Cafeteria || Variable twelve

Aspen, Spruce, and Yew, walked together, as they maneuvered through narrow corridors between the tables, trying not to bump into anyone else in a crowded patio.

The cafeteria had three pairs of front doors, which were spaced at intervals of eight meters. Each individual entrance was three meters wide, and the middle one was located at the center of the building. All the doors were wide open, and the students were constantly coming in and out. The interior floor was filled with even more tables, chairs, and people.

Upon entering the building, loud reverberating noises of chatting, laughing, and eating disoriented the boys until Aspen pointed at three large queues. Each one led to a counter with a different sign - a red circle, a blue square, or a yellow triangle.

"So we have three choices for breakfast?" Spruce wondered.

"No, we have to stand in each queue one by one," Aspen was the first one to notice the large board hanging on the wall near the entrance.

The menu on the board was divided into three parts. The first part had a symbol of a red circle above the title «Drinks». The middle part had a symbol of a blue square titled «Meals», and the last part had a yellow triangle titled «Desserts».

A long list of items was included under every title. The meals menu listed dishes, which were made of meat, fish, eggs, or dairy. Whereas the desserts included mainly dishes made of fruits and vegetables, but also sweets.

"So I have to stand in all three queues," Spruce sounded dejected, as he looked at the length of each queue. Suddenly, he didn’t feel hungry anymore.

In order to be helpful, Yew voiced out his thoughts, "we could split up, and buy for each other."

"Good idea," Aspen nodded.

"How do we split up?" Spruce looked confused.

Aspen explained Yew's proposal in detail, and when Spruce finally understood the plan, he asked, "so who goes to which queue?"

"You can pick first," Aspen offered.

Yew didn’t voice any objection. He concurred that Spruce, who was the youngest among them, should pick whichever queue he wanted.

Spruce looked carefully and saw that the drinks queue was the shortest, albeit still long. "That red circle," he pointed at the sign above the seller’s counter.

"Okay, and you?" Aspen asked Yew.

"Whichever," Yew shrugged, expecting Aspen to select the second shortest queue, leaving him to tackle the meals queue.

"Then take care of the yellow triangle, and I’ll do the blue square."

Not only did Aspen select the longest queue for himself, he even instructed Yew to stand in the second shortest one. If Yew was in his position, he would certainly select the longest queue for himself, but he wouldn't dare to instruct others, wary of any conflict caused by his words. After all, most people hated being told what to do by another person.

Thus, Yew felt a lot of respect for Aspen, who not only sacrificed himself to the hardest task, but he also calmly braved against a potential disagreement. In Yew's opinion, he acted like a natural-born leader, who wasn't afraid to deal with an opposition.

"So now, let’s decide our breakfast, or brunch, since it's already too late for breakfast," Aspen began, then he scanned the options before he said, "for me, I’ll take the walnut coffee, mint fried eggs, and carrot salad."

"Hmm… hard choice," Spruce muttered as he was carefully reading through the menu. "Maybe today I’ll have… raspberry juice, apple omelette, and… maybe strawb… or not. I’ll take cherry pie."

Yew and Aspen secretly grinned at his sweet choices. Both of them felt too mature to openly select the most kiddy food.

Finally Yew, who had already decided a while ago, listed his choices in one breath, "plum tea, cheeseburger and a berry salad."

After the boys voiced out what each one wanted to eat, they arranged their orders into meals, desserts, and drinks.

"So, let’s confirm," stated Aspen, who volunteered to buy the meals. "I'll buy mint fried eggs for me, apple omelette for you," he pointed at Spruce. "And a cheeseburger," he pointed at Yew, who nodded in agreement.

"Berry salad, carrot salad, and a cherry pie," Yew, who was assigned to buy the desserts, pointed at himself, then at Aspen, and lastly at Spruce with a merry smile.

"Okay, so I'll buy…" Spruce faltered, while trying to recall everyone's orders.

Before he could finish his sentence, Aspen filled in, "walnut coffee, plum tea, and raspberry juice."

Spruce repeated the drink labels several times, before he asserted, "okay, I got it."

"You better not forget," Aspen said as the three of them separated into different queues.

The first one to arrive at the counter was Spruce. He bought the three drinks, almost forgetting the label of Aspen's drink, but a friendly barista figured out what he meant by "some-nut coffee".

Holding a tray with the drinks, he approached Aspen, who was still waiting in the other queue. "Where do I take this?" he asked.

"Find an empty table, and sit down," Aspen instructed his roommate. "I’ll find you once I'll buy our meals."

Spruce nodded in understanding, then walked away. At first he searched for an empty table inside the building, but he couldn't find one. Thus he went outside, careful not to collide with other students, while he passed through the exit carrying his tray.

Standing on the patio, he scanned his surroundings. Yet all the tables outside were just as occupied as the ones inside, with not even one chair left available. It was so crowded that many students decided to sit on the low wall surrounding the patio, which was built there as a decoration rather than a bench.

About three meters to his right, a girl waved toward him using her whole arm. "Hey! Are you looking for a table?" she asked in a fairly loud voice in order to compete with the endless chatter around them.

Spruce looked at her, and immediately recognized her from the orientation. She was the only girl in their group of magicless students, whom Sorrel separated from the rest of newcomers.

She had a very ordinary appearance, with nothing specific to remember her by, other than her reddish-brown hair, which was evenly cut at neck-length, and clipped at each side above her forehead.

She was sitting with two older girls at a table for three people, and all their plates were already empty.

Spruce hesitantly approached. Normally, he wouldn't talk to girls, but he couldn't be a coward when his friends depended on him. "Uh, yes," he answered.

One of the older girls tapped the table with her finger, "then you can sit down here. We’re done eating, and we're about to leave." She stood up, and began collecting all the plates onto her tray.

The third girl also stood up, and helped her clean up, while Wasabi remained sitting and swinging her legs under the table. The older girls took all the dirty dishes to the tray window, whereas their younger friendess remained at the table, staring at Spruce with a lot of interest.

"Aren’t you going to sit?" she inquired.

Spruce flinched, as if her words had pinched his ears. "Ah, yeah," he responded, then reluctantly put down his tray on the table.

Wasabi showed no signs of moving, and he himself felt uncomfortable at the idea of sitting next to a girl, who was a total stranger for him. Even if they had a lot in common, he wouldn't consider her a friend unless she was a boy.

Bashfully, he glanced at her, as if he wanted to ask her, why was she still there. He didn't utter any words, but it appeared that the girl understood his thoughts, because she slowly stood up and stepped away from the table. In response, Spruce immediately plunged himself into the seat, as if a delayed reaction could bring her back.

At that moment, her friendesses called out to her, "Wasabi, let’s go!"

"Talk to you later," Wasabi impishly smiled toward Spruce before she left.

Spruce didn't respond to her farewell, and sat like a mute.

Several moments later, Yew stepped out of the cafeteria building, stopped walking, and looked around in search of his schoolmate.

He knew that Spruce wasn't inside the building, because he saw him go outside. As such, right after he bought the desserts, he headed out onto the patio.

Upon seeing mobs of students in every direction, he despaired at how difficult finding Spruce was going to be. However, the boy's fiery red hair made it relatively easy, and Yew spotted him as soon as he turned his face rightward.

"Wow, I cannot believe that you found us a table. The whole place is so crowded," he was simultaneously impressed and relieved.

"I got lucky," Spruce admitted. "The girls, who were sitting here, had left just now."

Yew put down the tray with the desserts on the table, then took a seat. He only had three sips of his plum tea, before Aspen arrived with the meals. The boy set his tray on the table, then rushed to taste his walnut coffee.

"Good. It’s not cold yet," he murmured with satisfaction.

While Aspen was settling in his seat, Spruce took away his plate with an apple omelette, while scanning the other items on Aspen's tray - napkins, forks, spoons, and knives.

"Can I have some?" he asked, pointing at the utensils.

"That’s why I got them," Aspen looked at his companions’ trays. "I thought that you might forget, and I was right." He exchanged the cheeseburger from his tray for the carrot salad on Yew's tray, while Spruce grabbed a set of utensils.

Once they sorted out the contents of each tray, they began to eat in silence. In contrast, other students of Hecate had a lot to talk about. Their topics ranged from serious family issues and important world events, through schoolwork, trivia knowledge, and all the way to diverse gossips, none of which interested the boys, who were still too young to be curious about the affairs of the teens.