Stuffed by Eric Walters Page B

didn’t go up. Lucky for him, Julia didn’t notice.
    â€œSo the majority of you feel you will eat at Frankie’s less often, but only a few of you think you will never eat there again,” Mrs. Fletcher said.
    â€œToo bad it isn’t more people,” Trevor said, and everybody looked at him in surprise. “Yeah, the less people that eat there, the shorter the lineups for those of us who do.”
    There was more laughter. As Mrs. Fletcher tried to settle down the students, the bell rang to signal the end of class.
    â€œYou’re all dismissed!” Mrs. Fletcher yelled out. “And please, enjoy your lunch!”

Chapter Two
    I settled into my seat at our table in the cafeteria and started pulling stuff out of my lunch bag. A peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwich on whole wheat, an apple, a couple of cookies and a Coke. Not bad. At least nothing fried or fatty.
    Julia put down her lunch bag. I knew what would be inside—salad, either a chicken or tuna sandwich and a bottle of water. She hardly ever ate anything that wasn’t healthy,so her threat not to eat at Frankie’s again wasn’t really going to cost them a lot of money.
    â€œWhere’s Oswald?” she asked.
    I shrugged. “He doesn’t check his every move with
me
.”
    â€œWhat does that mean?” Julia asked.
    â€œNothing.”
    Nothing I was going to talk about, but I was getting mighty sick of him sucking up to her—agreeing with whatever she said, complimenting her, pretending he was actually interested in what she was saying. Man, it was ugly when friends became more than just friends. Oswald was being a chicken and Julia hadn’t even noticed. At least she was pretending she hadn’t noticed.
    â€œI still can’t get over you saying you’d still eat at Frankie’s,” Julia said.
    â€œEverything in moderation,” I said. “Socrates.”
    â€œSocrates would have been smart enough not to eat at Frankie’s.”
    â€œI don’t know,” I said. “Didn’t he die when he drank poison?”
    â€œFrankie’s is poison,” Julia said. “I don’t know why you can’t see that.”
    Looking beyond Julia I caught sight of Oswald. He was carrying a tray. On the tray—there in plain view—was a Coke, a burger and a side order of fries. I started to smile.
    â€œYou think this is funny?” Julia questioned.
    â€œNope, nothing funny here. You just can’t expect us all to be as convinced as you and Oswald.”
    â€œConvinced of what?” Oswald said as he put his tray down and took a seat.
    â€œConvinced that…” Julia stopped talking, and her eyes got wide in disbelief as she stared at Oswald’s lunch. “You bought French fries?”
    â€œAnd a burger, and I do believe that is an order of onion rings…I think onions are a vegetable…aren’t they?” I chided.
    â€œHow…how could you?” Julia demanded, sounding like Oswald had kicked a puppy or cheated on her.
    He looked genuinely confused. “I didn’tdo anything. I was just getting my lunch and—” He suddenly got it. “But I didn’t get this from Frankie’s.”
    â€œIt doesn’t matter where you got it from. It’s still all poison!”
    â€œDon’t forget about the onion rings. Onions are a—” I said.
    â€œShut up, Ian!” Julia snapped. “You’re not going to eat any of that are you?”
    â€œI…I…I guess not…but I am hungry,” Oswald replied.
    â€œWanna trade?” I asked.
    â€œI spent five bucks on this meal,” Oswald said.
    â€œThen you should have spent your money on a fruit tray or a salad or a yogurt and some juice,” Julia said. “You know they have all of those things in the cafeteria, right?”
    â€œSure, right, I know,” Oswald said.
    â€œSo…you want to trade or just toss it?”