Chapter 4 - The door, the key, and the food fight

“what took you so long?” asked Kinya as the four students headed to the cafeteria together. “There was a small problem in the sixth row. Someone dropped their lizard so I had to do a little dodging.” “oh.” Said Kinya. Emma opened the lunchroom doors. “Kinya you should be very happy.” She said as they got in the lunch line. “why?” Kinya asked. “because your first day of school is on a Monday. Monday is pizza lunch. The rest of the week is bag lunch.“ she dropped her pizza card into the bucket on the table. “two please” she said. After the 4 of them all had their pizza, milk, fruit and brownie they sat down at one of the tables. The cafeteria was nothing fancy, just 12 long brown lunch tables and benches. “so what pizza place is this from?” asked Kinya. “Penny’s Pizza: said Lesley. “it’s the best pizza place in Massachusetts!”” add Peter. “it’s the best pizza place in the world,” corrected Emma. Ms. Shooley walked over to their table. “Peter, Ms. Kamis needs to talk to you in the teacher’s room for a minute.” “okay, I guess.” He got up and left the lunch room. When he was out of sight, Kinya asked, “who’s Ms. Kamis?” “She’s the flying teacher,” said Lesley. “She’s really mean.” Emma added. They talked for a few more minutes, then Peter came back. He didn’t wait for a hello. “guys, I have something important to tell you. You know the second floor? Well, that’s where the teachers room is and there’s no halls there, it’s a bush maze. When I was near, the teacher’s room I saw a key on top of one of the bushes, and inside I saw this door. I asked Ms. Kamis about it but she said it was always locked.” “speaking of Ms. Kamis why did she want to talk to you anyways?” asked Kinya “she probably said he needs to work a little harder, you know, like his sister.” “YOU HAVE A SISTER!?” interrupted Peter. That got Emma mad. She threw some of her pineapple at him but he ducked and it hit a boy named Tommy instead. He threw part of (not all. Why sacrifice it?) his brownie. It hit Lesley on her glasses. “food fight!” someone shouted. Soon it was raining bits of pizza, pineapple, milk carton, outrageously tiny globs of brownie and who know what else. (not everyone took pizza lunch you know). Mrs. Anlis tried to make everyone stop but Ms. Shooley was different. She was known as “not Mrs. Anlis: she grabbed 5 grapes from someone with bag lunch and threw them across the room. Kinya’s conclusion to her teacher joining a food fight was: hey, why not? She picked up her half-pint milk carton and flung it across the room. It hit a girl named Abby on the back of her head. Abby threw her peanut butter sandwich back at Kinya. Just before it hit Kinya, Mrs. Anlis shouted “STOP!” All the food stopped suddenly in midair. ”everyone clear your tray off and put it away. Then line up for recess! Now. Do it now.” There was no movement in the room, except for Mrs. Anlis as she stomped out of the door. When she was gone, every piece of motionless food hanging in the air dropped to the ground. Everyone started moving again, piling up trays, lining up and stuffing bits of their unfinished brownies into their mouths. As Kinya got into line in between Emma and Peter, she whispered, “are you sure ms Kamis is the mean one, or is it really Mrs. Anlis?” “you haven’t met Ms. Kamis yet.” Said Emma.
Kinya thought about the woman she had met in the halls that morning. “I think I have,” she said. “I think I have.”