The Journal

Chapter Three - Lunch With KAJE

After what felt like an eternity, the lunch bell finally rang. Alex practically ran to the cafeteria to get as close to the front of the lunch line as possible.

Luckily, he saw his friend Ethan Garcia in line, so he politely cut in line to be with his buddy.

"Do you have any idea what's for lunch today?" Ethan asked.

"It's pizza day," Alex replied. "Every Friday is pizza day."

Ethan groaned.

"I love pizza," the boy said. "But I'm lactose intolerant."

"So? Eat it anyway."

"I'm gonna get the bubble guts!"

"This school is shit enough," Alex said. "You might as well add more shit to the mix."

"Yeah, you're right."

The boys got their stuffed crust pizzas and headed over to their lunch table, where their other two friends would soon follow.

The first to get there after Alex and Ethan was Kayla Murphy, a girl their age, and a certified stoner, wearing her classic grunge aesthetic.

"'Sup, bitches?" Kayla said, in a chill tone.

"Nothing much," Ethan replied. "But 'sup with you getting a salad?"

"I don't wanna get fat." Kayla answered. "Both sides of my family are notorious for having slow metabolisms. I don't wanna kickstart anything by eating anything too unhealthy."

"Do we have a skinny legend at this table?" Alex joked.

"—fag—" Ethan fake coughed.

"What?" Alex asked.

"Queen." Ethan replied, still mocking Alex.

"I'm not even gay." Alex said, confused.

"We'll see about that..." Kayla said, playing into Ethan's joke.

"Screw you guys." Alex pouted.

He wanted to end that conversation so he took a bite of pizza, waiting for the last friend to get there.

Ethan and Kayla chatted for a while until finally, the last friend, Joshua Davidson, showed up.

"Hey guys," Joshua said. "Turns out clogging a toilet with an entire roll of toilet paper is 'wasteful' and 'immature' but instead of getting punished, they told me that since I didn't actually use the toilet, I would just have to get the roll out and throw it in the trash, and I'd be on my way."

"So why'd you take so long?" Kayla asked.

"It's disgusting!" Joshua trembled.

"What's disgusting?" Ethan chimed in.

"Sticking my hand in the toilet! You don't know where it's been!"

"You know you only had to stick your hand in the clean water to get the roll out, right?" Alex asked. "You didn't have to touch the bowl."

"Have you forgotten my hands are bigger than normal hands?" Joshua asked.

"You could have gotten something from the Janitors' closet." Kayla said. "I passed you on the way here and you were there, and door was open."

"I got nervous and just walked away." Joshua conveyed.

"Josh, you are the dumbest one in this group." Alex said. "There should be an even split of stupidity in this group, so you should only be one quarter, right?"

"Right."

"Yeah, according to my quick calculations, Kayla, Ethan, and I are one quarter."

"Okay, I get it." Josh replied. "I'm stupid."

"We should name our friend group." Ethan said. "What about the 'Spinning Gangsters'?"

"That doesn't make any sense." Alex replied.

"What if it's an acronym of our initials?" Kayla said.

"What would it be?" Josh asked. "AEJK, AEKJ, JAKE?"

"I like JAKE for a name," Alex said. "But what if someone overhears us talking about 'JAKE' and thinks we're talking about a boy named Jake?"

"Oh true," Josh replied. "KAJE!"

"What?" Alex asked.

"Our friend group name!" Josh beamed. "KAJE is just JAKE, but my initial and Kayla's initial are switched."

"I like it." Kayla said.

"Same." Ethan replied.

"Me too." Alex agreed.

"Then it's settled." Josh announced. "From now on, we as a group are KAJE."

The group's excitement was quickly overshadowed when someone pushed Alex's face into his tray.

"Fag," the person said as they pushed Alex.

"Who—?" Alex asked as he turned around.

The mystery culprit was Daniel Matthews, a junior at the high school they went to. It seemed being an upperclassman went to his head, because he had been picking on freshmen like Alex and the rest of KAJE, along with sophomores alike.

"Go away, Daniel." Alex said, annoyed at the boy.

"Aww, is the little fag boy mad?" Daniel said, mocking Alex.

"No." Alex replied. "Also, I'm not gay, so maybe you should find an insult that applies."

"Are you sure?" Daniel asked. "Are you sure you aren't a little gay fag boy?"

"Yes. Yes I am."

"Mhm. We'll see about that."

"Seriously," Alex said, fed up with Daniel. "Just go away and pick on someone in your own grade."

"You know what?" Daniel fumed. "I really wanna beat you up right now."

"Sure you do."

At that moment, Daniel started throwing punches left and right. Even though he was a good two years younger, Alex was still pretty scrappy and put up a good fight.

The two boys' brawl was soon broken up by Kayla and Ethan, who grabbed one boy each and pulled them off of each other.

Luckily, Mr. Moore just happened to be walking past the cafeteria at that time, so he went in and assessed the situation.

"I would normally ask what happened here," Mr. Moore addressed. "But because of this rare combination, I'm gonna leave it up to the principal to ask that."

"What?" Alex trembled. "The principal?"

"That's right," The teacher replied. "Mr. Bentley and Mr. Matthews, both of you to Mrs. Hamilton's office."

"But—" Daniel whined.

"Now." Mr. Moore interrupted.