Eating a home cooked meal

Emma had decided to give this batch to Mr Thomas, even if it wasn't as good as an average lasagna you could buy from the store or so on. She'd spent time and effort on it and that should be all that mattered, instead of buying a store-bought one or ordering from a restaurant, this dish showed her sincerity and care for him and that should be worth something.

Due to her excitement, Emma had gotten to school earlier than usual. This was surprising to anyone that saw her rushing through the halls as was known for being late or almost late to all of the classes. As soon as she had reached school she had begun sprinting to Mr Thomas' designated room and had stopped in front of his door for a few moments to catch her breath and calm down.

However, although her breathing returned to normal and she had stopped huffing and puffing embarrassingly due to this minuscule workout. Every time she thought of handing this container filled with lasagna to Mr Thomas her face flushed and she couldn't get any coherent sentences out. She looked so red that others may think she was running a fever, it also earned her a few looks of concern for any passerby.

In the end, she took in a deep breath, lightly slapped her cheek with her free hand, and knocked on the door cautiously and softly. After a minute or so of not receiving a response, she knocked again and waited before opening the door a crack, to peek in and see if anyone was in the office. As no one was inside she opened the door fully, so she could walk in, and placed her container down on his desk with great care. After looking around for a moment she realised he had some sticky notes on the desk, she stared at them for a moment before deciding to pull one off and write a small note.

The note said, "Mr Thomas, I'd noticed you had seemed somewhat busier recently. If you had not had the time to go to the cafeteria, please give this lasagna a try."

She then stuck it carefully on the lid of the container and once again opened the door of the room, she then stepped through and left. Once again, silence filled the room and it was empty once more.

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All throughout the day, Emma had been feeling as though she was floating. She had been happily waiting for lunch when she could see if Mr Thomas liked her lasagna or not. Her spirits were high and she was all sunshine and happiness, luckily for her, time passes by faster when you were having fun, and the highly anticipated lunchtime finally arrived.

Emma went to the cafeteria with Ren as per usual, unlike her usual meals consisting of a balance of vegetables meat and rice, she'd ordered fish and chips. She decided to allow herself a cheat day on her so-called healthy lifestyle due to the extremely good mood she was in.

She didn't want to ruin her day over a few vegetables, secretly, she actually really disliked most of the vegetables in most of the dishes served in the cafeteria. Although, she never complained as she was raised to finish everything on her plate because not everyone was as fortunate as her to be able to eat full, and nutritious meals.

As soon as she'd finished, before Ren had even eaten half of her plate, Emma had quickly taken her tray over to the bin. She then proceeded to place the tray next to the bin, on the pile of other trays. She then placed the cutlery in the plastic container of soapy water on the table next to the bin, which also held the trays.

She rushed back to the table Ren was sitting at and grabbed her bag before rushing out of the cafeteria door. Ren was about to say something to her but by the time she had gotten over her shock and thought of what to say Emma had already long disappeared.

Ren just sat there dumbstruck for a few minutes before snapping back to reality and taking her time to finish her meal. Unlike Emma, Ren cared about her digestion and didn't want to cause any problems later. For example, indigestion, due to rushing to finish a meal for little to no reason. After all, lunch had barely just started and she had a good 40-45 minutes left before the next class.

Besides she had to savour this good food, at home her parents always refused to use spices, they just sat in the cupboard, their only purpose was to be stared at and to be aesthetically pleasing. Her parent's lack of using spices caused lots of her Asian friends to poke fun at her family for being so-called stereotypical white parents.

Meanwhile, Emma was almost sprinting to Mr Thomas' office, she reached the door leading to his office and went on her tiptoes to see if he was inside through the window.

He wasn't, for a moment she thought he'd already gone in and had already left, but her container with the note was still on the table. Seeing that, she realised he hadn't been in yet. She heard footsteps coming from around the corner, and made a split-second decision to turn a corner and hide behind the wall before she could be seen by who she assumed to be Mr Thomas.

She waited as the footsteps turned the corner, and got closer and closer toward her until they stopped, and she could hear the sound of a door being pushed open gently. Emma waited for the sound of the door closing could be heard, before she moved away from her hiding spot, and went back to his door to take another peek in.

It was indeed Mr Thomas that was now inside his room. He was standing by the desk with a container in hand, seemingly reading something. She realised it was her container and that he was reading her note, she smiled and kept watching. Emma hoped to see him take a bite of her specially prepared meal and look as though he enjoyed it.

He sat at his desk and pulled the note off the container, Mr Thomas placed it on the table temporarily to not be in his way. He took out a fork from his desk drawer and opened the container gently, he broke off a bit of the lasagna and placed it into his mouth gingerly.