Crash Crash [KEVIN]

[Deleted]

The sun was barely still peeking over the hills as Lenny made his way out of the forest, and towards the kitchens. He kept his head low as he walked, avoiding eye contact with the few stragglers from dinner. That was one of the main reasons he spent his evenings in the forest, to avoid the mass group of Demigods at meals. He did the same with breakfast, except he just stayed in his room until he was sure everyone had eaten and gone. Tonight, it seemed that there were only four or five people left, and he could feel the funny looks they gave him as he rushed into the kitchen. The nymphs, like the other Demigods, gave him strange looks, but he was used to that. He gave them all a polite wave before he set his basket on the counter, per their usual routine, and went to wash the grime and mud of the forest off of his hands. 

When he returned to the counter, the basket was empty, so he slid it back into the cupboard he grabbed it from every afternoon before he grabbed out a round cake tin. He'd been craving sweets all day, and cake seemed to be the perfect way to remedy that hunger. He went to another cupboard for the rest of the ingredients, piling them into the cake tin, which got really heavy really fast. He was so caught up in gathering everything, that he didn't hear the snickers of a couple of younger kids who had followed him into the kitchen, nor did he hear the soap bottle squirting onto the floor. So, when he turned to return to the counter, his left heel caught on the soap, sending him backwards onto the floor with a high-pitched squeal which was cut off as soon as his back hit the floor. The air rushed out of his lungs only seconds before the flour bag came down onto his face.

Lenny didn't really do anything. He couldn't really breathe yet, so he didn't want to try standing. So he simply laid there, his back covered in soap, face covered in flour, and a carton of eggs smashed near his legs. What a wonderful day this was.

[Kevin Cook]

"And that is how you don't do a prank," Kevin snapped at the younger kids as he stepped out of the shadows and in front of them. He had his arms crossed in front of him as he popped a hip. "Pranks mean that everyone gets a laugh. Nobody should be embarrassed because of your little jerks. Now get out of my sight and you're banished from any more of my pranking lessons." He rolled his eyes as the kids scampered away before he turned to look at the poor boy on the floor.

"Sorry about that man," he said as he crouched down beside the boy as he looked him over. "I was trying to teach them how to prank well... and this is what I get for letting them have free reign on a prank." He offered a hand up as he tried to hold back a smirk. "Minus the soap, I'd probably put you in the oven at 350 for an hour and you'd look really good."

[Deleted]

Oh, so now he heard the voices. Once air started filling his lungs again, he groaned, and went to roll when a pile of flour went into his mouth. He hacked and sputtered until the voice was directed at him. Lenny wanted to be mad, but that just wasn't his style. "Great. Glad I was useful." His voice came out a bit harsh. Sure, he wasn't so much angry, as he was annoyed, because now he had to waste his time cleaning the kitchens. Still, he took the hand when it was offered, and hauled himself off of the ground, watching the flour fall off of him, making it look like he was causing snow. "Um...Thanks?" He mumbled the words with a bit of confusion before he tried to shake out his hair, attempting to get the flour out of it. If he didn't get it out now, he'd have a goopy mess when he tried to shower.

He finally took a good look at the floor, sighing heavily as he ran a hand through his hair, glaring at nothing when he still felt flour there. Even with this huge mess he had to clean up, he still really wanted cake, so he grabbed the cake tin and the other ingredients that didn't end up all over him, and set them on the counter. He grabbed another bag of flour, making sure to step over the puddle of soap to set it down with the rest before grabbing a bowl. He set it with the rest of the stuff, but instantly squeaked when he took a step too far back, slipping on the eggs this time. He landed on his butt with a thud, glaring at the floor. "Okay...Cleaning before cake apparently." Of course, he didn't move right away. He just sat there, glaring at the floor that was covered in gunk.

[Kevin Cook]

After he helped the boy up, Kevin leaned against the counter with his arms crossed as he studied the boy. Cute and a cook, both were good in Kevin’s book and that made him smirk a bit as he kept quiet and watched the boy. Eventually, his eyes drifted over to the mess of the kitchen and he couldn't help but feel a slight pang of guilt in his stomach. Stupid mentees. This would be the last time he offered his services.

“Lemme help,” Kevin said as he offered his hand to the boy after he slipped on the eggs. “It’s the least I can do. To be honest, I wasn't expecting them to be this mean or messy.” He crouched down to eye-level of the boy as he tried to look him in the eyes and correct the situation. “What kind of cake were you going to make anyway?”

[Deleted]

It was times like these when Lenny just wanted to lay there and wish he could stay like that for the rest of his life. The universe seemed to hate him with a passion, with his social skills and his grace, or lack there of. This was no exception. He'd closed his eyes after the second fall, and only opened them when he heard the voice close to his face. He blinked a few times, debating on whether to tell this boy to just go to hell, it was his fault in the first place. There was just one problem, though. Lenny didn't really have a mean bone in his body, and this boy seemed pretty sincere. "I guess some help wouldn't hurt." He allowed the male to pull him up again, but this time he kept his feet firmly planted. He took a second to survey the damage of the mess, which made him wince a bit, before answering the boys question.

"Lemon basil. Not very popular, but damn tasty." He smiled as he made his comment. He was a sucker for anything lemon basil. Be it the cake, or his famous lemon basil chicken. If it was the combination of those two flavors, he would probably try it. When he finally grabbed a rag from the counter and bent back down, he dared to speak while wiping up the eggs and the soap to make sure he wouldn't trip. "I'm Lenny, by the way."

[Kevin Cook]

"Lemon basil?" Kevin asked as he knitted his eyebrows a bit. "That's... a bit of an unexpected flavor. I never had anything like that before. I usually stick with the basics like vanilla and chocolate." He looked around the kitchen surveying the mess he had inadvertently made. He glanced at the boy as he wiped up the eggs and soap before he sighed. "I'll grab a mop and at least get the floor," he said as he walked over to the closet and grabbed one and brought it over. He started wiping the floors as the boy finally decided to introduce himself.

"Lenny..." he said as he looked up at the boy and gave him a slight smirk. "I'm Kevin. Also known as the asshole with really bad students." He sighed as he shook his head as he focused on getting the floor cleaned up while working around Lenny.

[Deleted]

"It's quite unorthodox but I find the dissonance of the flavors to be quite enticing." As soon as the words left his mouth, he mentally smacked himself. He really needed to learn some normal people speak. He spent too many hours in his books, and not enough in social situations. He sounded like a grandma, or a professor. Of course, he didn't have much time for his brain to yell at him, because the other male was already off to get a mop. "Oh, thank you. It would probably take ages by myself." He gave a bit of a nervous smile, still trying to calm down from his idiocy, and the situation of actually speaking to someone for more than seventeen seconds.

He knew that his spot on the floor would take a while. The combination of egg and soap wasn't ideal to clean up, and the rag was pretty much just making it worse. "Oh crap, it's on my shoes." He noticed after a moment of sitting on the floor. "I mean...It's everywhere else, too, but I'm accident prone as it is." He nervously mumbled the last explanation before shutting himself up. In a split-second decision, he simply pulled off his plain black sneakers, as well as the blue and black mix-matched socks, before wiping off the bottoms of them. "There." He mumbled as he set them on a clean spot of the floor before going back to work on the goop.

"It wasn't really your fault. Kids just get out of hand." Was he actually trying to justify the actions of two kids that could have done some serious harm? Why yes, yes he was. Lenny was a firm believer of being nice to everyone. He really just didn't have a mean bone in his body. It was hard for him to be angry for too long, unless you messed with his flowers and herbs. Then there was a wrath, and it wasn't pretty.

[Kevin Cook]

Kevin raised his eyebrows at the boy as he tried to describe the cake. "I never heard anyone use something that usually describes music try to describe cake." He shrugged a bit as he continued to mop up around the floor, paying special attention to the heavily soiled areas. "I would say like the dissension of flavors... I would never think to put lemon and basil together, especially in a cake." He frowned a bit as he got to a spot that had a lot of flour which was all goopy. "I don't like it how flour gets like that once it's wet... it's like a really horrible lover." He shook his head and chuckled as he looked up at Lenny.

"Kids that stopped listening to the rules I set down for them." Kevin rolled his eyes as he stopped mopping for a moment. "I tell them the number one cardinal rule of pranking is to make sure nobody gets hurt physically or emotionally. They blatantly ignored that." He sighed a bit as he started moping a bit. "This is going to take a while..." he muttered underneath his breath as he look up at Lenny. "So do you like making other cakes besides lemon basil?"

[Deleted]

Lenny had to admit, the smart talk coming from an already handsome boy was a turn on. He couldn't help the smile that tugged at his lips. It was actually just nice to have someone hold an intelligent conversation without using slang. Sure, he used it himself sometimes, but he was a huge nerd, so big words just flowed naturally. "Yeah...People say I talk strangely..." He mumbled the words as he diligently scrubbed at the floor. "It's going to be a pain to wash my hair later. I know for a fact that there's still some flour hidden in there." He gave a heavy sigh, shaking out his hair again. Sure enough, there was some flour that sprinkled to the floor, leaving him to glare at it before he wiped it up.

He didn't comment when Kevin spoke about the kids. He really didn't know what to say. So all he did was scoot around the floor, scrubbing up the mess he'd made. At least most of the mess had gone on him, even though the floor was still covered in gunk. But with two of them, the cleaning was already going quickly. "Oh I make the basics, too. Most of my siblings have me make their birthday cakes and such." He stared at the floor as he spoke, pursing his lips. He didn't like to brag about his cooking skills, even though it was the one thing he was good at. He didn't brag about anything, really. He'd been told for so many years that everyone else was better than him, he didn't see the need in bragging. "I make a mean peanut butter and jelly cake, too." He added as he finally stood, his knees cracking as he did. "You'd think I was eighty." He grumbled the words as he shuffled to the sink, leaning over it to brush the flour off of his shirt.

[Kevin Cook]

"They might call it strangle," Kevin said with a slight chuckle, "but I call it the thing that will get me a Pulitzer Prize for my writing one of these days. I just need to find an agent who will publish one of my novels." He kept mopping up and thought he got everything so he paused for a bit. He watched Lenny shake some more flour out of his hair. “I guess you'd have to follow the instructions on the shampoo bottle and repeat,” he said with a bit of a shrug.

"Peanut butter and jelly cake?" Kevin asked as he raised his eyebrows at the boy. "I'm not sure if I should be enticed or repulsed by those flavors in a cake. I might have to take you up on that one of these days.” He decided to put his mop and bucket off to the side as Lenny commented about his knees. “You could be eighty if you were in the casino.” He raised an inquisitive eyebrow at the boy as he chuckled slightly. “Is that your secret? You learned to make cakes when you were at the casino?”

[Deleted]

Lenny's eyebrow raised slightly at the comment about getting published. "I know a guy...If you'd want that is. He published my cookbook, and it made it into the top 15." He spoke with a blush on his cheeks. He rarely ever spoke about his book, let alone that it had done so well. No one ever really guessed, since he used a fake name and never put a picture of himself in the book. "Ha ha, funny. I'll figure it out. Get flour wet and it turns into a goopy mess. It'll be horrible to get it out of my hair." He gave a bit of a shrug as he tried to shake more of the flour out.

He smiled a bit at the words that came next. "Well, give me a couple of weeks to finish my jelly and peanut butter, and you'll be the first to get a taste." He wondered if he should have said that. He hated to brag about his culinary prowess. The cook book, and now he was bringing up the fact that he made his own peanut butter and jams. What next? Telling this stranger that he grew all of his own herbs and cooked his own food? Yeah, right. Once again, he laughed and shook his head. "Nope. All American eighteen year old. Is that your secret? Is that why you brought it up? Are you really some nine hundred year old guy?" Ugh. He was rambling again. He really needed to stop that.

He shook his head with a blush as he finally set the rag down. Finished. "Sorry. I tend to ramble a lot." His cheeks were once again flushed as he pulled out the ingredients again. This time, though, he pulled them out one by one, setting them on the counter. He would give this cake one last try. If he failed, he would probably rage quit and just go to his cabin and sleep off his frustration.

[Kevin Cook]

Kevin raised his eyebrows at the mention of an agent and a cookbook being in the top fifteen. The cookbook part didn't really interest him, but if he played his cards right, he could be a step closer to getting one of his mystery novels getting published. "So..." he said as he shifted his eyebrows a bit. "Does this agent of yours only deal with cookbooks or would he like to spice it up a bit with a, let's say, a mystery novel? I don't think I can cook anything to save my life, let alone others."

"You got me," Kevin said as he raised both of his hands in surrender. "I am really just a 900 year old virgin sparkle-pyre. I just masquerade as an Hermes boy because apparently that's the ladies find attractive around here." He chuckled a bit as he shook his head. "A really awful book series in my opinion. It's written at a low level and it deals with domestic abuse while disguising it. Plus, the movies looked horrible. I saved myself some brain cells by not watching them."