It's Basically a Meta-Cheesecake (Alanna)

[Jasper Blackwater]

Jasper Blackwater, who was standing between the school’s commercial oven and the large counter in front of it, allowed himself a single moment to appreciate what might fairly be called his greatest work.

It was beautiful. It was also, fittingly, covered in thick ribbons of chocolate ganache and caramel sauce. The center was piled high with chopped candy bars. Small tufts of rich whipped cream lined its circumference. It was so sugary and chocolatey and incredible that he worried he might gain five pounds simply calling it by name: Snickers cheesecake.

Beside it sat another serving platter—more humble, but no less appetizing—filled with freshly cooked spaghetti and parmesan-crusted chicken breasts. He’d made the marinara sauce himself, at the risk of running out of time.

He ran his index finger quickly along the hot rim of the pot and scooped some of the sauce into his mouth, just to make sure that his effort had been worth it. It had. Indeed, if he got to have chicken parmesan and Snickers cheesecake for lunch every day he woke up early, he would have resolved to do it far more often.

He spared a glance at the clock over the stove. The lunch bell wouldn’t ring for another two minutes; nerves fluttered in the center of his chest, unbidden.

She would remember, wouldn’t she?

[Alanna Darlington]

Alanna was used to being distracted in class. But for the first time, today she was distracted by her own thoughts instead of someone else's. She was meeting Jasper today for lunch. Well, technically, she was meeting him during lunch to take some photos for yearbook. But they were still going to be together, and that thought had her mind far too distracted to learn anything in class today.

Days always seemed to drag by for Alanna, especially when she was being subjected to crowds of people and all their thoughts. To some extent she was always eager for the day to end. But now that she had a reason to want time to go by quickly... it only seemed to move even more slowly. Finally the bell rang for lunch.

She nearly ran to the home ec room where the two were meeting, she was so excited. She hadn't been able to think about hardly anything else since they had been texting the night before. Still, she hesitated just outside the door. Maybe she was being silly about all this. It probably wasn't the big deal she was making it out to be. That was usually the case. She seemed to feel things more strongly than other people did and that had left her disappointed before.

But she didn't want to think that way with Jasper. If nothing else, she wanted to believe that he would be different. She felt a flutter of nerves in the core of her stomach as she entered the room, only to be delighted to find he was already there, waiting.

"Hey, hope you haven't been waiting long," she said with a bright smile, her eagerness showing on her face. She closed her eyes as she caught the scent of food and inhaled deeply. "Oh my goodness, that smells heavenly."

[Jasper Blackwater]

The lunch bell rang out over the campus.

Jasper waited.

He was not a nervous person by nature. It was a well-known fact that he was easygoing. He’d never—not once!—suffered from stage fright; he wondered idly to himself if stage fright felt anything like the sensation that had gripped his abdomen from the inside and now refused to let him go. Additionally, he wondered who the hell could have ever thought that this feeling was in any way related to butterflies.

What was up with that, anyway?

Fortunately, he wasn’t left to ruminate on this for too long, because the door opened a few moments later and Alanna stepped through it. Relief rippled through him—she hadn’t forgotten, after all. He wasn’t a nervous person by nature, but for some reason, he’d found himself highly invested in making sure that this lunch went well.

“Yo,” he said, offering a small, lopsided grin. “Oh man, you bet I have. I’ve been waiting for ages—you do realize you took a whole minute and a half, right?”

He bit his lip, although her compliment made him beam again. His cheeks dimpled.

“Well, welcome to Culinary Club,” he said. He punctuated his joking statement with a brief flourish of jazz hands. “I hope that it’s everything you imagined it would be!” He finished with a chuckle. His now-idle jazz hand brushed against the handle of the sauce pot, which he’d left on the counter. He rushed to remove it to the sink instead.

“So,” he said, turning back to the chicken parmesan. “Noodles in? Or noodles out? What would QVC do?”

He rotated the tray a bit for her consideration, still grinning.

[Alanna Darlington]

For a moment she froze, afraid she really had troubled him, but then his grin and the teasing that followed made her relax and even laugh. "Traffic is a nightmare out there," she said with a playful grin of her own. "I had to navigate around a head on collision just to get here, you know. Luckily this is the best kept secret in the school, so no one else was taking this particular detour," she said with a laugh. It felt good to laugh with someone.

"Even better," she assured him. "My imagination could not do your food justice. Seriously, everything looks and smells amazing. I'm sure it tastes even better." She really couldn't wait to eat it - she was suddenly starving! Of course, she had to photograph it first. She couldn't hardly let all his effort go to waste. That said, or well, thought, she put her bags down out of the way and began to get out her camera.

What would QVC do? That had her laughing even as she was attaching her macro lens to the camera body. He had a habit of doing that - making her smile and laugh.  "Noodles in," she proclaimed. "I want to make sure to capture just how delicious everything you made looks. We'll have the whole school drooling over your food," she said playfully, her smile making her blue-green eyes seem brighter.

[Jasper Blackwater]

Jasper laughed heartily as she joked in reply; it was an easy, natural laugh that carried through the room.

“Sounds rough,” he said. “I’m glad you made it.”

He paused for no more than a split second, as the realization of what he’d just said sunk in. It wasn’t really too embarrassing—he was glad she’d made it, after all. Still, he couldn’t help but be a little curious about her reaction. Was it too much?

Was he too much? He was normally a good judge of the comfort levels of other people, but with Alanna, sometimes it was still hard to tell. He didn’t want her to feel obligated to humor him. Her compliment, however, made him shake all the other thoughts out of his mind, which was already alight with activity. He beamed again.

“There you go with the Cheering Charms again. Ten points to Ravenclaw!” he said. Then, after a pause, he added: “Ravenclaw, right? That’s my guess.” He leaned over the counter a bit, still wearing that perpetual grin.

“Noodles in it is,” he agreed. “I don’t know about the drooling, though. Sounds messy. Photograph wisely—with great power comes great responsibility, you know?”

[Alanna Darlington]

"Well, I could hardly let some crowded hallways keep me away, now could I?" she asked with a grin, though she promptly blushed and looked down at her feet as she realized what she had said. Had it been too much? She was awful at judging things like that. But Jasper was so nice and friendly... it was hard to restrain herself. Around him, she found herself simply reacting instead of thinking things through. She just hoped he didn't think her weird or creepy the way most people seemed to.

Still, his remark about Cheering Charms had her gaze returning to him, a smile still on her lips. She nodded. "You got me alright," she said. She had always been a little surprised by the Sorting Hat's declaration - she only did alright in her classes after all - but it was easy to forget that creativity was part of Ravenclaw as well. "How about you? ...Hufflepuff?" she asked, taking a guess. After all, he was so welcoming of people, of her... Where other house would attract such a kind soul?

She grinned though at his response. "Photograph wisely indeed. Though just warning you, people will be lining up and begging you to cook for them once they see these. After all, it is my responsibility to represent my subject as accurately as possibly," she said, her grin stretching even wider as if such a thing were possible.

[Jasper Blackwater]

Jasper beamed at her enthusiastic reply.

“I hope not,” he said.

He nodded attentively as she confirmed that she had, indeed, been sorted into Ravenclaw. This didn’t surprise him; when they’d met, she’d struck him as the quiet, intelligent type. Still waters ran deep.

“Ooh—close,” he said, in response to her own guess. “I was a hat-stall, so I got to choose. I’m a Gryffindor. Try not to look too surprised,” he added with a laugh. “My little brothers still don’t believe me. They’re convinced I’m a Squib.”

He took a moment to appreciate the fact that she was smiling—really, genuinely smiling—before he replied to her again. She had a beautiful smile, he thought. He wondered if she knew that.

“Well, lucky you,” he said. “First in line. Wait until you taste it, though. I once heard a horror story about a food advertising company that used dyed mashed potatoes for ice cream, you know? Looks aren’t everything.”

He grinned.

[Alanna Darlington]

Alanna allowed herself a smile as she found herself hoping that his reply meant something. He seemed the type who might respond to be polite or to put her at ease, but still, a part of her dared to hope that it might mean something more than that.

"A hat-stall, huh? I shouldn't by surprised, you do seem well-rounded." Even more than that, choosing said something deeper. It spoke less about how the world saw you and more about how you saw yourself - or who you wanted to be. "Besides, it is our choices that show who we truly are far more than our abilities, right?" she said with a wry grin, quoting Dumbledore directly. That quote had always stuck with her.

"America really needs to get their own wizard school. All this transatlantic owl post has just not been working out for us," she said with a grin. "How many brothers do you have?" she added after a slight pause. Being an only child, she couldn't help but be curious when others spoke of their siblings.

Her eyes met his for a moment and her smile softened, though it somehow didn't diminish it any. "Lucky me, indeed," she said softly. Then as though her own words had just reached her brain, she blushed and quickly bit her lip. "I can't wait to try it though. Just being around it has me dying for a bite," she said quickly, hoping to distract from... well, whatever that was.

She laughed at his remark. "That had to be a horrible disappointment. That never made sense to me, why use a substitute for the photography if you make the product anyway? Seems like it actually would be more work. Not to mention all the post production that must have been needed to make colored potatoes look like ice cream." She shook her head. "Still, I don't doubt your food for a minute. Might not have tasted it yet, but I've never heard of delicious smelling food turning out bad," she replied.

With that, she put her camera to her eye and began photographing, trying hard to focus on the food rather than the boy standing behind the counter. Good as the meal looked, there was something in the room that appealed to her more. Pushing those thoughts quickly out of her head though, she forced herself to focus on the clicking sound of the shutter as she captured frame after frame.

[Jasper Blackwater]

It was Jasper’s turn to blush as Alanna paid him another direct—and highly flattering—compliment. He was pretty sure that it was the first time he’d been called well-rounded and it hadn’t been a fat joke.

“Right,” he said. His tone had softened a little. “I hope so, anyway.”

His trademark grin returned as she mentioned that America needed their own wizarding school; seriously, was she ever not awesome? He offered an appreciative chuckle, and was about to reply when the topic of conversation shifted to his family. He blinked at her for a moment; then, he grinned even wider.

“Two,” he said. “I’m the oldest. Hunter is twelve, and Brandon is nine. They live back in Tucson with our mom. They’re technically my half-brothers, but, you know—family’s family, en’et? The term ‘half-brother’ doesn’t mean too much when you’re stuck in the same tiny bedroom with somebody.”

He paused briefly; he was smiling that small, wistful smile again.

“Do you have any siblings?” he asked.

For a moment, Jasper allowed himself to believe that her soft reply meant something. She quickly turned the conversation back to the food, though, and he followed her lead, still smiling as though no thought had occurred to him.

“Well, I didn’t eat any,” he said, laughing. “I like to think that I could tell the difference if it ever came down to that. I never looked at ice cream cartons the same way, though, that’s for sure. All I see is mashed potatoes now. Sad, huh?”

He wrinkled his nose a bit.

Alanna shifted into serious photographer mode soon after—that, at least, was familiar to him—and Jasper made use of the silence by reaching into the cupboards behind him and pulling down two clean plates. He’d have to do dishes afterward—those were the rules—but he figured that it was worth it. It was a special occasion, right?

“So professional,” he said, after a while. His dimples were showing again. “Are you gonna tweak my chicken in Lightroom, too? Or is that only for people?”

[Alanna Darlington]

Alanna gave him a playful nudge as she noticed that softening to his tone. She knew what insecurity looked like after all. "Hey, none of that now. Can't go doubting the sorting hat, right?" she said with a soft giggle, trying to lighten the mood. She couldn't explain it, but there was something about his smile... it was so natural and frequent... to see him without one just felt a little wrong.

The topic changed to family pretty quickly then, and she listened attentively, eager to learn all she could about him. She nodded along as he spoke even as she took it all in. "I bet they're sweet," she said with a smile. "And if they're even half as cute as you, they'll have nothing to worry about," she added. Wait, had she really just said that? Her gaze quickly dropped to stare intently at her blank camera screen, her hair falling forward to partially hide her face and the blush that had appeared there.

"No, I'm an only child," she said, her voice soft. "I wanted a little brother or sister when I was little though. But I was - am - close with my parents, so it's not like I was all alone or anything," she added hastily. It was mostly true at least. She was close to her parents - she just never told them about the teasing and all that. She wanted her time at home to be nice, not full of the same upsetting topics as the rest of her day. Still, she had always felt rather alone. But she couldn't bring herself to admit that.

There was a moment and she wondered if she could say anything right around him. But as she glanced at him, she also found herself wondering if maybe he thought she had said something right after all. But that moment was fleeting.

"That is pretty sad," she agreed. "Well, I guess that makes it easier to not get fall prey to the advertising lures of the packaging though," she added, determined as always to find a positive.

Alanna continued to photograph the food as teased her. "Oh, I don't know about that. I'm still learning really. It would be a pretty cool job though, wouldn't it?" she replied, glad her blushing face was mostly hidden behind her camera. Was she ever not blushing around him? She was starting to think that answer was no. Did he notice? Did he think that was weird?

"Lightroom is for everything," she said with a grin. "I like it because it's simpler, but also because it's more organic." She paused, trying to figure out how best to describe it. "I guess it just depends on taste. Some people love the editing process and can make a photo look drastically different. But I can't help but feel like at some point then it becomes less a photograph and more a digital art piece. I guess I just take a more natural approach. I like to capture how things look in life and I edit just to bring out that beauty a little more, to help it shine on its own if that makes sense." Alanna shrugged slightly as she lowered the camera from her eye for a moment.

"There's no right or wrong to it. It's just a personal preference thing," she concluded.

She glanced around at the food in front of her. "Alright, I think I'm done with the chicken and pasta now, if you wanted to plate them while I photograph this masterpiece of a cheesecake," she said with a bright grin.

[Jasper Blackwater]

Jasper nodded and offered a quick laugh in response to Alanna’s brief nudge of his side. It had tickled a bit.

“Right, right.”

She nodded while he spoke, which encouraged him; often, he felt like he was talking for his own benefit. He didn’t really mind, per se, but he couldn’t deny that talking with someone who was genuinely interested in what he had to say was a nice change of pace.

He beamed at her suggestion that his brothers were sweet, and had been about to elaborate on their personalities before she followed up by indirectly calling him cute.

She had called him cute, right?

“We don’t look anything alike,” he said. He was still smiling, and there was a faint blush coloring his cheeks. “We all have different fathers, and all. But they’re pretty cute. I mean, if I had to make an objective assessment... probably cuter than me by two leaps and a bound, at least.”

She was looking down again; her hair had fallen forward like a curtain, and Jasper had a sudden urge to reach out and tuck it behind her ear. He didn’t, but he filed the urge away for future reference.

“Oh,” he said, nodding as she explained her family arrangement. After a moment, he grinned. “I always wondered what it was like to be an only child. The grass is always greener, I guess.”

There were a few more moments of contented silence between them as Alanna snapped a few more photos. He grinned as she waffled under his compliment—she was pretty cute when she did that, he thought.

“Super professional,” he said, further exaggerating his original statement. “See? You just taught me more about photography and editing in thirty seconds than I’ve learned in, like, my entire life.”

He beamed widely. He beamed even more widely, though, when she suggested that he put the chicken and pasta onto some plates.

“You bet,” he said, turning to the cabinets behind him and fishing out two large, plain white plates. He set them gently on the counter and began fussing with the serveware. “I’m not gonna lie, cooking this stuff made me so hungry,” he appended with a laugh, in a tone of voice that implied he was divulging an embarrassing secret.

[Alanna Darlington]

She glanced up at him as he spoke, noticing the hint of color in his face. He was blushing too? She had made him blush? Somehow that made her feel a little less nervous. She smiled softly. "I don't know about that. I guess I'd have to see them to know for sure, but from where I'm sitting, you have nothing to worry about in terms of cuteness..." Her voice trailed off slightly, and her face was growing hot again as she blushed, but this time she managed not to look away.

Alanna nodded at his response. "Yeah, it's easy to want or at least wonder about what you don't know, I think," she agreed. After all, she couldn't help but think how great it would be to have someone always there to play with and talk to.

She flushed slightly as he further exaggerated his compliment. "Oh stop, now you're just trying to embarrass me," she said, even as she grinned wider. It was odd for her to have someone paying so much attention to her - usually she just faded into the background. Yet with Jasper... it was kind of nice to be the center of his attention, even if it was strange for her. Besides, try as she might - and as much as she didn't believe she was worthy of quite that level of praise - she couldn't exactly deny his logic.

She went about photographing the cheesecake, trying her best to ignore the tingly feeling that was spreading through her. Alanna laughed as he made his admission. "I bet! I'm getting hungry just looking at it!" She paused, lowering her camera from her face to look at him. "Besides, it is lunchtime after all," she added with a laugh.

[Jasper Blackwater]

Jasper raised his eyebrows as Alanna mentioned that she’d have to see his younger brothers to be sure. He was still grinning.

“One sec,” he said. He was using a pasta fork to transfer a generous helping of spaghetti onto the nearest plate; after he’d ensured that every noodle was in its proper place, he placed the plastic utensil on top of a folded paper towel and pulled out his phone.

There was a pause, wherein Jas flipped through his phone’s photo gallery and smiled to himself, apparently lost in thought. A moment later, he was holding the small screen of his iPhone out for her to see.

“This is us last Christmas,” he said. It was displaying a photo of Jasper, a little more tan and about ten pounds heavier, surrounded by his family: a gangly boy with glasses and shaggy light brown hair, a beaming child with red hair and freckles riding piggyback with his arms around Jasper’s neck, and a tall, thin woman with curly brown hair who looked amused and exhausted. They were standing in front of a two-armed saguaro that had been wrapped with multicolored Christmas lights.

“That’s Hunter in the middle—Brandon is the one on my back, and that’s my mom on the left. And, of course, our Arizona Christmas tree.”

He beamed, taking another moment to examine the photo before he locked and pocketed his iPhone again. He picked up the pasta fork and resumed his task with all the determination that one might expect of a hungry teenage boy. She accused him of trying to embarrass her, and he grinned.

“I’m not,” he said.

There was a beat of silence after his statement while he concentrated heavily on flopping two pieces of juicy chicken from plate to plate. Satisfied, he licked a bit of sauce from his thumb, too engrossed in the taste of his own cooking to be properly sheepish.

“If you really care about me, you’ll keep photographing that cheesecake until I leave,” he said, laughing. “And take it with you when you go.”

He sighed deeply and reached for his fork.

[Alanna Darlington]

Her gaze turned curious as he told her to hold on a second as he finished putting the pasta onto the plates. She wasn't sure exactly what she was waiting for, but she waited nonetheless. Then as he pulled out his phone, swiping at the screen before offering it to her, all became clear. "Aw, they are adorable," she gushed. "I see what you mean... you all have different features and yet... I don't know. I can still see the relation somehow. Something about your eyes I think."

Alanna looked up from the phone screen then, her eyes narrowing slightly as she studied him for a moment, a serious expression on her face. Suddenly then her face brightened as she smiled widely. "Yup, I was right. You're still the cutest," she declared, her face turning crimson. Still, she felt comfortable enough around him to say it, even if she had to fight her instincts to look down.

"That is a weird Christmas tree, though." She laughed as she said it. "I guess things really are different out west, huh?" Her eyes went back to the photo. "You all look really happy though."

He pocketed his phone then and resumed serving the food as she resumed photographing the cheescake. After a moment, she impulsively turned her camera, snapping a photo of him as he served the meal.

"Oh sure you're not," she retorted. "That grin gives it all away!" she teased. At that moment she put her camera aside, grinning as he sampled the sauce. "Is it half as good as it smells? I bet its even better. Wow, I'm hungry," she gushed, punctuating with a sheepish laugh. Alanna tilted her head as he remarked that she should take the whole cheesecake with her. "Oh, don't be silly, a masterpiece like that is meant to be enjoyed!"