As the drizzle intensified into rain, our class moved quickly and quietly through the great outdoors, taking a shortcut over a grassy hill on the other side of the pond to arrive at the food building. The line dissolved for a little while as we all stopped to wipe off our shoes on the entrance rug before heading upstairs to the cafeteria. After we all separated to go find food and seats, a rather large conglomerate of students remained: In addition to the regular sandwich squad, which included myself, William, Skylar, Kathleen, Kiki, as well as Chuck and shep from the first grade class eventually, we were also accompanied by Jenny, Kristy, and Eli.

Jeez, I thought as William led the way to find the elder members of our party. More than half the class wants William's sandwiches. Will we have time to make them all?

Skylar seemed to be reading my mind when she spoke her next words. "We better hop to it," she prompted. "We've got like, ten sandwiches to make."

"I know, I know," replied William, starting to look a little stressed out. "It's just that… I've been trying to think of a way to speed up the looking part, so I have more time for the making part, but I can't think of anything."

"Speed up the looking part?" I asked, a bit unsure of what he meant.

"Yeah," he replied. "Right now, you have to go back and forth twice, once to see what's there and once to get it, but there must be some way to make it only once." His face was extra screwed up in thought. We all pondered this issue for a few seconds before arriving at the table where Chuck and shep were waiting for us.

"Wow, this is a big crowd," said Chuck, sweating nervously. "Hey, everyone. Do they all want sandwiches?"

"Yeah," answered William. "So we've got to get all the ingredients as fast as possible."

"Amazing," added shep, murmuring half to himself. "To think that William's sandwiches attracted such a following. He must be a true sandwich… artisan."

We all kinda overlooked that. "...Well, like, if you can't speed up the looking part, why not speed up the making part?" suggested Skylar, crossing her arms, looking to the side a little, and raising one of her perfectly manicured eyebrows like Jack Black.

"That's a great idea!" said Kristy, laughing bromeantically. "Since we need ten sandwiches, William just needs to make them ten times faster!"

"Th-that's impossible!" cried William.

"No, that's not what I meant," said Skylar, slightly irate. "We all help look for stuff, why don't some of us help make the sandwiches too?"

"Oh yeah," agreed Chuck, sweating with excitement. "That's a great idea. I can help with that."

"Me too," added Kiki surprisingly. "I'd rather just stay here and make sandwiches than go running around the cafeteria anyways."

"Um, I think the point is that we have to do both," said Kathleen, shrugging her arms and exhaling. "Plus, we could all use the exercise from running around the cafeteria anyways."

"But we just got back from P.E.," complained William. "And everyone's just going to be bringing everything back to us, so it makes sense for us to stay behind."

"We'll need more people to help if some of us want to stay behind," said Skylar, more on task than the actual sandwich artisan himself. "Do you know anyone else who might want a sandwich?"

William screwed up his face thoughtfully and put one hand to his chin. "Hmm. There's Owen, and Tim sat with us once, but he didn't want a sandwich."

"Ah. O-owen is right over t-there," inputted Eli. He had been so quiet, I had forgotten he was there. We all turned to look towards Owen, accompanied by Jacques and Graham, walking across the cafeteria floor.

"Cool," said Skylar. "Let's get them in on it."

"Are you sure?" asked Kathleen. "Owen ditched us yesterday, remember?"

"And he was spreading weird rumors about Jordan, too," added William.

"Oh, c'mon," encouraged Skylar. "It'll only be for one lunch period. And we can't let Jacques and that other guy miss out just because of him."

"Then, allow me," spoke up shep softly, already mid-stride towards the trio. We saw him exchange a short conversation with them, before Owen laughed and beckoned for the other two to follow as the four of them returned to us. I wonder what kind of magic words shep must have spoken to him.

"What's up, Skylar?" asked Owen as he approached. "Need some extra help for your pyramid scheme today?" He put a strange emphasis on the word pyramid in the question.
"It's not a pyramid scheme," she insisted. "But yeah, if you three are interested in one of William's sandwiches, we could use a few more people to find ingredients."

"Oh, sweet!" he answered, grinning and putting his hands behind his head. "You know, I've never actually had a Chef Willy sandwich before. Guess I'm lucky to get the chance."

Remembering the drill from the last few times we had done this, Skylar had us divide and conquer. As an experienced ingredient gatherer, I was paired up with Eli, but Chuck also volunteered to come along with us on top of making the sandwiches. He seemed to have business with me, since he leaned in and spoke to me as we were heading to our designated search area.

"Hey, uh, Jordan," he honked, sweating embarrassedly. "They just made us write our letters back to you guys before lunch. I couldn't think of anything to write, but I couldn't turn in a blank letter, so don't worry if you get… something weird."

"Weird? Okay," I replied, as he leaned back out. I wondered what he could have written in his note that he would need to let me know in advance. Suddenly, a thought crossed my mind. "Oh, by the way, is your class doing the spelling bee?"

"Yeah," he responded. "But I'm not gonna be in it." We stopped to inspect the nearby food station.

"Have you already done all three of your practice rounds?" I asked. "We've only done two so far, so I've still got a chance."

"Practice rounds? What are you talking about?" asked Chuck.

"Uh, J-jordan," quipped Eli, "The p-practice rounds were just o-our class's idea."

"...Right," I said, putting my hand over my nose and mouth. I had assumed all of the classes were doing something similar to ours, but that must not be the case. "So you've already chosen your three people then?"

"Huh? Oh, yeah," said Chuck, as he looked up from some butternut squash. "It's Tim, Emma, and shep. Who's going from your class?"

"shep, huh?" I asked. Tim made sense, and so did Emma I guess, but shep never struck me as a good speller. A good surfer or boogie boarder maybe, but not a speller. "We've only got Julia and Randy so far, but we're picking our third person later today."

"I think I've met Julia a few times," said Chuck, trying to put a face to the name, "but I dunno who Randy is."

Suddenly, a large flash krak-a-boomed outside the nearby window and we all turned towards it. It was both thunder, and Lightning. A hush fell over the entire cafeteria for a few seconds after the loud fragor, and it was in this instant that I realized that there was no music playing in the background. Mountains of rain were pouring down now, which reminded me of something important.

"Oh, that's right! Eli, what are you going to do with the tunnel about the rain?" I finally popped the question that had been in the back of my mind since this morning.

"Eh, heh heh," chuckled Eli nervously, adjusting his helmet and peering out the droplet-covered window with wide eyes before taking a calming breath. "Well, if w-we're having recess i-inside today, I c-can't really do a-anything," he stated. "I c-can only wait 'til t-tomorrow to s-survey the damage." He suddenly became serious. "Hopefully most of the water will drain into that place." I understood what he was talking about immediately.

"Hey guys," beckoned Chuck, sweating nervously. "We should get back to the others if we're done seeing what food is here."

Eli and I took one last glance around to solidify our memories before we followed Chuck back to the table. After we reported the ingredients to William, he began nodding in approval. "It's all coming together now," he claimed, imagining the recipe in his head and stroking an imaginary goatee. Once all of the groups had returned to him, he was able to assign us our ingredients, and we were out of the far and into the far again.

The lens of the video camera expanded and contracted, much like the muscles of the personification of Time, as it delivered video feedback to the security room occupied by three mysterious beings that had black hair, black suits, and black sunglasses.

"I've gott t'say, bud, this's pretty s'prisin'. 'S'pretty impressive. 'S pretty… s'pressive," commented one, eyeing the footage as it reflected off their dark lenses.

"That thayer one has coo-ordinated all them inna sandwich-making ex-tor-avaganza, boss." observed the other, circling Skylar with the mouse cursor.

The third one said nothing, and was completely silent.

"'T'must be th'influence o' th' social media influencer, pal."

"Yee."

"She'd be a val'u'ble asset f'r Dr. Bear's next project, chief."

"Shood we cawntact wit' her, fam?"

All three of the beings were silent for a few seconds, the only noises being the scritching of pencil on paper as the third one wrote something down, and the ambient buzzing of the monitors as their hollow glow illuminated the dark room.

"You're g'na have t'be th'one t'do it, mate," stated the first one. "I was just on 'mergency duty."

"haw haw. Yew sed doody."

The third, silent being's pencil snapped in half in annoyance, causing the first two to jump.

"Raht. Ah'll git awn it as A$AP as pawsible, bro," concluded the second one, turning his attention back to the monitor and sweating a bit nervously.

Meanwhile, in the cafeteria, Eli, Chuck, and I rushed back to the table, our hands bursting with all of the butternut squash, bell peppers, and squeeze bottles of mustard we could carry. Thankfully, Kristy's group had found some loaves of multi-grain whole wheat bread, so we had some actual sandwich materials to work with this time. Once all of the groups had returned and pooled together our findings, William, Chuck, and Kiki (but mostly William) began combining them all into sandwiches. Several minutes later, we had thirteen sandwiches, one for each of us.

"All right!" exclaimed William. "Time to eat! Skylar, you can have the first pick for helping set everything up."

"Aw, thanks!" she said, obviously picking the plate with the biggest sandwich.

"Yeah!" agreed Owen, cupping one of his hands around his sharpie-bearded mouth like a megaphone. "It's not like we're the ones who pitched in to help, or anything."

"Hol up," said Kiki suddenly, looking back and forth from the remaining sandwiches, to the table they were placed on, to the people surrounding it. "There's thirteen sandwiches, and thirteen of us, but only twelve chairs at the table. What're we gonna do?"

"Yeah," agreed Kristy. "I don't need Randy's help to know that math doesn't add up."

"I know!" said Owen excitedly. "Let's steal a chair from another table!"

"T-that's not a v-very nice idea," discouraged Eli.

"Plus," added Jenny, "I don't think we could fit more chairs around these tables anyways."

"i could go sit at another table, away from everyone else," offered shep.

"Aww, you don't need to do that," insisted Kathleen sympathetically.

"Well," said William. "One of the best things about sandwiches is that you don't need to be sitting down to eat them. One of us could just stand next to the table."

"That gets my stamp of approval," I agreed.

"Okay, so who's it gonna be?" asked Skylar. "Any volunteers? Any… victims?"

"We should play rock-paper-scissors-shoe," suggested Kathleen excitedly, pounding her fist into her palm like she was mashing a potato.

"Nah, Jacquesypoo should do it," insisted Owen, looking at his hand like he was inspecting his nails.

"Huh?" I asked. "Why him?"

"Because he's the youngest one here."

"How is he the youngest?" asked Kristy. "He's taller than all of us!"

"That… doesn't mean he's older," answered Chuck, sweating embarrassedly.

"No, Owen's got a point," inputted Jenny. "If there's not enough space for everyone to sit down, it's only polite for the youngest person to stand."

"Wait a minute," I backtracked. "How do you even know he's the youngest in the first place?"

"Stop asking stupid questions, Jor-bah," snapped Owen. I was taken aback by his sudden hostility. "Why wouldn't I know? Don't you remember who I am?"
I put my hand over my nose and mouth to think. That's right. Owen always claims he's the school president. But that's just a running joke… right?

"Plus," he added, "If that wasn't true, Jacquesypoo himself would say so, right?"

"I… guess," I admitted, feeling my ego take a little hit.

"If you really don't believe me, we can all go around, one by one, and share our ages and birthdays," he offered, with an impish grin on his face.

"We don't need to do that," inputted Jacques himself. "It's fine. I can stand up."

"Well then!" concluded Owen, spreading his arms as if he were presenting an idea from his imagination. "Now that that's settled, it's finally time to dig in!"

With Jenny on my left, Chuck on my right, and Jacques standing between myself and Chuck, I chowed down on my sandwich. For a few minutes, though the hubbub of the cafeteria continued in the background, the entire table was silent, meaning that the food was that good. The neurons in my brain connected and colours swirled around my head as the food stimulated my tastebuds. I closed my glassesless eyes and felt like the dude from Ratatouille.

"E-excuse me," a 2006 Justin Bieber-esque voice cut through my synesthesia. I popped open my eyes to see a kindly, yet shy being standing near the table. I recognized her from the Class Swap – it was none other than Ms. Uni.

"Good afternoon, Ms. Uni," greeted Jenny, making sure to swallow her sandwich beforehand, as not to talk with her mouth full. "Can we help you with something?"

"Uh… yes," responded Ms. Uni. "I need to speak with one of you about something."

"What is it?" asked Jenny.

"It's something very important." We were all silent for a few seconds, some of us chewing our food, as we waited for Ms. Uni to continue, but she didn't.

"Well?" uttered Graham, his Arnold Schwarzenegger voice booming. "State your business."

"Um… it needs to be alone..."

"Oh. Is s-someone in t-trouble?" asked Eli.

"No, it's just, uh, something important is all."

"WHO? Who is it? What do you want?" asked Owen aggressively. Clearly, he was getting tired of Ms. Uni beating around the bush.

"Waah!" Ms. Uni put their hands over heir head and began tearing up a little. "It's, uh, Skylar. Please come with me."

Everyone at the table turned their heads to look at Skylar, who exchanged a worried glance with William before turning to address Ms. Uni. "Sure. How long will this take?"

"Only a few minutes."

"All right then, Gg, brb," Making sure to spell out all the acronyms, Skylar stood up, leaving about a third of her sandwich on her plate, and flashed us the peace sign. "Jacques, save my seat for me, k?" She then followed Ms. Uni across the cafeteria, and the two disappeared from sight into the crowd.

"What could that have been about?" asked Jenny.

"I dunno, but I've got a bad feeling about it," muttered Owen, biting his thumb.

"Me too," agreed William, looking down and exhaling. "I hope she'll be fine."

"Didn't you hear?" asked Kristy, wiping her mouth with a napkin. "Ms. Uni said she wasn't in trouble. She'll be back in a few minutes."

"Yeah, but can you really believe her?" asked Owen, an expression of innocent curiosity on his face. "She could have just said that to get Skylar to go with her. Who knows what she actually wants."

"It's all good," cancelled Kiki, who had already finished her sandwich. It always surprised me how someone so small had such a big appetite. "We can just ask her when she gets back."

The remaining people at the table finished their sandwiches in silence, but this time it was an uncomfortable silence, as Owen's words echoed in the back of our heads. We all waited around for Skylar to return, but even when the end of lunch period came and went, she still didn't reappear.

"We should go get lined up to leave," I suggested, knowing Randy wouldn't be pleased if over half the class was late.

"But what about Skylar?" asked Kathleen.

"We'll just have to trust that she's okay with Ms. Uni," answered Jenny, standing up and pushing her chair in.

"It's not like we can go get her, anyways. We don't know where they went."

"Well, Ms. Uni's classroom is right next to Mr. Pony's," stated Jacques. "So if they went there, we're already headed back to the same place."

William glanced at the unfinished sandwich. "Yo, Chuck, can I get one of those Ziploc bags? It'd be a shame to let the rest of this sandwich go to waste."

"Sure," honked Chuck, rummaging through the pockets of his cargo shorts to find one.

Our large friendgroup approached the entrance to the cafeteria, where Randy and Mr. Pony awaited. "You're late," remarked Randy.

Thankfully, we all had a good reason. "We were just waiting for Skylar," I explained. "Ms. Uni needed her for something, but they never came back."

"Oh, don't worry about that," inputted Mr. Pony. "Ms. Uni let me know. She'll bring Skylar back by the end of recess."

"Is that so?" asked Randy. "We shouldn't leave anyone behind, but if she's with a teacher, it should be fine… Either way, we need to get going. We're wasting recess time."

I nodded and assumed my position as line leader. "Right. Everyone else, line up behind me."