Pinky Promise (Synacky)

Lunch Money- 1990

Zacky sat on the bus, sniffling and trying his hardest not to cry. His foot ached from where Jason had stomped on it, and now he didn’t have any lunch money. There was no way he could try and get the money back from him, and he definitely didn’t have the guts to tell his teacher…

The bus stopped and Zacky buried his face in his hands. He knew this was Brian’s stop, and he didn’t want to see Brian today. He didn’t want his best friend to see him cry like a little baby.

“Hi, Zee.” Brian said, sliding into the seat next to Zacky and placing his backpack at his feet. Instantly, he noticed something was wrong. “Zacky… what’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing.” Zacky spat in a quivering voice, “Go away, leave me alone.”

Brian was hurt by these words to say the least, but he didn’t go. He sat quietly next to his brooding best friend the entire bus ride. When they arrived at the school, he shouldered his backpack, and lifted Zacky's before he could object. “I’ll carry it.” He insisted. Zacky frowned, but didn’t complain.

Ms. Kay smiled at the boys as they entered the classroom, Zacky walking with a slight limp because of his hurt foot. “Good morning, Zacky. Good morning, Brian. Go sit criss-cross applesauce on the mat with everyone else, please.”

Zacky headed straight there while Brian dumped off their backpacks by their cubbies before joining him. Zacky felt the whole second grade class staring at him, and quickly cleared away the tear stains on his cheeks.

Ms. Kay fished out the art supplies from the supply closet, lifting Zacky’s spirits, if only a little. “We’re going to finger paint a little while today, who would be interested in that?”

Sixteen little hands shot in the air, and Ms. Kay motioned for them all to join her at the painting table.

Zacky made green by swirling blue and yellow together on his paper. He tried to make purple, but mixed yellow with red and ended up with orange. He watched Brian, who always knew just how to make purple. It was his favorite color, after all. Zacky sighed and tried to put some blue dots on his orange streak, but then the whole thing just turned an ugly shade of brown.

He huffed and left the table to go to the sink and wash his hands. “Wow,” he heard Ms. Kay beam as she looked at Zacky’s work. “This is beautiful, Zacky!”

Frowning, he made his way back to the table. “No it’s not.” He muttered, looking at the horrific mess.

“But of course it is! It’s a beautiful sunset. Here’s the grass,” she pointed to the green he had smeared, “there’s the sunset,” she gestured towards the orange near the top of the page, “and here’s a strong, pretty horse galloping over the hill.” She motioned towards the blob of brown at the center of the page, and Zacky smiled as he looked at it. Ms. Kay was right.

Zacky struggled through math, worry growing in his stomach, along with a bit of hunger. He was dreading lunch time. Especially since today was pizza day, his favorite, and he wouldn’t be able to have any. He missed most of his multiplication tables and Ms. Kay made him do them again, much to his dismay.

At recess, the children scattered over the playground, and Zacky skulked to the swing set. He sat down and sighed sadly, watching the children gather to play Red Rover, Red Rover.

“Want me to push you?” he heard a voice asked, and looked up to see Brian standing next to him.

Wordlessly, Zacky nodded, and Brian got behind the younger boy. Brian’s hands settled on Zacky’s waist, and he heaved him forward. Zacky couldn’t help but smile as he gained elevation, giggling at the wind in his face. When he was swinging high and fast, Brian climbed onto the swing adjacent to Zacky and began to pump his legs to get him up too.

They didn’t speak as they swung, only tried to get higher and higher. It became a silent race between them to see who could go highest. Zacky was able to forget about lunchtime and focus on pumping his legs in and out, in and out.

When Ms. Kay called, “Ms. Kay’s class, let’s go!” the two dug their feet into the mulch to stop them, and raced to get in line as close to the front as they could. Zacky let Brian get in front of him, and they all followed Ms. Kay back to the classroom.

Next they read aloud, something Zacky dreaded. When it was his turn to read a sentence, he stumbled over “Maggie ran home as fast as she could to tell her parents.” It was the easiest sentence in the story, and he heard Amy giggle at him. Zacky blushed and bit his lip, staying quiet for the rest of the reading time.

At 11:30, Ms. Kay stopped them, “Alright, everyone, let’s line up for lunch.”

Lunch! Zacky had forgotten! He bit his lip to stop the dread from welling up in his stomach as he got in line. “M-Ms. Kay?” he asked quietly.

“Zacky?” she replied, smiling his way.

“I-I don’t feel good, can I go to the nurse?”

Ms. Kay smiled. “You’re probably just hungry, Zacky. Let’s get some lunch, and if you’re still not feeling well I’ll have Brian take you to the nurse, okay?”

As if on cue, Zacky’s stomach rumbled, and he clutched at it. “O-Okay…” he mumbled.

They got to the cafeteria, and Ms. Kay went to go sit with the other teachers after leading the class to Ms. Kay’s second grade lunch table. Jimmy, Matt, and Michelle waved at him from their table, and Zacky looked down. He sat down without going into the lunch room to get anything to eat, and after a while, Brian joined him.

“Hey, Zee.” He said, taking a big bite of his pepperoni pizza. “Where’s your lunch?”

Zacky shrugged and put his head down on the table. “Jason’s eating it.”

He peeked out at Brian in order to see him set down his food, brows furrowing in anger. “Why? Did he take your lunch money?”

Zacky sniffled and nodded, feeling the tears well up in his eyes. “Y-Yes.” He whimpered.

He watched Brian turn his head to look at Jason, who was gorging himself on pizza at Mr. Self’s fourth grade lunch table. He stood. “I’ll go get your pizza back, Zee.”

He shook his head, grabbing Brian’s arm. “No, don’t, he’ll beat you up! Please don’t, Bribri…”

Brian sighed heavily and sat down. “Then here.” He said, handing Zacky his pizza. “You can have the rest of my pizza.”

Zacky shook his head and replied, “No, it’s yours.”

“I’m not that hungry anyway, I swear. Look, I’ll have my apple. You eat my pizza.”

The boy chewed his bottom lip. “Are you sure?”

He nodded and smiled brightly, “Yeah, absolutely.”

Zacky bit his lip and shyly took the food that was offered to him. “Thank you, Brian.”

Brian grinned even wider and took a bite of his apple. “No problem,” he spoke through a mouthful of fruit, “Anything for my best friend.”