Let's Be Friends

13:

      My shoes squeaked loudly as I made my way through the hallways but they were drowned out by the simultaneous squeaking of other shoes. I was tired already and I still had three periods to go, four if you count lunch. Which luckily was what time it was. I didn't want to have to sit still and pay attention to teachers right now. I wanted to be able to talk and eat. Mostly to eat because by this point in the day I was starving.

     When I reached the lunchroom I surveyed the choices today and decided against it. It was unwise to eat most things in the cafeteria but fish sticks were the most commonly avoided by most people in pretty much every school. It's a cliche but for a reason.

      I left the cafeteria through the double doors, it was always really loud in there and I also felt fairly lightheaded and sick from the smell of the fish sticks. The courtyard was quieter, but it was kind of cold today so most people stayed inside, which was nice for me. I found a tree to sit under and pulled out a book from my backpack and curled up against the tree roots, attempting to be somewhat comfortable.

      I was reading the words but not really paying attention, mostly just making sounds in a little corner of my head while the rest of my head was telling me how nice it was to be outside and also did you hear about the Kardashians? 'No leave me alone I don't care about the Kardashians.' 'You must, otherwise you would be paying attention to your book.' 'Go away.' 'Do you really want a chunk of your brain to go away? Do you even know what I do? I'm a sizeable piece of your brain, honestly, you'd die without me. I'm most of your brain.' 'Okay great could you just-'

       I was interrupted in my lovely discussion with myself by Finn who said,"You look so peaceful, mind if I ruin the moment?"

      "Sure, what took you so long? You're normally here somewhere before I even get out of class."
      "People are annoying." He shrugged and let his backpack drop on the floor.

      I contemplated asking him what said person(s) had done to be annoying and figured it didn't matter too much if Finn wasn't crying or looked injured in any way, so instead I said,"You gonna sit down?"

      "Grass is ew." He replied,"I'll sit in the tree." And then he climbed the tree and it was amusing to watch, being I could literally just pull myself up but he is also what, (I made a rough estimate in my head) 9? 8 inches shorter than me. Something like that. At least more than half a foot. Although I haven't measured myself in a while, but last I checked I was like 5'11.

      When Finn eventually climbed into the tree and found a branch to sit on he got this triumphant look on his face and I wondered if he'd never seen fourth graders climb trees in his life.

     "You left your lunch down here." I said nonchalantly.

     "Throw it to me then." Finn replied.

      I picked up the bag and then just kind of handed it to him. "You do realize I'm tall enough to just hand this to you, right?"

      "Shut up, I'm vertically challenged. It's a real condition."

      "No it's not." I replied, sitting back down, against the tree, opening my book again.

      "If you can't tell I'm trying to kick you in the head for being annoying." Finn said from above me.

      "I wish you the best of luck, however, you appear to be vertically challenged."

      "You just said that wasn't a thing!"

      "Yes, and?"

      Finn threw a baby carrot at my head,"Well, at least I get a lunch."