Helping Barbeque

After the pool party, most kids went home. The group stayed for the… 'after-party'.

For the first time in the last two days, I saw John and Miria.

"Hello Miria, hello John." I greeted them as they came outside, dressed like baristas.

"Hello, darling!" Miria said, clamping her giant tonsils together.

"I hope you like your pig barbequed!" She gave me a kiss on the cheek.

"Anything you make is sure to be great!" I added fuel to a possibly already dead fire. Some people just don't know how to cook.

"It always ends up burnt, and we have the maids fix us some actual food," King whispered to me and I stifled a laugh.

"We have such a great time doing it, why don't you help?" Miria asked me with a smile from ear to ear.

"Hope you can breathe in fumes," King whispered to me.

"Oh, and you too King, it will be great!" Miria burst King's whole bubble as I watched his face go from amused to worried in a split second.

"But ma, I promised the guys that we'd play Madden before dinner." King sounded pleading.

"You'll have lots of time to play Mad Then after we eat," Miria told King, and the next thing I knew, we were both in aprons and had a pair of tonsils identical to Miria's.

"We've already had the chef season the food, all we have to do now is the fun part; grill it!" John walked in with a plate of pork chops.

"Ah, what great timing John! Let's get this fire started!" Miria said as she lit a match on its box and threw it in spaces in between the grill top, which just happened to look brand new. Maybe they aren't burning just the food.

The charcoal under the grill top instantly lit fire and continued to burn a blue flame.

"King, put that pork chop on. John, go get the shrimp." My ears perked up at the mention of shrimp. My friend brought some to school once and I'd been in love with the dish ever since then. When I asked my mom for shrimp, she got us some from Captain D's, but that shrimp was fried, hers wasn't.

"Shrimp?" I asked Miria.

"Oh, yes. I love shrimp, but King and John hate it." King gagged as Miria talked about shrimp.

"I love shrimp too," I admitted.

"Maybe all hope isn't lost," Miria took me in for a quick squeeze.

"What?" I asked, completely lost.

"Nothing dear." She gave me a smile as John walked out with a plate of dead shrimp ready for grilling.

At that moment, I knew I had to prevent this barbeque from becoming charred. I mean that was at least 200 shrimp right there, I couldn't just let that go to waste!

"Come over here and help me stake these shrimp, Em. John, go help King with those pork chops he has no idea what he's doing." Miria waved John off.

"Neither do I," John said, it was the first time I'd actually heard him talk. His voice was deep and soothing.

I went over to Miria and grabbed a metal stake and started pushing shrimp on.

"Do six at a time, gotta save room," Miria instructed me. The grill looked big enough to cook every individual shrimp all at once, but I suppose it would be easier to cook them on stakes where we could turn multiple at once.

By the time we were finished staking the shrimp, the pork chops were still on the grill which I consider oddly suspicious. It'd already been about 10 minutes. I got up and walked over to them to see the men's faces buried in their phones.

"I think the pork chops are done." I dragged out the word 'think' and the men's heads popped us towards me.

"I don't think so," John said and went back to his phone.

"Let's check," King said, opening the lid of the grill. He took one of the pork chops out and cut a piece open, it was still a little pink in the middle, but he took a bite anyway.

"Mm, this is good." King cut another piece and offered it to me, I bit it right off the fork.

"Oh god, you're right." I looked at the pork chop and back up at King who had John standing behind him.

"Let me try that." King handed him the knife and fork, but John rejected it and pulled a piece of pork chop off before taking a nibble at it.

Then he ate the whole thing and smiled.

"We've got to get the other pork chops off the grill!" I realized and they raced to do that, and I went back to Miria who was on her phone.

"It's our turn," I informed Miria.

"I thought pork chops were supposed to cook for 30 minutes?" Miria asked with a concerned look. Now I know why their barbeques came out smoked.

"Nope, it's finished now," I told her and she perked up.

"Great, the faster we grill this shrimp, the faster we get to eat it." Miria put the shrimp on the now-clean grill and lit another match.

We placed all the shrimp down and I wanted to make sure both sides were getting enough early attention, so I turned them all over 2 minutes in, but that side looked cooked to perfection.

"Miria, I don't think this is going to take long," I said.

"Yep, they'll only need to cook for 15 minutes." She assured me, but I wasn't so sure, the shrimp looked too small to have to cook for 15 minutes. After another 2 minutes, I slid one of the shrimp off and tasted it. It tasted delicious and looked perfect. I took another one and handed it to Miria. She eyed it warily before taking off its head.

"Oh, well, let's get the rest of the shrimp off the grill then!" Miria quickly grabbed the rest of the stakes and placed them on a plate with… lemons?

"Lemons?" I asked, looking at the mouth-watering shrimp next to the sour fruit of choice.

"Oh, it just makes it look appetizing, like parsley," Miria assured me as we walked into the mansion and to the dining hall, full of people, pork chops, cornbread, and macaroni.

"There you are, Em. You've got to try these pork chops! They aren't brunt, and they're delicious!" Kayla said once she spotted me.

"Oh, I know," I said as I took my spot on her left with King on my left. Nia was on Kayla's right. In front of Nia was Jaylen and in front of Kayla was Deon. In front of me was Olli and on Olli's right sat J.

"Anyone for some grilled shrimp?" Miria asked, holding up the plate.

"I'll try anything after this delicious pork chop!" Kayla said.

"I'd liked some too," I added on.

"Me too," Deon said.

Miria came around and gave us each three shrimp stakes.

The maids gave me macaroni, a pork chop, cornbread, and some sweet tea and refilled anyone who wanted more.

The pork chop was the best I'd ever had and the shrimp, oh the shrimp. It had to be some form of magic on my tongue.