Chapter 29: Demon Lord – 7

 “Iʼm home.” I pushed open the front door gingerly, bracing myself for a dressing-down as soon as Mother appeared from the kitchen. 

“Oh, youʼre back.” She glanced at Angelica and Therese behind me, and to my surprise, smiled and greeted them. “Welcome back, Angelica, and you are...”

“Good evening, Auntie! Iʼm Averyʼs friend, Therese.” She smiled unexpectedly sweetly and bowed her head, even going as far as to do a slight curtsy. “Please forgive me for my intrusion.”

Angelica shot her a disgusted glance, which I pretended not to notice. 

“Oh my, what a polite and well-mannered girl you are,” Mother remarked with an impressed smile. “Come in, do make yourself at home. Will you be staying for dinner?”

“Sure, Auntie, thank you!” Therese turned to me and tilted her head to the side. “Shall we go to your bedroom?” 

“Mm.” I nodded my head and led the way through the corridor to my bedroom; Angelica immediately switched on the air-con and made herself comfortable on my bed with a smug smile. “Hurry up, I wanna play some games!”

“You really are as shameless as it gets,” Therese chided her as she opened a portal to her pocket dimension in mid-air. “What games do you want to play first?”

“Uh...why donʼt you lay everything out first? I want to see what games are there.”

“Oi, Iʼm not going to waste my energy taking all eight bags of games out just for you to choose one and ask me to put everything else back.”

I gave a light cough to momentarily get their attention and asked, “Iʼm just going to get us some drinks first, do yʼall want anything specific?”

“Coke,” Angelica answered immediately. “Add a teaspoon of sugar inside too, please.”

“Just plain water will do,” Therese said a second later. 

“Two water and one serving of diabetes, alright.” I went to the kitchen to get the drinks; when I came back, Therese and Angelica were both sitting on my bed, apparently having started a game on the Switch. “What are you two playing?”

“It’s the first game that Angelica came across, and she said she wanted to try it, sooo here we are.” Therese pointed at an open plastic case on the bed; on the cover was a bunch of cute-looking characters and a brightly-coloured title that read OVERCOOKED! 

“Can you stop talking and start making the orders?” Angelica said as she frantically button-smashed her controller. “We need a sashimi and three sushi—NO I THREW THE SASHIMI AWAY aaaAAAAAA” 

“Why are you always creating trouble when I’m not looking?? Look, now I have to chop the damn fish again...oi, the pot is on fire, do something!” 

“I-it’s all because you left it boiling for so long! How do you work this stupid fire extinguisher, damn it?”

I briefly read the how-to-play booklet that was inside the plastic case. “It says here that you are supposed to press A to pick it up and X to extinguish the fire.”

“A...then X...oh!” Her eyes sparkled with pure joy and she cheered excitedly. “I saved the kitchen, see, Therese? Come on, we just need that sashimi to clear this round!”

“Here, take it. And don’t you dare drop it on the floor.” Therese eyed the screen nervously. “No, NO, you have to plate it and send it on the conveyor belt at the bottom left. Yes...yes...done!”

“Oh, my God.” Angelica let go of the controller and breathed a sigh of relief. “Two stars, I can live with that.”

“If you didn’t throw the first sashimi away, we could’ve gotten all three stars,” she reminded her with a wry smile.

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“I thought the bin was the place to put the dishes, okay?” Angelica huffed and turned to look at me. “Hey, Avery, why are you still just standing there? Sit here, we can play together that way.”

“Hmm—”

“Avery, can you please sit here instead?” Therese asked, patting the space beside her gently. “I don’t really know how to play this game, I’ll be so grateful if you can teach me~”

“Oh, okay,” I said, surprised. “Then, I—”

“You demon, I was the first person to ask!” Angelica interrupted, shooting a furious glare at Therese. 

“So what? Avery said okay to me first,” she said proudly. “Besides, he promised to help me with my homework, so it’s easier for him to sit next to me instead.”

At this point, I was already used to their bickering and could sense another useless argument brewing between the two girls; managing a smile, I suggested, “how about I sit in between you two? No complaints about that, right?”

They exchanged a glance with each other and slowly shifted to make a small space in between them.

“Um, you two can move further apart...” I murmured, but as soon as I sat down, Angelica and Therese immediately glued themselves to my side. 

“I can’t see the screen if I sit too far away,” Angelica said, snuggling up against me. 

“Same here, bear with it.” Therese unapologetically tossed me an extra controller and pressed a button on hers to switch the game to three-player mode. “Everyone, get ready!”

“W-wait, I haven’t fully remembered which button do what yet...” The in-game timer began despite my protest and I clumsily steered my tiny character around the map, which resembled a pirate ship deck. “I’ll go get the onions, you two do the cooking and serving.”

“Angelica, you’re closer to the pots, so take care of them,” Therese said. “Pass me the plates first.”

“Yes, yes, I’m on it,” she muttered, moving the plates to Therese’s countertop. “Avery, where are the onions?”

“They’re...oops, I accidentally dropped them.” I desperately chased after the runaway ingredients while spamming the button on my controller. “Hang on...”

“Wha—the countertops are moving!”

“We’re on a ship, idiot sandwich, of course things will move.” Therese grabbed the rolling onions and passed them to Angelica. “Hurry up and chop them—we have another order coming in!”

“Alright, I’ll chop the tomatoes—Angelica, go cook the onions and clear the first order.”

“G-got it, boiling onions now!”

“We got a new mushroom soup order, go get it done too!”

And so, we somehow became a team of three Gordon Ramsays button-smashing poor controllers while fighting to look at a 7-inch display. 

 

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