Favorite Foods
There was no such thing as favorite food on the Ark. Everything was bland and dull, just enough necessary nutrients to keep you going. Sure, there were some foods that were better than others, but nobody had favorites. You accepted what you got and moved on.
It wasn’t until Mount Weather that the delinquents were introduced to the idea of favorite food. Having plentiful food, to the point of excess, was a shock, let alone the idea that anyone could pick a single favorite food. They were served an alternating menu, three meals a day. So many dishes went half eaten or shared as they tried to taste everything before their world changed (as they all guessed it inevitably would). Citizens of Mount Weather tried to remind them to slow down and savor the food they had in front of them, but they were so eager and impatient to try everything that few took this suggestion to heart. They ate and shared and compared and laughed their way through all the food they could. Each of them had picked out a few favorites, but a singular choice of favorite food never crossed their minds.
It was not until Maya mentioned something about her favorite food being pizza that it crossed any of their minds. They all asked her questions. How had she picked one food? How did she know it was her favorite? If it was her favorite, why didn’t she eat it every meal? What made it her favorite? What factors went into choosing a single favorite food? Maya laughed off the questions, gently telling them that it was something inside that decided it. They would know when they found their favorite foods.
And slowly they did.
Nobody found out what Clarke’s favorite food was. She was gone before they could get a straight answer from her about her favorite food. She had developed a preference towards the stews cooked up by the kitchen, but that was all she had really eaten in her time at Mount Weather, so they guessed that she would have said that, given the opportunity.
Jasper’s favorite food was chocolate cake. It made him think of the first time he and Maya had really met. She had offered him the last slice of chocolate cake, one she had been saving for herself. The cake itself was good, one hundred times better than anything he had ever eaten on the Ark, but the reason it was really his favorite was the person who he had first shared a piece with. Every time he took a bite he thought of her, of a moment they shared, of spending time with each other, of being happy. Little memories slipped in and out when he ate. Maya teased him for being a romantic. He wore the title with pride. He insisted on maintaining chivalry while around her, even though it was long past a time where chivalry was common. He would race to open doors, hold her back to pull out chairs, and let her go first in line for everything. And she loved it. The thing that got her was when Jasper would retrieve her a slice of chocolate cake after dinner, fighting off everyone else who wanted a piece so she would get one, even if he did not. Because, through chocolate cake, he learned to savor the things that he loved while he had them.
Monty’s favorite food was salad. It was stereotypical. The boy from Farm Station liked plants. He was ready for comments and quips from the others, but they did not come. It was like they understood. Being on the ground, in Mount Weather, with abundant freedoms, was disorienting to kids who had come from a place where tiny mistakes could mean your end. Everyone wanted to hold onto the pieces of familiarity that they could. Feeling leaves on his tongue, it was as close as he could get to being back on Farm Station would his friends and parents and the familiar world of the Ark. It was his familiar something, what he held onto when there was nothing else.
Miller’s favorite food was mac and cheese. Jasper teased him about it relentlessly. In Mount Weather and on the TV shows he’d watched, mac and cheese had a reputation for being a “kid food”. For Miller, the simplicity of the food was what drew him in. It was not the complicated meals everyone else adored. It was something he could make by himself, given time and resources. One day, he promised himself, he would make it for Bryan. One day, far off in the future, he would impress his boyfriend with the one thing he knew how to do well.
Harper’s favorite food was tofu. She found it fascinating. It was a contradiction in itself. The first time she had tried it, she had been surprised at the mix of texture and flavor. The others around her had found it gross, or simply bearable, but she loved it. It was a bit of a contradiction in itself. Every time she ate it, it took a different shape and taste. She loved its adaptability, changing to the situation at hand. It could be eaten with any meal, with any combination of flavors, and still be delicious to her. That adaptability is what Harper craved in her life. She wished she was tofu.
Others had their favorites too. Fox had declared one day, mid-meal, that she loved bread more than anything else in the world. Deke was first in line at pizza night, going back for as many trips as he could fit in his stomach (his record was eight slices, which left him feeling sick for days). Mary liked eggs, though none of the delinquents were sure if it was real eggs or fake and no one had the guts to ask. Chocolate was Sam’s big weakness. He would go after anything laced with it. Boyd, a slightly frightening, very tall, nearly silent eighteen year old who had been accused of murder, pulled Monty aside one day to admit he loved pickles (an interaction that had initially caused Monty to panic). Andrew liked plain pasta, which Jasper felt matched his personality. And a petite, short blonde named Anna had interrupted their conversation one day to insist that French fries were, in fact, the superior food. All the delinquents had opinions like this.
When they left the bunker, things changed. After Mount Weather, there were no more “favorite foods”. There was too much trauma. There were less choices. There was a change in the way the delinquents thought, shifting back to the ‘stay alive’ mentality they had developed at the dropship. No more favorites, just survival.