed in that whole making the food yourself tastes better, but that biscuit and eggs was tasty.

“Wanna play?”, The girl from before asks me.

“No thanks.”, I say as I rest my hands on my stomach from the filling meal.

“Alright.”, She says with a shrug as she jogs off. Ah, to be young again. Before I can get lost in thought I notice Dandelion getting up after finishing eating.

“Lion!”, I exclaim to get her attention as I get up and follow the teen. She ignores me as she walks into the hallway. “Dandy!”, I yell behind her as I catch up.

“It’s Dandelion!”, The teen yells in anger as she stops and spins around to face me. She points a finger at me and bends down as she continues, “Not Lion. Not Dandy.”

“Yes ma’am.”, I respond surprised as Dandelion stands straight again and huffs. I did not expect her to snap at me immediately.

“Miss Dandelion.”, Gardenia speaks with a sweetly threatening tone. “We need to have a conversation. In private.”, The mother says as she puts a hand on the teen’s shoulder. Dandelion’s eyes go wide in fear as she is practically dragged away by Gardenia.

I follow the two caretakers while attempting to appear nonchalant. They enter Gardenia’s small office and, of course, close the door. I quietly step up to the door and put my ear to the door to ear the conversation.

“You cannot yell at children like that.”, Gardenia’s voice is stern as she berates the teen caretaker.

“But she-”, Dandelion tries to counter.

“Is six years old. Of course she is going to be bothersome to you.”, Gardenia says interrupting Dandelion. “I understand they can be agitating, especially to someone younger like you.”, Gardenia begins to explain. “What did she even want from you to get you so angry?”, The mother interrupts her own explanation with the question.

“She called me lion and dandy…”, Dandelion huffs the words in annoyance. Wow, that really gets to her huh?

“So she likes you?”, Gardenia asks. “Has no one ever shortened your name before?”, She inquires further. A moment of silence falls before the woman continues, “People only do that if they like that person.” Gardenia is not wrong but I did not like Dandelion, her name is just ridiculous to me. A chuckle escapes my lips at the thought.

“Huh?”, The teen asks at the sound of my laugh.

“Who is that?”, Gardenia asks as I hear the cracking of the floor as she stands up.

I sprint away from the door and down the stairs as fast as possible. I make it to the stairs before I hear the door open.

“No one there.”, I hear Gardenia sigh in annoyance as I sit on some steps trying to hide myself.