The Senior and The Junior

Chapter 1: The Newspaper Team

Dylan's POV

Crowds and crowds of students all walked around campus, some just causally talking, sitting and eating with their friends, others blasting loud music and dancing. Then there were the quiet ones who kept to themselves as they sat with nothing but their backpack, headphones, and a paper bag filled the necessary lunch necessities. Within these necessities included but were not limited to a crispy red apple that could blind someone when paired up with sunlight, a plain ham sandwich toasted over whole wheat bread, a bottle of water, and maybe even a tiny bag of chips thrown in if our hunger allowed. These kids were me.

"Yo! sorry for the hold up." a girls voice approaches from behind, approaching my table. I slowly turn my neck and look over my shoulder to find Daisy Kepley walking as happy as ever. There she goes with that famous pep I have always admired about her. Her golden blonde locks shined brightly in the sun as she skipped over to the table. She is definitely giving the apple a run for its money. Daisy is best friend, my one and only friend in this entire school, unless you count the faculty members as friends. I can't help that Mrs. Corey always has the juiciest gossip and updates on the messy love triangle going down in the Roseville High athletics department. She slings her white Jansport backpack embroidered with Daisy's onto the table. Coincidence that her favorite flower is a Daisy. I always tease her that her favorite flower is only a Daisy because that is literally her name. She always gets flustered and flicks me on the head every time and proceeds to tease me about how much of a plain jane I am. I scoot over to make room for her on the table as she takes a seat next to me.  "The line for the bathroom was so long."  she exclaims, unzipping her backpack. "Like what does a girl gotta do to go pee around here?" she shakes her head, reaching into her backpack for something. I gather up the items from my brown lunch sack and push them off to the side to make room whatever schemes Daisy is about to remove from her bag of tricks. "Close your eyes." she giggles, continuing to dig into her bag. "Okay." I place one of my hands over my eyes and close them, letting out a nervous laugh. The last time she told me to close my eyes she shoved a jar of baby slugs she caught in her parents garden in my face and I nearly fainted. "Don't worry. There are no cute baby slugs this time." she laughs. "Unless..." she says in a singsongy tone. I don't even need to have my eyes opened to sense that she's smirking. "Just kidding." she chuckles and gently grabs my hand and lowers it from my face. "Now open!" she commands. I open my eyes to find her holding up a brown paper bag smothered in patches of oil stains. "A greasy paper bag?" I am left dumbfounded. That was quite anti-climatic. "Not just any greasy paper bag." she gestures me to take a closer look. I scoot closer to Daisy and peer into the bag with caution. Behold my eyes, ten chocolate chip cookies from the Roseville High cafeteria. "Shut up." I smirk and look into her eyes. "Yup!" she beams with excitement and tears open the bag. Now I know what you're thinking. Dylan, they're just chocolate chip cookies from the school cafeteria. These aren't just any chocolate chip cookies. They're a Roseville High special. After all they are the most edible item on our lunch menu. No seriously. They weren't voted the "Most Edible" item on the Roseville High lunch menu for nothing, according to a school wide survey conducted by the nutrition club. The vegans don't play around. Last semester there was this whole debacle where the vegans of Roseville High banded together and went on strike to protest the school incorporate healthier food alternatives. They even took it up with the school administration and went as far as taking the fight up to the school board. While the vegans spearheaded the movement for healthier food alternatives it was the schools newspaper that really launched the campaign in national headlines. Together, the newspaper team and the vegans banded together to write an expose on the cafeteria food which eventually became the talk of the town. Once the parents caught word of the expose they began to support the cause and helped push a measure with the school board. "How did you even manage to get this many cookies? The lunch ladies are always stingy." I ponder about what heinous crime Daisy had to commit to get these bites that taste like heaven. Daisy takes a generous bite into the chocolatey gooeyness before answering my question. "Easy. I just told all the robotics nerds that the group of cheerleaders that always hang out by the quad wanted to know more about their little Dungeons & Dragons club. And they skedaddled like roaches." she crosses her arms assuming that I am going to impressed with her silly antics. "That's my best friend." I hold up my hand and wink at her. She slaps my hand and tosses her hair that has been tied back into a ponytail with her favorite velvet scrunchie I got her as a small gift for her thirteenth birthday. I reach over to grab my sandwich and begin to undo the saran wrap that kept it hostage. Next to me, I could tell Daisy was struggling to keep her hands off the rest of the cookies. She didn't want to get too full before she had her actual lunch. "I still don't trust the food from here." I shake my head, reaching over to grab the neglected sandwich I pushed to the side earlier.