(Rena's POV)

I sat there at my desk, just staring at the front where Ms. April was standing. "What...? How is this even relevant to our curriculum?" I shot Ms. April a weird look in response to her announcement.

Ms. April just let out a light laugh. "Well, Rena, if you must know..." She redirected her attention to the entire class. "You all have been working so hard lately, and you look like you could use a break for a day---"

"WOOHOO!" Everyone immediately shot up from their desks and applauded Ms. April, making our auburn-haired teacher laugh.

"Settle down, class! Settle down!" Ms. April laughed through her order, getting everyone to sit back down again. "Mr. Kincaid and I have both agreed that our classes are in need of a long-overdue break from our typical curriculum, so we've joined forces for today to create a lesson plan for both classes to do together." Ms. April looked directly at me as she said this. "Today, I've decided to give you all a quick life lesson that will be of use to you in the future: how to cook."

What.

I just stared blankly at Ms. April while everyone else seemed completely for this idea.

Do we have to...?

I would so much rather learn Ranger Basics all over again or do another obstacle course in Gym class...

I shot Mightyena a nervous look, and it would appear that we were sharing the same thoughts. "Should we just go along with this...?" I whispered to him. Mightyena glanced at Ms. April, then back at me before nodding his head. I let out a deep sigh. "Fine..."

"Now, everyone, I'd like you all to come up to the front of the class one by one and draw a name from this hat." Ms. April held a rather large hat in her hand that was filled with slips of paper. "Whoever's name you draw from this hat will be your partner in the foods lab, and they just so happen to all be members of Mr. Kincaid's class."

One by one, students stood from their desks and stepped over to Ms. April and drew names from the hat. Reluctantly, I stood up and got in line with Keith and Rhythimi. I was in front of them in the line, and it soon became my turn to draw a name from the hat. I reached in and grabbed a slip of paper, then went to join the crowd of students standing by the door. Mightyena took a seat next to my legs, looking at all of the family Pokemon around him with a watchful eye.

"Who did you get?"

"Me? Oh, cool! I got Nikki!"

"I got Ponte."

"I got Bethany."

"Aww man... I'm stuck with Tyler."

"Hahahah!"

"Woohoo! I'm the luckiest girl alive! I got Kim Daley!"

"Who did you get, Rena?" A tall, black-haired guy that I knew as Tim asked me the question. He was a Mechanic-in-training.

"Umm..." I opened my slip of paper, then read the name printed on it. "Isaac Gram Bell."

What the? Who is that?

"Oh, you're lucky!" Tim grinned. "You got partnered with your friend Isaac!"

What...?

My look of shock was clearly written across my face. Isaac's last name is Gram Bell...?

Tim seemed to notice my look of surprise. "...you didn't know he was a Gram Bell, did you?" He raised an eyebrow at me, then laughed a little at my easy-to-read expression.

"No... I can't say that I did." I sweatdropped. "He never mentioned it." I sadly stared down at the floor, rubbing my left arm comfortingly.

Tim just drew his head back in shock. "Really? How could he fail to tell you that he's Nathan Gram Bell's son? The Gram Bell's own only about 86% of the world's Power Plants! They use electricity for power, which is why he's the biggest competitor for Altru Oil. The only reason Altru hasn't been put out of business is because they're developing some new dream energy power source. " He awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Anyways, enough of that. I seriously thought you knew, since you're both friends with Isaac and Keith."

Keith?

My face twisted into the most confused look ever. "Keith? What does Keith have to do with Isaac?" I put my hands on my hips, staring right at Tim.

Tim just blinked. "Wow. You really don't know, do you...?" Tim stared directly at me.

The sound of my patience bubble bursting was louder than an atomic bomb. "What don't I know?!" I started to get really frustrated, glaring at Tim.

So not only is Keith withholding information from me, but Isaac is too? UGH! I feel as if Rhythimi here is the only honest one around me!

Tim sweatdropped. "Calm down... Joseph Dazzle and Nathan Gram Bell are business partners. Joseph makes the inventions, like the Styler, and Nathan supplies the power and energy. They're both like rich billionaires that literally live next door to each other in Pueltown..." He explained to me, running a hand through his dark hair.

"Oh." My mouth opened wide enough to form an 'O' shape, which would've been considered amusing by Keith if he had seen it.

Wow. So I guess Isaac, Keith, and Rhythimi have all known each other since childhood through their families, huh...? Why wasn't I informed of this before?! Ugh... Looks like I'll be calling Ice later. Again.

"WHAT?! ARE YOU KIDDING?!"

My hands quickly flew up to my ears at the sound of the deafening shriek. OW! What the hell?!

I quickly turned around from Tim and glanced at the commotion going on in front of the classroom. Rhythimi and Keith were both talking over each other very loudly, trying to force their point across at Ms. April.

"What do you mean there are no more left?!" Rhythimi flailed her arms up and down.

"This can't be right!" Keith's face reddened with anger, glaring at Rhythimi with a sideways glance.

"I'm sorry, but it looks like Mr. Kincaid's class is two students smaller than ours..." Ms. April sweatdropped. "Like I said before, you two will just have to be partnered up..."

"NO WAY! NOT HAPPENING!"

"OH COME ON!"

I couldn't help but snicker at both the blonde and red-head. Those two are partnered up? HAH! This can only go nothing but wrong. I fully expect disaster to unfold.

Rhythimi came stomping down the aisle of desks and stood next to me, huffing greatly and crossing her arms. "Humph. I got stuck with your stupid boyfriend."

I felt a little irritated at the remark, and I glared at her. "Rhythimi, how many times do I have to tell you---"

"You don't like Keith, I know." Rhythimi rolled her eyes, mocking me with a silly voice. "It's not like you've said it a million times." I opened my mouth to say something sassy back, but Rhythimi quickly cut me off by changing the subject. "So who did you get stuck with?"

My annoyed face quickly melted away, and I just snickered. "Your boyfriend."

Rhythimi's cheeks immediately flushed a dark shade of red, and she punched me in the arm for my joke. "Isaac is NOT my boyfriend!"

"Yet." I rolled my eyes, smirking at her and crossing my arms. I guess you could say I've grown to be a little less awkward with the idea that people actually can like each other more than friends. But just a little, though.

Rhythimi's eye twitched. "And don't you DARE tell him anything about my secret today during the lab, okay?! You've officially been sworn to secrecy!" She put her hands on her hips, staring right at me.

"Okay, okay..." I laughed, putting my hands up in defense.

Rhythimi looked at me with a skeptical expression, getting all up in my face from the side. "Promise!"

"Okay, I promise!" I was laughing really hard at this point, unable to conceal my amusement with Rhythimi.

"Let's go, class!" Ms. April commanded all attention from everyone, successfully getting the classroom chatter to dissipate. "Let's head over to the cooking lab by the cafeteria!"

Rhythimi remained right next to my face for the longest time, just holding her stare. Then, it melted away and she happily skipped over towards the door. "Okay then!"

I just laughed quietly to myself as all of us students began filing out of the door. I was the last one to leave the classroom, and before I stepped through the door, I shot Mightyena a worried look.

This should be interesting.

________________________________

(Third Person POV)

Mr. Kincaid impatiently paced back and forth in front of the foods lab. "Where is Ms. April?! She was supposed to be here five minutes ago---"

WHOOSH!

"Sorry we're a little late!" Ms. April pushed open the door, stepping into the classroom with the crowd of her students standing right behind her. "We can go ahead and get started now."

"Finally." Mr. Kincaid relaxed his furrowed brow, bitterly spitting out his words. "It's not like I want to be doing this, anyways..." He massaged his temples, grumbling that last part to himself.

The foods lab was rather large, and it had ten miniature kitchens built along the walls. Each one was equipped with cooking utensils, an oven, a stove-top, a microwave, and various ingredients lined up on the counter accompanied by a recipe of some sort. Each one had a different recipe and a different set of ingredients.

"Alright, class." Ms. April stepped out of the way and allowed her class to file in. "Find your partners and we'll assign you to your kitchens!"

The students from Ms. April's class rested their eyes on Mr. Kincaid's students lined up horizontally across the room. Amongst them were a few familiar faces to Rena, such as Isaac, Ponte, and Kim. She wasn't exactly too keen with seeing Kim's face.

"Bethany!!!" One of the girls from Ms. April's class quickly ran up to her friend and glomped her, breaking the silence of the room.

One by one, each student walked up to their partner, whether they were happy with them or not.

Rena strode over to Isaac, waving her slip of paper with his name written on it in front of his face. "Hey, smartie." She smiled, lightly poking Isaac's shoulder with her fingertip. "You're stuck with me."

Isaac sighed in relief. "Oh thank goodness it's just you... I was worried I would be stuck with someone else less tolerable." He ran a hand through his puffy mushroom hair.

Rena and Isaac shared a laugh as Ms. April commanded all attention from everyone in the room.

"Alright, everyone! I see that you all have your partners now!" Ms. April clapped her hands together, staring out at the large crowd of paired students. "Now, here's what we're going to do. Each of your groups have been assigned a kitchen number, which is printed on the back of your name slip. You'll all be cooking/baking something different, and you'll each be making the recipe. Your partner can help you if you get stuck, but regardless, you'll all be graded individually on what you made specifically."

Most of the students groaned, not too keen with the idea of having to each make something mostly on their own.

"Well, what are you waiting for?" Mr. Kincaid stood beside Ms. April, snapping at the students and waving them off. "Go get started!"

The students all flooded into their assigned kitchens and quickly got to work. One kitchen was assigned pancakes, another got stir fry, and another group got to make cupcakes. But Isaac and Rena were assigned---

"...peanut butter fudge?" Rena stared curiously at the words printed across the top of their recipe, just amazed at what they were assigned.

Isaac glanced at the recipe, speed reading the whole thing. "I'm not really much of a cook, but this seems easy enough..."

Rena gulped nervously. "Yeah...sure."

She would NEVER admit to this, considering the fact that it's her weakness, but...

Rena can't cook.

Rena and Mightyena lived in an old apartment in Castelia City, and they would always grab takeout or frozen dinners to live off of. Rena never learned how to cook, because her Dad was the one who always did it. But now that she was living on her own, Rena couldn't cook for herself. She never learned, and every time she tried, her ending product ALWAYS ended up a blackened and charred hot mess.

"Rena...?" Isaac shot her a worried glance. "You okay?"

Rena, who was completely spacing out and staring at the ingredients on the counter top, shook her head to snap out of it. "Huh? O-oh...yeah. I'm fine." She lied, sheepishly scratching at the back of her head.

"Oh-kay..." Isaac sweatdropped, then just shrugged his shoulders to let it slide. "If you say so. Anyways, we should probably get started." Isaac immediately reached for the peanut butter, grabbing a measuring cup. Despite his intense focus, Rena noticed that Isaac had something on his mind that he wasn't saying.

She decided to let it go for now, turning back to the recipe. "Yeeeeaaahhh..." Rena reluctantly started reading over the recipe again, trying to figure out what to do first.

"Psst, Rena!!"

Rena jolted with surprise at the sound of someone calling her name, and she looked up from the recipe at the person standing two feet in front of her at the kitchen right next to hers.

Rhythimi.

Rhythimi and Keith were in the kitchen right next to Rena and Isaac, starting to make their assigned recipe: cupcakes.

"Hey!" Rhythimi grinned, waving to her. "We got assigned cupcakes. How about you guys?" She asked, shooting Isaac a nervous glance.

"Peanut butter fudge for us." Isaac smiled at her, waving a friendly hello.

Rena tuned out the rest of Isaac and Rhythimi's conversation, glancing over at the bored Keith standing in front of her. "Is it just me, or is this whole thing really stupid."

Keith irritably sighed. "It's not just you..."

Rena and Keith shared a laugh, then got back to work when Mr. Kincaid walked by and scolded them for talking to people outside of their groups.

Rena read the first step of the recipe, which was to combine two sticks of butter and one cup of peanut butter in a microwave bowl. She picked up the sticks of butter and placed them in the bowl, and dumped a big scoop of peanut butter in there that she assumed to be about one cup.

"Rena, what are you doing??" Isaac scolded her, stopping what he was doing and walking over to her mixing bowl. "First, you're supposed to remove the waxed paper that's around the butter..." Rena sweatdropped as she watched Isaac carefully lift the still wrapped sticks of butter out of her bowl and onto a cutting board. "And second, the recipe said to cut the butter into pieces."

"...oh." Rena slumped her shoulders a little. "I knew that."

Keith, who saw the whole interaction, did the same thing as Rena's Mightyena and started laughing at her. "Wow, Blue Eyes. I'm surprised that you're that stupid. Even I knew you were supposed to do that."

A vein bulged from Rena's forehead as her face reddened with anger. "Oh shut up! And besides, I'm not the one flicking cake batter everywhere!"

Keith stopped sassing Rena long enough to look down at the bowl of cake mix he was currently beating with an electric mixer, noticing that the batter was being flicked everywhere because he was going too fast. "Oh shit---!"

Rena laughed at Keith's misfortune and quickly got back to work. After removing the wrappers and slicing the butter into pieces, she set it into the bowl. She picked up her mixing bowl and set it in the microwave, beginning to microwave it for three minutes.

Isaac turned around to check up on Rena, then gasped and stopped the microwave. "Oh, wait! You can't microwave it for that long without stirring it, otherwise it will burn."

Rena just groaned. "Are you kidding me?!"

Mightyena just snickered, and Rena lightly kicked him with the side of her leg to get him to shut up. Despite her attempts, he kept laughing.

Isaac just sighed, then turned back to his mixing bowl. He was a few steps ahead of Rena. "Try microwaving it for a minute at a time, stirring it in between each minute."

"Okay..." Rena grumbled, hating to have to take orders from Isaac. Well, she just hated having to listen to someone in general.

She only slightly burned the butter mixture, but Rena was almost certain this would NOT taste good. Hey, she'd be lucky if she just could prevent it from catching on fire, even though this recipe didn't require use of the stove-top or the oven. She'd find a way to set it on fire accidentally. Somehow.

"Okay... Umm?" Rena took the bowl out of the microwave and stirred it one last time, then set it on the counter. "Now what do I do...?"

"Having trouble, Blue Eyes?"

Rena's eyes darted from her mixing bowl up to Keith's red eyes that were staring right at her. "NO! Go make your stupid cupcakes already!"

Keith laughed, amused by her frustration and irritable mood. "Alright, alright!"

"Stupid freaking idiot..." Rena started grumbling incoherent curses to herself, working on making the fudge simultaneously.

Next step: fold in one teaspoon of vanilla extract.

How much is a teaspoon again?

Rena started to panic a little while looking at all of the different spoons layed out on the counter top. Which one was the teaspoon!? She wasn't sure, so she just grabbed the one she assumed looked most like it.

After stirring in the extract and flicking almost all of the batter everywhere, Rena followed the next step and started dumping the cups of powdered sugar into her bowl.

Isaac shot Rena a worried glance. "Rena---"

Rena cut him off by holding a finger up to his face. "If you tell me I fucked up one more time, I swear..."

Isaac just sweatdropped as he stared at Rena. "I was just going to tell you that you're supposed to sift the powdered sugar and then gradually add it to the bowl..."

Rena looked down at her gigantic mess, then over at Isaac's tidy counter and his mixing bowl that wasn't messy and actually looked edible.

"Oh..." Rena awkwardly coughed, avoiding eye contact and just locking her gaze with the mixing bowl. "...I knew that."

Isaac just lightly chuckled and shook his head as Rena got back to work. Mightyena, Buizel, and Eevee all got bored pretty quickly, so they all left to go play somewhere else in the school building. And yes, Eevee was actually awake and conscious!

"Hey, Rena?" Isaac nudged Rena's elbow, trying to get her attention. "Can I talk to you about something?"

Rena stopped what she was doing and immediately turned to Isaac. "Sure. What's up?"

Isaac nervously shuffled, shooting Rhythimi in the next kitchen over a nervous glance. "Umm...you see---I...I-I um..."

Rena's sharp sigh cut off Isaac right in the middle of his sentence. She was annoyed that he was taking forever to get to the point. "You like Rhythimi and you're not sure what to do, am I right?"

Isaac was completely shocked, blinking furiously. "How did you know?"

"Well..." Rena turned her head back to her mixing bowl, getting an intense feeling of déjà vu. Wasn't she literally just doing this with Rhythimi? "I guess you could say I've sorta developed a sense for this sort of thing recently."

Isaac nodded his head, turning back to his bowl as well. "Oh, okay."

"We'll talk later." Rena told Isaac, grabbing her rubber spatula once again. "We'll discuss your options tonight around nine in the evening, right after curfew. Alright? I'll meet you at your dorm."

"Okay!" Isaac grinned at her brightly. "Thanks, Rena! Oh, and you have to promise me you won't tell her." Isaac set his hand on her shoulder. "It will be our secret, okay?"

Rena's eye twitched in annoyance. So both Rhythimi AND Isaac like each other, refuse to confess, and they BOTH confided in Rena and made her promise not to tell the other?

Rena choked back the urge to whack Isaac upside the head for being so dense. "Oh-kay... I promise."

Isaac and Rena turned back around from each other and got right back to making their fudge. Rena struggled to mix in all of the powdered sugar at once while she blocked out Keith and Rhythimi's typical arguments.

"You're supposed to preheat the oven to 350°F!"

"No, it's 325°F!"

"350!"

"325!"

"350!!!!!"

"325!!!!!"

"...oh. It actually is 350°F."

"HAH! IN YOUR FACE, KEITH! I TOLD YOU SO!"

"SHUT UP, BLONDIE! NO ONE CARES!"

"NUH UH!"

"UH HUH!"

Rena just completely tuned them out as she FINALLY mixed in the last bit of powdered sugar. She was really hoping the dough was supposed to be this crumbly and this color...

"Hey, Isaac?" Rena raised her voice to be heard over Rhythimi and Keith's bickering. "Does this look right to you?"

Isaac finished pressing his fudge into his baking ban, then walked over to Rena as she finished pressing hers into her baking pan with waxed paper. "Umm, Rena? Why is it...green?"

Rena just sweatdropped as she looked down at her very flaky, green fudge dough. "Umm...I'm not actually sure."

Keith and Rhythimi stopped arguing long enough to peek over the counter top at Rena's 'masterpiece.'

"Aww, Rena!" Rhythimi mothered her, patting her on the head, much to Rena's annoyance. "You're so cute! You can do everything imaginable, except you can't cook to save your life!"

Rena just furrowed her brow in annoyance. "Oh yeah?! Well what did YOU make!?" She crossed her arms in a huff, already in a bad mood.

Rhythimi picked up her plate with six finished and beautifully decorated cupcakes on it, setting it on the counter that separated their two kitchens to show her. "Tah dah! This is how ours turned out!"

Rena blinked back her surprise. "Wow. Those actually turned out pretty good."

"Wow, Rhythimi..." Isaac stood there in shock, staring at the cupcakes in awe. "I didn't realize you were such a good cake decorator."

"Me?" Rhythimi pointed to herself, then scoffed. "Oh, no. I didn't decorate these! I just baked them." She pointed her finger back behind her at Keith, who was currently holding a frosting bag. "Keith is the one who decorated them!"

At the mention of his name, Keith stopped cleaning out his frosting bag and looked over at Rena awkwardly. Both teens just sweatdropped.

"It's not what it looks like!!" Keith quickly got on the defensive, completely embarrassed. "It's just...I---I used to hang out with the cooks in our kitchens back at home, and I would watch them do all this stuff...and..." Keith started to ramble and trail off, then he noticed Rena's green fudge. "Hey, wasn't that supposed to be like a light brown color...?"

Rena's eye twitched as she looked over at Rhythimi. "Rhythimi, can I borrow one of your cupcakes?"

Rhythimi grinned with a sinister twist hidden in the corners of her mouth, handing her one. "Be my guest!"

Keith sweatdropped as Rena drew her arm back, getting ready to throw it. "Oh no..."

SPLAT!

"EW! I HAVE FROSTING ALL OVER ME NOW---oh wait, this is actually pretty good. Never mind! I'm fine here!"

Rhythimi stopped laughing long enough to sweatdrop. "Umm...Rena? ...your fudge is on fire."

Rena stopped her laughter just in time to see her pan of fudge suddenly burst into flames. "WHAT THE FUCK?! ARE YOU KIDDING ME??"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, this update is very long overdue XD.... Sorry this took so long! Well, at least it's here now, right? Right!

And just in case you guys wanted the recipe for the peanut butter fudge Isaac and Rena made, I attached it to the chapter ^-^ it's my recipe I always use, and it's pretty good!!

Anyways, that's all! I hope you enjoyed this filler chapter!

Read, comment, vote, and enjoy!