Talia peaked around the corner, making sure that the hallway was empty. All she had to do was get to the cafeteria without anyone noticing, and she could eat her food in peace. It was late, almost close to closing time for lunch and she had waited so long because otherwise it would have been too crowded to eat in there, which meant… sharing tables. She shivered. Most of the time when that happened, she was either shoved to the end, almost to the point that she was falling off, or someone would be trying to engage her in conversation, when she clearly had a book that she was reading and was trying to concentrate on! Sure, she wasn’t rude and would respond back, it but was quite uncomfortable for her and it was one of the few times that she truly got annoyed.

She quickly sprang out from behind the wall, and fast-walked toward the cafeteria, trying to get there before any of her bullies had seen her and wanted to corner her again, not only making her feel awful, but also making her miss her lunch! And she liked having food! They were so stingy on where you could eat here and the food that you could take, that she would hoard whatever she could keep in her dorm room!

Luckily, she made it quickly through the doors and into the line for the food in the cafeteria and let out a sigh of relief. She was safe! For now. She heard the doors open again and was afraid that it was her bullies having decided to take a late lunch, but instead she saw a lost looking Freshling come up to the line and take their place behind her.

Talia didn’t think much of it, even though the Freshling looked lost, and continued with getting whatever leftovers of the food that she liked that was still there. It was then that she noticed that the Freshling was currently being reprimanded by one of the lunch workers for getting in the wrong line. And they looked like they were about to cry!

Talia could feel herself getting angry. How dare one of the school workers talk to a little Freshling like that! She marched over to the two of them, getting in between them and shielding the Freshling, before shouting at the cafeteria worker that the way they were talking was no way to talk and instead they needed to calm down and point the Freshling in the right direction! And if they were too late, then they needed to find an alternative of some sort!

The room was so silent, that a pin could be heard if it was dropped.

Talia realized what she had done, quickly blushed, and started to stammer out an apology to the worker, when the worker, looking quite sheepish, told her that she was right, and that they shouldn’t have talked to the Freshling like that. Talia was surprised but glad that she was able to help someone else, and helped the Freshling to the right line, since it seemed that they had missed lunch somehow.

After lunch and when she was finally back in her dorm room, Talia went over the events of what happened in her head, still embarrassed that she had snapped like that, but feeling good that she had finally been able to stand up to someone else! Even if it wasn’t her bullies! She wondered if that meant that she could stand up to her own bullies? She would have to try it the next time that she saw them.