The bell rang as the clock struck 12:11 P.M., finally it was lunchtime! I grabbed my lunch sack and dashed to the cafeteria. There, I saw Brett and Avery sitting at our usual spot: the table at the edge of the cafeteria.

Brett and Avery are always pretty easy to spot. Brett always wears a blue Chicago Cubs cap and Avery is an emo kid, meaning he wore a lot of black and always has a choker around his neck. We’ve been lunch buddies and best friends since the fourth grade and we like to play a round of our favorite card game, Kritz Attackz, during lunch.

On my way to the table, I took a peep into my lunch sack. Oh yuck! Mom packed me tuna salad; I totally forgot she was in a bad mood this morning. I can’t eat this; it smelled like a pair of sweaty socks!

I reached into my pocket, but I had no lunch money! Mom still hadn’t paid me back my allowance. I checked my other pocket. Yes! I had the pack of rubber controllers! I quietly snagged a pencil from one of the smart kid’s backpack and wrote, “I will give Andrew a free lunch” on it. I went into the lunch line, grab a Salisbury steak, a bag of chips, an apple, and a Jell-O cup. The lunch lady extended her hand to take my cash. I quickly smacked the rubber controller onto her hand, only to realize that she was wearing a glove.

“What is this?” she muttered in a Russian accent. “You can’t pay in rubber stickers! No cash, no lunch!”

She confiscated my lunch tray away from me and it looked like I’ll have to settle for nasty tuna salad. Not great.

As I was heading towards Brett and Avery, I felt a very aggressive, swift snag in my hand. I turned around and suddenly felt my heart sinking into my stomach. It was my nemesis since the first grade: Hector Markowski! What stunned me even more was that this was the first time I had ever seen him during my lunch period! When did he get switched here?

“Hey there, Allie Andy. Long time no see! Let’s see what your stupid mommy packed for your stupid lunchie today! Ooh tuna salad. You know what that means, right! Stink bomb!”

Standing six feet tall and towering over me, he lifted his mighty bear arm into the air, and hurdled my tuna salad all the way to the other side of the cafeteria. I just stood frozen and watched as the tuna salad exploded against the glass window.

After a loud pop, the seventh grade girls sitting next to that window held their noses and ran away from their table.

“Ahhhhh yuck! It smells like a dead rat!” one of the girls screamed.

“Andy likes to eat dead rats for lunch!” Hector yelled out to the entire cafeteria.

I felt my face flushing bright red as the whole cafeteria stared and laughed at me. That darn Hector… he has always done these things to me! In the first grade, he poured water on my shorts and told the class I peed my pants. In the second grade, he snuck a worm into my pudding cup and I ate half of it. I didn’t see him again until we were put into the same class in the sixth grade. He sent a huge group text to every one telling them that I kissed a first grader named Sally Schmidt, which I absolutely did not! I couldn’t show my face at school for a whole week! My whole life has been a wreck because of him. I can’t stand him!

Amid my recollection, Brett and Avery tapped me on the shoulder and I’m brought back into the current situation.

“Andy, you okay, man?” Brett asked me.

“Let’s just get out of here, right now,” I answered him as he, Avery, and I all quickly dashed to exit the cafeteria.