Legend of Witchtrot Road - By E.J. Stevens Page 0,15

worries didn’t return. Nothing could intrude on our little bubble of happy.

*****

Lunch was a chal enge. I had to run the gauntlet of social terror and avoid al of the non-veggie menu options the cafeteria provided. The J-team, and their partners in slime the footbal team, stil had it out for me. While playing dodge the jock, I also had to cautiously hang with Gordy for a few minutes before heading to my table, but without actual y inviting him to come sit with me. This situation majorly sucked.

Gordy stopped sitting with us after the Emma breakup.

Emma didn’t just break off their relationship, she also broke his heart. Gordy always had an emo streak, it was part of how we met, but Emma had sent him off the emo tip. Now the cute hipster boy I used to have so much fun with in Anime Club never smiled. In fact, he rarely looked away from his shoes.

Today, at least, was different. Gordy smiled as I came over to sit with him.

“You wore the shirt,” he said happily. “I knew you couldn’t resist the positive power of the rice bal .” Son of a dung beetle. I should have worn the shirt to school sooner. I’d been waiting months to see that smile again.

“Yeah, I’m a total fan,” I said, starting to laugh. “Wel , so long as it’s a veggie rice bal .”

“You’re in luck then,” Gordy said. “I think they’re serving rice pudding today. You could total y shape it into rice bal s.”

“Sweet,” I said, raising my fist to bump knuckles. “I better motor if I’m going to get any. I’m starving.”

“Cool,” Gordy said. “See you later. And Yuki…I’m glad you like the shirt.”

I went in search of food, though my stomach was feeling twisty. Guilt wil do that to you. Note to self—spend more time with Gordy.

When I final y made it to our table, Emma and Cal were in the middle of a heated discussion. Cal was eating his creamy rice pudding and Emma was arguing that the only creatures that should be ingesting cow’s milk, and hence rice pudding, were baby cows. I could tel by the loud sighs escaping Cal that he just wanted to eat his lunch in peace.

I love Emma, but sometimes it’s best to distract her from her rant of choice before things spiral out of control. I knew this particular anti-milk topic and I could guess where Emma planned to take things next. If I didn’t help to change the subject soon, we’d be doomed to eat our lunches while listening to stories of chapped cow udders next and that would be udderly disgusting. Tee hee.

I clunked my tray down with a bit too much force and Emma looked away from Cal to glare at my food.

“Oh no, not you too,” Emma said. “How can you both be so barbaric?”

“Um, Emma, you know I’m never giving up dairy,” I said. “It’s a thing. But I was hoping to ask a favor.”

“What kind of favor?” Emma asked.

“I need some pieces of fruit, preferably colorful little bits, and was hoping you might have some trail mix or something,” I said.

I knew Emma usual y kept an emergency stash in her bag.

“Wel , I do have some with me,” Emma said. “Why do you need colorful fruit?”

I had a heaping tray of food, so it was obvious that I wasn’t scrounging for food.

“I want to make rice bal s with my pudding,” I said.

Emma raised an eyebrow, but handed over the bag of trail mix.

“Here, take it,” she said. “Just don’t expect me to eat any of your little rice creatures. That pudding has cow juice in it. Plus, eating smiling little rice people is just creepy.” Emma shuddered dramatical y and I laughed. Cal mouthed, “thank you” and dove into his own food. I tackled the rice bal s, while tel ing Emma more about the Fruits Basket anime. When I was done, I had five rice bal s with colorful pieces of fruit on their backs. Cal had added some toothpicks for little arms and legs.

“What now?” Emma asked.

I snapped a picture, selected The Gordster, and sent a pic to Gordy.

“Don’t look,” I said. “You won’t like this next part.” Emma turned a sickly shade of green and looked away as I ate the first rice bal .

“Yum,” I said. I giggled and have to admit, it sounded pretty evil.

“That is sick,” Emma said.

“Sorry, so hungry,” I said. I ate the