Thank you to my upvoters for believing in me: forrester, potatohunter, PureDodaengTrash, Evilauthor & flipper! Sorry it's been a while!

The cafeteria had no line when we got there. Adults were already spread throughout the cafeteria in their own cliques at tables.

"By the way, we aren't allowed to socialize with the adults," commented Seulgi.

"Really? Why is that?" I asked.

"I don't know, something like stranger danger... Something like that," she replied.

Odd. But there were many odd rules, spoken and unspoken about this place. I still had a lot more to learn about boundaries. All I know is that I hate getting touched under my chin. Nobody here knows that yet. Not like it's any of their business to touch me anyway.

I grabbed a tray and filed in right behind Cory, a young boy diagnosed with schizophrenia. He was my shoulder height and was very articulate, focused even. Unlike the stereotype in my head where he would be checked out and speaking with the air.

the system. I realized that I had so many biases and stigmas coming in here that I forget that these people are more than their diagnoses. They're people like me. I had massive anxiety like Seulgi, but she also has bipolar disorder to go along with it. I didn't understand bipolar, but I was too shy to ask about it. Maybe another time.

We sat altogether, the 9 of us surrounding a circular table, squeezing so that there was enough room for everyone.

"Guys how many croutons do you think I can fit into my mouth?" asked Seulgi.

At once, numbers popcorned from the group without question.

"30!" exclaimed Marco. Marco was a chubby, tall Guatemalan who spoke no Spanish and wore thick, heavy duty glasses. He would be close to blind without them. More than once he left them on a table to do an activity and couldn't find them because everything went blurry.

"30's too much," said Tiffany. "I bet 21."

"I think 18," I said. "But I'm genuinely curious."

Seulgi eyed me with a smile.

"Anyone else guessing?" she asked loudly.

Everyone else was either busy eating or has already guessed but all the attention was on Seulgi when she started stuffing the croutons into , one by one.

She was up to 13 and I was wishing in my head that she would stop at 18, looked overloaded enough already, but she kept going. One more, 14. Another, 15. 16... By the time she reached 17 everyone was bursting with laughter, she looked so ridiculous with her face stuffed like that. Like a chipmunk, her cheeks were puffed as wide as balloons.

When Seulgi put the 18th crouton in , she muffled, "It's hard to breathe."

We howled and all the adults from other tables were eyeing us hooligans. Tiffany was intently watching Seulgi, hoping to get the correct answer.

19... 20... 21!

"Seulgi, you can stop now!" Tiffany said in between her giggles. "If you stop now I win!"

Seulgi tried her best to push another crouton in, but instead got up and ran to the open trash can to spit out the croutons that w