By: Grace Cao

The bell sounded, signaling the start of lunch. I grabbed my purple Sophia the First lunchbox and ran to my lunch spot as fast as possible. To my dismay, my friend had already taken my favorite seat. “Aw, man! I really wanted to sit in the shade today,” I grumbled, clutching my lunchbox tightly.

“Sucks to suck!” Evelyn said and stuck her tongue out as she grinned wildly. Her face was glistening in sweat.

I decided not to resort to our usual banter and sat down in the next best seat. “Where’s Olivia?” I asked, tearing open a Gogurt stick.

“She got held after class for a few minutes after talking too much. ” Evelyn flashed her missing front teeth in a wide smile. “At least she can’t take my spot now,” she muttered, clicking open every notch in her bento box.

“I’m here!” Olivia panted. Her hair was in a mess, and her lunch bag was half open due to her rush out of the classroom. “Ms. Ayriss is such a pain. I wasn’t even talking that much!” Olivia said as she sits down next to Evelyn.

“Finally, I was starting to think you ditched us on purpose,” I blurted, giving Olivia the stink eye. I quickly finished my Gogurt stick, making sure to squeeze every last drop of the pink yogurt out.

Olivia rolled her eyes. “I wouldn’t do that,” she scoffed, “Me and Liv are best friends! Oh yeah, and you too,” she said sarcastically and ripped the paper wrapper from the chopsticks she got from the nearby takeout shop.

“I’ll get that for you, Liv,” I exclaimed enthusiastically, reaching for the chopsticks. I grabbed each chopstick with one hand and desperately tried to split them apart, but my efforts were futile. “Wait here guys, I’ll ask Mr. Marco to open it,” I muttered, embarrassed, and walk off to ask the custodian for help.

“Here you go, one perfectly-split pair of chopsticks!” Mr. Marco flashed a big smile, showing off his perfectly straight teeth. “Now, off you go! Enjoy your lunch!” he said as he turned around to help another kid with opening a Thermos.

I skipped back to our lunch spot, expecting to see Olivia and Evelyn waiting for me, or even applauding me for my hard work. “That’s weird, I wasn’t even gone for a minute,” I murmured, as I look around for anything they left behind. “Guys?” I shouted as I searched the bathroom. “Where are you? This isn’t funny!” In the corner of my eye, I saw a dash of black hair followed by loud giggling.

“You should have seen your face!” Evelyn hollered and threw her head back to emit the loudest and ugliest laugh ever.

“You looked so dumb!” Olivia snickered, her eyes filled with delight. “You were about to cry!” She said, almost out of breath from laughing.

“Liv, Eve, that wasn’t funny,” I grumbled, embarrassed. My ears turned red, and I stormed back to our bench.

“Whatever you say Grace, but me n’ Liv thought it was really funny. You just don’t understand because you aren’t as cool as us,” Evelyn said, obviously annoyed. She crossed her arms and sticks her tongue out.

I felt a tiny spark of anger ignite in my chest. My hands clenched at my sides. Suddenly, I felt as if I am about to explode. “You’re an idiot!” I yelled, my face red with fury.

Olivia looks stunned. “We were just joking,” she said sarcastically as she rolled her eyes. Despite her cool demeanor, she also seemed angry. Her hands balled up into fists and her face turned red.

“Yeah Grace, it wasn’t that deep,” Evelyn said, tauntingly. “I guess we’re going to have to tell your teacher now,” she says and strutted away with Olivia.

“Fine! Go! I don’t care!” I spat, stomping away. My purple Twinkle shoes lit up, and I furiously kicked them off to go cry in the bathroom. Soon enough, I hear Ms. Kelly, our school’s beloved lunch lady, enter the bathroom.

“Grace, honey?” she chirped. Her voice is as sweet as honey. “Olivia and Evelyn told me what happened, but I would like to hear your side of the story. Don’t worry, you aren’t in trouble,” she said as she set my missing purple twinkle shoe outside of the bathroom stall.

I opened the door and reluctantly slipped on my shoe. “I didn’t mean to call her a bad word,” I sobbed, covering my face with my hands.

Ms. Kelly led me to a bench outside. “Grace, I understand that you were angry,” she sighed and continued, “But it doesn’t mean we can call our friends bad words,” she said sternly.

“I’m sorry Ms. Kelly, I won’t do it again,” I muttered, hanging my head sheepishly.

“You have to apologize to Olivia and Evelyn,” she said, trying to keep me from breaking out in sobs again. “And I need to take away your recess privileges for the next week. Does that sound ok with you?” she said calmly, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“O-okay, fine,” I stuttered, still holding back sobs.