Glee's cover of "Survivor/I Will Survive" was a great song to listen to while writing this chapter.

Story #5: Geese Like Pre-Packaged Cheese Sandwiches

Leo thought he could have a peaceful lunch by the water. The sun was shining, the breeze was cooling, and everyone was busy. As if they would spend their spare time with him anyways but that's besides the point. If he had someone with him, then it wouldn't be as tranquil.

Something in Leo's peripheral vision catches his attention. His body tenses, about to jump into a possible battle and almost stops when he sees the goose swimming by. Almost. As he watches that feral feathered beast swim across the water. Gods, he just wanted to eat his cheese sandwich in peace.

His mind flashes to days in the Wilderness School, a place and a memory he didn't want to imagine again.

-o-

The bus stopped at a park that was en route to their field trip destination. The Wilderness School got to have their lunch break at a park that broke off into a beach. The students were only allowed to eat their school-provided pre-packaged cheese sandwiches in the grassy picnic areas or the sand. Nobody was allowed in the water and if so, Coach Hedge would deal with them.

Leo and Piper learned that the hard way and are now sitting at a picnic table beside the trash cans soaking wet. They weren't sure how Coach dragged them out of the ocean at the same time while carrying his bat, eating his lunch, and remained bone dry. Leo and Piper's wet clothes and hair were soaking in the garbage scent which was luring in various bugs and flies. That trash was definitely there since the '90s. They'd sneak off somewhere else with the other students but Coach was leaning against a nearby tree supervising everyone else, especially them.

"Piper, tell me you're seeing this?" Leo asks, leaning close to her shoulder.

Piper doesn't look up from picking at her sandwich. "What?"

"Coach is eating a can."

Piper glances up, brushing some dried baby hairs out of her face. She turns towards Coach and sees him eating a Gatorade can as if it was a bag of chips. The sight doesn't faze Piper as much as the sound. She isn't sure why it sounds like he's eating a bag of chips. Maybe the lingering garbage scent is making them somehow hallucinate the same thing.

"And so?" Piper asks, glancing at Leo. "Don't judge the man's diet."

Leo scoffs. He was eating a can and she was saying not to judge? "Says the vegan."

"Vegetarian. Note the difference."

Leo couldn't care less about the difference. He only knows that they don't eat meat. Leo doesn't get that lifestyle but whatever. Why they would choose that life? He isn't sure. Coach was eating a can and of course, the conversation went to veganism and vegetarianism. Is a can-based diet considered vegetarian? Vegan? It's not meat. He wasn't surprised. They've been on several field trips where they've encountered many vegan or vegetarian (he never knew the difference) activists trying to shove the lifestyle down his throat.

He was grateful Coach chased them away with the broomstick. Don't ask why he had a broomstick or where he got it. All that matters is the vegans or vegetarians fled the moment the man blew his whistle.

Leo returns to reality from his vegan thoughts and sees a goose standing on the table right in front of him, pecking at his sandwich. Leo almost jumps, wondering how he didn't notice the big bird landing in front of him. He turns and sees that Piper has already gotten out of her seat and scurried away. Leo's offended she didn't drag him out of the table like Coach did for them in the ocean.

"Piper, do something," Leo whispers, speaking softly so the goose doesn't hear him.

"What am I supposed to do?" Piper asks. Her sandwich somehow ended up on the ground yet the goose liked Leo's. "Talk to it?"

"Not with that attitude." Leo faces the goose who was still pecking at the fake cheese from the sandwich. "That's mine!"

The goose turns its tiny head towards him and hisses. Leo pauses, feeling his entire body tense and shiver. He didn't think geese could make that sound but it didn't seem friendly.

"Nevermind, you can have that sandwich and my soul," Leo says.

He doesn't care about surrendering his life and his bland sandwich to the goose. He's in survival mode and too scared to use his brain, but he can hear Coach's voice echoing from the back of his mind and it sounds like his normal yelling. A horrible time can be very empowering! Nobody could go back and start over, but they could go from where they are and make a new ending! Coach taught them that's the moment they would realize how much control they have, not about the chaos at hand but how they choose to see it. With the goose eating his sandwich, Leo sees death (and not the goose's).

Coach would yell at him to take control when things go berserk, but he never used an example with a goose.

The goose finally picks up Leo's sandwich and flies away with it.

"Valdez!" Coach screams. "You could've easily gotten that back. Are you drinking enough water?"

Leo wasn't sure what his hydration levels had to do with retrieving stolen food from geese but it's Coach's logic so it makes sense.

"Through tears, Sir," Leo responds.

Coach scoffs as if he wasn't expecting that snarky answer. "Useless!"

"I'm not useless! I'm a good bad example."

"No stupid bird is letting one of my kids go hungry!"

Leo and Piper, and eventually their Wilderness School classmates, watch Coach run after the goose for a cheese sandwich that wasn't worth the effort. Everyone knew how hardcore Coach was. He took on vegan or vegetarian hippies, possibly both, with a broomstick. He could handle a goose with a bat. Besides, Coach taught them that vengeance is an unspoken part of every mission.

The Wilderness School never made it to their field trip. If only they had phones to record it.