The Cookie

Within the Kent School community, quite a few things are vital for our survival. Headmaster’s Holidays are a huge relief after all the pain and suffering during the marking period. Hockey games are the pride and joy of the school during the winter months and crew during the spring.
On a dreary Thursday evening, after spending a half hour in chapel singing our favorite hymns, we eat a meal of canned turkey with canned sauce, or chicken burgers with sliced cheese. Life at boarding school couldn’t be better. A few kids meander around senior grass gossiping and a couple of kids hit the library to start studying for AP exams. But, then you will notice a group of students heading towards the Deans quaint white house, on top of a charming hill.
“ Why are twenty students heading to the Deans house?” asks an onlooker
“ Perhaps they are storming the manor demanding less Tariff?” ponders a pilgrim adjusting his blouse.
Yes, it seems strange for dozens of students to be walking up to the dean’s house at this hour of night. But, they are going there on pleasant terms, thanks to the kind heart of the senior form dean. This event attracts students from all around the 1,000 acre Kent Campus, from the isolated corner of Case to the Rocky Hills of Field. “ Cookie Night” is a legend and it is something taken very seriously by the senior class.
Cookie Night happens every Thursday evening after Formal dinner and ends before check in. It takes place in the Deans house and she provides all the food and beverages. When you walk through the inviting little door you will see children frolicking in the kitchen. A boy will put popcorn in the microwave and take a seat on the bench wiping sweat off of his brow ( The popcorn maker is a serious and very important job). He will wait two minutes and thirty seconds, then open the popcorn bag. Seeing that none of the kernels have burnt, an expression of relief appears on his youthful face and he cracks a smile, while pouring the little yellow wonders into a brown bowl.
In The meantime, a few pupils have been working on the main course……. Cookies. There are tubs of chocolate chip cookie dough in the deans house. One of them usually lasts a few nights. About a dozen dough balls are arranged on the cookie sheet and put carefully in the oven. After ten minutes of anxiously waiting, the senior cookiateer and the cookieateer sous chef gently take the cookies out. They are soft and have reached the prime of their youth and are ready to graduate to the comfort of our stomachs.
Hands of all different shapes and sizes reach for a cookie and finish it in less than four bites.
“ Mmmmmm.” The seniors say. About four or five batches of cookies go in and out of the oven during the course of the feast. Bellies loose their muscle tone, bottoms get squishier and chins get more siblings. But, it doesn’t matter, because everyone is happy. Happy to have great cookies, fine friends and a swell dean, who hosts a bunch of teenagers every Thursday just to be nice.