Survival Of The Fittest

Parker couldn't help but think about that response. She seemed to be unsure about his choice, as if it wasn't something she was familiar with. Was she a vegetarian? No, she'd cooked the dishes before - unless she was cooking multiple dishes at once, which seemed unlikely. Maybe she just didn't like fish? That seemed likely, given that salmon didn't have a strong 'fishy' taste, unless it was smoked.

He couldn't help but notice she'd broken eye contact though, looking away and down, with her eyes occasionally flicking in his direction. It spoke of nervousness, a lack of confidence. He wasn't doing anything to make her nervous in particular, so this was probably an average look at how she socialised outside of the club too. He wondered what it was like, to be that afraid of failure you couldn't bring yourself to try, and failed. He knew how to work with people like that, at least. Desiree was the same.

"Um, I used fresh mint when I was cooking lamb once" he said, combining the first herb and meat combo his brain gave him into a way to make her feel like she wasn't the odd one out. "That does sound nice though, there's something very satisfying in making something from scratch, isn't there?"

"Mint and lamb?" Camilal asked turning to Parker again. She turned back to where she was looking, thinking out loud for a moment. "Huh... I bet that tastes interesting."

Clicking her tongue against the roof of her mouth as quietly as she could, Camilla tried to imagine the combined taste of lamb and mint. It... didn't seem totally appealing, but hey, there are weirder combinations. She remembered reading something on tumblr about a jalapeno-banana dish, a discovery so profoundly strange, she had to turn away from the computer and think for a moment about how insane- or desperate- you had to be to come up with that. In comparison, the sharp coolness of mint seemed to contrast nicely with a fresh and hot lamb chop. When was the last time she had lamb, anyway? It was an evening, maybe sometime during the winter break. One thing that was clear in her memory was her mother grumbling about how New Zealand lamb was better. Perhaps it was lucky that Camilla didn't have very sophisticated tastes.

There was another part of the question, wasn't there? With a smile, Camilla nodded.

"Yeah. A certain sense of pride, maybe coming from a feeling that you're being more independent. More..." She knew that rambling about her issues at home even in a coded manner with unintelligible metaphors was a terrible idea yet her mouth blabbered on anyway. "...in control, in a way. Like, I'm steering this boat now. I can steer this boat." Adding a panicked "You?" at the end, even though there was nothing to answer.

Camilla never prayed that seriously before, but if she were to go to church with her mother this Sunday, she would ask God to shoot her.

Parker made a note to check when he got home if lamb and mint was one of those things that happened to get lost on the way across the Atlantic, along with a lot of U's and the word settee. Her answer to the other half of the question was interesting though, detailed, but not in a well thought out manner. It was an interesting window into what Camilla felt she lacked in every day life, control, the ability to affect her course in life, pride in her own ability. That seemed to match with the nervousness - After all, if you weren't willing to stand up for yourself, how were you going to be able to control the world around you.

Parker nodded silently along with the sentiment, not wanting to rush his response and seem as ill composed as she had to him.

"It's just nice to know exactly what you're eating, too." he added, after a few moments of thought, tying things back in neatly on with what she'd said earlier. There was an awkward pause then, as the two of them waited for the other to spark something, only to be shattered by the bellowing cry of a judge trying to grab the attention of others who were far more engrossed in their conversations than the two of them.

"PLAYERS! YOUR PAIRINGS FOR ROUND 3 ARE UP!"

At that, Parker turned his head, just to make sure he could see where he'd have to go to check who he was going to be playing against next, before turning back to his momentary conversation partner and giving her what he hoped was an encouraging smile. "Alright, well - Good luck in the next round!" he said, in lieu of a proper goodbye as he got up. Saying goodbye when you were just moving a few chairs down from someone seemed overly needy, and she was going to need all the luck she could get with a deck like that.

((Parker Green - GOTO thread/We're Milling Through The Grinder, Grinding Through The Mill█))

Camilla sighed as the announcement for the next round hollered its way across the math room. Tapping her cards back into line once more, she stood up, ready to face another opponent- another day, another battle, another potential chance for glory, and another step towards a crushing defeat.

Now, whose crushing defeat, that was to be decided.

[Camilla Bell continued in Just Dance]