Chapter 4

Chapter 4: MOON DUST, NEW THREADS, & A FOOD FIGHT

Jack whacked Sanyu upside the head. “Really smooth, Sanyu!”

“What?” cried Sanyu helplessly. Jack just shook his head.

“It’s all right,” said Alex. She held her head up high now. There was no way she was going to let her new classmates see her cry. “I could tell you were all thinking the same thing.”

A couple of the girls looked down at their shoes. Clark shifted his weight uneasily. Sanyu tilted his head to the side and scratched the top of it. He seemed to be figuring out how Alex could have turned out to be a girl.
Sam made his way over to Adam and gave him a consolation pat on the back. “Don’t worry about the race, man. Obviously, the new kid is a freak.” Alex felt her teeth grind together. That little Sam kid was gonna be trouble.
In the distance, a shrill bell rang.

“Thank God!” sighed Yvonne. “Let’s get back to class. This recess stuff is stressing me out.” Her long, blond hair swaying behind her, she ran back to the other side of the playdium. The rest of the kids followed quickly.

Near the exit to the playdium stood Ms. Pullman, who greeted each student by name when they walked past her.

“Good afternoon, Adam.”

“Hey, Ms. Pullman.”

“Samuel.” She gave Sam a stern, warning look that Alex couldn’t understand. What had Sam done to annoy Ms. Pullman?

“Ms. Pullman,” sang Sam. He smiled at the teacher.

“Hello, Jack.”

“Hey.”

“And . . . ,” Ms. Pullman craned her neck around Jack to see who was coming last. In the small hallway leading from the playdium to the inner loop of the colony, Alex’s new classmates bunched up near the doorway as if expecting something to happen when Ms. Pullman saw Alex without her hat on. Did they think Ms. Pullman would be shocked that Alex was a girl, too? Alex could see Yvonne’s blue eyes peeking out from behind Clark’s tall frame.

Ms. Pullman’s brow furrowed a bit. “Good afternoon,” she said slowly. Then with the slightest raise of her voice, she made the last word a question. “Alex?”

“Good afternoon, Ms. Pullman,” Alex answered strongly, faking a sense of confidence, and strode into the hallway where the other students had gathered to watch the scene. Alex took a step forward; her new classmates took a step back. Yvonne, still standing behind Clark, let out an, “Ouch!” Apparently, he had stepped on her foot. Alex took another step forward. This time Yvonne moved fast enough to get out of Clark’s way. Ms. Pullman stepped into the hallway behind Alex.

“Well?” she looked at everyone. “What are you waiting for? Get your things from my room and proceed to Professor Callahan’s room for science.”

Alex took another step forward.

“Go, go,” urged Sam. “The freak needs to get through!” With an abrupt aboutface, the students headed out of the hallway and into the inner circle.

“Samuel!” Ms. Pullman yelled, but Sam continued to speed down the hallway.

Back in Ms. Pullman’s room, Alex picked up her small bag. In the corner of the room, Ms. Pullman was having a hushed conversation with Sam. Alex couldn’t hear what was being said, but neither Ms. Pullman nor Sam looked happy. As Sam shot her a dirty look, Alex followed the other students out of the classroom and down the hallway to a doorway marked Astrophysics and Other Sciences: Professor Callahan.

Callahan turned out to be a funny, old man. With his white hair, thick white beard and round tummy, he looked like he should have been wearing a red suit trimmed in white fur. His green eyes twinkled when the students walked into his room.

“Ah, my young scholars,” he greeted them. “How are we doing today?”

“We got a new kid,” Jack nodded back to Alex who entered the room behind him.

“Yes, General Fratelli stopped in a moment ago to tell me about our new student.”
Professor Callahan stepped forward to shake Alex’s hand. “Well, well, hello there, young lady. Come on in, welcome. Adriana, isn’t it?”

“Alex, sir, my name’s Alex.”

“Oh, of course, of course. I knew it started with an A. You mustn’t mind me, Alex. I’ve been at this science teacher game too long. Eons ago, well before the war, I used to teach astrophysics back on Earth at a university called . . .” He rubbed the side of his temple, then let his hand drop. “Well, now, what does it matter what it was called? That school doesn’t exist anymore anyway. Let’s get started, shall we? Take a seat over here, Alex,” Professor Callahan gestured to an empty seat on the side of his classroom. “I think we should begin by reviewing what we discussed yesterday. It will be a good way to introduce Alex to her new home, too. Did everyone plug in their PTDs?” Callahan looked around to see that the students had logged into their consoles.

“Alex, did anyone give you a PTD yet?” The professor directed his attention to his newest student.

“I’m sorry, a what?” The term sounded familiar to her, but she had no idea what he was talking about.

“A PTD. That’s what we call these things here.” Callahan lifted a small, rectangular device off his ear, and Alex realized that all of her classmates had taken off the strange black gadgets they had had in their ears and placed them into their computer terminals. “A personal technology device.” He held it out for Alex to see. She shook her head to indicate that she didn’t have one. “I’m sure General Fratelli will be getting you one shortly. We couldn’t live without them here on the moon. They do everything for us: make phone calls, hold our music and electronic files, open doorways, give directions, capture video and photos.” Suddenly, Alex remembered where she had heard the term before. When she tried to enter the IMC, the lit panel had asked her to scan her PTD. Callahan continued his explanation by pointing at a small portion of the device, “The tiny screen here can be a bit of a strain on our eyes. That’s why we plug them into the consoles when we want to do any real work.” Callahan turned toward his teacher’s console and attached his own PTD. On the large screen behind him popped up a photo of the south pole of the moon. With a few touches on the screen, Callahan zoomed in on a particular crater.

“Here we go, the Shackleton crater. Can anyone tell us from yesterday’s discussion why this site was chosen for the moon colony?” The blond girl’s hand popped up.

“Yes, Yvonne.”

“Some areas of the south pole, like the Shackleton crater, get sunlight almost all the time. In fact, some areas see sunlight almost 98% of the time.”

“Very good. And why would constant sunlight be so important? Life on earth exists without continual daylight. Why is it so vital to our existence here? Clark.”

“Solar power.” Something about Clark’s response seemed odd to Alex. Did he speak with an accent?

“Absolutely, solar power.” Professor Callahan looked around the room. “Imagine if we didn’t have solar power.” He paused to let the idea sink in. “How would we survive? What would keep this colony going?” He chuckled to himself for a moment. “It’s not like we could have run an electrical line between the earth and the moon.”

Alex slowly raised a hand. There was a question on her mind, but she wasn’t sure if she should ask it.

Callahan’s eyes lit up. He loved to be questioned. “Yes, Alex.”

“What about wind energy? Couldn’t you use that to generate power as well?”

“There is no wind on the moon,” Adam blurted out. Then he rolled his eyes, as if to say, What an idiot!

“No wind?” She turned to look at him. “Ever?”

“I’m afraid, young Mr. Zweil speaks the truth, Alex,” Mr. Callahan stepped in before Adam could respond. “We have no wind here on the moon. Which brings me to my next point—the moon has no significant atmosphere. What problems does this cause for us?”

“No oxygen,” Jack quipped.

“Well, yes,” Professor Callahan chuckled. “I would have thought that was obvious. The designers of this colony complex had to find a way to create and then seal-in an environment that was rich in oxygen. One crack in our protective ‘bubble’ here, and we’re all in trouble.” He shuddered at the thought. “Let’s move beyond the obvious. What other problem does a lack of atmosphere give us?”

Alex looked around the room; no one seemed to know. Seated beside her was the redheaded girl named Carrie. She was manipulating her console, trying to find the answer in her notes.

“The Earth,” continued Professor Callahan, “has an extremely useful atmosphere. Not only does it provide oxygen, but it also protects its inhabitants from something else. Unfortunately, the damage done to the Earth by Emperor Devlesh means its atmosphere isn’t as adept at protecting the planet as it used to be.”

“Radiation,” Alex said. They all turned to look at her. “Radiation, that’s it, isn’t it? The Earth’s atmosphere is able to absorb some of the radiation from the sun, but without any atmosphere on the moon, we’re at risk of radiation poisoning.”

“Very good, Alex,” Callahan nodded approvingly.

“Radiation poisoning?” Yvonne asked. “I don’t like the sound of that.”

“But it’s true, isn’t it?” Alex sat up straighter in her seat. “You said the designers chose this site because we would be in the sun all the time, but that also means we’re exposed to radiation all the time.” Alex’s breathing quickened. She looked around the room at everyone. “That means you’ve all had eleven years of radiation exposure.” Visions of her new classmates growing second heads swam before her. She looked down at her own hands and turned them over several times. “We can’t stay here. This isn’t healthy.” By this point, the rest of the class was looking at her as if she had just grown a second head.

Professor Callahan chuckled softly. “Slow down there, Alex. We’re perfectly safe. You’re right that radiation is extremely dangerous, but our founders knew that when they built this complex, so they made the necessary adjustments. I was going to talk more about the Shackleton crater today, but we’d better turn to page 211. Let’s find out how the colony designers used a little thing called ‘moon dust’ to save us from radiation.” Callahan and the rest of the students began tapping out instructions on their consoles.

“Um, sir,” Alex raised her hand timidly.

“Oh, sorry, Alex. I forgot you don’t have a PTD yet to access your console. Why don’t you look on with Carrie for now?”

Carrie didn’t look too pleased with this idea, but she tilted her console slightly so Alex could look, too.

* * *

An hour and a half later, not only had Callahan given the class a thorough explanation of the layer of moon dust (also called regolith, the professor informed them) that covered the colony complex, but he also whipped up a last-minute experiment with moon dust as well. Several sealed containers with small amounts of moon dust were passed out to each lab table.

“Be sure to keep the containers sealed,” warned Professor Callahan. “Prolonged exposure to moon dust is harmful to your lungs.”

Using a device Professor Callahan called a magnetron, Alex worked with her lab partners Carrie and Sanyu to heat the moon dust at varying temperatures and for varying lengths of time. Alex watched in amazement as the moon dust quickly melted into a cement-like creation. Using a different power setting on the magnetron, they melted another container of moon dust until it resembled glass.

“Notice what happens when I shine a concentrated beam of light and heat at this melted moon dust.” Professor Callahan took one of Adam and Sam’s samples that had been melted into concrete and secured it before a powerful lamp he had at the front of the room. “Pretend this light represents the sun. You’ll notice how it is unable to penetrate the concrete. The moon dust is protecting us not only from the radiation of the sun, but also the extreme heat. That’s why we can use the old lava tunnels under this complex as protection from the bright sun if something should happen to our colony. In fact, the early colony designers considered building the entire colony underground. Any questions?” He looked around to make sure everyone understood.

“Alright, we’re running out of time. Let’s start cleaning up the lab.”

Out of the corner of her eye, Alex saw Adam pack away some of the unused moon dust and store it in a cabinet. Then he took his seat beside Sam. When Adam looked up at her, Alex looked away and concentrated on wiping the lab table she had shared with Sanyu and Carrie.

“I guess you’re not too worried any more about getting fried by the radiation,” Adam called over to Alex.

“People used to be really scared of radiation,” said Sam, “especially before they knew how to protect themselves from too much exposure.” Then his eyes widened. “Hey, maybe Alex is a time traveler who has come here from the past!” A few of the nearby students giggled.

“Alright.” Professor Callahan stood before the class, rubbing his hands together excitedly. He seemed completely oblivious to the little dialogue that had just occurred. “It looks like we’re almost cleaned up. Excellent. Now listen carefully, I have something important I need you to remember for Monday’s class.” A few students clicked on their consoles to type in reminders. “I think,” continued Professor Callahan, “that we need to get up close and personal with the our home crater here. Therefore, bring your space suits on Monday. We’re going outside!”

“Outside?” questioned Clark.

“Yes!” hissed Jack.

Alex wondered what the big deal was. She had been outside the colony walls just a few hours ago. However, the excited grins and the slapping of hands among the other kids told Alex that this was something special for them.

“Yes, outside!” Callahan’s eyes sparkled. “It’s time we did a little exploring.”

The bell rang, and students logged out of their consoles and returned their PTDs to their ears. Alex picked up her small bag and wondered where she was supposed to go next. She tapped Sanyu on the shoulder before he could walk away.

“Hey, Sanyu, where do we go next?”

Sanyu gave a little shrug. “Home.”

Home. The word cut at Alex. It was impossible for her to go home. By now, her grandfather would have repaired the Rock Jumper and be on his way back to Earth. How long would it take him to find Grandma? The sooner he found her, the sooner he would return for Alex. In the meantime, she wondered what she should do next.

The doorway to Professor Callahan’s classroom slid open, and Marta rolled into the room.

“Excuse me, Professor Callahan. At the General’s orders, I am to take Alex Jones with me.” No one but Callahan and Alex paid any attention to Marta. The other students walked around her and out of the classroom, excitedly talking about their plans for the remainder of the afternoon.

Callahan looked at Marta and then at Alex. “Of course, Marta. Alex, make sure you have all your things. Marta will take good care of you.”

The prospect of spending more time with Marta didn’t thrill Alex, but at least she had somewhere to go now.

Out in the hallway, Alex said, “So where are we going?”

“The General has decided you need some new clothes and supplies.”

The next few hours were spent in two rooms. The first room they visited was labeled Carol’s Colony Clothing. Carol turned out to be a tall, dark-skinned woman with her hair in a high bun and a set of dark-rimmed spectacles on the tip of her nose. She asked Alex to step into a cylindrical machine in which Alex’s body was scanned from head to toe. Then Marta asked the seamstress Carol for “the standard seventh grade issue.” Carol told her to return in an hour.

Next Marta took Alex to a much larger room in the outer loop of the colony. This place was labeled Technology & Technical Services. Here Alex received her PTD. Marta showed her how to attach it to her ear so that she could receive phone calls and listen to music. When she took it off her ear, she could use it for taking photos and videos. Then Marta demonstrated how to plug the PTD into any console in the complex. Alex was amazed by how much she could do with the PTD. All of her textbooks were stored on it. Her homework would be kept on it. Alex did her best to soak in the information Marta threw at her so quickly.

“The most important thing to remember,” Marta insisted, “is that you never lose your PTD. It is your key to everything in this colony. Your very life may depend on it.”

Alex nodded as she fit the PTD onto her ear. She was surprised by how lightweight it felt.

When Marta’s tutorial on the use of the PTD was finished, they headed back to Carol’s Colony Clothing where Alex was amazed to find a whole new wardrobe completed just for her. The clothes fit perfectly. She had multiple skirts of the style she had seen her female classmates wearing. Each skirt had a short sewn into it, which explained to Alex why the girls didn’t mind running around in their skirts. There were also several colors of leggings and numerous tops with the same V-neck style and fitted bodice all the older girls and women of the colony seemed to be wearing. Each top bore the colony’s five-star emblem. Several pairs of sporty-looking ankle boots were also waiting for her.

Choosing a dark skort and a blue top, Alex changed into one of the outfits immediately. She examined her new look in a full-length mirror. Startled by the difference, she realized why the others had thought she was a boy in her old clothes.

“We’ll have the other items delivered to your sleeping quarters later,” Marta explained.

The door to Carol’s Colony Clothing slid open, and a disgruntled girl walked in. Alex recognized Carrie immediately. Despite having completed a science lab with her, Alex realized she knew nothing about her except that she was supposed to be the pitcher for the softball team.

“You called for me, Marta?” Carrie tightened her ponytail before folding her arms over her chest. She glanced over at Alex to take in her new clothes.

“Yes, Carrie.” Marta rolled over to where Carrie was standing near the doorway.

“Alex will be staying with you.”

“What?” Carrie unfolded her arms, put her hands on her hips, and leaned toward Marta as if she had heard wrong.

“Alex is your new roommate.”

“But why? Doesn’t she have any parents either?”

Either? thought Alex. Had Carrie been abandoned on the moon, too?

Marta stood silently. It was clear she wasn’t giving Carrie any more information than she thought necessary.

“Why me?” Carrie finally asked when she realized Marta wasn’t going to answer her last question.

“You are the only seventh grade girl who does not have a roommate.”

“But . . .”

“These are the General’s orders.” Marta’s voice was stern, and Carrie pulled back a little. “You are also to take the new girl with you to dinner. See that she knows how we operate around here. After dinner, you are to take her to the sleeping quarters. Alex’s new clothes as well as her . . .” Marta looked at the pile of Alex’s old clothes slumped over the back of a chair, “former apparel will be delivered there by the time dinner is through.”

Carrie sighed. “Couldn’t someone else . . .” She waved her hand vaguely at Alex.

Marta rolled a bit closer to Carrie. “You wish for me to tell the General you will disobey his orders?”

Sighing, Carrie turned to Alex. “Com’n, Newbie. I’ll show you where we eat dinner.”

Out in the hallway, Alex turned to her new roommate. “So, Carrie, what did you mean when you asked Marta if I didn’t have any parents either?”

Carrie gave her a wary glance. “Just what it sounded like. I figure if you had parents you wouldn’t need a roommate.”

“So you don’t have parents either?”

Carrie stopped in her tracks. “Listen, Newbie, we don’t talk much about parents around here. So if you want to get along with people, you’d better not mention them.”

Alex walked beside Carrie for a while in silence. “But why? Why would people not want to talk about their parents?”

With another abrupt stop, Carrie faced Alex. “Because most of us are orphans, you
leak.” Leak? Alex wondered what that was supposed to mean.

“I don’t understand.”

Carrie resumed walking. “We’re orphans, Newbie. Like you.”

For the second time that afternoon, words cut at Alex. Orphan?

“I’m not an orphan,” she protested. “My grandpa’s coming back for me real soon.”

Carrie rolled her deep blue eyes. “Sure he is.”

“No, really he is!”

“Where are you from anyway?”

Alex tried to remember what the General had told her. “A space station.”

“Oh, yeah.” Carrie’s eyes narrowed. “Which one? Some of the other kids and I have been reading up on the space stations lately.”

“Oh, well, this isn’t an Earth space station.” Alex bit her lower lip. Would she be able to pull off the lie? “Ours was back by Mars.”

“Mars!” Carrie’s eyes widened. “No wonder you’re such a leak.”

“What’s a leak?”

“A leak, you know, a leak.” Carrie struggled for an explanation. “Like when something bad from the outside gets into the inside.” She stopped walking again and folded her arms. She turned toward Alex and took two steps forward, pressing Alex up against the wall. “Listen, I’m not one to beat around the moon rock, you know what I mean? So I’m going to ask you straight. Are you one of Emperor Devlesh’s spies?”

Alex shook her head frantically. “No, not at all. I’m nobody’s spy. My grandpa dropped me off here to be safe for a while until he could make repairs at home. That’s all. Promise!” Alex held her hands up in surrender.

Carrie took a step back. “Well, we’ll see about that.” She jerked her head toward a doorway. “This is the dining hall.”

When the door slid open, Alex saw one of the biggest rooms she had yet to encounter in the colony. There were several rows of long tables with benches. Along two of the walls were several, long silver rails upon which people slid blue trays. On the wall immediately to Alex’s right was a small black box, similar to the one she had seen near the entrance portal.

“Ya gotta swipe your PTD here.” Carrie removed the device from her ear and waved it before the small black box. “That’ll get you a tray.” Sure enough, a slot opened up in the wall, and a blue tray slid halfway out. Carrie pulled it the rest of the way out and placed it on the beginning of the silver rails. Alex mimicked Carrie’s actions and pulled out her own tray.

“Why do we need to swipe the PTD?”

“We, I mean the orphans, get three meals a day here. Others can come eat in the dining hall too if they want, but they’ve got to pay. The PTDs help them keep track of who is eating when.” Carrie slid her tray further down the rails. “Food is broken into categories here. Say you want ravioli. Then you come over here to the pasta section. On this screen, you hit your selection. In a few seconds, the screen slides away, and your food is here.” Carrie demonstrated as she spoke. “If you want chicken stir fry, see the chicken section. Say you want a nice filet mignon, try the steak and chops department. I would recommend you take at least one thing from the vegetables section every once in a while otherwise the school nurse gets on your case.”

Alex nodded, trying to take it in while she ordered herself a plate of chicken parmigiana.

“Oh, one more thing,” Carrie continued. “Don’t try taking more than one dessert from the sweets section. When you touch the screen, it scans and remembers your fingerprint. It won’t let you touch the sweets screen twice during one meal period, and it sends an immediate alert to the health department.”

“You’re kidding?”

“Nope.” Carrie ordered herself a glass of chocolate milk from the beverage screen.

“Obesity used to be a real problem when first colonists came here. They don’t mess around anymore.”

As Alex waited for the beverage screen to slide away and reveal her glass of milk, she got the sensation that she was being watched. Her back was to the seating area of the cafeteria. Turning around, she discovered that many of the diners had indeed been staring at her. Some of them looked away quickly, but others made no attempt to hide their curiosity. They continued to gaze steadily at her. In groups of twos and threes, some of the colonists, both young and old, bent their heads together to discuss the new arrival.

Deciding to ignore them, Alex picked up her glass of milk and followed Carrie.

“You better sit with the rest of the seventh grade.” Carried headed toward a table near the back. “We don’t trust ya, but at least we won’t eat you alive.”

They walked past a table of slightly older students, and Alex was reminded of a certain section of ocean not too far from her home island. The term “shark-infested” popped into her head. A couple of the boys glared at each other across the table as if they were about to start a fight. Some of the other students stared at Alex as if she were new prey that had crossed into their territory. One girl in particular gave Alex the creeps. Her eyes stared in opposite directions. Her right eye followed Alex as she walked past while the left eye watched the two boys who glared menacingly at each other.

“Those are the eighth graders,” whispered Carrie as they sat down at their table.

“I’d recommend keeping away from them.” Alex nodded and took a seat next to Carrie. Everyone from their class except Sanyu was at their table. Alex wondered if this meant Sanyu had an actual family to go home to. Carrie had said most of them were orphans. Had the war left that many children without parents?

“Hey,” Jack leaned over the table to Carrie, “what’s with bringing the leak?” He jerked his head toward Alex.

Carrie stabbed a piece of ravioli with her fork. “Had to. General’s orders.” She shoved the ravioli in her mouth.

“What are you supposed to do with her after dinner?” asked Sam. “Send her down the trash chute?” The others snickered.

“She’s my new roommate,” murmured Carrie between bites of pasta.

“My condolences,” interjected Adam, who was sitting beside his roommate Sam.

“Oh God!” Jack slapped his knee and laughed.

“What’s so funny?” Carrie retorted.

“I’m just picturing the start of softball season next month. I saw the leak tossing the ball to Sanyu today. She’s got a strong arm. Should be interesting when the two of you are both up for the pitching slot on the team, and then you got to sleep in the same room at night.” Jack chuckled some more. Carrie narrowed her eyes toward Jack. Then she picked up a piece of ravioli and hurled it right into his left eye, splattering marinara sauce across his face and onto his left shoulder. This got a hurt “Hey” from Jack, but a series of snorting laughs from everyone else.

“Serves ya right for messing with the pitcher,” called Adam.

A beautiful dark-skinned girl with her hair tightly braided into thick cornrows was sitting to Alex’s left. She nudged Alex with her elbow. Her brown eyes seemed a little softer, a little less cruel than some of the rest’s. “So you’re an orphan too, huh?”

“Not really,” began Alex, but she couldn’t continue her explanation.

Clark, who was sitting at the end of the table, uttered one word that made the rest of them freeze: “Fight.” They all turned in the direction Clark was facing. Alex turned her head as well. They were looking at the eighth grade table.

“I don’t see any fight,” said Alex.

“Not yet, but it’s coming,” explained the dark-skinned girl.

“How does Clark know?”

“He can read lips.”

“Read lips?”

“Yeah, you know, tell what people are saying from far away by watching the way their lips move. Clark’s an expert at it. He has to be. He’s deaf.”

“He can’t hear?” Alex was astounded.

“That’s what she said, leak,” Jack jumped into the conversation. “You got a problem with my brother’s hearing loss?” Alex looked back and forth between the two boys. They were similar looking, but not identical. Fraternal twins, Alex decided.

“No, no problem at all.”

“Hey, Simona,” Adam called down to the dark-skinned girl beside Alex. “You pickin’ up any of this?” Adam pointed toward the eighth grade table.

“Simona can hear anything,” Carrie whispered to Alex. “She’s like the exact opposite of Clark.”

Simona strained her hearing for a moment. “Seems to be the usual thing. Zero wants Magnum to get a dessert for him.”

Alex looked over at the eighth grade table in time to see an extremely thin boy slam down his glass. The boy seemed emaciated, his bony elbows making sharp angles as he pressed his palms onto the table and leaned forward.

“Com’n, Magnum. You know you’re not going to eat any dessert; you never use your ration.” The skinny boy directed his comments across the table at a boy who was about as large as Zero was skinny.

“Forget about it, Zero!” Magnum yelled back. “Just because I choose not to eat my dessert doesn’t mean I have to sit here and watch you eat two of them.” Magnum rose to his full height, which was rather intimidating.

Several tables over, Alex watched in confusion. Was the skinny boy actually asking for food from the fat boy because the fat boy never ate dessert? Shouldn’t it be the other way around?

“You’re a selfish leak,” screamed Zero, who stood up to face Magnum eye-to-eye. When he was standing upright, Alex was surprised to find that Zero was as tall as Magnum. However, in Zero’s case, his unusual height only emphasized how incredibly scrawny he was. Bones jutted out from every corner of his body.

“You’re an obnoxious . . .”

“Boys!” An adult in a white shirt with red letters spelling “Coach” on the back ran up to the table. “That’s enough, Magnum and Zero. Perhaps the younger kids can teach you some manners. Zero, sit over there at the sixth grade table. Magnum, you sit with the fifth graders.” The man looked around the room. “Everybody else, go back to eating.”

One by one, the other diners returned to their meals as Zero and Magnum snatched up their trays and headed to opposite ends of the dining hall.

“Man!” sighed Jack. “I wish Coach Skule would stop interfering. We might get a real fight one of these days.”

Alex looked back at her tray and was surprised to see she had already finished her glass of milk. “Um, there’s no rule against getting two drinks, is there?” She looked around the table. Carrie shook her head while others discussed the inevitable “real” fight that would have to erupt some day between the two eighth grade boys.

At the beverage station, Alex ordered up another milk. Two stations down from her, Magnum approached the dessert station. He tapped the screen a couple times and then pulled out a large ice cream sundae complete with whipped topping and a cherry on top. Alex couldn’t figure out what he was doing at first. Didn’t Zero say Magnum never ate dessert? Smirking, Magnum turned away from the sweet station and made sure that Zero was watching his every move before he dumped the sundae right into the trash chute.

By this time, Alex had her glass of milk in hand and was heading back to her table. She found herself in the unfortunate position of standing between the two eighth grade boys: Zero was three tables to her left, and Magnum, still near the trash chute, was two tables to her right. From the left, she heard a voice scream, “Son of a . . .” Zero picked up a steak knife and hurled it across the dining hall toward Magnum. Alex looked up just in time to see the knife spinning rapidly, blade over handle, right toward her face.