High School Lunch

If you have ever gone to High school you know that the key to the day is the lunch period. Lunch is so many things to so many people. For some it is that needed study hall to get that last question down, or copied. For others it is a chance to get the latest gossip and secrets. For others it can be the time to hang out with friends, start fights, finish fights, pass a note to a crush and see if you will get your wish or  leave broken and battered with a big fat rejection. Some use it to start another week long romance, or end a "long" three week fling. Some use it to finally settle a rivalry of who can do something better. Finally some use it as a time of competition, "speed eating or another and equally stupid game. But all agree that it is the key to the whole day.
         For most if not all, if they had no lunch break school would be unbearable and very very long. Lunch is considered a sacred time in the unwritten laws of high school, it is the only time that some of the freedoms that get ripped off of you when you enter the building that morning, return for a brief and glorious moment. For freshmen it is a right of passage, for sophomores it is just another time to complain about how they should be considered upper classmen and how they are in the dreaded sophomore slump. But for upper classmen it is a time of great enjoyment, especially with the underclassmen as your minions.  But all have the ritual of lunch.
         Every ritual has a beginning part, a warm up if you will, of the school survival muscle. For the upperclassmen this means showing your authority over the lesser populace of the school by going to the front of the line leaving them to fight over the leftovers. If you are an underclassmen you get the enjoyment of surviving the fighting of standing in line for half of lunch, watching countless low life upperclassmen cut in front of you. But remember that one day you will be able to that, you might even try and be accepted by the upper links of the High school food chain by trying to go to the front of the line. But this normally ends up with you being put in your place by 4-12 (depending on what is being served) Juniors and Seniors. Most survive with little personal injury, but many do leave with a bruise or a painful large hand mark across the back of your head, But all leave broken down emotionally.
         Now that the waiting part is over you once again go to your "heard". The upperclassmen separate to their normal tables leaving the freshman to fend for themselves. The Sophomores get a little better of a treatment, if a Sophomore girl is dating a junior or sometimes a senior boy, they are accepted at that persons table and come part of their own. If you have a friend like this trust me they are lost to you.  But if a underclassmen boy is dating a upperclassmen girl (yeah right) they get the normal underclassmen treatment.

         Now that you have found your table you have about 5-10 min. to eat everything on your tray. This leaves more time to do what you want like talk, make fun of the Emo and Goth kids, or if you are one of these groups get made fun of. Then you have the normal contests of chugging milk, pop, or juice. Unless you are a female, then you have more time to gossip and back stab someone. So now that you are on the talking section of lunch keep a watchful eye out for a fight. Now fights are a normal weekly thing in most cafeterias. When these begin it is customary to begin rooting for your favorite person and to see how long it takes for a teacher or principle to stop it.
         When that ends it is normal time to get ready to go. Every upperclassmen and some sophomores have a way to get out early. But since a freshmen might get there grubby little hands on this I can not say the methods. As soon as the bell rings the stampede begins. You must always stay on your feet when this happens epically if you are a freshmen. Now that you know A little about a lunch period, do be careful out there.