Chel & Riley Go Back to School

“You’re not going to believe this,” Riley commented as Chel started to sit down. “Miss Thomas has already scheduled a quiz for us on Wednesday. Can you believe that?” Chel sat down, her eyes looking down at the table. “Oh, that's a shame.” “I mean, we barely got done introducing ourselves to the new teacher when she jumped right into our math book. I mean, isn’t she supposed to read us a story first, or shouldn’t we get a nap or something like that?” Riley was confused. “Riley, we’re in the fourth grade now,” Chel shook her head. “We don’t get naps anymore.” “I liked naps,” Riley frowned. “I wish that was the worst thing I had to worry about,” Chel sighed. “What’s wrong, Chel?” Riley realized that Chel wasn’t looking at him, but was instead staring down at the contents of her lunchbox, which she hadn’t started eating yet. “You better eat quickly,” Riley continued. “They’ve cut lunch down by five minutes so we can have more time during recess.” “I’m not hungry right now, Riley,” Chel said sadly. “Oh, okay.” Riley took a big bite out of his peanut butter and jelly sandwich. A big glob of jelly squirted out on the side of his face. As he chewed, the jelly slid down the side of his face and plopped onto the edge of the table. “Since you’re not hungry, could I have some of your grapes?” “Sure,” Chel pushed her whole lunch box over toward Riley. The corner of the box clipped the glob of jelly on the edge of the table and pushed it off onto Riley’s pants. “Ah man,” Riley looked down as he saw the jelly hit his leg. “Look at what you did! You’re a big troublemaker, you know that?” Chel began sobbing quietly and slid away from Riley as she covered her face with her hands. Riley grabbed a napkin from the middle of the table and smeared the jelly on his pants, making the mess even worse than before. The subtle sounds of Chel crying finally caught his ears and he looked over realizing that something was wrong. “Chel, what’s wrong?” Riley asked innocently. “I’m a troublemaker,” Chel cried softly. “Well, yeah, but that’s what makes us such great friends,” Riley smiled trying to understand what was going on. “I mean you and I get into all kinds of trouble, but we always seem to find our way out of it.” “It’s not that,” Chel turned to Riley. “Mrs. Widdlemier said I was going to be a troublemaker and that she wouldn’t put up with any shenanigans...whatever that means.” “You don’t cause shenanigans,” Riley replied. “Why does she think you will cause shenanigans?” Chel sniffed a tear back as she blew her nose into a napkin that she pulled from the center of the table. “When we went through our introductions, she recognized my last name. Apparently, she taught my dad when he went here to school, like a thousand years ago.” “Wow, she is old,” Riley responded. “I don’t understand. What does your dad have to do with you? You haven’t been around your father nearly your whole life.” “I know,” Chel’s voice got a little stronger as she rambled on. “I tried to explain to her that I didn’t know my dad and that he hadn’t been around since I was real, real little. She said that trouble ran in my family, that I was going to be trouble, and that she wasn’t going to tolerate any from me and the first time I tried to pull anything, she’d see me expelled.” “That’s terrible,” Riley replied setting his sandwich down. “Now I don’t feel like eating either.” “What am I going to do?” Chel asked. Riley scratched his head and tried to think of something. “There he is boys!” A loud voice called from another table. “It’s the kid with the ‘little baby’ backpack and tall tales of adventure.” “Oh, no,” Riley lowered his head. A trio of boys laughed loudly. “Who’s this?” The three boys crowded around Riley and Chel. “Is this your little sister who you borrowed the backpack from?” Chel suddenly felt a fire burning inside of her that made her forget about Mrs. Widdlemier for a minute. “No, I’m his friend. What do you want?” The three looked at one another and waved their hands in the air. “Oooh, look at that. The little wimpy kid here has a big bad girlfriend.” “I’m not his girlfriend,” Chel spat back. Riley looked over at her. “I’m his best friend.” “Yeah,” Riley echoed. “What have we got here?” The skinniest of the three with tightly trimmed black hair reached in between Chel and Riley at the open bag of grapes. “Clyde, that’s her lunch,” Riley spoke up. “Oh, then she won’t mind if we try some of these delicious looking grapes,” Clyde replied. “I will too mind,” Chel reached down and slid the bag away just as Clyde pulled out a small clump of grapes. “You shouldn’t take anything without asking first,” Riley challenged meekly. “Ha, we take first, then ask later,” the second of the three laughed. Frankie was slightly taller than Clyde and bigger all around. The boy sported blonde hair that nearly hung down into his eyes. “You said it, Frankie,” the third boy added. He was about Riley’s size and had red hair. His dark rimmed glasses also set him apart from the other boys. “Clyde, Frankie, Steve, please, just leave us alone, will you?” Riley pleaded. “No,” and with that Clyde took a grape and proceeded to throw it at Riley’s face. “That does it!” Chel exclaimed as she started to stand. “Sit down!” Frankie pushed Chel back down with such force that she nearly toppled off of the bench and onto the floor. Riley jumped up suddenly, forcing Clyde and Frankie back a step. “That does it! Leave her alone!” “Yeah, whatcha going to do about it?” Frankie took both hands and pushed against Riley’s chest, sending him backward a step. Riley’s eyes ignited with fire. He squinted at the three boys. “You’ve asked for it,” Riley replied as he lowered his head and charged toward the boys.