A block from the school, Jamie realized that he’d left his lunch at home. He had money from his allowance in his pocket, so he’d be able to buy lunch. Cafeteria food in comparison to the fresh deli meat sandwich, baby carrots, and best of all a piece of his mom’s apple crumble. He’d be thinking about that apple crumble all day, but it should be there when he got home. An afternoon snack. There should, if he remembered, be enough crumble to share a slice with Helen. If she was amenable.
He made it through home room and the first three periods and had AP English just before lunch. Helen had saved him a seat. He was surprised at the lack of cat calls and rude comments when he sat down, but noticed the principal at the front of the room rather than Mr. B. He sat down and pulled out his English book.
“I know everyone here was looking forward to continuing with Romeo and Juliette today. However, Mr. B apparently has a touch of food poisoning came on suddenly last period.”
There were sudden sounds of coughing, gagging, and Ewwww from around the class.
“So I’ll be sitting in today, but I thought I’d let you have a make-up day. You can work on any homework, or any project for any class - in groups of no more than three provided you are Quiet, Respectful of Others, are Doing the Work.”
The students referred to those as Mr. Dodd’s famous last words. They were his rules to live by. Jamie was fine with that. This time he could talk to Helen about the blackmail theory. Jamie was turning his desk toward Helen as she was turning toward him. They managed to talk quietly until the end of the period. They were about to get up to go to lunch when Robert (whose name could have been Kyle, it really could have been, he was Kyle’s second hand) pushed through the two desks, nearly knocking Jamie over.
“Loosers” Robert called without looking back.
As Jamie was picking up his spilled books, he told Helen about the forgotten lunch.
“Looks like I’ve got to settle for the miserable food in the cafeteria.”
“Right there with you pal” said Helen, punching him in the arm. “Mom had to drive Gina to school, so no home made lunch for me today either.”
They both went through the line selecting limp salad, something that looked like it used to be brown, but now it was covered with “GRAY”vy. That was a joke Helen had come up with in middle school. It still applied here. There was some mac ‘n cheese which had sat under the heat lamps enough to get crispy. Helen got the last red Jello. Jamie opted for an orange. They paid and took their trays to a table in the back near the unpopular kids. Less likely to be targets if they kept a low profile. It seemed the Kyle crew liked nothing more than to feast on the likes of Jamie, Helen and the unpopular kids for lunch.
They hadn’t seen him coming. Robert dumped the dregs of his tray over Jamie’s lunch. “Hey F** and Ladyboy. Go eat outside. You’re turning stomachs in here.”
That was it. The light bulb came on Jamie thought about the last letter from Jerry that he and Helen had read. Peter had stolen Jerry’s research. Peter had threatened to expose Jerry. Peter had shown up at the same workplace. Jerry was between a rock and a hard place.
“Jerry was being blackmailed.” Helen and Jamie both said at the same time.
They totally ignored Robert, the spilled tray, they gathered their things bussed the trays and started for the next class. They had a handful of letters left to read. Between classes and math competitions, and volunteering, there was little time left to work on trying to put all the pieces together. He had a lot of food for thought. Good substantial things to chew on between classes.
“Helen, I’ve got a piece of blueberry crumble my mom made, if you want to come by after school. We could eat it and read another letter.”
— Lkai
He made it through home room and the first three periods and had AP English just before lunch. Helen had saved him a seat. He was surprised at the lack of cat calls and rude comments when he sat down, but noticed the principal at the front of the room rather than Mr. B. He sat down and pulled out his English book.
“I know everyone here was looking forward to continuing with Romeo and Juliette today. However, Mr. B apparently has a touch of food poisoning came on suddenly last period.”
There were sudden sounds of coughing, gagging, and Ewwww from around the class.
“So I’ll be sitting in today, but I thought I’d let you have a make-up day. You can work on any homework, or any project for any class - in groups of no more than three provided you are Quiet, Respectful of Others, are Doing the Work.”
The students referred to those as Mr. Dodd’s famous last words. They were his rules to live by. Jamie was fine with that. This time he could talk to Helen about the blackmail theory. Jamie was turning his desk toward Helen as she was turning toward him. They managed to talk quietly until the end of the period. They were about to get up to go to lunch when Robert (whose name could have been Kyle, it really could have been, he was Kyle’s second hand) pushed through the two desks, nearly knocking Jamie over.
“Loosers” Robert called without looking back.
As Jamie was picking up his spilled books, he told Helen about the forgotten lunch.
“Looks like I’ve got to settle for the miserable food in the cafeteria.”
“Right there with you pal” said Helen, punching him in the arm. “Mom had to drive Gina to school, so no home made lunch for me today either.”
They both went through the line selecting limp salad, something that looked like it used to be brown, but now it was covered with “GRAY”vy. That was a joke Helen had come up with in middle school. It still applied here. There was some mac ‘n cheese which had sat under the heat lamps enough to get crispy. Helen got the last red Jello. Jamie opted for an orange. They paid and took their trays to a table in the back near the unpopular kids. Less likely to be targets if they kept a low profile. It seemed the Kyle crew liked nothing more than to feast on the likes of Jamie, Helen and the unpopular kids for lunch.
They hadn’t seen him coming. Robert dumped the dregs of his tray over Jamie’s lunch. “Hey F** and Ladyboy. Go eat outside. You’re turning stomachs in here.”
That was it. The light bulb came on Jamie thought about the last letter from Jerry that he and Helen had read. Peter had stolen Jerry’s research. Peter had threatened to expose Jerry. Peter had shown up at the same workplace. Jerry was between a rock and a hard place.
“Jerry was being blackmailed.” Helen and Jamie both said at the same time.
They totally ignored Robert, the spilled tray, they gathered their things bussed the trays and started for the next class. They had a handful of letters left to read. Between classes and math competitions, and volunteering, there was little time left to work on trying to put all the pieces together. He had a lot of food for thought. Good substantial things to chew on between classes.
“Helen, I’ve got a piece of blueberry crumble my mom made, if you want to come by after school. We could eat it and read another letter.”
— Lkai
I love how the story is developing and, especially, how our main characters deal with adversity.
ReplyDeleteOh, I do appreciate how you worked in that prompt! Don't you find that the prompts, as irrelevant as they seem at first to an ongoing "long write," really help give a direction to a chapter? In this case, a location. I hate Kyle and want him to have a come-uppance. Can you arrange that? (Macoff)
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree that the prompts, are really helping to shape the direction, deepen the characters. I've tried to utilize different takes on the "Food" theme: miserable food in the cafeteria; good food; weaponized food (the dumped tray) and food for thought.... I've started editing from part one. The initial paragraph is now an expanded section of over 1800 words. That first part will, when I have the time to edit the rest, be expanded into an actual full chapter length piece - Helen does have a flip phone she found on eBay. (for @ Danielsouthgate) As for Kyle - Yes, he and his whole crew need a lesson. But one that they will hopefully learn from and actually change their ways. I haven't quite got it worked out yet, but yes, they will! (lkai)
DeleteI'm going to finish my entire "novella" (just before Easter), then begin a thorough re-write by printing out the booklet we get and reviewing it (after taking a few days' break!). I like to work with hard copy when I can. (Macoff)
Delete