Well, I've finally written a new fic...enjoy!

Something's Cookin'

Three sets of eyes tried to avoid the wounded-kitten gaze that was set on them.

"No way, Tennyson." Kevin stated. He figured he might as well be the talker for the group. "I prefer livin' too much to risk doin' that."

"C'mon, please, guys?" Ben begged, turning his eyes unto Gwen and Rook.

"Ben," Gwen started, pinching her nose to concentrate. "Kevin and I are only here for the weekend to visit and you want us to spend it being your guinea pigs for home economics?"

It was a scary thought...Ben Tennyson, saviour of the universe and bearer of the omnitrix, had enrolled for home economics and wanted help from his friends in sampling some of the things he was planning to learn to cook. After hearing Gwen's negative answer, Ben turned his attention to Rook.

"Dude! Don't look into his eyes!" Kevin warned the young alien.

But it was too late; Rook was ready to crack. "I suppose it would not hurt to sample some form of your Earth-cuisine." The young Plumber answered, figuring that his response would stop the look that Ben was giving. Kevin groaned and Gwen sighed.

"Alright, fine, Ben." Gwen caved. She really did not want to spend her weekend home trying what would definitely be horrible cooking; if she wanted to get food poisoning, she would have visited Grandpa Max. She gave Kevin a stern glare, which made him agree to Ben's request.

"Fine, I'll come too." He whined. "One of us needs to perform the Heimlich manoeuvre on the others or call the hospital and get the stomach pumps ready."

Ben punched his best friend hard, insulted by the comment. "At least try the food before passing judgement." He turned his attention back to Gwen and Rook, giving them sweet smiles. "You guys can come over to my place tomorrow evening at six. Everything should be ready by then." Ben left the group, heading towards his car to drive towards the store to buy supplies.

"What did we just get ourselves into?" Gwen asked.

Rook decided not to respond, not sure if Gwen was asking a rhetorical question or not; Kevin groaned again, worried for the impending doom his stomach was about experience in the next twenty-four hours.

Ben's interest in the culinary arts had Gwen curious.

After a lengthy discussion with Kevin the previous night, the young Anodyte decided to give her xenomorph cousin a call first thing in the morning.

"Hey, Gwen. What's up?" Ben perked on the line.

"Wow, you must really be serious about this if you're awake at 7:30 on a Saturday morning cooking." To say that Gwen was flabbergasted would be an understatement. "So why did you sign up for home ec?"

"Honestly?" Ben asked. Gwen was about to nod, but remembered that they were on the phone and Ben wouldn't be able to see the motion, so she let out a sound as an affirmative. "Well," Ben started, "with all the missions I've taken out-of-town and off-world for the Plumbers, I'm short a few credits to graduate."

"Ben!" Gwen squeaked; she knew that Plumber work would distract Ben from his homework, but didn't think that it would be bad enough to prevent him from earning his high school degree. Part of her was fuming that their grandfather didn't put her cousin's education as a priority. Times like this, she's glad that she informally retired from superhero work.

"Before you say anything more and I know you're pissed about this situation...I talked to an academic advisor..." Gwen took a sigh of relief that Ben was responsible enough to take this seriously. "And he said that I could make up the credits by taking extra credit courses, so I signed up for art and home economics."

"Interesting choices."

"Not really; they're the only classes that still had openings." Well, at least he didn't sign up for those classes because they're supposed to be easy. "Personally I would have signed up for wood shop and some language class." Again, Gwen found herself astounded by her cousin. Ben was really growing up. So much for being the baby of the family. She mused. "So, why are Kevin, Rook and I..."

"And Grandpa Max." Ben added. "I called him last night to join us."

"Okay..." Gwen paused. "So why are we being guinea pigs to this experiment?" She asked. "I thought home economics involved making a stuffed animal and baking cookies?"

"I thought so too, but it turns out my teacher is a pretentious nut job who's obsessed with Keeping Up Appearances."

"That British show that my mother always watches on PBS?!" Gwen laughed. Her mother adored that show; there were times where Gwen thought her mother acted like the main character, who's obsessed with societal status. "Why is that relevant?"

"Well, since I need the extra credit, I need to prepare a 5-course dinner and have an evaluation sheet filled out by the people who are trying the meal, as well as supply my recipe cards for each dish and save samples of the food for the teacher to try."

"She sounds insane."

"Tell me about it..." Ben sighed.

"So, you're gonna tell me what you're cooking?"Gwen asked. Ben could almost sense the smile that was plastered on her face.

"Nope." Came the quick reply. "You'll have to wait until six tonight."

"Come on!" Gwen whined. "I'm family! Give me hint!"

"Still no, Gwen." Ben quickly hung up, before Gwen could beg.

Gwen ended the call on her end and sighed. This assignment of Ben's now had her intrigued.

At six o'clock, Rook, Max, Gwen and Kevin reached Ben's place, showing various signs of concern about the evening ahead; except for Gwen, who felt excited after her conversation during the morning.

"Guess we're gonna have to pull the band-aid off sometime…"Kevin muttered as Rook pressed the doorbell. Ben opened the door moments later, blushed and excited to see his guests.

"Right on time!" He smiled. "Come on in and take a seat at the dining table, and I'll have the first course out."

"First course?" Rook asked.

"Yeah, Gwen didn't tell you that this was a five-course meal?" Ben asked, giving Gwen a quizzical look.

Gwen smiled at the men. "I decided to leave our conversation this morning as private, and let them just learn about the project on their own." Ben sighed and explained the project, leaving his guests (excluding Gwen) shocked.

Max frowned at his youngest grandchild. "Ben, why didn't you tell me that you were falling behind in school? I could have sent other Plumbers to deal with missions…"

"What's done is done, Grandpa…" Ben responded, shrugging his shoulders. "Anyway, you guys can go ahead to the dining room. I have your evaluation sheets rolled and labelled for your seating arrangements." Ben walked off to the kitchen, while the others went into the dining room. As they entered the room, the display caught them off-guard…

The table was set with a cream-coloured tablecloth; a white plate was set for each seat and as Ben mentioned, each seat was reserved for each of them, a rolled paper (obviously the evaluation sheet) had their names elegantly marked in gold calligraphy, set to the upper left side of the white plate beside a bread plate with a butter knife, along with a red napkin that was folded as a rose. On each side of the plate, there was silverware to indicate that there would be different types of food to eat; a salad fork and a dinner fork to the left of the plate, then a dinner knife, salad knife and soup spoon to the right of the plate. To the top right of the soup spoon was a small saucer with a tea cup. Above the white plate was a small fork and small spoon.

The real shocker was the table centrepiece; it was a fruit basket where the fruit was cut to look like a floral arrangement.

"Wow…" was the only word that Rook could say. Max was left speechless, while Gwen's mouth was left agape and Kevin was sputtering.

"Well? What are you guys waiting for?" Ben said as he tried manoeuvring around them to set down a small blue plate of bruschetta and fried shrimp on each white plate. "Dig in!"

As Max, Kevin, Gwen and Rook took a hesitant step towards their seats and finally sat down, Rook decided to be brave enough to try the appetizers first. By this time, Ben had re-entered the kitchen.

"Well?" Kevin asked as Rook took the first bite of bruschetta.

Rook's eyes widened after swallowing and began scarfing down his food with gusto. Max followed next, savouring the finger foods. Gwen and Kevin exchanged looks, then took a bite.

"Ben!" Kevin yelled.

"What's wrong?" Ben asked, looking fearful that something went wrong.

"Please say you have more of the fried shrimp…" Kevin started, pausing to burp. "It's freakin' awesome!"

"Seconds on the delightful red thing too, please." Rook said, referring to the bruschetta. Max and Gwen were making claims on seconds as well, but Ben promptly said no.

"You're going to ruin your appetites." Ben explained, ignoring Kevin's glare. "I'm serving the soup next." He said as he gathered the appetizer plates and re-entered the kitchen.

After a few moments, Ben came back with a tray of green soup bowls. As he set each bowl down, Gwen asked: "Which soup is this?" The aroma from the thick yellow liquid was inviting.

"Split pea soup." Came his answer as he re-entered the kitchen. This time it was Max to start consuming the soup, making humming noises as he enjoyed drinking the hot liquid. The teens followed, making their own sounds of enjoyment. Ben would periodically enter the dining room to see how his guests were fairing before disappearing again. Once the soup was done, he would gather the bowls to return to the kitchen, just to return with orange plates of salad.

"I don't do salad, Tennyson." Kevin said as he glared at the plate.

"Shut up and eat, Kevin." Gwen muttered as she took a bite. Her eyes went wild, and she began eating her salad fast.

Max hesitantly took a bite. "Is that bacon I taste in the vinaigrette?" He asked. After hearing the word bacon, Kevin began eating the salad, enjoying it as much as the others.

Once the salad was done and the plates removed, Ben placed bread rolls on the bread plates and a different white plate on top of the placed one. There was a small orange lump, sided with steamed beans and some form of meat that was hidden under reddish-brown gravy. The presentation of the food had everyone guessing what the meal was.

"Just taste." Ben smirked.

After several glances to each other, Max, Gwen, Rook and Kevin finally took a bite from their plates. Once they started to dig into their meal, Ben laughed and asked: "So I'll take it that you're enjoying the mashed sweet potatoes with the pan-seared duck and sherry sauce?"

"Hmm?" Rook looked up from his plate after hearing what the meal was.

"Holy crap, this shit is good!" Kevin said with his mouth full. Gwen managed to ingest her food properly to chastise Kevin for talking with his mouth full. Max seemed to be in another world, enjoying the food.

"Slow down!" Ben giggled at their response at the meal. "You're gonna end up sick before dessert." He added before going back to the kitchen.

"Dessert?!" They all exclaimed at the same time.

Ben laughed from the kitchen. "Remember…this is a five-course meal…" He called out. "Dessert is the last thing to be served!"

Once dinner was finished and everyone satisfied, Ben returned to take away the plates, served green tea to Gwen and Rook and coffee to Max and Kevin, and then presented small green plates with a chocolate mousse and a mini apple cake with a powdered-sugar coating.

"How did you get the custard inside the cake, Ben?" Max asked, savouring the dessert.

Ben smirked. "Can't say; it's a secret."

As the evening wound down, and after much pushing to get everyone to write the evaluation forms (thanks to full stomachs that made everyone lazy), the meal seemed to be a success.

"Wait a minute," Ben paused, getting Gwen's and Max's attention. "What happened to my centrepiece?" As the question came out, Rook and Kevin gave incredible loud belches; Rook gave an apologetic look, while Kevin gave him a daring glance as he rubbed his stomach.

"Guess that answers that question..." Gwen muttered.

Ben sighed. "At least I had enough insight to take pictures of it and the food and had hidden cameras before you guys came..." The group gave him a puzzling look. "Just in case the teacher didn't believe what's written on the evaluation sheets..." Ben answered sheepishly.

By Wednesday, Gwen decided to Skype Ben. "So, how did it go with your teacher and that assignment of yours?" She asked, excited to hear the results.

Ben, giving a goofy grin, held a paper to the screen; obviously it was his evaluation form from the home economics teacher. She could barely understand the text written but the bold red A++ at the top of the form gave her the answer. "Congratulations, Ben!"

"Thanks, Gwen." Ben chirped. "And not just for the congratulatory comment. For being willing to try the stuff I cooked too."

Gwen smiled; Ben never looked so happy about a homework assignment before and seeing the way he was at the moment was something to remember. "I'm visiting again this weekend; any chance some of that duck and cake are left over?" She asked. The taste of the food has permeated her taste buds, making her fantasize about it still.

Ben shrugged and gave her an apologetic grin. "Sorry, Gwen..." he said. "But mom and dad found the leftovers Sunday and ate most of it. Rook and Grandpa Max ate the rest when they visited yesterday." Gwen pouted. "Although..." Ben said in a teasing tone. "There is a fish with vinegar, carrots and onions recipe that I want to try out..."

Gwen grinned. "When should I come over?"

≈FIN≈

I was watching the movie Babette's Feast and it helped trigger the inspiration for this piece.

If you haven't seen Keeping Up Appearances, I suggest catching it on youtube (I'm sure somebody has episodes uploaded) 'cuz I know no one stays home on Saturday nights to watch TV. The woman is such a whack-job, that you can't help but feel sorry for her husband to deal with her on a daily basis.

If you're wondering about the table settings, recipes, etc. used for this story, just google them; it was a life-saver while writing this.

Comments and reviews will be greatly appreciated!