didnât go up. Lucky for him, Julia didnât notice.
âSo the majority of you feel you will eat at Frankieâs less often, but only a few of you think you will never eat there again,â Mrs. Fletcher said.
âToo bad it isnât more people,â Trevor said, and everybody looked at him in surprise. âYeah, the less people that eat there, the shorter the lineups for those of us who do.â
There was more laughter. As Mrs. Fletcher tried to settle down the students, the bell rang to signal the end of class.
âYouâre all dismissed!â Mrs. Fletcher yelled out. âAnd please, enjoy your lunch!â
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 insideâsalad, either a chicken or tuna sandwich and a bottle of water. She hardly ever ate anything that wasnât healthy,so her threat not to eat at Frankieâs again wasnât really going to cost them a lot of money.
âWhereâs Oswald?â she asked.
I shrugged. âHe doesnât check his every move with
me
.â
âWhat does that mean?â Julia asked.
âNothing.â
Nothing I was going to talk about, but I was getting mighty sick of him sucking up to herâagreeing 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 hadnât even noticed. At least she was pretending she hadnât noticed.
âI still canât get over you saying youâd still eat at Frankieâs,â Julia said.
âEverything in moderation,â I said. âSocrates.â
âSocrates would have been smart enough not to eat at Frankieâs.â
âI donât know,â I said. âDidnât he die when he drank poison?â
âFrankieâs is poison,â Julia said. âI donât know why you canât see that.â
Looking beyond Julia I caught sight of Oswald. He was carrying a tray. On the trayâthere in plain viewâwas a Coke, a burger and a side order of fries. I started to smile.
âYou think this is funny?â Julia questioned.
âNope, nothing funny here. You just canât expect us all to be as convinced as you and Oswald.â
âConvinced of what?â Oswald said as he put his tray down and took a seat.
âConvinced thatâ¦â Julia stopped talking, and her eyes got wide in disbelief as she stared at Oswaldâs lunch. âYou bought French fries?â
âAnd a burger, and I do believe that is an order of onion ringsâ¦I think onions are a vegetableâ¦arenât they?â I chided.
âHowâ¦how could you?â Julia demanded, sounding like Oswald had kicked a puppy or cheated on her.
He looked genuinely confused. âI didnâtdo anything. I was just getting my lunch andââ He suddenly got it. âBut I didnât get this from Frankieâs.â
âIt doesnât matter where you got it from. Itâs still all poison!â
âDonât forget about the onion rings. Onions are aââ I said.
âShut up, Ian!â Julia snapped. âYouâre not going to eat any of that are you?â
âIâ¦Iâ¦I guess notâ¦but I am hungry,â Oswald replied.
âWanna trade?â I asked.
âI spent five bucks on this meal,â Oswald said.
âThen you should have spent your money on a fruit tray or a salad or a yogurt and some juice,â Julia said. âYou know they have all of those things in the cafeteria, right?â
âSure, right, I know,â Oswald said.
âSoâ¦you want to trade or just toss it?â