Cancer Sticks

3

Despite this perfect plan to stay out of sight from everyone, not five minutes into lunch, a group of some kids showed up.

"Seniors only outside during lunch, kid," one of them said, hitching a thumb towards the door. Someone pulled out a pack of cigarettes. Jasper glanced around. He should have known from all the butts on the ground. He'd not really noticed them, and even then just assumed that the custodians were smokers.

"No smoking on school grounds," Jasper muttered,and stayed where he was.

Nobody responded, and they leaned up against the wall to smoke. They made idle chit chat but left the issue of an underclassman outside alone. The smoke drifted over towards Jasper, and every time the wind brought over a particularly nasty cloud, he started coughing.

"Oh, c'mon, kid," One girl said after a while, "If you can't handle a little smoke you need to leave, this is our spot."

"Fuck off," Jasper coughed again. He stuck his shirt up over his nose and mouth.

"Whatever," she sighed, breathing out the smoke right at him. He coughed some more and turned away.

"Shit, Mr. Jefferson is coming," one guy dropped his cigarette and stamped it out, as did the others.

"You know he said he'd do the next time he caught us smoking!" one girl whispered. "He's gonna smell the smoke and ask to search our bags!"

One guy nodded, "Right. Shit. What do we do?"

The girl looked at Jasper, and it immediately gave him a bad feeling in his gut.

"Kid, you make use of yourself and hold this," she shoved a couple packs into his hands, and the others in the group followed suit.

"What? Fuck off, I'm not carrying your-" before he could finish his sentence and hand the packs back, the teacher, Mr Jefferson, rounded the corner. He shoved all of the packs into his sweatshirt pocket and placed his hands strategically so the box shapes wouldn't show through.

"I thought I might find you here, Mr. Corazzini. You were scheduled to have a lunchtime meeting with me about your project."

"That was today? Oh no, it completely slipped my mind!" the guy said. The two girls looked down and away from the teacher.

"Is that smoke I smell?" Mr Jefferson asked, "I thought I told you kids I'd have no choice but to have you suspended the next time I caught you smoking out here."

"No, no, we weren't smoking! Must've been someone from the lunch before us, Mr. Jefferson!" the girl who'd given Jasper the first pack said.

"I'm going to have to take you all to the officer to have the officer on hand check your bags. And who is this?" Mr. Jefferson turned his attention to Jasper. They'd never crossed paths before in Jasper's high school career, and he'd hoped they never would. Mr. Jefferson had a reputation that preceded him of being way too much of a hard-ass.

"This underclassman followed us out here. He wanted us to help him with some project or something. We were just telling him to leave," the girl answered.

"Well, young man, I suggest you get back inside. The rest of you, come with me," Mr. Jefferson led the three seniors back inside. Jasper trailed behind, and followed them in at a distance. He watched them cross the lunch room and leave his sight, and felt relieved, until he realized he now had about six packs of cigarettes on him. They suddenly felt hot in his sweatshirt, as if someone had lit them all at once. He needed to get these things off of his person. His backpack was still in the classroom, so he could sneak back and stow them there. Then again, there were a ton of trash cans right in the lunchroom.