Started as His Tutor

Dense and Denser

Spring  break rolled by fast. After the lake gathering, I spent my days studying for the ACT and SAT, which has got to be the most boring week of my life.

Since everyone is on edge, the school decided to give us a field day the Friday after break. I wish I can say this is stress-relieving, but it isn't. Now that I am president of the cooking club, I am responsible for planning nearly everything-- our booth, what we were going to sell, what we needed to make, how much stuff we needed to buy. It is a complete nightmare.

"That is a lot of backdrops." I stare in awe at the plethora of wooden stands painted with intricate scene of 1950s diners, underwater sea, planets in the galaxy, and plenty more.

"Yeah. The cheer team partnered with the art club. They painted all of this. We're going to be dressed in cute costumes and the photography club is taking Polaroids. It's sorta like a photo booth," Ally explains.

"That's cute."

"I had to beg my cheer coach to let me be in the hula skirt and for Carson to be a crab ."

"It's super hot out. Are you sure Carson is okay with being in a stuffy crab costume?"

"Well, when I told him we might be doing a kissing booth, he totally freaked out. If anything, he's relieved," she giggles.

"I would swing by the take a picture, but I think I've third-wheeled enough to last a lifetime," I laugh.

"Ooh, I better change soon."

"Yeah, I have to tend to my booth too."

Ally waved to me as she excited walked off with the rest of the cheer team, each with a costume in hand.

I make my way towards our bustling booth. In one corner, we have a row of coolers for the frozen, pre-piped churros- since frying them fresh was already a struggle for most of the club members. Another was full of spiraled potatoes, which was still uncooked. We were able to get four cheap fryers from a closing restaurant nearby. There's a table for the churro sweet toppings- syrups, sprinkles, fruits, candy- all if which were given to me by Ms. Ann. The adjacent table with savory toppings like salt, pepper, hot sauce, bacon bits, and a running nacho cheese machine for the chips. The last table was multiple coolers of different favors of lemonade- lemon, strawberry, peach, and raspberry. For a register, we went with a dingy plastic organizer from the nearest dollar store, feeling guilty for spending so much money prepping for everything else.

"Are the fryers working?" I check.

"Yep, they seem fine," confirms Kelly.

"The cheese machine?"

"Yep."

"The coolers are chilled?"

"Yep."

"The toppings are good?"

"Yep."

"We have enough?"

"Yep."

"Oh my gosh, we forgot napkin!"

"Wendy, calm down. It's fine. We have lots in the club room. I'll go later to get them."

"Sorry, I'm just worried since it's my first time running something. If this is a bust, it's all my fault."

"Everything is perfect, Wendy. You did a great job. The food looks great," Kelly pats me on the shoulder and leaves to get the napkins.

I start assigning people to their stations and showing them how to operate as a team. The most difficult was picking people who actually knew how to work a fryer and fully cook the food without completely burning our booth down. I leave a clipboard, next to the dingy organizer, with a schedule for when each person could take a break and enjoy the fair. Slowly, the field day began and people started to line up. Luckily, I prepared a few batches of the chips and churros ahead of time to help the booth get into the rhythm of frying in a timely manner.