I walked in and took my seat, placing my backpack on the floor next to me. I wished I had thought to go to my locker beforehand, but now I was going to have to wait. No one was allowed in the hallways in between bells without a hall pass and I definitely didn’t have one of those. Lunch was my least favorite period of the day, basically a free for all for the mean kids to say whatever they pleased.

 I unzipped my book bag and propped it open. I didn’t pull out the brown paper bag my lunch was packed in, instead I unrolled the top and left it open but still in my bag. I rustled around in the overstuffed backpack, my hands searching for the paperback I was sure I had put in there that morning. Found it. I pulled it out and settled in to read. I couldn’t concentrate and found I was either reading the same paragraph over and over again, or I would be halfway done with a page before I realized I had no idea what had happened prior.

 I crunched on pretzels and tried to empty my mind so I could read. I liked school, I really did. I was finding though that as I got older it was getting harder and harder to get along with the kids in my class. For the last few years I had found myself increasingly becoming the butt of the jokes and rumors that made their way around the school. Being eleven was proving to suck.

 I didn’t understand it. I was painfully shy and wanted to keep to myself outside of my small group of close girlfriends. I didn’t want anything to do with the kids who felt the need to be cruel, but that didn’t stop the barrage of laughter that was pointed in my direction on a daily basis. I pinched the corner of the baggie that held my sandwich and brought it out of the bag.

Yuck. Peanut butter and Jelly again. I shoved the soggy slices of bread back into the bag, leaning down and searching for something else with one hand, my eyes still on the book. My fingers found the juice box I was looking for and I drank it down quickly, sucking on the straw until there was no air left in the container. I could feel the suction against my lip and there was a slight popping noise when I broke contact.

 I shifted on the seat and hoped the thirty six minutes that was allotted for our lunch was almost over. The bell rang. YES! I got up quickly, threw my book into my bag and zipped it. I walked slowly towards the door and braced myself.

Then I pulled open the door of the girl’s bathroom and walked out into the hallway, back into the company of kids who made school hell for me

This post was written as a weekly writing challenge for Write of Passage. Come write with us.

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