do you even KNOW what's in that?? {caspar}

[AURORA RIGBY]

When Aurora signed up for a cooking class upon being accepted to Barrie, she hadn’t known what to expect. Cooking was sometimes second nature to her, seeing as she’d grown up on a farm and then worked at a restaurant for a bit. Maybe to anybody else that didn’t mean anything, but to her, she felt sort of… at home when she was in a kitchen. There was something about making just the right measurements, the smell of anything in the oven, the sound of sauce sizzling. Her mother had taught her everything she knew; it wasn’t much, and that might have been one of the main reasons she picked the elective in the first place.

She’d known being the new girl would be difficult, what with trying to make new friends and showing teachers she was alright, and dealing with a heavier workload. She hadn’t expected Culinary Arts to give her so much trouble. Anything she knew was quickly thrown out the window by the teacher, who seemed to always be going on about their extensive schooling at some fancy culinary school. Even the smallest mistake was noticed, and if anybody even thought it’d be a good idea to start a food fight, they were immediately shut down. It was just so much harder than she thought it would be and she stressed about it almost every day.

That was until she’d been paired up with a student by the name of Caspar Crane. The first thing she’d realized was that he talked a lot. She was perfectly alright with that, honestly. It meant she had less of an opportunity to say something stupid and embarrass herself. She learned almost immediately that he was a vegan. It wasn’t really surprising, seeing as they were cooking, but she found it sort of hard to understand why someone who had such serious dietary restrictions would take a culinary class. It wasn’t her place to judge or question, obviously, but she was very curious. She was also very much looking forward to knowing him.

Ever since she’d last tried her ‘pledge to be veg,’ she’d only lasted thirteen days. Yeah, so she loved cheeseburgers and steak as much as any other American, but she was very determined to go a month without eating meat. Caspar Crane was a vegan. If there was one person who could convince her to successfully do this, it had to be somebody who’d already done it. Caspar was also very passionate about it and she was certain he wouldn’t give into any pouts or puppy dog eyes she’d surely end up giving him. Culinary also got a heck of a lot easier once she’d befriended him, which she was immensely thankful for (even though she’d heard he was normally a big slacker).

Today, though, was not a day for class. For only having been in New York a few weeks, Aurora had yet to even step foot in Grimm Avenue mall. She was pretty excited to explore it, to see if there really was anything worth her time. Though now that she recalled, she did have a shopping trip coming up with Carly Barrett (who was kind of a celebrity), so maybe it’d be a good idea to at least try to familiarize herself with the mall. She wouldn’t worry about it just yet, because she was here with Caspar. They were headed to the food court for lunch and she’d gone ten days without eating meat. She was rather pleased, but it wasn’t thirteen, and it definitely wasn’t thirty.

“Does the food court even have vegetarian options?” Aurora found herself asking, nose scrunched up a little. She could already smell it from here, and for some reason, it didn’t smell as yummy as it normally did. She thought that was a bit strange and encouraging, and she was suddenly hopeful that she’d have no problem at all saying no to a cheeseburger or a taco o—right.

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[CASPAR CRANE]

Caspar had a new recruit.

This was like, a way bigger deal than it should’ve been. Caspar never got recruits. The last time he’d mentioned veganism to someone in his Foods class, he’d gotten a spatula thrown at his head. Seriously, what an overreaction. All he’d done was greet his seat-neighbors with a simple “Hello, animal killers” during a Hamburger Tasting event. Close-minded bigots. They were everything that was wrong with American society today.

Except for one girl. Aura Rigby seemed to be the only other person in that class with anything resembling sense. Unlike the other low-life pigs, who mindlessly slaughtered animals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, with no thought of said animals’ feelings and rights, Aura was taking it upon herself to embrace vegetarianism, the only truly correct way for a human to live his or her life.

Well, okay. That wasn’t quite true. In reality, Caspar tended to frown upon vegetarianism. Veganism was really the true pinnacle of humanity; he’d always thought that eating the excrements of animals (eggs, cheese, milk, etc.) was just as entitled and oppressive as eating the animals themselves. It was more an attitude problem than anything else. It was the idea that so many human beings seemed to have in their heads that animals belonged to humans, to be used and exploited in whatever way said humans wished. The fact that so many people in this country felt justified in taking the lives and property of other living things simply for their own pleasure was absolutely disgusting, in Caspar’s opinion. Plus, meat tended to be shipped like, super long distance, and made with a bunch of gross pesticides, and that shit was super bad for the Earth, man.

But anyways. In this case, vegetarianism was still better than nothing. And maybe he’d be able to swing her towards the vegan side by the end of today’s excursion.

”So,” he began, as they walked into the Food Court at the mall. ”Welcome to this week’s episode of Cafeterias with Caspar.” He laughed dryly. Generally, Caspar tended to avoid food courts. They reeked of corporate, commercial corruption, and their employees were practically slave labor, from what Caspar was aware. Still, once again, he’d be making an exception today. If he could help Aura save the lives of innocent animals, he’d put himself through the torture.

“Does the food court even have vegetarian options?”

”Ah, now that’s the first trick of the trade.” Another dry laugh. ”Every culinary venue, no matter what or where, is going to have a vegetarian option. Now, the owner may be a corrupt corporate puppet, and it may be hidden somewhere, but it’s there, I promise. You’ve just gotta dig, sometimes.” He shrugged. ”Price you’ve gotta pay to be a decent human being. As I always say—hey, wait a second.” Something had caught his eye. A young woman was standing outside of a small booth to their left, offering to passerbys small plastic cups of…was that milk?

Free samples of milk. Now that was something Caspar could not let slide without a fight.

”Excuse me, there! Excuse me!” Caspar strode quickly towards her, running his tongue over his lower lip like he often did when he could feel a rant collecting itself in his throat. ”Are you aware of what this substance is that you’re oh-so-casually dolling out to these poor, innocent customers?” He continued before she could reply. ”That is a mother’s milk, my friend. That is milk that a young, female cow produced to feed her children. And just what makes you think that you’re entitled to steal nourishment from the hands of young children?”

He rolled his eyes, making his way back to Aura. ”Honestly, these people and their indulgences just make me sick.” He clapped his hands together, clearing his throat. ”Anyways, uh, so, what’re we in the mood for?”