Ch 4 - No Recipe

That night, Kelly’s dreams were strange and somewhat terrifying.

When she woke to her alarm going off, she could only remember blurry fragments and even though she knew it was a dream, she couldn’t help feeling very disturbed and her mind was buzzing with questions.

Going next door to Ella’s room Kelly knocked waiting for a moment.

“Come on in.” Ella was as cheerful as always, but her face changed a little when she saw the worried look in Kelly’s eyes.

“Hey, are you alright? Rough night huh?”

Kelly nodded going over to her.

“Well,” She looked around the room for a second then gave heavy sigh. “My bad sleeping habits aren’t really why I’m here.” A nauseous feeling welled up in Kelly’s stomach as the image of the note flashed in her mind’s eye for the hundredth time that morning. “I wanted to ask you something.”

Ellanor shrugged with a smile. “Sure ask away.”

Kelly pursed her lips as she put the words together in her mind, careful of how she asked her question. “What, what would you do if someone knew something about you and they let you know they knew and that they wanted you to do something about it?”

For a second Ella’s small smile turned into a frown and she laughed nervously. “Uh, as in...?”

“I got a letter yesterday afternoon.” Kelly blurted out; she averted her eyes from Ellanors. “Hey, who told you about... your place?” She felt butterflies in her stomach as she avoiding one issue by asking about another.

Ellanor smiled beckoning Kelly to lean in a bit closer, her eyes lighting up like fireflies.

“Actually, I found out on my own.” She giggled slightly. “It was weird but kinda cool, like when you get to the end of a movie with a totes wicked plot twist for the ending; BOOM!”

 Ella’s loud expression at the end made Kelly jump slightly.

“Oh, okay. Well, what I mean is that... I think I was already supposed to know except, things got complicated with my mum. I think that why I’m here.”

“Ah.” Ellanor half sighed looking at Kelly with a beautiful kindness in her eyes. “It’s not bad. Some people get told, others discover it from being taught and sometimes... it happens right at that perfect moment when everything falls into place. Like with me.”

Nodding and sighing softly, Kelly knew that Ellanor hadn’t really understood what she was trying to talk to her about, but she didn’t rally understand what Ellanor was talking about either and decided not to mention the letter to anyone else.

“Okay, I think I’m going to get some breakfast. Thanks for talking with me.”

“Okays, I’ll be right down after I wash my face and turn back into a Sim.” Ellanor made a funny face laughing slightly.

With a small wave Kelly closed the door behind her as she left.

During class throughout the entire day Kelly was unable to concentrate. Her mind kept wandering back to the letter.

Who was it from?

Why would her own father be keeping an important secret from her?

Why wouldn’t he have just told her?

Shaking off the distractions Kelly went back to focusing as best she could on her class work. Although as soon as she had settled back into writing down some extra class notes, the sound of a phone camera clicking went off behind her.

Feeling frustrated she sighed and did her best to ignore it and concentrated harder on the early teachings of Aphrodite.

“Miss Donovan to my desk; now.” Ms Hunter’s voice snapped through the silence of the room like a whip, everyone looked up for a moment before quickly going back to their work books.

There was a screech as wood on wood scraped against itself, then the firm, slightly too loud heel clicking of Anita’s’ shoes as walked up to the front of the classroom echoed throughout the room.

She stood in front of Ms Hunter.

Ms Hunter spoke firmly but with elegance. “Miss Donovan, the rules of my classroom are very simple. If you are finished your work early, you may leave so as not to disturb the other students. So have you already finished your lesson?”

There was a slight pause before Anita spoke.

“No Ms Hunter, I...”

“Well, I’m sure that your blog followers who are eager for one the famous ‘selfies’ of the Aphrodite ancestor line will be able to wait for a few hours more. Now, go back to your desk, sit down, and finish the work I’ve set out for the entire class, which includes you, to do.”

“Yes Ms Hunter.” Anita answered but much more quietly and politely.

Just before she went to move to go sit back down Ms Hunter spoke again. “And if I hear or see you using your phone during any classes again Miss Hunter, I shall keep it until the end of the year, understood?”

Anita nodded as she quickly returned to her desk with as little noise as possible much unlike when she had gotten up.

That afternoon when everyone had finally finished their class, Kelly took herself down to the vegetable patch section of the garden and helped with the planting of new vegetable seeds. Ms Hunter had said that later in the evening there was going to the initiation for Kelly into the schools private club.

She had asked Kelly to cook the dinner and although Kelly had agreed, she did think it was quiet odd that she would be preparing the food for her own ‘guest of honour’ dinner.

The questioning thoughts passed away though as she envisioned fresh crunchy bread rolls still steaming as you opened them, lamb ribs perfectly roasted with crisp steamed vegetables and freshly baked strawberry pie with fresh whipped cream. Her stomach growled slightly as the thoughts made her hungry.

Joshua was also helping plant some fruit seeds and was humming happily to himself as he carefully covered over his last seed with soil.

Getting up to go inside Kelly brushed off dirt from her jeans and hands, Joshua suddenly called out to her.

“Hey wait for a moment would you Kelly?”

Turning back, Kelly thought it was nice to see him wearing less formal clothes than when she had met him and in class.

“Hi, what’s up?”

“Oh, I was just wondering if, you know...” He gave a small awkward smile. “Have you found out yet about your ‘place’? How you fit in? I think it would be great if by tonight you found out. It’d make your initiation so much more worth it.”

She felt slightly confused by his comment and Kelly slightly shook her head. “No but if I’m right, I have a feeling that it’s something to do with cooking or gardening, every time I’m doing either of those things I feel like something is working in my head, like a puzzle unlocking. But for now...” She playfully bowed to Joshua. “If you’ll excuse me, I should go wash up before I head into the kitchen to prepare tonight’s dinner for my induction.”

Joshua laughed warmly. “Well, call me if you need help.”

Kelly paused as she was turning to walk off and smiled back at him. “Thanks, if I do I will.”

After a good shower and putting on some fresh clothes and her cooking apron, Kelly went straight down into the kitchen and got out the majority of ingredients she would need and started to fly through the rest of the afternoon’s time she had to get the three course meal prepared.

The rack of lamb was perfect quality, after it had been in the oven for a while Kelly checked it and then with her pre-prepared basting she felt a wonderful sense of enjoyment as she added the extra herbs and made sure it was perfectly seasoned and cooking evenly.

She turned up the oven just slightly before closing it and turned her attention to getting the dinner rolls ready.

The eggs were generously sized and the flour was so silky Kelly smiled to herself wondering if it was actually powdered silk. As soon as they were rolled into perfect hand sized ovals; into the oven the buns went.

A beautiful assortment of fruit was in the fridge so Kelly decided on making a fruit pie rather than a plain strawberry one.

The heavy scent of cinnamon wafted through the kitchen as Kelly generously added in the sugared spice with some extra cocoa powder, to add bite to the sweetness. She thought about her mother as the smells reminded her of the way her mother’s hair smelt and how the warmth of her smile always made her smile back, no matter how bad she was feeling.

Carefully criss-crossing the fine pastry on top of the pie, Kelly paused for a moment feeling butterflies in her stomach. She stood holding the pie in her hand forgetting to put it into the oven for a moment.

She smiled to herself knowing that the wonderful smells would waft up through to the rooms of everyone as soon as she opened the oven door to put in the pie, letting them know that dinner was almost ready. Carefully she opened the oven door letting out the delicious scents from the rack of lamb and the bread rolls.

Kelly breathed in deeply as the scent filled the kitchen, for a moment she felt light headed and happier than she had felt in a very long time. She places the pie onto the bottom rack and closed then oven again.

Kelly cleaned up the kitchen, making sure anything she didn’t use was put away and that anything she did use was either put back into the fridge, dirty utensils and bowls were put into the dishwasher or hand washed then dried and put away.

Kelly was finally able to take everything out of the oven and set it up on the table for dinner.

She could feel more butterflies in her stomach again as she placed the fresh warm bread rolls on the table along with the rack of lamb and fruit pie.

The doors suddenly opened to the dining room and Joshua strode in with a warm smile on his face.

“Hey, I thought I told you to ask me for help?”

Kelly smiled. “Yes, if I’d needed it and well... I’m sorry, I just didn’t.” Kelly smiled as she spread out her hands, then she found herself talking fast and a huge smile was on her face with her eyes lighting up like diamonds under a spot light. “This whole afternoon was just so much fun and invigorating; I feel like a millions butterflies have gathered in my stomach and are fluttering around making me feel so incredibly happy and full of energy.”

Joshua gave a sharp click of his fingers making Kelly stop talking. “Of course, that’s it!” He exclaimed.

“What? What’s it?” Kelly looked confused before giving a quick glance down at her watch knowing that she would have to go get ready soon for the dinner and initiation.

“You, you’re it” Joshua walked around her looking very impressed. “You’re a Culinary Cupid, I mean I’ve heard of them yes, but, there haven’t been any offspring for over a centenary.”

“Me?” Kelly gave a short laugh, and she looked at Joshua whose expression was happy but serious about his statement. “Wait, you can’t be serious? You think I’m a Cupid? As in the cute little guy in a nappy with wings, golden bow and shooting arrows making people fall in love Cupid?””

Now it was Joshua’s turn to look confused. “Well, yeah of course. And it’s a waist toga not a nappy. But, yeah.” He gave a nervous laugh. “That’s what this collage is for; everyone here is a descendant of the Cupid bloodline. All of us have a parent that’s a Cupid. We’re all here to fine tune our talents that we’ve inherited. We are the new generation who’ll help Sims lives continue on. Help Sims fall in love.” Seeing Kelly wasn’t still convinced Joshua continued. “My father is a cafe owner in my home town, every morning he makes beautiful coffee, it’s really only famous in our little town but every morning, Sims come into the cafe to get their coffee, and some mornings, two Sims hearts flutter towards true love all from ‘coffee’.”

“So... I guess I ask my dad then when I get to visit home what I should focus on then?”

“Yes, he’ll be able to tell you about the part your family has played over time.” He pulled out his phone from his jeans pocket. “And now, since this is a great occasion, I’d say a memorial photo is in order.” Joshua pulled Kelly to his side so she could join in on the picture.

“Say I’m a Cupid.” He teased.

“I’m a Cupid.” Kelly giggled feeling silly but the flash blinded her and the memory was complete.

“We should go get ready; I can hear the others coming downstairs.” Kelly smiled at Joshua. “Oh and, thanks. This is going to give me a lot to think about.”

“No problem, this means we’ll have to do some cooking together some time.” He followed Kelly out of the dining room and they parted in the hallway to go and get changed.

To Kelly’s relief and delight the dinner party went perfectly, everyone enjoyed the food, the boys even had seconds and only complained when they had to leave a decent plate of leftovers for Ms Hunter.

“Well then,” Anita finished taking pictures of the remaining food with her phone then put it away. “As club captain, I say we all have a bit of fun in the games room before we have Kelly’s initiation.”

There was a happy chorus of everyone’s voices agreeing, Kelly found herself slightly relieved as her stomach was doing back flips with how nervous she was feeling and the last thing she wanted to do was re-invite dinner so soon after eating it.

Upstairs in the games room, Anita followed Zackary and Rourke to the foosball table, where they began a vigorous game as Anita looked on, making doe eyes and overly complimenting Zackary during play.

Zack was a fitness buff, anything to do with keeping fit and healthy, he was into it.

Rourke was what one would call a book worm; he looked at science with an eagerness and understanding that was almost poetry. He’d even put up a few interesting prints taken from flower and plant samples under a microscope.

Anita was obviously only interested in herself and her looks. Although she seemed to make sappy eyes at Zachary, usually she was looking in a mirror at her own reflection or taking a selfie for her blog which was about, herself.

Jacob, Ella and Kelly had sat down to a game of ‘Don’t Wake the Lama’.

With expert precision, Ella pulled out a bottom piece and waved it in the air triumphantly. “Ha ha! That’s right, sleep on fluffy creature; you shall not be my demise tonight.” She placed her piece on the table giggling and waited for Jacob to have his turn.

Jacob was a bit more daring and took a piece from near the top of the tower, Kelly watched with close interest and found she was holding her breath, she let out a slow lungful as Jacob’s attempt was successful and he gave a small cheer himself.

Kelly was next; she’d never actually played the game before, and didn’t want to cut it short by knocking down the tower.

Carefully she chose a piece from the centre of the stack, pulling out the wooden stick, for a moment the tower stood, then with a slight wobble the tower came crashing down. Ella and Jacob laughed as Kelly closed her eyes looking away as she was giggling at herself.

“Oh, that was just bad.” She commented helping reset up the game again.

“True,” Ella jested at her smiling. “But it is a game. I use to play this with my father every Sunday afternoon, he was ruthless, and I’ve lost twenty simolians to him.”

“Oh see you’ve have had expert training in the ways of the Lama, that’s an unfair advantage.” Jacob teased causing them all to erupt in to laughter.

There was a cheer from Zachary across the room signalling that he had also won his game of Foosball against Rourke, which in its own way was the signal it was time for Kelly’s initiation to begin.

Back downstairs and outside at the back of the collage house, all six students gathered around a large pile of wood set up for a bonfire.

Zackary got the fire started, added extra wood as the flames grew.

Jacob explained to Kelly the symbolism. “The fire is a symbol of the burning passion of each and every cupid, down here and in the spirit realm as well. When the flames reach their full high and heat, a Cupid from this club will toss in a vial of your DNA sample, one of your parents might have asked for a lock of your hair before you came here?”

Kelly nodded, recalling her mother taking some of her hair when she had gotten her hair cut on their spa day together a year ago, just before the most awful day if her life and a year before she’d arrived at the collage. “Well,” He continued. “If the flames glow a bright pinkish colour, you’re a true Cupid, if not,” He paused for a second. “Well, I think you have to leave. Not sure though, I’ve never heard or seen the flames not glow pink when this happens so...”

“Oh.” Kelly recalled the flame she had seen in her minds-eye when she had been meditating with her mother.

The flames grew higher and higher, the heat also became quite intense making everyone step back and sort of ‘take places’ around it. Jacob kept talking to Kelly, nothing of real importance; she gathered he was trying to make her feel at ease.

Rourke suddenly moved over to the fire pulling a glass vial from his pocket. It was corked; there was a clear liquid inside it and a lock of Kelly’s beautiful straw yellow hair.

“We are here to initiate Kelly Andrews into the Coeurs Naturelle’s. If accepted she shall promise to learn her rightful duties and live her life according to the sacred teachings of our ancestors.” Rourke tossed the vial into the fire.

In an instant the flames burst upwards even higher and turned a bright soft pinkish purple, colour. Casting a soft glow on everyone and the backyard

Everyone began to become very excited, Ella seemed to be the most excited about it. “That colour hasn’t shown up in the flames for over three decades; my dad said that it only shows if a descendant is a ‘pure’ cupid, as in both of their parents are...” She stopped looking across the fire at Kelly, their eyes met for a moment.

Kelly turned to Jacob not wanting to meet her gaze. “So is this a good thing or a bad thing?”

Jacob smiled at her. “This? It’s a really good thing; if you wanted to you could take over the captaincy of the club. Anita was the only one who had a darker pink than the rest of us when we had the first initiation ceremony, the night before you arrived.”

Kelly gave a small laugh and shook her head. “Anita can keep the job. I think I’ll just concentrate on getting through my studies.”

Jacob laughed and they both turned back to the fire, the colour slowly drained away leaving the flames burning their usual comforting orange glow.

School continued over the next few weeks, which soon turned into two months having passed by faster than anyone realized; Kelly had almost forgotten about the strange letter.

One afternoon just as classes had finished for the day, Samual showed up surprising Kelly. She threw her arms about him feeling happiness well up inside her.

“Oh my Watcher, what are you doing here you big lug head.”

“Hey, nice to see you too muffin head.”

Their loving banter didn’t faze anyone else as they held onto each other for a moment longer.

“So, who is everyone? I knew this place was a collage of sorts, but I never expected this.”He gave a whistle looking around at the fancy classroom. “Nice digs.”

Kelly could feel herself blushing before she introduced him to everyone, explaining that he was her older brother and twin to her other brother.

Kelly grabbed a photo with him as she could tell everyone wanted to say hello and ask him all about his little sister.

Everyone somehow migrated to the dining room, and Kelly was chatting with Ella, Rourke and Zack to one side somehow getting separated from Samual.

Anita had sat down with Samual at the dining table and was chatting almost nonstop to him, Kelly couldn’t help but smile slightly as her brother who was usually the one doing the talking, couldn’t seem to get a work in edgewise.

“She always has to take over.” Ella commented frowning at Anita who was obviously flirting with Kelly’s brother.

“Don’t worry; he’s not interested in girls anyway.” Kelly remarked giving a small smile glancing over at Anita and Samual. “But Anita can try all she likes.”

Rourke gave Zack an uneasy look and Zack sort of hunched up his shoulders for a moment in a silent conversation. Kelly was finding entire conversations could be said between them all without even one word spoken at times; and right now the silent conversation between Zack and Rourke was thick with caution and worry.

The evening’s hours ticked away much faster than Kelly would have liked and soon enough she found herself standing out the front of the collage hugging Samual, she couldn’t help but hold him tightly in her arms.

‘Hey sis, would you be mad if I told you something?” His voice was soft in her ear and Kelly opened her eyes from her safe haven she had been in and she frowned slightly.

“Well... I guess that depends on what it is. Did you trash my room again?” She let her brother go and stepped back a bit from him.

Samual shook his head smiling sadly for a split second. “No, but...” He paused averting his eyes from his sisters’ face.

“Samual, tell me.” Kelly felt a heavy sinking feeling in her stomach that she wasn’t going to like what her brother was about to tell her, but she wanted to hear it anyway.

“You, you may have gotten a letter when you first got here. Well, Francis and I were the ones who sent you that letter.”

For a moment Kelly was speechless, she wanted to speak, then scream but her throat closed up on her and all she could do was look at him with the pain showing through from her eyes. “Sis I’m sorry...” He continued quickly so she couldn’t interrupt. “I know we should have told you to just go and ask Dad but we weren’t supposed to interfere and we just wanted to help you out a bit.”

“That... that was you?” Kelly angrily burst out at him. “Do you know what that did to me? I was freaking out. I almost didn’t discover that I am a Cupid because of that letter! You and Francis are...”

“Sis, we’re both really sorry.” Samual stopped her before she said something she would regret. “It’s why I came to see you. To make sure you doing were alright, we knew you got into the club from the emails you sent Dad, but I wanted to see you on a more personal level.”

Kelly let out a sharp breath as she gritted her teeth before she couldn’t help but give a sigh to relax and not be mad at him anymore.

“Oooo, you’re so frustrating; you know that?” Kelly half smiled shaking her head at him.

He gave an uneasy smile back and nodded. “Yup. Oh hey you’re still coming to our birthday party right?”

Before Kelly could answer the sound of heels tapping on the road came up behind Samual. She frowned seeing Anita coming over to them.

She spoke quickly before Anita was within ear shot. “Yes, you know I’ll be there. Just get Dad to contact Ms Hunter about it ok?”

“Will do Sis, I’ve got to get going. See you next weekend.” With that, just as Anita stopped beside him, a taxi that he had ordered pulled up, he got in and was driven away.

Kelly went to walk back to the collage house as she wanted to get away from Anita and also felt a chill in the air.

“Well that was rude of your brother to leave like that without even saying goodbye to me.” Anita snipped putting her hands on her hips looking to where the taxi had disappeared over the hill before she turned back to Kelly. “You know, I was going to...”

“You weren’t going to do anything you stuck up, self absorbed cow!” Kelly snapped suddenly at Anita, she had finally had enough of her selfish attitude. “That was my brother who was here to see me, not you, me. I’m not sure if it’s because you’re an only child or not, but you don’t seem to understand what it means to have a sibling travel two hours just to come and see you, then have your entire time taken over by a selfish brat!”

Anita was shocked and stood back as Kelly restrained herself from punching Anita as she had balled up her hands into two fists, her nails digging painfully into her palms.

“Just, just stay away from me.” Kelly turned and began to walk away, just before she got too far she turned back to Anita with a sweet smile. “Oh and by the way, Samual has a boyfriend.”

She then continued walking back to the house, a smile plastered on Kelly’s face as she heard Anita making a muffled scream in annoyance and she also heard her stomping her foot on the ground in frustration.

Kelly had a feeling she was going to start enjoying the rest of her time at the academy in a whole new way and a whole lot more.