Eight

Athena

Alex, Caleb, and I sat together in the dining hall, listening to Mia rant about how they didn't cut the music group, which I found very absurd. We sat around a circular wooden table with attached benches, and the hall was streaming with hungry students and impatient servers at the counter.

"Mia, please try to eat something. We'll figure this out after lunch," I said, gently pushing Mia's abandoned food tray closer to her, knowing that she had an ulcer, which was aggravated by not eating.

"I'm not fucking hungry," she fired off, pouring out her frustrations on me. I didn't want to provoke her, so I let it go and listened to her go on and on in her rants, her hands occasionally pounding the table in frustration.

“I'm so frustrated with this school. It's unbelievable that teachers and so-called adults are allowing students to dictate what happens. Who could have possibly removed my name and Alex's name from the list? I tried to discuss this with the teacher, but she just provide