Zeus

• XVII •

Y'all are awesome! Zeus just hit 3k reads and all these votes and comments are making me smile so much! I appreciate it, readers. Comment what you want to read for upcoming chapters. I would love the suggestions; and who knows, your comment may come true. ;) lol. Also, if you see any grammatical errors, please maturely comment what it may or should be. Enjoy your morning, day, or night! -May

The past years, my mom would usually fix a small Thanksgiving dinner for me, Dad, and Caitlyn. None of the dishes were crazy big. Mom would fix homemade mashed potatoes, for Dad; a green bean casserole, for Caitlyn; roasted turkey, for me; and pumpkin pie, for herself. Putting those four dishes together created a simple, but calm Thanksgiving dinner.

This year is different.

It's the next day, and Rebecca has become crazy over every dish she's making. Supposedly, more people will be coming to the mansion for the Thanksgiving dinner than normal, which means more pack members to get to know.

Mallory has been the biggest help by skipping a day of training to help cook. I'm not sure if Zeus knows or if he'll do anything about Mallory's skipping. I hope he doesn't decide to punish her of some sort; because if so, then I'll have to step in.

"Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty, Aurora." Looking over shoulder, Rebecca watches me as I massage the humongous turkey with melted butter, tons of pepper, and basal leaves.

I pause my massaging. "Have you felt this thing?"

Chuckling, Rebecca takes a step away from me. I go back to the turkey, feeling slightly grossed out the whole time I have to do this. Fortunately, when I'm done, Rebecca asks me to cut of the vegetables for her. Because I don't have anything else to do today, I agree, thinking the vegetables will simply consist of a carrot, some potatoes, and maybe an onion.

Wrong.

Rebecca is asking me to cut up more than a carrot, potatoes, and an onion. She's asking me to cut up a damn pumpkin, too!

I turn on my heel. "Rebecca, why is there a pumpkin by the tomatoes?" Rebecca pauses her stirring to look at me.

"Pumpkin pie, Aurora." She grins in my direction and then continues to stir.

I stare at Rebecca, wondering how she's going to make this all work. Of all the times my mom has fixed pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, I have never seen my mom use an actual pumpkin. Rebecca looks at me and gestures to the vegetables with her shoulder.

"Come on, now. Get chopping!" Rebecca exclaims.

I shake my head and follow her directions. I purposely leave the damn pumpkin for last because I don't know how Rebecca wants me to cut it. There are tons of vegetables—onions, potatoes, snap beans, squash, and more.

Sighing, I place the kitchen knife on the marble counter tops to glare at the pumpkin. Here goes nothing, I think.

"How do you want me to cut the pumpkin, Rebecca?"

Rebecca is putting a dish inside the heated oven, which means she can't immediately answer me. After the dish is properly inside and the oven door is closed, Rebecca walks toward me, wiping her hands on a dish towel.

"Like carving a pumpkin on Halloween. Discard the stem and scrap all the guts out. I'll do the rest, dear."

I find myself nodding my head. Seeing this, Rebecca chuckles and pats my shoulder, telling me I'll do fine. I pick up the kitchen knife and wipe it off with my own dish towel. Then I begin cutting around the pumpkin's stem.

Slamming down the spoon, I grip the counter tops in frustration, almost screaming. The pumpkin in general is huge, which means trying to get all the seeds out is nearly impossible. I look inside the orange crevice to search for the seeds when a strong hand grips my shoulder.