Chapter 8
It wasn't quite time for lunch, when Mrs. Jackson and Baartock got tohis classroom. Mrs. Stogbuchner was in the back of the room, readingto the class from a big storybook. The children had gathered theirchairs in a circle around her, and had been listening to the story,until Baartock came in. Then there was a flurry of activity. Jasonjumped up and brought a chair over, right next to his, for Baartock tosit on. Several of the children started talking and some more had tomove their chairs around. Jason had to ask Baartock where he had beenand then started to tell him about the story they were listening to.It was a few minutes before the class was all settled again and readyto get back to the story.
The rest of the story didn't make much sense to Baartock, and he wastired of listening to grown-ups talk. He'd been listening to talkingall morning. He was hungry and wanted something to eat. Finally thestory was over and Mrs. Stogbuchner had them put their chairs back atthe tables and then line up to go to lunch. As soon as they werewaiting quietly, she opened the door and led her class down the hall tothe cafeteria. This was a big room that Baartock hadn't seen before.There were lots of tables and chairs and all along one side there werehumans fixing food. The smell of food made him even hungrier. Baartockwanted to rush over and get something, but he had to stay in line. Hehad time to look around. He saw Mrs. Jackson talking to some otheradults sitting at a table in the back of the room.
"All right, dear, here's your tray."
One of the women handed him a big flat thing. Then Baartock saw thatall the children in front of him were sliding their trays along, andadults were putting plates of food on the trays. So he slid his alongtoo. One woman handed him a plate of food. Another gave him a littledish with some yellow pieces that smelled a little like fruit. Jasonstopped him and gave him a funny shaped box with something cold inside.
"If you don't want your milk, I'll drink it," he said grinning.
As they got to the end of the line, Baartock was just about to take histray to a table just as everyone else had.
"Where's your lunch money, dear?" asked the woman at the end of theline.
"What's money?"
"Come on Baartock, give her your lunch money." Jason reached over andgave the woman some metal pieces. Then Baartock remembered. His motherhad given him some metal pieces, telling him that humans used them. Hereached in his pocket and gave some of them to the woman. He picked uphis tray and followed Jason to a table.
"You're supposed to get a fork and spoon when you get your tray," Jasonsaid, looking at Baartock's tray as he opened his milk carton. "Youcan use my spoon."
He took the spoon from Jason, and started to eat. The food was awful.
"What's this?" he asked Jason with his mouth full. He pointed at thebrown stuff on his plate.
"Meatloaf," Jason answered, putting another forkful in his mouth.
Baartock tried the white lumpy stuff that had something brown pouredover it. It tasted so bad that he wanted to spit it out, but he was sohungry that he swallowed it instead. The slice of bread he recognized,and it wasn't too bad. At least he could eat it, anyway. He tried alittle bit of the yellow fruit. It tasted as though it had beensoaking in honey, it was that sweet. It didn't even really taste likefruit. Baartock looked over across the table. Jason's plate was empty already. He looked around the cafeteria.All the children were eating the food. The others at their table wereeating it.
"Don't you like it?" Jason asked.
Baartock couldn't think of anything to say. It was that awful. Hejust shook his head 'no'. Didn't humans eat anything that he couldeat? He was still very hungry.
"If you're not going to eat it, can I have it?" Jason was just aboutto take Baartock's plate, when he saw Mrs. Jackson walking right towardtheir table. Instead, he said, "I'll meet you out on the playground,"and picked up his tray and got up. Baartock saw the empty trays werebeing taken over to a window in the wall, and were left there. He wasabout to get up and follow Jason, when Mrs. Jackson called to him."Baartock, did you give these to the cashier?" She was holding themetal pieces he had given the woman.
He nodded. "Mother give me."
"Well, you can't pay for your lunch with them," she told him. "They'remuch too valuable. These are gold coins." She held out the smallestyellow metal one. "This is worth more than the price of a whole yearof school lunches. Do your mother give you any other coins?"
He reached into his pocket and got out the rest of the coins and handedthem to Mrs. Jackson.
"These are all old coins," she said, examining them. "Most of thesecoins are made of silver. There isn't a new coin here." She reachedinto her pocket and pulled out a coin to show him.
"These are the new coins," she said, showing him the ones she had."Yours might look the same, but they're much older and worth much more.I'll have to talk to your mother about these. You really shouldn'tbring something so valuable to school. You might lose them."
Baartock didn't know what 'valuable' was, and was going to tell herthat his mother had a jar full of these coins, but Mrs. Jackson noticedhis plate still full of food.
"I thought you were hungry." "Am hungry," he said, then pointed atthe plate. He remembered the word that meant just how awful the foodwas. "Terrible," he said.
"You don't like it? I thought our lunch was pretty good today."
"Terrible," he said again. "Can't eat."
Mrs. Jackson thought for a moment. "There's no reason you can't bringyour lunch to school, instead of buying it," she said. "and I want totalk to your mother about these coins. I'll drive you home afterschool, so I can talk to her. May I keep these coins to give back toher?"
"Yes," Baartock said
Mrs. Jackson walked away, thinking about how little she really knewabout trolls.
Baartock got up from the table and took his tray over to the window inthe wall. Looking inside, he saw that there was someone to take thetrays and wash the plates and forks and spoons. Leaving his tray, hewent out the door to the playground to find Jason.