The Demon's Soul

Lillian wasn’t sure why her school had added a cooking class this year for the high school senior and even though she wasn’t exactly fond of it, here she was baking a batch of cookies with Gwen and Mary, one of the top student of her class. Mary was quite a demanding girl, having the need to control things around her which didn’t sit well with both the girls. Moreover, instead of doing things with them, she stood all high and mighty bossing around them.

"Did you add the milk-made cream?" Mary asked Lilly.

"Yes."

"And the powder?"

"Did that too," Lilly replied to see Gwen send a glare at her as o why she was listening to everything Mary was asking her to do. Lilly was more of the peacemaker who preferred to avoid trouble. Even though Gwen was enthusiastic about it in the beginning, she now only looked at them prepare it. Surely, Mary had no clue with how to bake cookies as she added everything in one go into the bowl, not worrying about the order of substance to be used.

"Let me go get the chocolate bars while you mix this real nice up," Mary said with a prim and proper accent, wiping her hand on the cloth which she had brought along with her.

"Sure," Gwen replied in a bored tone. When she went away Gwen pulled Lilly’s sleeve and whispered, "Is this only affecting me?"

"No, it is getting on me too. Do you think we should do something about it," Lilly asked with a small smile on her lips.

"I damn right say yes. Give that to me," Gwen took over the bowl and tasted the batter, crinkling her brows, "Let me make it better. The tastiest cookies he teacher has ever tasted," Lilly could see the devil’s two horns on her best friend’s head now. By the time Mary had returned back, Gwen had placed back the bowl in its place and at the end of the class, Mary wasn’t sure how the cookies tasted bitter and salty.

When lunch came, they went to the cafeteria to see the guys already seated in one of the tables talking to each other.

"Hey Lil’s," Marc greeted Lilly and when he tried taking a couple of french fries from her tray, his hand was swiftly swatted away, "Ow!"

"These are mine," she said pulling the tray as close to her.

"Yeah, sure. I’ll see you at seven at your house," they heard Rick speak on his phone.

"Was it Kim?" Sam asked as he played with his fork.

"Yeah," Rick replied, "I think it’s time to move forward. I’ll be going ahead," Lilly wondered what they were talking about.

"Me too," Marc said, "Later guys," and both of them left.

"What was Rick talking about?" Lilly asked curiously seeing them out of sight. Sam carefully twirled his fork, and answered, "Rick has a date tonight," he replied looking at Gwen.

"Oh," was all she could say.

None of them brought the topic again as lunch proceeded. On their way to their next class, Lilly shook her friend to make sure she was still there with her.

"Gwen? You okay?" Lilly asked worried since Gwen looked dazed.

"Yeah, I am amazing," she replied with a small smile and Lilly put her arm around her giving her the unspoken encouragement. Before they could reach class, Lilly halted midway making Gwen tilt her head in confusion, "What happened?"

"You know what? Let us ditch class today. I think I want to watch a movie!"

"I think I want to watch a movie too," Gwen replied making Lilly smile.

"What movie do you think we should watch?" she asked to cheer her friend up.

Catching a bus, they headed towards the theater and buying tickets for the two of them. Entering the hall, they realized they were ten minutes late and Lilly apologized to the person they had to pass in front of as his view had disrupted because of them. Looking from the corner of her eye, she saw Gwen’s eyes glued to the screen. She didn’t look sad but she was way too quiet and Gwen was never quite! When the movie was over, everyone began exiting and so did they, following the crowd to the exit.

"Better?" Gwen who was stretching her hands smiled.

"Much better," she replied with a faint smile. Seeing the poster next to them, both Lilly and Gwen stopped by to look at it, "What are we going to do next?" she asked.

"I don’t know. What do you say for another round of movie?" Lilly asked already knowing the answer to it.

"Yes of course!" she exclaimed. Going back to the counter again they bought the tickets for the next movie.

"Lilly, I need to pee."

"This is why you don’t drink two glasses of cold drinks in the cold theater. I think the washroom is on the right corner. I will go buy popcorn in the meantime."

After buying two popcorns, one for her and the other for Gwen, she took a seat on one of the spare sofa whilst waiting for Gwen to come. Fifteen minutes passed and Lilly had begun to worry. Had something happened to Gwen? Worried she stood up to only see her making her way to where she was. She wasn’t alone but had company. It was Ace and his friend Cole. She noticed Gwen smile at something Cole said to her. In some way, Cole had a boyish charm around him. She wondered if Gwen was aware that she had been trying to push the strand of her hair behind her ear as they spoke.

"Lilly, it is nice to see you," Cole greeted her. Ace just looked at her with no reaction in particular.

"Hey," she greeted them.

"We are watching the same movie," Cole waved the tickets in his hand.

"Cool. Do you guys wanna buy something? We have five more minutes before the movie starts," she asked them.

"Yes. See you guys later," he said waving and left us to go with Ace.

"You know he’s nice," Lilly commented at Cole.

"I know it’s weird," Gwen replied looking at the tickets.

"Weird?" she asked confused.

"Yeah, I mean he is nice. But he looks me in the eye and I find it hard to look into his eyes. It isn’t bad but just weird."

"He’s smitten by you. Maybe its love at first sight."

"Yeah, right," her best friend laughed, "Let’s watch the movie now."