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Natalia Hamill knew three things to be absolute fact. 1: it was finally dinner-time (praise be for that!) 2: she liked Jake Brockman (less praise be for that) and 3: she was in a complete and utter shit-storm!
As if she couldn't feel any worse, the local Greggs was shut down due to a rat infestation, so for the first time in all of Sixth Form, she had been forced back on to school dinners. And to think she thought she had escaped them at the end of Year 11. How naive!
The dining hall walls were painted a sickly green colour and Natalia wondered whether they had been attempting to model it after a prison when they made it. The unappealing nature of the room mirrored the sheer disgust of the 'food' served within.
Today's meal of the day had been a stew, which Natalia knew was slang for whatever the dinner ladies could find and legally get away with dumping in a pot and serving to children. She cringed as she ladled a dollop of the mixture onto her plate, taking a mental note to not take one bite of it. As she followed the queue, she eventually came to the 'dessert' section (if days-old stale cupcakes could be called desserts) and decided to place a bowl of apple crumble on her tray. You couldn't get food poisoning from apple crumble... right?
Natalia began to question this and debated removing it from her tray, but she made the executive decision to chance it. She had to eat something. Besides, if she did get food poisoning, it wouldn't be all bad. She'd get to skip the stupid baby project and would never have to see Jake Brockman again. While half of her longed to see him, the other half cringed at what had happened last period. She would die of embarrassment if she ever lay eyes on him again.
After having paid for the dubiously named 'food', Natalia looked around for somewhere to sit. She hadn't been in here for years! Nearly all the tables were crammed full of Year 10 skinheads and Year 8 girls with Donald Trump orange skin and sluggish eyebrows, shouting and giggling. Bloody hell. She hoped that she had never been that annoying.
She span to scan the left side of the room for a free table, but found herself propelled immediately into another student. Her tray flipped upwards, the 'food' flying everywhere and Natalia felt her feet slip from under her. She spotted a neon yellow 'CAUTION! WET FLOOR' sign, as she fell to the floor. Well, she mentally spat at the sign, you could have told me earlier.
Just before she crashed completely into the cold, food-splattered dining room floor, she felt herself dragged upwards slightly, as someone grabbed the sleeve of her blazer. This person then took hold of her other arm, and Natalia managed to make herself upright.
She noticed, now, that the entire canteen was staring at her, but a quick retort of 'take a picture. It'll last longer' managed to make most of the younger years take their eyes off of her. She now looked to the person who she had crashed into and who had saved her from embarrassing herself completely.
