“You cooked in a real restaurant?” Priya’s eyes went huge.
“For ninety seconds. Kind of. And maybe Saturday for learning. Not a job. My mom would combust.”
Priya whistled. “If my dad heard I corrected a chef, he’d faint into his toolbox.”
“Don’t post it,” Delia said quickly.
“Duh,” Priya said. “I’m not trying to get you canceled by the health department.”
They laughed, and the laugh loosened something in Delia’s chest.
Wednesday night, Anika confirmed with Patricia: Saturday at three, one session, terms as edited. Ellis blocked the calendar. Miss Odette announced she would bake snickerdoodles Friday so Delia would remember that home still outranked hoods. Rainer, informed of the confirmation, only nodded at Patricia and spent an unusual amount of time refining a beurre blanc demonstration that would not humiliate an eleven-year-old or bore himself into cruelty.
Thursday, Delia bombed a spelling pretest because she was mentally reheating butter. Ms. Brantley kept her after and asked if something was distracting her. Delia, who disliked lying and disliked oversharing, said, “I’m learning something outside school and it’s taking up brain space.”
“Learning is allowed to take space,” Ms. Brantley said. “Spelling still wants a corner. Deal?”
“Deal.”
Friday evening, Anika brought Delia to Emberwick only long enough to drop a forgotten sweater in the office, and Delia kept her eyes down in the corridor so the kitchen lights would not hook her. Rainer saw her anyway through the pass and lifted two fingers in a small salute that was neither warm nor cold. Delia nodded back. Anika steered her out.
That night Delia laid out Saturday clothes: a plain navy sweater, jeans without holes, sneakers she could stand in. She redid the ends of two braids that had frayed. She asked Anika to smell her hands after she washed them with unscented soap.
“Why?” Anika asked.
“So I can smell the food, not the soap.”
Anika kissed her hair. “You are so much like your grandmother it should be illegal.”
Delia slept poorly, woke early, and ate oatmeal with cinnamon until her stomach settled. The hours until three stretched like pulled sugar.