Cafeteria Food [Paul]

[Rory Lennox]

So far, Rory was not impressed the with cafeteria food. She supposed it was good, considering what other places served, but she’d always packed her own lunch when she’d attended regular school. And her mother had gotten very good at accommodating her picky eating habits.

But here, she had no choice. She could either eat the cafeteria food, or not eat at all. It wasn’t like they were serving anything else, and she didn’t have any food allergies that would require her to be allowed access to a different menu.

She sat down at an empty table, save for the senior girls who were eating quietly on the opposite end. Even though they weren’t talking, Rory could hear that they actually had a lot to say about each other, just apparently not to each other.

She set her tray in front of her, which contained a salad with shredded carrots and tomatoes. It looked a little boring, nothing like the amazing salads her mom used to make, but it looked better than that greasy slice of pizza that looked like it had been sitting there since breakfast ended. And she was hoping the peach yogurt and pineapple slices would spice up her lunch, in terms of taste at least.

Rory had just come from training, which had left her with a headache and a bloody nose, the tissues from the latter still curled up in her fist. She was hoping to find a quieter place to eat, at least until her headache passed, but once she sat down, she found that she didn’t mind their mental conversation. Their whispered thoughts were actually kind of interesting to listen to as she ate.

[Paul Wilkerson]

Normally Paul could claim a table for him and his friends. That was plus side to bring home lunch instead of waiting in the lunch line. But that wasn’t the case today. Paul had to stay behind to have a little chat with his science teacher after class. He stood in the cafeteria looking around like he was completely lost. He didn’t spot his friends. It looked like he was just going to take an open seat.

Paul wondered around the lunchroom. He found a somewhat empty table. There was a group of girls at one end and one girl at the other. He went over to the side with the one girl. “Can I?” Paul pointed an empty chair. He didn’t know if all the empty chairs were being held for other people.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory should have thrown her tissues in the garbage bin she passed on her way to the table. But instead, she just shoved them into her bag. She’d throw them away when she was done eating, but it’d be gross to just leave them on the table. Especially if other people decided to sit down next to her.

Like the boy who’d just appeared out of nowhere. She was still distracted by the two girls sitting a few chairs away from her. Rory thought she could be mean, but these girls took it to a whole new level. She wondered why they even bothered sitting next to each other.

“Oh, yeah, sit down.” Rory said, nodding her head to his question. She wasn’t waiting for anyone. She’d gotten to lunch later than normal since she had to make a pitstop in the bathroom to clean up her nosebleed. She made a mental note to schedule her training sessions after lunch next semester instead of before. Maybe they’d go better if she had a full stomach.

This new boy looked to be a little bit older than Rory, though not by much. Maybe a year? Two? Then again, almost everyone here was older than Rory. She was probably the youngest in her class, only turning fourteen a few months ago. “I’m Rory.” She stated, feeling like it would be rude to not introduce herself. She was a talker, and had never been one to just sit across from someone in silence. Even if she still had a headache.

[Paul Wilkerson]

“Thanks,” Paul sat down. He placed his lunch box on the table. What did his mother pack him today? The classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich and assorted of veggies. And to wash it all down Paul had a bottle of apple juice. Nutritious. At first Paul was embarrassed and disliked his mom packing a lunch for him. But he learned to appreciated his lunches because there was students who wished they could have a home lunch. Paul was one of the luckier ones.

“Paul.” He peeled the sandwich out of the plastic bag.

[Rory Lennox]

Her new lunch buddy didn’t seem very talkative. Lucky for him, Rory didn’t do awkward silences. Or silence at all really. Not when there was actually someone to talk to. She immediately noticed his lunch as soon as he set it on the table, though she should have noticed him carrying it before, instead of a lunch tray.

“Do you live in Pilot Ridge?” She asked, knowing that that was probably the only conceivable way for him to have brought his own lunch from home. Unless he lived off campus, but Rory didn’t think that was it. He looked too young to live on his own, and she knew that it was school policy that students had to be eighteen before they could move out of the dorms.

“You’re lucky that your mom can still pack your lunches. My mom used to pack really great lunches for me.” When she attended regular school at least, and then when she was spending the whole day at the studio. Otherwise, her mom would just make her something right at home in the middle of their lesson. The beauty about being homeschooled was being able to eat whenever you wanted.

“Cafeteria lunches just aren’t the same.” She said, resting her chin in her hand and stabbing a tomato with her plastic fork.

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul held up one finger to tell Rory to wait a moment. Paul managed to get his bite down. Wow. That was a lot of peanut butter in his sandwich. “Yeah. It’s like a fifteen minutes walk to my house.” He took a swig of his apple juice.

“I always know I like my lunch,” Paul picked up the bag of veggies, “or at least most of it.” Paul dropped the bag back in the open lunch box.

He went to take another bite but stopped. A thought came to him. “You’re not allergic to peanut butter are you?” He knew that someone people were allergic to peanut butter. And some people were really allergic. Paul would feel absolutely terrible if Rory went into an allergic shock because of him.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory waited patiently for him to finish chewing his sandwich. No one liked to speak with food in their mouth. That was gross. But when he finally was able to speak, she thought it was cool that he lived so close. “It must be nice to be able to go home at the end of the day.” Rory liked living in a dorm and being on her own, but she did miss her parents and her dog sometimes.

And Rory definitely missed the lunches that her mother made for her. Her mom always knew what to pack for her as well, and she didn’t think she’d miss the nice homemade salads until all she had left to eat were the cafeteria ones. “You don’t like veggies?” She asked. Rory did; her mom used to buy all different kinds and cut them up for her. Carrots, bell peppers, cauliflower, celery, all that jazz. Yummmm.

“Oh no, I’m not allergic to peanut butter.” She wasn’t allergic to anything. At least she didn’t think she was; she never had to go to the doctor’s for anything. In fact, she loved peanut butter, but only the all-natural kind that her mother got for her. The other kinds tasted good too, but she’d read somewhere that it had a lot of preservatives in it. She supposed she would eat it if she had to, but she preferred the other kind.

“Do you like living in Pilot Ridge?” She wasn’t sure if she would have liked living her all year round. It was a little too cold here in the winter for her to consider staying here permanently.

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul had always gone to public school, so it was normal for Paul to leave to go home. A dorm on campus was never needed. He thought it would be cool to live on campus, away from parents and being independent. Paul nodded his head. "I have an annoying older sister at home. Other than that it's pretty nice. Don't have to worry about curfews and stuff." What a load of BS. Paul had curfews and limitations of when and how late he could stay out. On the weekends he had more leeway. Paul wouldn't tell Rory the full truth. He wanted to look cool.

Paul shrugged. "I'll eat veggies. Not my favorite things. I won't eat the steams of broccoli." He scrunched up his face and stuck his tongue out. Steams of broccoli to Paul were really nasty. He didn't understand how people could eat that part. In the baggy that Paul had was cucumbers, carrots, and red bell peppers.

He was relieved. Now he could eat his mountain of peanut butter and little bit of jelly sandwich. The only logical reason Paul could come up with was that the peanut butter jar almost empty and his mom finished the jar.

"Yeah. Can't compare Pilot Ridge to anywhere else 'cause I've never lived anywhere else. It's cold in the winter. Hot in the summer." He shrugged again. "The colors are nice is fall and spring." Pilot Ridge was home to Paul. He never thought of possibly living someone where else. Maybe when he starts thinking about college. "Are you from around here?" Paul took another bite of his sandwich. Yup, this sandwich was going to take a while to get down.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory had also gone to public school for most of her life. It was only this year that her mother had started to homeschool her, and even then it wasn’t like she was home all the time. She’d usually do school from 8:00am to 12:00pm and then head to the studio. And sometimes she’d do lessons online in between her dance classes. It was just a lot easier to coordinate around her hectic dance schedule.

“Your parents let you stay out late? That must be nice.” Even when she was at home she had a strict curfew. Some days she’d be done at the studio earlier than others and she’d hang out with her dance friends, but her mom still picked her up at 9:00pm sharp wherever she was. Well, unless she was spending the night at someone’s house or something. That was the exception.

“Broccoli is one of my favorites.” She wasn’t huge fan of it raw; she’d eat it, but she preferred it cooked. But she did eat the whole vegetable regardless.

While Rory liked the heat, she thought it might be cool to live somewhere that experienced all four seasons. Although, she thought winter would probably get old very fast. She shook her head when he asked if she was from around here. “No, I was born in California, near LA.” Technically she hadn’t lived there long, having moved when she was a baby, but she still had family there, so visited frequently. “But my family lives in Phoenix. That’s where I’ve lived most of my life.” Until she came here.

[Paul Wilkerson]

If eight on school nights was considered late then yes. On non-school nights Paul could pretty much stay out as late as he wants with some restrictions. “Yeah.” His parents trusted him to be out. As long as Paul didn’t break that trust he was good.

Paul paused. “The steam too?” He scrunched up his nose, “how do people eat the steam?”

“Well, that’s totally different to Pilot Ridge. How did you take to the winter?” Although, last winter wasn’t really a typical winter Pilot Ridge.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory shrugged, stabbing at one of the tomatoes in her salad. She’d never given much thought to the parts of the broccoli. She liked it, so she just ate whatever her mom would put on her plate. “I guess…I don’t know, my mom would cook it and I would eat it.” There wasn’t much else to it. “I always thought it all tasted the same.”

Phoenix was very different from Pilot Ridge. She nodded, agreeing with his statement. “It’s definitely a lot wetter here.” Was it ever dry? There winters were cold and full of snow and there springs were full of rain and it wasn’t much warmer. She was told last winter was actually pretty mild, something Rory found sort of hard to believe since it was still freezing.

“It was very, very cold. But I’ve been to the East Coast during winter before, so it wasn’t a total shock.” She’d been to NYC for a few dance competitions, as well as New Jersey. Still, Vermont was a lot further up north, so she wasn’t looking forward to finding out what an actual Northeast winter wasn’t going to feel like.


“I don’t know how you guys deal with having so much snow for so long.” It was just starting to melt. And it was almost April!

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul munched on his veggies while listening to the girl talk. Paul never experienced winter somewhere else. He never thought of an inch of snow was a lot but in some places in the South it was. In Paul’s mind Phoenix was one of those places.

“Don’t know. It’s just normal for us Vermonters. At least you had some sort of an idea of what winter was going to be like.” When it was wintertime, it was Paul’s job to shovel the driveway and walkway. He hated to get up early in the morning to shovel but his mom always had a warm breakfast ready for him. “This time of year snow and the cold gets a little old. And my parents don’t let me wear shorts yet.” Although there were some people who would wear shorts in the dead of winter.

[Rory Lennox]

Rory thought any amount of snow was a lot. But she had at least seen it before and wasn’t completely caught off guard by how cold it actually was. Well, she was a little caught off guard. It was really cold and there was a lot of snow. The few times she’d been in the Northeast during the winter were only for a few days. At that time, she thought the change of season was cool, but was very much ready to head back to Arizona once the competition was over.

Paul was right though. It probably would have been even worse if she had no idea what she was getting into. Still, the fact that it was cold out now was a little frustrating. She was excited to go back home for the month long break in the summer, although everyone has been telling her that the weather would eventually get warmer.

“It’s definitely gotten old.” Rory agreed, taking a sip of water from the bottle she’d bought with her lunch. “Why would you want to wear shorts right now? It’s freezing.” Rory couldn’t help, but agree with Paul’s parents. It was definitely not shorts weather just yet. He’d probably get frostbite.

[Paul Wilkerson]

Paul smiled. Freezing. It wasn't freezing. Cold or some people may say chilly. To a Vermonter it was not freezing at this point in the year. "It's not that cold. Plus wearing shorts means that winter is over and the warmer weather is here. Do you see where I'm going with this?"

He bit into his sandwich again. Once again Paul fought the peanut butter. If he remembered he needed to tell his mom to take it easy with the peanut butter. He took a swig of apple juice. And then gnawed a carrot. "Wearing shorts now must be a Vermonter thing."

[Rory Lennox]

Rory shook her head, “But it is still really really cold.” Rory didn’t understand what wearing shorts when it was still cold was going to prove. Just because you started wearing your spring clothes, didn’t mean that it was actually going to feel like spring. “The warmer weather isn’t here yet, so why would you wear clothes that you’re going to be cold in.” She could understand starting to shift some of your spring clothes into your wardrobe and maybe not wearing as many layers. But the seasons didn’t just change overnight here. Clearly.

It was interesting to see the seasons change though. It never got very cold in Arizona, so there really wasn’t much of a shift back home. She’d heard that autumn was amazing over here, and it actually wasn’t that cold for most of the season, so she was excited to experience that next year.

Rory finished up the last few pieces of lettuce in her salad before wiping her fork off on a napkin and switching to her pineapple. “I don’t think it’s only a Vermonter thing. I would be wearing shorts right now if I was home.” Rory said. She could probably pull off wearing shorts almost all year round at home, since it was, you know, warm. “And if you guys do it, then probably a lot of people who live in New England do it too, right?” All the crazy people, that is.