Assassin's Creed High-School

All I Wanted Was Lunch

The lunchroom is already crowded by the time you arrive, and the low-hanging drop ceiling makes the room feel even more crowded. The noise of laughter and clattering trays echoes off the panelled walls, which are painted in Primrose's colours, red and white.

Joining the ridiculously long queue for food, you decide it would be in your best interest to learn the layout of the cafeteria.

Kadar can easily be spotted jostling his way towards the table nearest to the food line, squeezing himself in between Malik and Altaïr-the-assbutt. You make the briefest of eye contact before his bright blue eyes are flittering away. Pain takes a nasty jab at your heart and your attention travels forlornly to a table near the left wall, where you find numerous familiar faces.

Unsurprisingly, Rebecca is the centre of attention as she chatters and gesticulates animatedly, with Aveline giggling behind her palm. Yusuf shoves a forkful of food into his mouth, then throws his head back and laughs in a volume loud enough to be heard even from where you were currently standing. Arno - whom you haven't had the pleasure of meeting officially yet - dips a tater tot into a tiny cup of ketchup and waves it enticingly in front of Élise's mouth as though she were an infant. She frowns and turns away from him, now trying to earn the attention of Connor, whose nose was delved deep into a Harry Potter novel. Arno shrugs and instead plops the tot into his own mouth, which purses adorably.

At a table near the back corner sits the Frye twins. They have an entire table to themselves, but they don't appear to mind their isolation. Your focus lingers on them for a few seconds. Instead of cafeteria food, they both planned ahead and brought bagged lunches. Their lips move at a frantic pace, indicating that they must be arguing over something, but then Evie's shoulders slump and she slides her brother's sandwich towards herself and proceeds to cut the crusts off. Jacob is beaming, his feet tapping happily against the tiled floor. The sandwich is returned - with the crusts no longer in sight - and Evie steals the carton of milk from his side of the table, but replaces it with an unopened box of juice. Evie's attention returns to the notebook on her right and picks up her pen, tapping it against the pages. You're ready to turn away, but an unrecognizable boy saunters towards their table and plops down in the empty spot beside Jacob. He wastes no time in telling a joke - and a good one judging by the way milk bursts from Jacob's nostrils. Even Evie managed a titter.

This boy...the more you examine the structure of his face, the more familiar he becomes. But how? You don't recall ever having meeting with him. Your lips purse. You'd think you would remember meeting someone as cute as him - or at least, he would be cute if he didn't have that cringe worthy pornstache going on. He must sense your blatant stare for his eyes manage to locate yours despite the chaotic atmosphere. Recognition flashes across those chocolate orbs of his, which only worked to confuse you even more.

"Protein loaf?"

Your attention is drawn to the pudgy man behind the serving line. He raises a spatula and the colour drains from your face. Ugh, what was that? Some brownish...soggy...oblong...thing. An abomination. The man serving fails to notice the look of horror currently contorting your features and continues grinning, his rotund cheeks a lovely crimson. He is way too happy for this job.

"Uhm...have you got anything else?"

Judging by the amused glimmer within in his eyes, he was anticipating that very answer. The brownish, gelatinous chunk of unholiness was set aside. "No one ever chooses the protein loaf," he says with a smile as big as himself. "Well, how does macaroni and cheese sound? Or I've got mouth-watering Sloppy Joes - or as I like to call them 'Sloppy Bonnet's'." He chuckled to himself as though it was the funniest thing ever said. "Word play. Brilliant."