“See you later, Essex! And good luck! You’re gonna nail it!” Julia assured, waving at Essex as she headed out the dorm door, leaving Essex alone in the dorm, sighing out to herself.

She stared down at the kitchen counter with the recipe Julia had written out for her, labelled ‘Super Special Date Roast: From Julia, with love.’ She poured over the instructions again, before putting it back down.

“I hope they will like this…” Essex remarked to herself, looking over at the calendar, with ‘Harley + Sola + Essex dinner date’ circled for that day. She regretted promising to make it by herself, but Julia offered to help her get ready and choose something manageable for her.

Mentally preparing herself, she recalled a few words Julia had said to assure her.

“Don’t worry. Even if it’s not the best meal, they’ll see the effort you put in. As long as they know you care, that’s all that matters.”

“Right…” Essex let out, just as the clock hit five. “For my loves.”

She started by preheating the oven, before heading to the fridge, grabbing out every ingredient she could and laying them out on the counter, leaving the chicken to the side for now.

She went about organising the ingredients, splaying out the vegetables and the pre-packaged stuffing Julia had bought for her.

Quickly, she remembered she needed to grab the tray, only to realise she forgot what cabinet it was in. She checked in the bottom few, having no such luck, before checking the top couple and finding it on one of the higher shelves.

As she went to try and grab it, she failed to notice one of the potatoes rolling off the counter and onto the floor, right under her foot, as she readjusted, tripping her over right as she grabbed onto the counter for balance.

She managed to catch herself before she fell, getting the potato back and reaching for the tray again, before pulling it down, placing it over the empty stovetops.

She then picked up the chicken and tore it out of its bag, placing it in the tray, before opening up the oven and placing it inside, putting ten minutes on the microwave for when the vegetables needed to be added.

Looking over the recipe again, Essex decided to work on the vegetables next, doing her best to peel the potatoes despite not having much experience with it, before accidentally cutting her finger on the peeler.

She ran her finger under the tap to slow the bleeding, only to realise the potatoes were rolling off the counter again, as she failed to reach them before they fell.

She picked them up off the floor and carried them to the sink to clean them.

“This is fine…you can work with this…” Essex assured herself, before remembering Julia’s encouraging words.

“Remember, how they feel about you depends on this. You don’t want to disappoint them with something inedible.”

As she went to clean them, she spotted the stuffing she’d accidentally forgotten to put inside the chicken still sitting out.

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She dropped the potatoes in the sink, forgetting to turn off the tap, before hastily grabbing the oven handle and burning her hand slightly.

She reeled a bit, heading back to the sink to run it under the water again, right as the other vegetables started rolling to the floor as well.

Thinking fast, she held up her leg to block them, stopping the zucchini from falling off, as Essex sighed in relief, only to notice the pumpkin starting to roll now that the other ingredients weren’t holding it back.

She jumped to grab it, landing on the floor with it on her chest, before the zucchini rolled off too, as she managed to catch each one before it fell.

She stood back up, putting the vegetables onto the stovetop to hold them in place, as she went to grab the oven handle again, before stopping herself and getting an oven mitt first.

“I must be careful handling hot things in the future…” Essex remarked to herself, taking the tray and chicken back out, only to realise she’d taken up the stovetops with the vegetables. She placed it next to the sink where there was space, before giving it a minute to cool and then filling it with stuffing.

Unfortunately, she forgot to close the oven, accidentally letting all the heat out in that time, as she closed it back up and patiently waited for it to heat up again.

As she was waiting, a large thud came from the sink, as she turned around to find the tray and chicken had fallen in, smushing the potatoes that had slowly been softening due the water still running from the tap.

Essex clenched her fists, as she went to turn off the tap and pull the tray back out, before forgetting it was still hot and burning her hand again.

She grabbed the stovetop out of frustration and used her Whil to turn her hand to metal, wrenching the tray back out in annoyance, as she tried to recall Julia’s words.

“Don’t fuck up now. If they can’t stomach what you put in front of them, then say goodbye to their love.”

“Wait, Julia didn-“ Essex realised, only for some of the smushed potato to drip off the bottom of the tray and onto the floor, tripping her up again.

She reached out to grab something for balance, before gripping the pumpkin with her metal hand, crushing it, and slipping anyway, tumbling to the floor with her tray.

The chicken started rolling across the floor toward the balcony, as Essex clamoured toward it, desperate to rectify her mistake, just as she caught it before it could fall off.

She sighed in relief, ready to take it back over, only to spot the remains of the pumpkin, now lodged out of the stovetop, landing on the spilt potato on the floor and splattering everywhere.

“Oh…oh no…” Essex bemoaned, as she started to feel like dinner was nowhere close to done.

“I wonder how Essex’s doing?” Harley remarked, holding her arms behind her head. “It was pretty nice of her to offer to cook.”

“Yeah! Especially since out of us three, you’re the only one who’s good at it.” Sola pointed out, just as Harley grabbed her into a hug.

“Well, you’re really good at eating all of it.” Harley playfully teased, as Sola tried to break out of it, laughing to herself the whole time, right as they reached the dorm.

The moment they opened the door, they noticed the sink was on fire, as Essex whipped at it with a tea towel, while the kitchen, and a fair bit of the dorm room proper, was a visible mess of ingredients.

They both stared in shock at the chaos, before Essex successfully fought back the fire and noticed they were there.

She was panting heavily, still sweaty and agitated after everything she’d gone through, before indicating to the mostly finished dinner sitting on the stovetop.

She let out a breath.

“I have made chicken!” She exclaimed, still breathing a lot.

Harley and Sola noticed the roast next to her, which, miraculously, seemed to have survived whatever had gone on while they were away, as Harley decided to speak up.

“That looks…really good, Essex.” Harley let out. “Uhh…why didn’t you put out the sink fire with the tap water?”

Essex focused on breathing, before she stood up proper and cleaned up her appearance. “…it was an electrical fire, so that would’ve only made the issue worse. We will also need a new powerboard.”

She fished the burnt out one from the sink, before Sola smelt the food proper.

“Is it good to eat?” She asked, before Essex nodded back, as Sola excitedly grabbed a plate and started serving herself. “Great! Thanks, Essex!”

Harley decided to grab a leg off and take a bite, before holding her hand to her mouth. “Hory shid…that’s a damn good chicken.”

“Really?” Essex asked, her eyes lighting up. “I am glad you like it. Julia has made a good recipe.”

“You want some help next time you cook?” Sola asked, as the trio stared at the complete mess surrounding them, before Essex nodded frantically.

“Yes, please.”