Lunch

Dragon's Lair: Chapter 1 (continuation of the short story)

“Hey Josh,” Greg said greeting him as he walked up to the table in the school cafeteria.

“Hey Greg,” Josh said, and shifted his lunchbox over a bit so Greg could sit.

“I rode by the arcade this morning on the way to school,” Greg said as he opened his lunch box. “Aww man a baloney sandwich. What do you have?”

“My favorite, a hotdog sandwich, with pickles,” Josh said, opening it to show Greg a hot dog sliced in half with some pickles on top. “I have some chips if you want them.”

“Hey guys,” Kenny said sitting down across from them at the table.

“Hey Kenny,” Josh said closing his sandwich.

“Hey,” Greg said looking down at his sandwich trying to work up the courage to eat it. “My mom knows I hate baloney and yellow cheese. I don’t know why she makes it for me.”

Kenny sat and opened his Munsters lunch box. “All right! My mom made me a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.”

“Neat lunch box,” Josh said.

“Its ok. My father found it in some old things he had. He gave it to me to use ‘cause last night my mom said she didn’t have any lunch bags. But he said be careful with it, because it’s valuable,” Kenny said.

“Did you see anything at the arcade?” Josh asked between bites of his sandwich.

“Yeah. There was a banner that said, ‘Opening Friday.’ Uggh” Greg said taking another bite of his sandwich.

“Really! When did you see that?” Kenny asked.

“This morning, I rode by on the way to school,” Greg said.

“Aww that’s cool,” Kenny said. “Tomorrow’s Friday.”

“Hey losers,” Spider said as he walked by with a lunch tray.

“Hey spider,” Josh and Greg said.

“Hi Stan…I mean Spider,” Kenny said.

“I’ll pound you if you forget again,” Spider said.

“Mom said you shouldn’t hit me,” Kenny said.

“Are you going to go crying to mommy?” Spider asked.

“No,” Kenny said and then put his head down to eat his lunch.

“Who’s your friends?” An eight grader said as he walked by with empty lunch tray. “I heard that if you hit a sixth grader with a tray, you’ll get an A,” the boy said raising the tray to hit Kenny on the head.

“If you touch him I’ll pound you,” Spider said stopping the boy before he could test the theory.

“All right. I won’t touch him,” the boy said looking at him funny. “Now you’re the protector of sixth graders?”

“I am when he’s my little brother. You touch him I will pound you back to elementary school,” Spider said.

“Ok, ok,” the boy said and then walked away to return the tray.

“Thank you, Spider,” Kenny said in a small voice.

“You’re my brother, the only one that can hit you, is me,” Spider said and then went to a table of other eighth graders.

“Wow, I wish I had a protector like him when I was in sixth grade,” Greg said.

“Do you think they’ll have any new games?” Kenny asked changing the subject. “I hope they’ll have that new combat game. I got to play it at an arcade over at the beach, last weekend.”

“Avila or Pismo?” Josh asked.

“Pismo, we stayed at a campground over there. They don’t have any near Avila,” Kenny said. “Have you ever gone into the arcade there?”

“Which one? The one with the bowling alley or the one next to the beach?” Greg asked.

“Wow, they have two arcades? I’ve only been to the one with the bowling alley. My brother likes to go in that one, and my mom says I have to stay with him,” Kenny said.

“The other one doesn’t have any of the new games but its not as crowded,” Greg said.

“I won’t be at the beach anytime soon but, I’m going to be at the arcade tomorrow,” Josh declared as he finished his lunch and stood up. “I have to go to the library before my next class.”

“Wait I’ll go with you,” Greg said as he choked down the last of his sandwich.

“Are you almost done, Kenny?” Josh asked after he stood up.

“Yeah, how come?” Kenny asked.

“’Cause we’ll wait for you, if you want to go to,” Josh said.

“Ok,” Kenny said, and tossed the crust from his sandwich into his lunchbox and then shoved a cookie in his mouth. “Imm jus ned t’ st’p b m lck.” He tried to say around the cookie.

“I need to stop at my locker,” he said again after pulling out the cookie with his free hand.

The lockers were on the side of the cafeteria. So having to stop by there wasn’t a major inconvenience.

“Wow that’s a cool drawing,” Greg said when Kenny opened his locker door. Taped to the inside of the door was drawing of a dragon sitting on pile of gold and jewels.

“Thanks, I did it in art class with the colored pencils they have. Its supposed to be Mike,” Kenny said.

“Mike? Who’s Mike?” Greg asked.

“The dragon we met last month,” Kenny said.

“Oh, you mean that pretend dragon in the video game?” Greg asked.

Josh was just staring at the drawing with a weird look on his face.

“No, it was the dragon we talked to. You were both there,” Kenny said starting to get frustrated at Greg.

“It sounds like you were dreaming. I can tell you dragons aren’t real and I have never talked to an imaginary creature.” Greg said with finality.

Josh continued to stair.

“Tell him Josh, you remember,” Kenny said turning to Josh to get support.

“Uhh,” Josh just said, and then shook his head.

“Don’t be ridiculous dragons are not real.” Greg said.

“Uhh, right dragons are, uhh, fake,” Josh finally said shaking his head.

Kenny just stood there looking at the two of them.

“I can’t believe you guys don’t remember the dragon,” Kenny said shaking his head in disbelief.

“Well, we can’t remember your dreams,” Greg said. “But that’s a really cool dragon, I wish I could get some of that gold.”

“Yeah, you must of have been dreaming,” Josh said studying the drawing.

“I guess you guys are right I was probably dreaming,” Kenny said looking down.

“Well did you get what you needed?” Greg said after they stood there in silence looking at the drawing.

“Yeah, I’m ready, lets go to the library.” Kenny said closing the locker.

“Oh, right the library,” Josh said after his concentration on the picture was broken. “Oh right I have to get there before the bell rings.” Just as he said that the bell rang.

“Well, there’s the bell I need to get to class,” Greg said.

“Yeah, me to,” Kenny said.

“I’ll see you guys tomorrow at lunch, I have chores and homework to do tonight,” Josh said as he ran off to the library.