Brrr-ing!

Desks cluttered. Chairs squeaked. Shoes dragged. Kids sighed.

The bell rang. Lunch began.

“Alright, 6-C, clean your area before leaving, and don’t forget tonight’s reading assignment.” Mrs. Lambarte called out, earning her multiple “Yes, Mrs. Lambarte” replies from around the classroom, to which she grinned, and happily left the classroom, hips swishing and high heels clopping.

Kevin got up from his seat, stretching his arms and yawning. He stuffed his pencilcase and notebook back into his bag, and turned to leave the classroom when he saw that everyone had already left (he didn't like to be one of the first kids to leave the class; he knew everyone would keep staring at him.). Suddenly, he remembered something, and twirled his towering body around by his heel.

Tao was still sitting at his desk, not getting up to leave. Kevin raised his eyebrows in curiosity. Does he not know he can leave now?...

“It’s lunch time. Aren’t you going to go down and eat?”

Tao looked up and saw Kevin standing high above him, realizing that the tall boy was talking to him. He swiftly lowered his head back down, nervously.

“I...I did not bring a lunch with me...” Tao said quietly, with a thick accent.

Kevin shrugged his shoulders slightly and pulled out a paper lunchbag in front of Tao’s head.

“I did. You can share with me, if you want,” he offered, “I have a lot of stuff to eat, and I’m not really that hungry today.”

Tao glanced up at Kevin through his oversized glasses with his mouth slightly open, surprised at what he had suggested. He then nodded his head slowly.

“O-okay...”

Kevin smiled slightly, letting the far edges of his lips curl up just a tiny bit.

“Alright, then.” he replied quietly.

He waited until the smaller one got up from his desk, and had joined him at the side. He then proceeded to leave the classroom, with Tao following closely beside him. They walked out of the door, and then down the hall, side by side, without a single word.

***

“Great, where the hell are we supposed to sit in this crapload?” Kevin muttered, once he and Tao had finally entered the cafeteria.

Dozens of children, young and old, buzzed frantically around the large space, some eating, some running around, and some even having their own food fights. It was quite the scene.

Splat!

Tao gasped and hid behind Kevin quickly, seeing that a kid had just flung a spoonful of banana cream pie pudding in their direction. Luckily, it never hit him. But Tao when peeked out from behind Kevin and stood back beside him, realizing he was safe now, he opened his mouth slightly in shock, seeing a large, lumpy, yellow stain right in the middle of Kevin’s shirt.

Kevin had been pudding-ed!

“Gotcha, Giraffe-boy!” exclaimed a chubby boy in the second grade, laughing and pointing at Kevin, amused at how he had hit the tall boy spot on.

Kevin just stood frozen, his shoulders raised and fists clenched, his eyes squeezed shut, and his mouth puffed up hilariously. He then sighed, relaxing his body, and opened his eyes, rolling them. He looked down at his pudding-stained shirt with half-lidded eyes, and shrugged, picking off the larger lumps of the snack.

“Such good aim for such a scrawny little beast.” he muttered to himself, still trying to clean his shirt.

Tao just stood in awe, and then arched his eyebrows together at the top, his lip quivering slightly. It was his fault Kevin was hit. If he hadn't moved to hide behind him, the pudding would have landed on him instead. Kevin was probably very angry at him. He probably wouldn’t share his lunch with him anymore. He wouldn’t be nice to him. He’d probably go back to being the ferocious dragon Tao thought he was when first saw him. He shook his head swiftly and clenched his fists, determined to find a way to fix the trouble he had caused. He looked over at the serving area, where the lunch lady was giving out lunch to a long line of students, and noticed a large stack of napkins. He lit up instantly, and didn't waste a moment in darting off to get the key to cleaning the mess he'd made.

“Ugh...Who knew pudding could smell so freaking bad?” Kevin said, “Hey, you okay, Tao? You get sniped, too?”

He turned around, thinking the small boy was still hidden behind him, only to find that Tao had disappeared! He began to look around frantically for the small boy, knowing he was vunerable to all kinds of threats in the deadly cafeteria.

“Tao? Tao! Where did you go?” he called out, frowning, looking over the swarm of children, and then began slowly jogging forward, searching attentively for him.

Over at the serving area, Tao scurried forward, seeing he was getting closer to the napkins, and smiled, proud of himself. Yes, he thought, now I can redeem myself to Mr. Dragon! He ran faster, getting a bit ahead of himself, and not exactly paying attention to where he was going.

Crash!

Oof.

Tao opened his eyes, slowly rubbing his head. His small body was sprawled out on the floor, and seemed to have collided violently with something.

Or more likely, with someone.

“What the f-W-what was that?” A deep voice boomed.

Tao looked up, and saw a gang of five large boys looming over him. The one in the middle had his back turned, and when he spun around and saw Tao, his eyes widened for just a second, then his face instantly changed into an angry growl.

“Why, you little midget.” The gruff, red-haired boy barked. “You think it’s a hell of a lot of fun screwing around with guys like me, eh?” He pulled Tao up violently by the collar of his shirt, his small legs dangling almost 3 feet above the ground. Tao winced and began grunting, flailing his legs violently, trying to squirm free.

“L-let me go!” Tao begged, trying to pry the boy’s hand off of his collar. His large magnified eyes began looking around desperately for a way out.

Where are you, Mr. Dragon?

All the children in the cafeteria had silenced, and were now watching the thrilling event closely.

The large boy cocked his head to the side, smirking, widening his eyes in fascination. “Well, won’t you look at that? The little midget has an accent!” He began to cackle loudly. “Well, what are you waiting for, Jackie Chan? Aren’t you going to use some of your little Kung-Fu on me?”

Tao only kept grunting and squirming, not responding to the boy’s teasing.

The boy gritted his teeth in anger, and gripped Tao’s collar even harder, resulting in a small yelp of pain escaping Tao’s lips. The boy grinned. “Good, very good,  you’re feeling the sting that I felt when you bumped into me like that, you little turd.”