Narrative

The cafeteria was filled with screaming six-year-olds and cafeteria workers screaming at the screaming children. Amongst the pre-pubescent children, I was one of them and was famished. Even from a young age, I have had a voracious appetite that only a myriad of food could fulfill. Most children who would bought lunch on a daily basis, used a blue card that acted as a debit card for only a lunch meal. These meals would consist of a portion of a lunch that couldn’t even have made a starved rat content. As I look back at my first grade year, I realize how irritating I was when lunch time came around. My mother had refused to give me an extra dollar a day to buy snacks because she viewed it as unhealthy. Halfway through my first grade year, I would attempt to bargain my way through more lunch from other students and scavenge change from others who bought food with actual physical money.
       At a certain point, however, I had become angry with how little food is given to the students, and actually stole a snack from the cash register area. In my mind, I did not think of my actions as stealing, but as taking food because I was hungry. During these moments of theft, however, adrenaline pumped in my veins which made the thrill of taking these Doritos or Cheetos snacks much more fun. The cashier station was set up as two cash registers side by side and a snack cart ahead and in between both registers. I would buy lunch from the far right cash register worker, and then I would walk past the snack cart and grab a snack before walking past the other cashier, making it appear as though I had bought a snack from the previous register.
      Eventually, stealing snacks had become a daily event and eating these unhealthy snacks had become part of my diet as well. I had become the “Red” of my cafeteria jail, the sort of person who can get anything with a little sleight of hand. I felt as though my wealth should be shared and everyone who sat at my table was guaranteed a chip...