Lunch that day for Sandy was leftover spaghetti that Momma Lois had packed for her in a blue lunch box. Her guardian's cooking was not that bad. In fact, Sandy had enjoyed spaghetti at times. However, when she had had the same spaghetti sauce for the past two days, she would get sick of it. The sauce had become boring and tasteless. The smell of it had become repulsive.
Hopefully, Momma Lois would go shopping that day and stock up on ingredients so she could cook something else!
"Hey, Randy," Sandy called the boy beside her, "I've got spaghetti today. Want to trade?"
"No, thanks. Had spaghetti last night," the boy replied as he removed his lunch box from his bag.
"Darla, trade spaghetti?" Sandy tried asking the dark-skinned girl as the latter passed her desk with her orange lunch box.
"Sorry, had that last night," Darla replied without stopping.
Sandy sighed and walked over to Ariel's desk.
The blond had finished dusting her books and had put them away. Ariel checked her purse. "Let's go," she said to Sandy when she was ready to leave class.
Fernham High that day was different. The clubs and societies of the school had placed notice boards in the corridors, each describing their activities. Many also had a desk next to it with membership application forms and handouts. Also present would be a club member or three to answer questions or plead with passing freshmen to join their club.
Sandy barely paid any attention to the displays. Ariel glanced at a few that had caught her attention with bright colors or large text.
"That was quite a scare earlier, huh?" Sandy commented.
"Yeah," Ariel replied, "It was so scary. That thing landed in front of me with a loud noise. And the way it looked at me. And it had fangs and claws. Oh, and it smelled too." She twisted her nose, then massaged her side. "My back's still a bit painful from where I hit Roger's desk."
"I saw a lot of dust there," Sandy mentioned.
"There was dust everywhere. It was on my pens and pencils, and my textbook." Ariel adjusted her spectacles. "I might have to get a new book if it's got raccoon smell on it." She stopped to examine another club's notice board.
Sandy noted that Ariel only had her purse in her hands. "You didn't pack a lunch today?" she asked when Ariel was done reading.
"Ah no."
Sandy leaned closer to whisper, "Are you concerned about the Air Blimp appearing again?"
Ariel huffed and trusted her hands at the floor, palms down. "How... ooh! I just wanted to buy something from the cafeteria today, okay?"
Sandy held up her lunch box. "In that case, would you like to buy my spaghetti? It has Momma Lois's famous spaghetti sauce, rich with tomatoes and herbs."
"No, thanks," Ariel declined, "I had spaghetti yesterday."
Everyone had spaghetti the day before. It must have been National Spaghetti Day or something.
Sandy groaned and resigned herself to suffering through that all-too-familiar sauce for lunch. How she wished that she had meat, or even fish. The spaghetti would not be too bad if there were meatballs but the Home had run out of ingredients to make them. Momma Lois had better be done with shopping and cook something else for dinner.
The cafeteria that day was different too. In addition to the usual stalls selling food, the Baking Club and the Culinary Society each had their own stands, each with a long line of customers.
"Let's go see what they're selling," Ariel said as she pulled Sandy towards the stands.
The Culinary Society sold curry. Spicy orange-yellow stuff with chunks of meat and vegetables and potatoes in them, served with a generous helping of rice. Sandy's mouth just watered as she stared at the food, wishing that she had the money to afford a plate. That would be much more preferable to the contents of her lunch box.
Right beside her, Ariel had her eyes on the cookies the Baking Club were selling. Small and medium-sized cookies, sprinkled with chocolate chips, raisins or nuts, or frosted with sugar. Handfuls of them had been neatly wrapped in sheets of colored plastic, each held close with a foil of gold. Ariel readily abandoned Sandy and joined the queue for the cookies.
When Sandy was done drooling, she turned to look for her friend. She found Ariel waving at her from her position at the back of the queue, with a grin that taunted the brown-haired girl's lack of finances to buy the food that she liked. It was payback for calling her that hated nickname earlier.
(Not that Sandy was sharp enough to realize that it was a taunt, much less the unvoiced message it carried.)
Sandy waved back and went to look for a place to eat her lunch. She was not going to wait for Ariel to buy cookies. After cookies, her blond friend would likely look for something more substantial to fill her stomach with.
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