"You're supposed to get a fork and spoon when you get your tray," Jason said, looking at Baartock's tray as he opened his milk carton. "You can use my spoon."
He took the spoon from Jason, and started to eat. The food was awful.
"What's this?" he asked Jason with his mouth full. He pointed at the brown stuff on his plate.
"Meatloaf," Jason answered, putting another forkful in his mouth.
Baartock tried the white lumpy stuff that had something brown poured over it. It tasted so bad that he wanted to spit it out, but he was so hungry that he swallowed it instead. The slice of bread he recognized, and it wasn't too bad. At least he could eat it, anyway. He tried a little bit of the yellow fruit. It tasted as though it had been soaking in honey, it was that sweet. It didn't even really taste like fruit. Baartock looked over across the table. Jason's plate was empty already. He looked around the cafeteria.
All the children were eating the food. The others at their table were eating it.
"Don't you like it?" Jason asked.
Baartock couldn't think of anything to say. It was that awful. He just shook his head 'no'. Didn't humans eat anything that he could eat? He was still very hungry.
"If you're not going to eat it, can I have it?" Jason was just about to take Baartock's plate, when he saw Mrs. Jackson walking right toward their table. Instead, he said, "I'll meet you out on the playground," and picked up his tray and got up. Baartock saw the empty trays were being taken over to a window in the wall, and were left there. He was about to get up and follow Jason, when Mrs. Jackson called to him. "Baartock, did you give these to the cashier?" She was holding the metal pieces he had given the woman.
He nodded. "Mother give me."
"Well, you can't pay for your lunch with them," she told him. "They're much too valuable. These are gold coins." She held out the smallest yellow metal one. "This is worth more than the price of a whole year of school lunches. Do your mother give you any other coins?"