15 Days

Day 1

Day 1

I will never know why Mr. Foote decided to paint the hallway leading the cafeteria the color of puke. It made me want to abandon my crumpled brownbag lunch and run to worship the porcelain god. Instead I closed my eyes behind their wire-rimmed lenses and stumbled blindly down the hall, praying that no one would run into me. Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I got to the cafeteria safely. Tuesdays and Thursdays I ended up being shoved rudely or turned in the opposite direction. I usually ate in the library on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Today was Wednesday so I stumbled down the hallway, lunch bag tight in my hands, eyes clamped shut to prevail a trip to the bathroom. A thundering roar met my ears along with a breath of air and I knew I'd reached the lunchroom. Releasing a quiet breath, I opened my eyes and scanned the space before me. Dozens of brown tables covered in trays and bags littered the room, a variety of people seated at each. Some contained gossiping girls, others sporty guys, and even others a mix of both. It took me a few seconds, but I soon spotted my usual table, tucked between two others that were overflowing with people.

I battled my way through the throngs of chairs and humans finally reaching my table without injury. "Hey." I gasped out as I collapsed into a free chair at the rectangular table.

"Bobby m'boy! You made it!" My best friend Eugene grinned at my collapsed figure and waved his fork in my face. A saucy bowtie noodle dangled from a single tine, threatening to fall onto the table. I looked at him, raising an eyebrow and unrolled the top of my bag.

"Ouch...he gave you the eyebrow of judgment!" To the left of Eugene sat Margie, who shoved his shoulder playfully. Gene glared at her.

"Stop it." She only laughed in response.

I rolled my eyes, pulling a bagged sandwich out of my lunch bag and commencing to chomp into the damp bread and soggy lettuce. I needed to find a real lunchbox, ASAP. Margie was one out of the two girls in my group of six friends and I was fairly certain she had a crush on Gene, but he denied it every chance he got. He claimed it weirded him out to think that 'one of the bros' had a crush on him. They played video games together for Pete's sake! I knew that what really bothered him about the idea of Margie having a crush on him was that he was bisexual and leaning more towards boys. I was the only one he'd told about this, however.

"Hey Bobby, did you bring The Dark Knight yet?" A call from the right end of the table dragged my attention away from Eugene and Margie. Tristan, another of our nerdy friend group, looked at me with hopeful eyes.

Damn. I knew I forgot something. "Sorry, man. I'll bring it tomorrow." I called over the noise surrounding me. His face fell but he nodded, turning back to his salad, which he had pushed around with his fork to resemble the batman symbol. My lips twisted sideways in apology.

"Guys! Guys!" Four heads swiveled in the direction of the familiar breathless voices coming our way. Samantha, Sam we called her, and Alec, the last member of our group, came running with flushed cheeks. I knew what they were going to say seconds before it came out. "There still hasn't been a nominee for a challenge! This is our chance!"

I closed my eyes for a brief second. Every year in October one unfortunate human being got nominated for a nearly impossible challenge, chosen by the nominator. The nominator had to be a senior. Usually it was a battle between people who wanted to nominate different candidates. This year for some reason though, no one in the senior class, my grade, had been looking for someone to nominate. The paper asking for the nominee had gone up yesterday! Usually by this point there were full out battles in the hallways as people fought to get their nominee on the paper. Remember, there could only be one nominee.