“Welcome back,” her dad greeted as soon as he saw her.

  “Hey Dad. What are you making?”

  “Just a little something.” He seemed to be pretty focused on whatever he was making.

  She set her backpack on the couch before she investigated.

  “It smells good,” she said as she neared the counter. “What’s that?”

  “Mapo tofu.” He scooped up some of the saucy tofu and transferred it into a bowl.

  “Try it.”

  She grabbed a spoonful of tofu and let it cool for a moment before she took a bite. As soon as the food hit her tongue, she immediately recoiled.

  “It’s spicy! Really, really spicy!”

  “Just spicy?” he asked calmly while her mouth was practically on fire.

  “Yeah!”

  “I didn’t think it was that spicy.”

  “Dad . . .” She set the spoon down, the heat in her mouth didn’t let up. “Seriously?”

  “Okay, maybe it’s a little spicy,” he admitted.

  She opened the fridge to grab a carton of milk and poured herself a glass. “A little?”

  He frowned, took a bite out of the tofu, and after two seconds immediately asked, “Want to go out for dinner instead?”

  “Yeah.” She put the glass away. “That sounds like a plan.”

  “Okay, put away your things first and I’ll clean up.”

  She did as she was told. As she did, she wondered why her father had to pick that particular recipe. He wasn’t exactly a bad cook. In fact, he was the reason why she managed to eat a ton of different dishes in the first place.

  Still, mapo tofu? The only person who could perfect it was her mom, and she couldn’t even remember the last time they had it.

  She glanced at her dad and wondered if he still missed her as much as she does.

  She shook her head.

  Ridiculous. Of course he does.

  She couldn’t imagine how difficult it must have been for him. While she was still in her denial phase, he was already back on his feet, all while he worked hard to raise her on his own. Even though she knew it was a parent’s responsibility to take care of their kids, Aria knew that she made it much more difficult.

  “Aria, are we going?” her dad called out from down the stairs.

  “Yeah, I’m coming!” she replied and immediately went downstairs so they could head out.

  Having dinner with her dad was a nice change of pace. In what felt like the first time in ages, they were able to sit down in a nice restaurant, and have a solid meal together.

  She missed it. They used to always have dinner together without fail. Aria could even envision her mom at the table with them. If she were here, she would share stories about her day, while her dad silently criticize her food. Her mother of course, would then scold him in return for not being grateful enough.

  But things are different now.

  Time didn’t stand still, and they couldn’t go back to the way things were.

  They had to keep moving on.

  ***

  She didn’t realize how quickly the weekend flew by until she was facing the dreaded Sunday vibes. Aria wasn’t in full-on panic mode just yet, but maybe in a few hours she would be. Her English essay was almost done, but this was the easiest bit of the workload. She wasn’t exactly the greatest at the subject, but she knew it enough to get a good score.

  “Honors English, honors history, honors chemistry, honors physics, honors biology, college-level precalculus,” she whispered to herself as she looked at her planner, and tried to figure out which assignment she wanted to knock out next.

  History would take the longest because she would have to make labor intensive notes. Physics wouldn’t be too bad because it was just an extension of math. Mathematics would be quick until she touched anything beyond SOH-CAH-TOA, and, biology was all just memorization.

  Then there was chemistry.

  Oh, for the love of God, chemistry, and not just any chemistry—honors chemistry. It’s honestly the single class where she would accept the term ‘C’s get degrees’.

  Aria knew it in her heart and in her head that there would be no way for her to fully comprehend chemistry, but in order to get into a decent university, she would need to take the class.

  She needed to do this.

  She needed to get it done.

  At least, that’s what she told herself when she resigned herself to the assigned chemistry set. Still, the lesson last Friday wasn’t all that bad. If the sophomores could do it then so could she. Besides, it shouldn’t take more than an hour or two.

  What an overestimation.

  It took her half an hour to puzzle out the first two problems, and she had another eight to go. Her brain was practically doing mental gymnastics just to even figure out what the hell the questions were asking, and she had to search up countless times on the internet just to even paraphase the words before she could actually start solving the stupid problem.

  It wasn’t even noon yet and she already had a headache.

  This was a mistake.

  Aria should’ve done history first.

  Not six minutes later, her phone buzzed at her side, and she quickly reached out to open her messenger app.

  “Wanna hang out?’–10:44 AM

  It was Mira.

  “I have homework’–10:45 AM

  ‘Class?’–10:45 AM

  ‘Classes.’–10:46 AM

  ‘Gross’–10:48 AM

  ‘IK’–10:48 AM

  Maybe she was stalling, but a mini break wouldn’t hurt.

  ‘Chem is bullsh*t’–10:49 AM

  ‘Chems not that bad’–10:50 AM

  ‘Help me?’–10:51 AM

  ‘Nvm, see you Mon’–10:52 AM

  ‘Traitor.’–10:52 AM

  Aria huffed in annoyance as she set her phone back down. The stupid chem set wasn’t going to finish itself.

  ***

  Monday rolled around and her morning went by pretty quickly. Her English class was a success, math was alright, history was great, but chemistry had slowly became her archnemesis.

  By lunch time, she sat next to Mira, Adrian, and Nick, while she analyzed the red marks on her paper.

  How could she be this bad at chemistry? Honestly, what wasn’t clicking?

  “Hey, are you okay?” Adrian whispered.

  “No,” she admitted and pursed her lips. “Chemistry’s kicking my ass.”

  “It can’t be that bad,” he said as he tried to comfort her.

  She shook her head. “It’s bad.”

  “What’s bad?” Mira tuned in to the conversation.

  “My relationship with chemistry,” Aria admitted with a huff.

  Mira reached over and grabbed her paper. Her eyes widened when she looked at the marks.

  “Wow . . . how?” she finally said.

  “I don’t know,” Aria groaned.

  “How could you mess up glucose?” Nick asked after he checked out the paper to which she simply gave him a blank look.

  “Maybe you should get a tutor for chemistry,” Mira suggested.

  “Like, who’s gonna tutor chem?” Aria asked, already doubtful.

  “I dunno,” Mira said with a shrug, then looked at the two guys.

  Nick shook his head at this.

  “I’m not good with chemistry either,” Adrian muttered under his breath.

  Aria sighed.

  Goodbye scholarships, and hello life-crippling debts.

  “Why didn’t you take regular chemistry?” Adrian asked.

  Instead of giving him a direct answer, she merely told him the reason why she was stuck in the honors class.

  “The counselors said I would need to get Mr. Faust to sign some stupid paper that said I went to his class after school three times within the week along with my dad’s signature before I could go down a level.”

  “Why?” Nick asked.

  “I don’t know.” She shrugged.

  “Have you talked to Faust?” Mira asked. “Because if you’re struggling this much then it’s not worth it.”

  Aria scoffed, “I have, and he said that I just have to apply myself.”

  “Real motivational.”

  “Wait, hold on. Leila’s good at chem. I can ask her about it, so maybe she can help you?” Nick took out his phone and started to text.

  “I thought she was majoring in South African studies?” Aria asked.

  “She switched again. This time it’s science,” Nick answered.

  “Again?”

  “Yeah.” Nick shrugged. “She’s probably still in class right now, so I’ll let you know what she says.”

  “Oh my God. Thank you, Nick.” Aria clasped her hands together in relief. “You might’ve just saved me from this hell.”

  “Don’t thank me yet.”

  Now that the chemistry crisis has been averted, Mira leaned forward and asked, “Hey, so about that Spanish project, where are we going for that?”

  “We can go to my house,” Adrian offered. “The tres leches shouldn’t take long.”

  “That’s if we don’t burn it,” Mira said.

  “That’s if you don’t burn it,” Nick pointed out. “I’m good at cooking, so it’s definitely not my fault if something goes wrong.”

  “Wow,” she drawled. “Thanks.”

  “Why are you guys making a cake for the class?” Aria asked as she put away her papers.

  Mira replied, “Extra credit and I kinda need to make up for that test.”

  “The one you failed?”

  “Everyone failed it!”

  “Who is everyone?” Adrian asked her with a raised brow.

  “Fine, most of us regular people.”

  “Who are these regular people?” Nick looked at her with a frown.

  “Ugh!”

  Chapter 7

  Adrian

  It was supposed to be an easy project with no hassle and no worries.

  Unfortunately for him, he was currently cleaning the kitchen as if his life depended on it. Typically, his house was pretty clean as his mom made sure it stays that way with their weekly scrub-downs.

  Then again, maybe he was just being paranoid.

  Nevertheless, when Leila agreed to tutor Aria, it was understood that his house would be the first meeting point for some unknown reason. Nevertheless, if he had to guess, Adrian suspected it was Nick’s fault.

  Just as he was doing his best to make the kitchen look the most immaculate it had ever been since they moved in, he heard the doorbell.

  He immediately stopped what he was doing and took long strides towards the door, even sparing a moment to fix his hair before he finally opened it.

  It was just Nick with a bag of ingredients.

  “Hey.” Nick nodded in greeting. “You look out of breath.”

  He was about to retort but another person came through the door.

  “Adrian!” It was Leila. “It’s been a while.”

  “Hey,” he greeted. “How’s college?”

  “University is so fun,” she said convincingly.

  Nick moved past them and waltzed his way into the kitchen before he took out everything from the bag. “I think I have everything but the pan.”

  “Does Mira have it?” Adrian asked. “I don’t have any tin pans.”

  “We could always go to the store if she didn’t bring them.”

  “That’s true.”

  It wasn’t long until the doorbell rang again, and before he could get to the door, Leila beat him to it.

  “Hey!” Mira walked in with Aria.

  “Hey, good to see you again,” Leila spoke to both girls.

  “Good to see you too, and thanks so much by the way. Chem’s kicking my ass,” Aria replied.

  Adrian was confused. How did Leila know Aria?

  “Hey, Adrian, Nick.” Aria gave a small wave.

  “Hey.” Adrian followed her example.

  Nick yelled from the kitchen, “Mira, did you bring the pans?”

  “Yep!”

  “Hey, let’s go to the kitchen table. There’s way more space over there than the countertop.” Leila gestured Aria to follow as if this was her house.

  “Hold on, let me just take off my shoes.” Aria did a little hop until both her sneakers were off.

  “You didn’t have to,” Adrian said.

  “I insist,” Aria said. “Besides, I wouldn’t want people to walk around my house with their shoes on.”

  “So cultured.” Mira clapped before she followed suit.

  “Wait, let me just grab a pen real quick,” Leila said as she looked into her bag. “I’ll be right back.”

  “No worries,” Aria replied while Mira went into the kitchen.

  “So how do you know Leila?” Adrian asked. His curiosity was too strong to ignore now.

  Aria adjusted her backpack. “We met at a bakery down the street. It was kinda weird, but in a good way.”

  “Small world, huh?”

  “It’s a small world after all,” she sang the infamous song.

  “Oh God no,” Adrian groaned. “That ride is terrible.”

  “I thought it was cool, you know . . . before they sang the same lyrics over and over again”

  “The dolls don’t freak you out?” He started to walk towards where everyone else was.

  “I mean they do, but I try not to overthink it,” she said before she added, “It’s not exactly something I focus on when I’m in the most magical place on earth.”

  “Yeah—”

  “Adrian! Mira’s about to mix in the wrong things!” Nick’s voice interrupted.

  “You better go.” Aria made a face. “She might burn your house down.”

  He took her advice and immediately headed to the kitchen. Luckily, Mira only just started measuring the ingredients which didn’t even come close to the instructions.

  Unlike cooking, baking was science. Put in the wrong amount of one thing, and it will mess up the entire dish. Even the order of operations had to be precisely followed.

  Take macarons for example, if you overwhip the egg whites, it’ll form a lumpy shape along with some cracked tops, and if you didn’t sift the flour then the entire texture will be off.

  Bottom line: If something goes wrong in baking then there’s no way of simply “fixing” it.

  It hasn’t even been a full hour, yet the disastrous duo had already managed to screw everything up. Mira didn’t know the difference between a tablespoon and a teaspoon which messed up the first batter; while Nick mixed in salt instead of sugar which totally baffled Adrian. He already set out all the ingreedients they needed on the counter before they even started.

  “Wait—no. Mira, don’t do that!” Nick panicked as she added the eggs way too early.

  “What, why?”

  Too late, the eggs were already in the dry mixture which effectively ruined their third attempt.

  He groaned as he wondered how they managed to screw up the third time.

  “Okay, both of you get out!” Adrian scowled at the terrible two. “I’ll do this myself. You guys can clean up or whatever. Just get out.”

  “Sorry,” Mira attempted to apologize. “Here, I can—”

  “No, no. Just out,” he declined the offer as quickly as possible. So when Nick offered to buy more ingredients, Adrian immediately saw it as an opportunity to get them as far away as possible from the fourth batch.

  Besides, they needed more stuff anyways. His stupid best friend thought that sweetened condensed milk was the same as whole milk, which meant they didn’t have the all the key ingredients for the recipe.

  Once he managed to get them out, Adrian immediately started to clean out everything, starting from the batter bowl, to the pans, and even the utensils. It was better this way, he didn’t want any cross contamination to happen on his watch.

  Once he was done with that task, he immediately started to work on the dry mixture. The idea of adding another pinch of cinnamon to his work was tempting, but he decided against it. He needed to stick to the recipe after three failed attempts.

  Once the batter was done, he poured the mixture into the two mental tins where the mixture was barely enough to cover the bottom of the first tin.

  “Iron Chef Adrian.” He didn’t have to look up to recognize that voice.

  “Absolutely.” He couldn’t suppress the small tinge of pride he felt when he started to prepare the milk mixture.

  “I thought you were studying chem?” He glanced at Aria before he returned his focus back on the stove to make sure that the mixture didn’t get too hot.

  “We finished about fifteen minutes ago,” Aria explained before she added, “Leila went with the others to the store.”

  “You didn’t want to go?”

  “I wanted to see if I actually understood everything, so I did the rest of the problem set by myself. Hopefully, I got it right.”

  “I believe in you.”

  “Well I’m glad one of us does.”

  “You’re gonna have her check it, right?” he asked.

  “I kinda have to. If I screw up some of the problems then I need some more intensive tutoring.”

  “Chem sucks anyway,” Adrian commented.

  “Yeah . . . so what are you mixing?”

  “Just sugar and milk for now. Once they come back, I’ll add the condensed milk.”

  “Hmmm, so you’re just heating it to the point where it becomes homogenous?” She observed.

  “That’s a pretty scientific way of putting it.”

  “Oh yeah, totally. I’m a woman of science now,” Aria boasted. “That is, until Leila finds out something wrong with the problem set.”

  “Gotcha.”

  An air of silence fell over the two and Adrian was suddenly very aware of the fact that they were alone together. After he set the milk mixture aside so it wouldn’t burn, he was finally free of any task he had to do, and had no idea what to do next.

  Awkward.

  That of course, led him to ask the world’s most popular question.

  “Are you hungry?”

  “Uh, a little.” Aria seemed to be caught off guard with his question. “Are you gonna try something new?”

 

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