Picky Eater - A short story

Chapter 2 - Abby

"Well Claudia, it's time to get in the car, to your first day of school now!" Her mother repeated, while her 15 year old daughter was still standing in front of the table, tasting away on every single last bit of icing on the plate. She sure did have a sweet tooth. "Just give me a while, mom." Claudia responded, and as expected, she did not bother to even look at her mother. How rude.

Now inside the car, the teenager was looking at her cell phone at the latest news about what seemed like celebrities that she seemed to enjoy, as well as posts related to many other things she enjoyed. The list included cooking, drawing, dancing, and so on. One of the posts she came across caused her to stop. The image consisted of a young looking man holding up a bowl of salad at the camera, a fork in his other hand as if about to stick it into the leafy greens and take a bite. "Ew." Claudia cringed, quickly going into the profile and clicking the unfollow button next to the username, before going back to the main page of the social media platform she was viewing all this on.

Claudia's mother overheard the remark Claudia gave to the internet star, and sighed quietly to herself in sheer disappointment. She already guessed the scenario, and sure enough, her assumptions were correct. It surely did not seem like this was the first time she had heard her daughter make that remark to people promoting leafy greens and being all healthy and stuff. "When will she learn..." The blonde woman muttered under her breath, making sure that her daughter could not hear a word she said clearly. As much as she did not want to upset her daughter, she still found her daughter's lack of vegetables diet very concerning. Claudia getting sick and ending up in the hospital due to stomach cramps because of the lack of cellulose in her body, has happened before due to her unbalanced diet issue. She also had a high risk of heart disease at one point when she was younger, due to too much glucose in the body, which was caused by the overconsumption of sugar.

The rest of the car ride continued with Claudia talking to herself, her mother not saying a word to her.

Ring. Ring. Ring.

Groups of people were exiting and entering the hall, proceeding to find their first classroom. "Hey Claudia! It's me, Abby!" A black haired asian girl called out, waving her hand in the air in the crowd of people in the halls. This alone was enough to catch the attention of Claudia. She waved back at her friend, and walked over to her, the two walking together towards a nearby classroom at the end of the hall. Other students walked past them, continuing their own journey towards their respective classrooms they are assigned to go to.

"I wonder what's for lunch today!" Abby said with a smile, as she sat down on her chair, pulling open Claudia's chair for her to sit down on. "Right. I hope it's as delicious as the donuts I had at home for breakfast earlier." Claudia responded, putting her hands together as she sat down on the chair her friend pulled out for her. The asian chuckled to herself as she smiled and nodded. "I'm sure the food wouldn't be too bad, don't worry too much." She assured her friend, who just shrugged. Claudia had incredibly high standards for food, and let's say she did have a few tantrums over the food the school had provided before, such as the time there weren't anything delicious in the meals. This was in her perspective though, and most others probably wouldn't say the same for the meals.

"Lunch time!" Abby exclaimed, running out of the classroom, pointing at the direction of the cafeteria, while she grabbed Claudia's wrist with her right hand, pulling the brown haired girl with her. "Yeah, yeah! Now let go of my wrist!" Claudia demanded, trying to shake her wrist free from her friend's grasp. "Sorry! Just wanted to line up using as little time as possible. Makes things more efficient!" She explained her intentions, nervously chuckling after she did so. She let go of her friend's wrist and Claudia instantly yanked her wrist towards herself, frowning for a while, before that frown turned upside down into a smile.

When the two 10th graders reached the cafeteria, they were greeted by lines of people by the food counter. That explained the two girls' shocked expressions that were plastered on to their faces. "What now!" Claudia grunted, folding her arms as she looked around the huge room, with people everywhere filling the empty seats and lining up to purchase their lunch. Abby frantically looked around, and tried to help her friend find some way to pass the time. To Abby, Claudia was a great friend, but well, she didn't have the best control over her temper.

"Oh, a glass case with the food displayed over there!" Abby exclaimed and pointed at the glass case, glad that she found somewhere to view the meals before lining up, forgetting about her friend for a second, running towards the glass case. "Hey wait up!" Claudia exclaimed with annoyance for the fact that she was left behind by her friend, before she ran after her. It was quite a chase as Abby was all the way over at the back of the small crowd that gathered in front of the glass case with the food options on display.

After countless struggles of pushing past many other students, the brunette finally got to her friend. She ran up next to her before she stopped, put her hands on her knees and proceeded to catch her breath. She glanced up at the glass case, still gasping for air. The girl with the black hair noticed her friend who managed to catch up. "Oh hey Claudia, you caught up! So today we have macaroni with broccoli, a fruit salad with watermelon, dragonfruit, and melon as the fruits, as well as tomato and egg rice!" She smiled and looked over at her as she explained the options.