Chapter 8
It wasn't quite time for lunch, when Mrs. Jackson and Baartock got to his classroom. Mrs. Stogbuchner was in the back of the room, reading to the class from a big storybook. The children had gathered their chairs in a circle around her, and had been listening to the story, until Baartock came in. Then there was a flurry of activity. Jason jumped up and brought a chair over, right next to his, for Baartock to sit on. Several of the children started talking and some more had to move their chairs around. Jason had to ask Baartock where he had been and then started to tell him about the story they were listening to. It was a few minutes before the class was all settled again and ready to get back to the story.
The rest of the story didn't make much sense to Baartock, and he was tired of listening to grown-ups talk. He'd been listening to talking all morning. He was hungry and wanted something to eat. Finally the story was over and Mrs. Stogbuchner had them put their chairs back at the tables and then line up to go to lunch. As soon as they were waiting quietly, she opened the door and led her class down the hall to the cafeteria. This was a big room that Baartock hadn't seen before. There were lots of tables and chairs and all along one side there were humans fixing food. The smell of food made him even hungrier. Baartock wanted to rush over and get something, but he had to stay in line. He had time to look around. He saw Mrs. Jackson talking to some other adults sitting at a table in the back of the room.
"All right, dear, here's your tray."
One of the women handed him a big flat thing. Then Baartock saw that all the children in front of him were sliding their trays along, and adults were putting plates of food on the trays. So he slid his along too. One woman handed him a plate of food. Another gave him a little dish with some yellow pieces that smelled a little like fruit. Jason stopped him and gave him a funny shaped box with something cold inside.
"If you don't want your milk, I'll drink it," he said grinning.
As they got to the end of the line, Baartock was just about to take his tray to a table just as everyone else had.
"Where's your lunch money, dear?" asked the woman at the end of the line.
"What's money?"
"Come on Baartock, give her your lunch money." Jason reached over and gave the woman some metal pieces. Then Baartock remembered. His mother had given him some metal pieces, telling him that humans used them. He reached in his pocket and gave some of them to the woman. He picked up his tray and followed Jason to a table.