Welcome to Gaia! ::

Jessica wandered into the Cooking Club with a box of chocolate chip cookies that she had prepared for the club’s first meeting. Not being stopped by Dunce in the hallway made Jessica blink, realizing that Wren had graduated last year. How odd, she thought to herself. She didn’t even notice how accustomed she had gotten to petting the cat every week before entering the room. “Hey, Weslyn,” she greeted the new Club Captain as she set down her box of cookies next to the older girl’s pancakes and pie. “Ooh, yum!” Jess exclaimed as she scooped a pancake and a piece of pie onto a plate. “Ugh, this is sooo good,” she said in between bites of the apple pie. If only she could eat the whole thing...

Jessica walked into the Culinary Club with a tray of oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. She debated on whether to make oatmeal raisin instead, but she didn’t want to lose any friends over them biting into it, expecting delicious chocolate, and instead being disgusted by the chewy, squishy raisins. “Good morning,” she greeted Weslyn, Galen, and a new boy, who she recognized at her table from the Sorting Ceremony as Wallace. “I hope you all had a nice summer?” she asked, sporting a septum piercing. Jess sure had a lovely summer. Not only did she get a new piercing, but she had went on her first ever first date (and second date) and had ended the summer with a boyfriend. After placing her tray of cookies next to Weslyn’s boxty, she reached for one to snack on. “Mmm, potato. This is so yummy!” she exclaimed before taking a pen and form and filling it out.

Jessica hurried to the Culinary Club on Saturday morning. Her love for food somehow paid off as she was crowned the Captain this year. Another question arose, however – did everyone notice that she loved food as much as she did? Walking into the room, she set down her tray of Banoffee Pie down on one of the tables before pulling out the attendance forms and setting them down one table over. As she recalled, that was basically what each Captain did year after year until the cooking and baking in the club actually began, but it seemed mostly everyone was able to teach each other different recipes and techniques. Now that Jess thought about it, she realized her Captainship wouldn’t really give her much more responsibility than the amount that any other member had except for making the new members feel welcomed. Speaking of members, the seventh year turned her attention to the door expectantly. Lochi had promised that he would attend and try to be first, so she waited as patiently as she could for her boyfriend (and others, of course) to arrive.

As if willing her boyfriend to arrive had worked, he had walked through the door, a large cooler in one hand and books in the other. “Good morning, Lochi!” she greeted before he had revealed that he made three types of fudge and had brought cookbooks. “Oh, wow, thank you for the cookbooks! I can’t wait to try the fudge,” she commented, eyeing the goodies as he set them out on trays. She was about to walk over to try one when Lochi had instead made his way over to her for a hug. Just the two of them in the room, she placed a kiss on his lips and nuzzled into him, feeling safer now that she was in his arms.

Jessica let go from the embrace just as Galen and Sammie walked into the room, greeting them with treats of their own. “Good morning!” Jess responded. “Whatcha got there?” she asked, looking over at the pancake-cupcakes. “Muffins?” she asked assumingly, although muffins didn’t typically have fruit unless they were berries. As she waited for the boys to set down their goodies, Jessica made her way over to the table of fudge and took one of each, popping each into her mouth one at a time to taste each one on its own.

Behind the boys entered another student. Jessica swallowed the piece of fudge in her mouth before greeting him with a “Hi, there! Please fill out a form,” she asked, gesturing over to the stack of papers. After he filled one out, Jess introduced herself. “I’m Jessica, the club’s captain. Let’s get you a bowl for your mix,” she suggested before walking away for a moment, only to return with a small bowl, big enough to hold the peanut-cereal mix.