Tick

Tick

Tick

Tic-

Isaac was sitting in the back of the classroom, waiting for the time to change. The clock on the wall was deafening. Its constant ticking was the only thing Isaac could hear over the chatter of kids around him.

Isaac just knew that the clock was messing with him. Hanging on to the last minute, drawing out each second as long as possible. He had been staring at the clock for the last five minutes, watching it loudly tick its way up—each second, another tick.

Just one more minute, it was just one minute. A minute flew by when you weren’t looking, but when you stared at it, it froze and refused to move.

“ Hey everyone, settle down!” Mr. Rayfield, the school's algebra teacher, tried to get the kids quiet.

Rapping his fingers against his desk, Isaac tried to ignore the teacher, but his voice was just so loud. Didn’t he know that he was making more noise than they were? Not only that, but he was doing this minutes away from the bell. Who cares if they're talking? They’re about to leave anyway.

There was no reason for him to be this strict with them, but as always, the teacher was just trying to exert whatever little power he had over the kids.

Maybe Isaac should say something; it would be fun to see Mr. Rayfield turn red again. No, Isaac thought, focusing back on the clock. This wasn’t the time to have some fun with the teachers.

Isaac needed to be ready; if he wasn’t ready, then he could miss lunch. Lunch was the most important part of the day, and the further away your class was, the faster you had to be if you wanted to get your food on time.

Unfortunately, Isaac drew the short end of the stick for his last year. His last class was just before lunch, and it was all the way on the other side of the school on the second floor; you couldn't get further than that.

If that didn’t make it hard enough, the teacher stopped anyone from lining up at the door. This meant that twenty kids would get up and head for the door at the sound of the bell. In their need for food, they would all fight to push their way out the door, where they would all pile up, barricading the door with their bodies.

But not Isaac; Isaac was prepared.

His bag slung over his shoulder, his butt halfway off the seat, his knees straining from pressure. Isaac was ready to sprint out the door before anyone else got there. Nobody was going to stop him from being first in line.

All he needed was that last hand to move.

12:15.

RIIIIIIIINNGG

The bell rang throughout the school, startling some people who were not paying attention while the rest calmly packed their bags.

“HA!” Isaac laughed; he was free. With his bags already in his hands, Isaac didn’t need to wait; he was already ready to go.

Jumping up, Isaac ran out the door, not even giving his classmates a chance to leave their seats. And before they even realized it, Isaac was out of his seat and racing out the door.

“Cantor Get Back Here!” The teacher tried to call Isaac back, but it was too late; Isaac was already out the door.

Outside, kids were already filling the hallway, each preparing for their mad lunch rush.

Every day, it was a race to be first. No one wanted to be stuck in line as the seconds of precious lunchtime ticked away. Standing there, waiting as all of your friends got to sit and talk while you had to wait, hoping that you were lucky enough to taste your food, at least before you were forced to move on to your next period.

But no matter how fast they were, Isaac was faster.

Rushing past them, Isacc ran toward the end of the hall. At the end of the hall was a set of stairs leading down to the first floor. It was the only staircase on the second floor and the second hurdle for Isaac. If Isaac let them, the mass of kids would fill up the stairs, doubling his time.

Slowing down meant giving students on the first floor a chance to be first, but going too fast meant a possible journey to the hospital with no food to show for it. So everyone tried to be careful going down the stairs, as it wasn’t worth the risk.

But where others might have hesitated, Isaac gunned it. Pumping himself up, Isaac ran faster towards the stairs; everyone around him who had seen this before lept out of the way, and when the first step was under his foot, he jumped.

It was an eight-foot drop to the first floor, a fall that could break your leg, but that didn't stop Isaac. When his foot touched the ground, he was off again, racing down the hallway.

Anything he could do to go faster, he was doing. It didn’t matter if he got injured or not. Isaac wasn’t going to let anyone be first in line.

Even pushing someone down the stairs wasn’t off the table.

It wouldn’t be the first time either, Isaac thought, smiling. A year before, some girl was purposely clogging up the stairwell so that she could talk to her friends. Like a damn on a lake, she held up the entire second floor stooping everybody on their way to lunch. A quick flight down the stairs took care of that.

Funny enough, after that, no one wanted to be on the stairs when Isaac was.

Isaac laughed, thinking about the sound she made going over the railing. He got in a bit of trouble the next day, but it was still one of the funniest things that Isaac had ever done. He didn’t feel sorry for her either.

And now, whenever they saw him coming, people knew to stay off the stairs during lunch. Isaac wasn’t afraid to send someone down a flight or two if they got in his way. The race to the cafeteria was a ritual for Isaac; if something tried to get in the way of it happening, then he wouldn’t be happy.

It was the only thing that made his day worth it.

Well, that and the food- nothing beats having a good meal when you're bored.

By now, the first floor had started getting crowded. As each second passed, more and more people came out of their classes, filling the hallway—a wall of flesh with his goal on the other side.

Isaac felt like he was getting slower. Last month, he had made it to the cafeteria without trouble, but now he was forced to squeeze past the flood of bodies.

Of course, he thought, smiling as he ran. The challenge is half the fun.

Diving into the sea of bodies, Isaac pushed and squeezed his way past. Startled yelps came up behind him, but Isaac didn’t give them a second thought. Faster, faster, he tried to push himself.

Finally, he was shot out of the mass of students right in front of his prize, the cafeteria.

Like every other place in this school, the cafeteria was a plain square room. The walls were a boring beige, with a faded yellow border of paint being the only splash of color. Large windows going halfway up the wall filled the right side of the cafeteria, where outside, you could see the school's football field.

Four doors led into the kitchen toward the back. Inside, lunch ladies would be waiting, ready to hand out food to hungry kids. Picnic-style tables filled the room, and slow-moving fans hung right above them.

The lunch ladies had barely opened the kitchen doors when Isaac came running in. Looking around, Isaac saw that no one else was there.

“ Yes!” He shouted he was the first one here.

Nobody looked up at the noise Isaac was making; they were already used to Isaac and had come to see his unique energy as a fact of life.

But that didn’t matter to Isaac; the only thing that mattered to Isaac was the food. When you came to get lunch, you had four choices. Door one was the Lunch lane. Generally, they carried the lunch specials: spaghetti, hamburgers, or nuggets, whichever happened to be there that day.

Door three was the pizza line, where you were given day-old pizza by the slice, one per person. Door four was the dessert line, where kids with extra change could get frozen treats before having to brave the rest of the day with sugar low.

But Door Two was his favorite. Door Two was the sandwich line, with a chicken patty between two buns and a side of fries; what was not to love? They even had spicy patties for the daring.

Those were the four doors of the lunch room, each one practically the same with one glaring difference. The Lunch lane was free; it was the only lunch line given to the students that, as required by law, was meant to be provided in schools nationwide. Paid for with taxpayer money, and it showed.

The food in the Lunch line was horrid. It was one of the only things that the school had control over, and they used that control to make themselves richer. They gave children the cheapest, barely edible food possible and pocketed the rest.

The other food lines came after a heated PTA meeting many years ago, during which parents of children came forward to fight against this tyranny. After many grueling hours and bloody shouting matches, the mothers and fathers realized that the evil dictators of the lunch would never give up their ill-gotten gains.

So, instead, a compromise was made: two more lunch lines were added, and a third line for dessert was added. These lines would be of better quality, with the only caveat being that they would have to be paid for collectively by the parents.

So if you wanted a good lunch, you had to choose wisely.

Most people would choose the pizza line, but those people needed to understand his brilliance.

Why pick the pizza when you only get one, maybe two slices max? The sandwich line sells spicy chicken patties, which you can get two of.

Two spicy sandwiches for the price of one—you won’t get a better deal anywhere else.

That's what was so great about middle school. In elementary school, the only lunch options were to pick something off the menu or bring it yourself. Here, you had choices.

Sadly, the idiots always seemed to choose wrong.

Stolen novel; please report.

As he walked through the kitchen doors, Isaac smiled to himself. Then he saw who was behind the counter. Mrs. Mayde was serving the sandwiches today.

Mrs. Mayde was an older lady with graying black hair. She was kind and gentle, sometimes acting like other kids' grandma. Her face was set in a permanent grin. In fact, Isaac couldn't think of a single time when she failed to greet the students with a smile. She was always so happy to see everyone walking through the cafeteria doors.

There was nothing wrong with Mrs. Mayde; she was always happy, always waiting to serve with a smile. But she was just so hard to deal with.

Sighing under his breath, Isaac stepped behind the counter. The best thing to do was just grin and bear. The faster he got his food, the faster he could return to enjoying himself.

“ You got here quick, Isaac. I hope you didn’t run over anybody.” She said, smiling at Isaac.

“ Not today, Mrs. Mayde.” Even though Isaac was dying to start eating, it never hurt to be nice.

“ Well, make sure that you follow the rules, alright? We don’t need you falling down the stairs just because you wanted to be a few seconds early.” It was the same every day. She’d say hi, and he’d say hi back. She’d talk about “ running someone over,” and then he’d say he hasn’t.

It's been the same since sixth grade.

“ I’ll be careful, Mrs. Mayde. Can I have two spicy chicken, please?” Isaac grinned, trying to move along.

This was torture.

“Ok, sweetie, here you go.” Handing Isaac his food, Mrs. Mayde waved her hand as she started serving the next kid in line.

With his food in hand, Isaac hurried to the register, hoping to leave the line before anyone else tried to start a conversation. Small talk had always been his weakness.

Walking out of the kitchen, Isaac looked for a place to sit. The problem with the cafeteria chairs was that they were all just one long table. If you didn’t have people filling the spaces for you, you ran the risk of sitting with people you didn’t want to be around.

Fortunately for Isaac, most people didn’t want to be around him. Hell, if he knew why. Some people just couldn’t get past his personality. So, he generally had the pick of the litter when it came to where to sit.

Scanning the room, Isaac looked for a particular spot to sit. He didn’t care much about the placement. Because he was looking for who was sitting there

Finding her was never a problem for Isaac. Even if the room was pitch black, he could somehow find his way towards her. To him, she had a glow around her that no one else had. It was the one thing that drew him to her.

Compared to the dull people around him, Luci shined.

Isaac could never explain it, but to him, some things just shone with a bright light while others looked like a dull grey. Out of everybody in the school, she was the only one he knew who could shine like that.

And there she was, tucked away in the corner, quietly eating her lunch alone.

Luciana, or Luci as everyone called her, was pretty much his only friend in the whole school. He first saw her during the school's open house for sixth graders. He was there walking around with his parents, bored out of his mind when he saw her, standing there, shining brightly against the monotone background.

Since then, Isaac has followed her around, sticking to her throughout their middle school years, using her shine to stave off the boredom. Walking towards her, Isaac began chuckling to himself; it was hard getting her to be his friend, he thought, with his usual go-to social interaction being to talk her ear off not working like he thought it would.

Or, really, was working exactly like he thought it would, just not in any way that would help him.

At first, she couldn’t stand him. Every second of the day, he tried to stay close to her. In classes, he would pick a seat right beside her, and in the hallways, he never left her side. The only times that he wasn’t around her were when they had separate classes or when she ran to the restroom to escape.

He tried following her one time, but that didn’t go so well. He had just planned to stand in the corner facing the wall, waiting for her to finish, but apparently, some of the other girls inside the restroom didn’t like that.

Thinking back on it, their reactions were pretty funny. Then the teachers got involved, which was kind of fun, but then his parents were called in, and that was less fun. Then, he got to meet Luci’s parents, which was fun.

But when they spent hours nagging him about what was right and wrong and “ what was he thinking, didn’t he know better?” he just felt like none of it was worth the hassle.

So now he waits outside.

Isaac just didn’t know what was wrong. He tried to be friendly. He tried talking to her, giving her his homework, and even bringing food over to her house one time. But nothing worked. She still ignored him. Of course, she ignored everyone, but to him especially, she would turn a cold shoulder, and he didn't know why. He just wanted to be around her, maybe find out what was so diffenrt about her. So no matter how hard she turned away, he just kept pushing forward.

It got so bad that at the end of their first year, her parents had wanted to pull her out of school.

Thankfully, Luci decided that letting Isaac do whatever he wanted was just the lesser of two evils and told them to drop it. After that, they just started to get closer together. It helped that Luci never had a problem with Isaac to begin with. To her, he was an excitable puppy, annoying but not a problem if you ignore it. Corse, she didn't know that ignoring Isaac only made him more annoying, but live and learn.

Her parents didn't like him. They saw Isaac as a distraction, preventing Luci from succeeding when she should be paying attention in school. It was only after Luci got them to step back that things finally started settling down. Isaac learned to be less intense, and Luci learned to tolerate his presence.

Finding Luci in the back, Isaac went to sit with her. Since she always brought her own lunch, she never had to wait in line and usually picked the tables for them.

Sitting down next to Luci, Isaac put his tray down. “ Good morning, Luci; how’s your day been?”

Ignoring Isaac, Luci continued to eat her lunch, not even lifting her head to speak with him. But that was fine; by now, Luci knew that he wasn’t looking for any answer anyway; it was just his way of saying hello.

As he situated himself, Isaac pulled a book out of his bag. It was one that he had already finished, but he didn't mind reading it again. Books were important to Isaac. They were one of the only things that helped him get through the day.

Looking up from her food, Luci pushed a loc of curly hair out of her face. “ Are you still reading that old book? How many times has it been?”

“ Why, what's wrong with it?” Isaac asked.

“ Nothing really, but you always seem to be caring around.” Frowning, Luci went back to her food. “I was just wondering what was so special about it.”

Isaac smiled. This book, Emotional, was an older book from when his great-grandfather was a kid. It was the first book that Isaac had ever read, and even now, it remains one of his favorite books.

“ Nothing, really.” Repeating her words back to her, Isaac thought about what he was going to say. “I guess it just stuck with me, you know.”

Flipping through the pages, Isaac imagined the world between the pages.

“ The books about a kid traveling the world and just plain having fun.” As Isaac talked about the book, he started getting excited. “ The story isn’t all that great, it's the same good guy wins, and bad guy loses, but the words, the words just flow together and pull you in.”

Standing up, Isaac moved over closer to Luci. “ Look right here, where the author describes the dark temple as the hero steps in. Look how the words leave enough for your imagination to push you to turn the next page.”

“ ‘And as he stepped into the dark, John felt as if he was leaving something behind. Here, he knew that there would be no turning back.’ Can’t you feel that, how you feel for the character?”

Luci just rolls her eyes at him. “ Yeah, it's great. Sorry for asking.”

Isaac chuckled. “ It’s Ok. I know it's not for everyone.”

Going back to his book, Isaac ate his food in silence. It was nice; this type of calm never

bothered Isaac. It wasn’t perfect. He needed the book to distract him a little bit, but having a nice meal with his friend was nice.

It didn’t last long, though.

A few guys came over to sit at their table, which was not that strange, as the lunch room wasn’t large enough for everyone to have their own table. The only thing you could do was ignore the strangers and talk to your friends.

It was when more of them started to show up that they started to realize that there was going to be a problem.

“ Hey, can you guys move our friends? They're trying to sit down,” One of the guys asked.

Luci looked up from her food. Already, more of them had showed up and were awkwardly standing around.

“ No,” Luci sneered at them. We’re already sitting here; you came to our table. So you guys can go and find somewhere else to sit.”

Man, it was funny. You wouldn't know it by how little she talked to people, but Luci could be a difficult person to talk to. She was the living embodiment of a devil's advocate, going against what anybody said and generally just being stubborn. And she did it all out of sheer spite.

“ Hey, there’s only two of you guys move. We have more guys coming, and we need the space.” Someone else came from behind, supporting his friends.

Studying the crowd that suddenly surrounded their table, Isaac noticed that a few of them were starting to get heated. They stood around the table, all of them glaring at the two people stopping them from enjoying their lunch.

They were tired from standing in the long lunch line, waiting for their turn to get food. And now they just wanted to sit down and enjoy their lunch.

Looking around the room there were plenty of places to sit, but every single one of them had the majority of the tables filled in. Apparently, by the time these guys had gotten their lunch, the rest of the cafeteria had filled up, leaving no place for their group of friends to all sit together.

So, if these guys wanted to sit with their friends, they needed Isaac and Luci’s table.

Too bad both Isaac and Luci loved being difficult. It just warmed them right up.

Laughing to himself, In fact, Isaac began thinking, this is perfect. Today was getting to be a little too stale for his taste.

Isaac closed his book. “ Come on, Luci. Don't you feel bad for these guys? Their strays, they need a home, and we can provide it for them.”

Sandtind up, Isaac grabbed a couple of guys by the shoulders, swung them around, and presented them to the slowing-forming audience of the cafeteria. Pulling them closer towards him, Isaac began shouting as if he was presenting them at a charity auction.

“ These poor, homeless strays need a home, and we can give it to them!” Swinging the guys in his arms around, Isaac tried his best not to laugh. “ And for just five dollars, you too can help unwanted strays like these and give them the home they dese-oof, hehehe.”

One of the guys had elbowed Isaac in the side, forcing him to let both of them go. But he didn’t care; he just laughed it off. If you were going to play the clown, then you had to be prepared to take a few hits.

“ What the Hell!” One of the guys screamed. “ You don't touch another man like that.” You know, it might just be Isaac's imagination, but he thinks they might be a little upset with him.

Also, man?

Someone was thinking highly of himself. There might also be a little bit of insecurity there. He was going to poke at it; that would be fun.

But before he could go any further, Luci interrupted him. “You sure you want to do this, Isaac? It's our last week.”

Isaac could see the worry in Luci’s eyes. Even if he wasn’t a friend in her eyes Isaac was still the only person that she was close to. She knew what he liked, and what he liked was making problems.

That’s why he was constantly getting into trouble. He just couldn’t keep still. Every time he got too bored, he would do something that ultimately led him to sit in the principal's office. This past month was the longest he had gone without being sent to the principal's office.

He had one more month of school left, and he would be free to do whatever he wanted. He had told his parents that he would try to be on his best behavior.

But this was just too fun to pass up.

“What's your problem, Isaac.” Someone came up and shoved Isaac backward.

Looking at him, Isaac stared at him in confusion. “ Sorry, what's your name.”

“ Are you serious? I’ve known you since 3rd grade!” he yelled. “ It’s Tanner.”

“ If you’ve known me this long, then you should know how this works by now. I don't know people; people know me. I'm supposed to remember everyone I pass in the hall? Come on man, be better.”

Throwing his hands up into the air, Isaac turned around, facing Luci. She knew that he was just messing with them, trying to get them angry. It's what he always did.

“ You know what, Isaac,” Tanner muttered as Isaac smiled at Luci. Sighing, Luci just put her head down, waiting for the teacher to come and clean up the mess about to happen.

Isaac did this to pass the time. He got so bored that he decided that the best way to have fun was to mess with people. Most people are always trying to be on “their best behavior” and to “always be kind.” But that's not how they feel.

People get angry and mad, and want to hit people sometimes. There's nothing wrong with that. It's good to get those things off your chest. Isaac’s just helping them express what they're really feeling.

Isaac did not even care what Tanner was doing. He kept on smiling even as Tanner's fist slammed into the back of his head.