The Billionaire High School Bully

14 - The challenge in the school kitchen

As I was leaving the teacher's office, the corridor was still empty. Everyone was enjoying their lunches with friends and classmates, while my lunch buddy was apparently the homeroom teacher. What a company to have for eating food! But those sandwiches were so delicious!

"So after classes today I have to drop by the kitchen to see what tasks they have for me." I exhaled. All I wanted to do, coming here to this school, was to paint and draw and do things that I perceived as something that would be valuable in my life. 

"How is cooking valuable. It only takes time for nothing!" I kicked an imaginary bucket in the still empty corridor. As I was walking without paying any attention to my surroundings, I was bound to get lost. And I did! I looked around... I had no idea what place this was!

Wait, wait, wait... How can I be so stupid as to not even remember the way back to my classroom, where all my things are? I facepalmed myself gently.

"Oh, look, who's here!" My body twitched. I knew this voice! It was one of Benjamin's lackeys! I turned around to see the red-haired guy grinning.

"Got lost, kitty?" I opened my eyes wide and my mouth flew open.

"Huh?!" 

"Did you forget how to speak as well?" He came closer to me. I was still speechless. Did he just call me a kitty?!  I deflected his hand trying to touch my face.

"My name's Sophia. You better remember it instead of calling everyone a cat!" I stared at him. He wasn't going to get anything he wanted from me.

"No need to get all defensive with me! Not like you are attractive or anything like that. If you turn right at the next corner you will get to the Student Council premises. There are elevators past that. Enjoy going anywhere you want." He saluted to me with two fingers and passed by me without looking back. He was quite tall, my eyes were on the same level as his shoulders. He was a tall slim redheaded skirt chaser. Well, he did have a certain charm to him, which was quite visible. If I hadn't known what kind of people he was hanging out with, I might have been charmed by just his presence. With just one look he would be able to attract hundreds of fans if he had been a celebrity. A rock singer would suit him the best...

I turned around the corner. As I was passing by the huge door with a golden plate next to it, which read: Student Council, the door suddenly opened.

"Sophia!" I froze in movement. Another familiar voice! Why can't I have a tiny alone moment?! Why do these people have to be around me? I wanted to cry at my pitiable situation.

"Yes?" I sulked and turned around. With my head down I saw the male uniform with the shoes, which were also a part of the compulsory dress code. His shoelaces were neatly tied. I looked up, seeing Michael's face, having question marks written all over.

"How did you end up here? Want me to take you back to the cafeteria or the class?" He asked with a slight worry in his voice. Was the devil Benjamin still in the student council room? Michael grabbed my hand and dragged me further to the elevators, which were down the hall. Before he did, I heard voices from behind the closed door to the Student Council premises.

"You should be safe for now." He was breathing hard as we ran for quite a while. I nodded my head, catching my breath as well.

"I have to go attend the Art Committee for now. Don't worry, it will turn out well. I will do my best to defend your side." Michael smiled and ruffled my hair gently. His smile was so warm it melted all the worries in my heart. It felt like he was radiating with positivity, making all shadows disappear from my face. If I wasn't this puzzled, I bet I would smile together with him. Instead, I could feel my eyes wavering.

"Just go back to your class. You're not alone in here. The student council's responsibilities are to take care of all the students' interests. And I take my role there quite seriously." He smiled before straightening his back. All this time he was bending down to meet my eyes on the same level. I nodded, a smile creeping up on my face.

"Good! Just cheer up! It's not the end of the world!" He patted my head before turning to go away.

"Wait!" I finally spoke up. He stopped and turned back to me. I could feel that he was expecting something from me. It felt like he was actually waiting for me to call him. His whole face was tense and screaming: Yes? Say it, please!

"Thank you." I smiled, squinting my eyes and trying to project my warm emotions to him. I felt really thankful for all the things he was doing for me, or at least I was hoping he meant it seriously and wasn't lying.

"Y-Yeah." I opened my eyes to see him quite flustered.

"I-"

"Michael!" My body became all stiff. It was that demon's voice! Benjamin!

"I better go. Go back to class, the committee will be meeting in a while. I'll text you the outcome." Michael whispered to me as a couple of shoes were clapping closer and closer to us.

"Yeah, coming! Let's go!" Michael quickly stepped out from the corner behind which we were talking.

"I don't want to be late, we still have things to do after this. Make sure it goes without any hiccups!" Benjamin was speaking quite loudly. Or was he that close?!

"Don't worry, it won't take long. Just a few minutes is enough. It's a preliminary meeting, anyways. It's just to get things in order, that doesn't take too long." Michael was trying to make him feel better and probably even keep Benjamin and someone else away from where I was still frozen in one place. I couldn't move. Was it fear? Or was I angry? Which one of them was it? My head was empty, but at the same time, it felt like it was way too full. Guess I should head to my classroom. The class will be starting in fifteen minutes... Will take me a while to get there, anyway. I slowly started climbing the stairs, which were behind me. I didn't need to hear the rest of their conversation.

Afternoon, time for the club activities

"Welcome, miss Reed! We were waiting for you! You can help us make the tea for today, it takes the most time! And when you are done, we will start serving desserts and sandwiches!" The head chef welcomed me to the kitchen after I put on an apron, a net on my hair, and scrubbed my hands hard. Michael sent me a message before the lunch break was over that I had to hand in my canvas. I wasn't allowed to work on it until the committee had decided if I was the author, or if it was infringed. I sighed.

"Boiling water for tea, hm?" I filled all the electrical kettles to get the water boiling and started putting exactly measured amounts of rose and peach petals and some other ingredients as well. Their tea wasn't made by using cheap teabags. All of this looked organic and very expensive. There was no way I could ever get my hands on this in my ordinary life.

"Be careful, those roses are the Damascus ones! They are quite expensive. Try not to spill them!" One of the female kitchen staff commented on me stuffing everything in the porcelain kettles, while she was passing by.

"Okay!" I answered and kept going on. When the kettles were all ready for being taken to the club for having their afternoon refreshments, I was called to help with arranging the sandwiches.

"These are for the student council members. They each have different preferences, so we have different plates to distinguish their taste. This one here is for the president of the student council, this here is for vice-president, and so on. They are always lined up this way and above them, you can see the list of ingredients each of them wants and likes. So you should just assemble the sandwiches according to that and put them on the respective plates, that is all. We'll go deliver the Tea club refreshments. Good luck!" And with that, everyone from the kitchen left for the Tea club to serve the members the food and tea we all had been preparing for over an hour.

I started with making Michael's sandwich. The others could wait! If they had treated me better, I wouldn't mind making their sandwiches well!

"Oh, so Benjamin hates cucumbers? What a picky eater! Here you go, cucumber sandwich!" I put many sliced cucumbers in his sandwich. You don't like sunflower seeds? Oh, poor you. You should get some more in your side-salad! I made sure to put more seeds in his salad.

"Rex... no tomatoes for you? Your hair is red enough you think? But tomatoes are so healthy!" A few slices of tomatoes in his sandwich! I'll give you, treating me that way! Eat your food!

"Charles doesn't like egg yolks? Such a shame this fried egg is made with everything. Sadly can't serve you the eggshells cause someone else made it already." I placed the whole egg in his sandwich and covered them all. They were ready together with their side-salads. I covered them all with plastic wrap and put them on the cart with tea ready. Taking the elevator I stopped in front of the Student Council room. I knocked on the door.

"The refreshments are ready!" I called and quickly left. I hid behind a close corner to see Charles coming out to take the whole cart inside, the door closing behind him as he disappeared back inside.

"I hope you come to like your healthy sandwiches!" I grinned evilly and walked away, being proud of myself!

Benjamin

"Oh, the food finally arrived? They sure took their time today." I took my plate with a sandwich on it while reading some reports at the big table we were all sitting. Everyone was looking through reports and papers they received from their committees, clubs, and students. There were complaints, requests, financial statements, and many others. I took a bit of the sandwich.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" I yelled at the top of my lungs and spitted the food back to the plate!

"What's wrong?!" Charles was right at my side, seeing if I was fine.

"Cu...cu..." I couldn't find words! It was disgusting! This taste... It had to be cucumbers!

"Cu?" Charles asked, still not getting a full grasp of the situation.

"Freakin cucumbers!" I yelled out loud. The awful taste was all over my mouth.

"Oh come on, don't be a child!" Rex chuckled and took a bite of his sandwich. He froze and spitted it out on the plate as well!

"And who's the child now?!" I muttered while drinking tea to get rid of the awful taste. Damn cucumbers! They shouldn't even exist in this world!

"Tomatoes! Who the hell put the tomatoes in my sandwich! What bastard-!"

"Mine has egg yolk." Charles didn't even take a bite and opened his sandwich first, putting the top piece of bread aside. He was smart enough to check the contents. Nathan and Michael followed his suit.

"Who would put raisins in mine?!" Nathan sighed and started picking them out, putting them all over the plate.

"Mine looks fine." Michael assembled his sandwich back and started eating like nothing was going on. While I and Rex were on the verge of dying!

"Who did this?!"