It was finally time for every Student's most expected time of the day, a time to forget everything related to classes, homework, bad teachers, and sitting in an uncomfortable chair for half a day.

Lunch Break

"Oh my…" Bingo stops in her tracks right at the wide entrance of the cafeteria as she sees several long lines of student of different sizes and breeds waiting for their turn to pick up their food from several buffet areas

"Good thing Mum packed lunch for me. No way I'm going to be making that line" Says Bingo to herself as she starts to walk slowly, scanning the lines to spot her Maltese best friend. "Lila should be somewhere. If I remember correctly, we should have the same lunch break."

"¡BINGO!"

However, for Bingo, a familiar scream reached her ears, making her look away from the lines to spot a Blue heeler waving the hand at her.

It's Bluey, near the cafeteria exit towards the school's exterior. Bingo naturally walks towards her sister after spending a period without her. "Hi, Bluey."

"Hey Bingo, how did it go in art class?" Bluey asks

"Good, I guess; the teacher is a meanie, though" Bingo says

"Oh yeah, Ms Charlotte" Bluey puts her hand over her mouth and looks away. "She can be a little bit angry sometimes."

"I noticed," Bingo says, still with a drop of exasperation in her voice from the last class. "Have you seen Lila?"

"Not really." Bluey shakes her head. "Have you tried texting her?"

"Ohhhh…" Bingo exclaims as she moves her eyes around. "I didn't think about it before."

"Well, text her!" Bluey cried out exasperated, making Bingo startle and clumsily pull out her phone from her hip

"Ok, OK…" Bingo nervously moves her index finger around the cell phone screen to search for Lila's contact information until she finally finds it "Aja…There it is."

Bingo hits Lila's contact, showing an empty white screen, and starts texting.

Bingo: Hey Lila where are you?

Bingo: im at the cafeteria

"Nothing?" Bingo asked, confused as she didn't have an answer yet

"She must be busy" Bluey says dismissively rolling her eyes. "C'mon, we don't got all day to eat."

"Ok Bluey" Bingo says as she puts her cell phone in her hip and walks alongside her sister toward the outside

The school recreation area has ten separate tables for the students to sit, eat, and coexist. Trees with bricks around them form more spaces for the students to sit down. Beyond the tables lays a field big enough to play football, rugby, and cricket or simply lie down on the grass and absorb the sun's rays before the next class.

After coming out of the cafeteria, Bluey and Bingo stopped for a second to scan the horizon between the big groups of friends that had already Installed themselves on the tables. Bluey looked for her friends with half-closed eyes, and Bingo did the same, but in her case, she was looking for Lila until her sister hit her in the arm with her elbow.

"There!" Bluey Points at a table far from the cafeteria but close enough to the green field where her friends are sitting down and chatting. "Let's go, Bingo." Bluey moves her hand from the back to the front, Signaling Bingo to follow her as she starts to walk.

Bingo doesn't respond, but with her long, worrying face, she follows her sister behind. Even while walking, her head automatically looks to her rights and lefts, scanning the tables again in search for Lila, but her gaze doesn't connect with the Maltease's white fur.

Finally for Bluey, she reached the table with her friends Mackenzie, Rusty, Indy, Honey, Pretzel, Coco, and Chloe. Unfortunately for Bingo, she couldn't find Lila. After Bluey greets everyone happily, she sits down next to her best friend Chloe while a demoralized Bingo just neutrally greets Mackenzie, Chloe, and Honey before putting her backpack under the table and sits down at the other side of Bluey.

As Bluey happily caught up with her friends, Bingo reached for her backpack to open it and pulled out a brown bag containing a banana, an apple, and a juice box—a simplistic lunch for a gluten-free diet. Bingo pulled out the banana, and with each peal, Bingo cursed herself mentally for not being with Lila or any of her friends.

Besides Lila and Sadie. Bingo knows that all of her friends from Glasshouse and her neighbors are attending the school, but in between the times she would look for any of them, she couldn't find anyone, just a lot of dogs she had never seen in her life.

After she peeled enough sides of the Banana, Bingo reached for her phone in her hip to watch something as her sister and her friends continued to ignore her presence. However, it may be for the fact she got ignored by her parents on the way to school, it may be the fact the math teacher made fun of her and her insects, it may be the fact the art teacher got angry at one of her friends, or simply it was the fact she was tired, that when she raises the phone from her hip, it slips through her finger and falls to the ground.

Clang*

"Biscuits…" Bingo curses in a mutter and leans to her side to grab her phone

But as she picks up her phone she thinks.

"What if someone is making fun of me right now."

And following her fear, she looks up to see the nearby tables and trees with bricks, and that's when her eyes recognize someone with brown fur.

It is the same Cavapoo from the math class, sitting by himself in one of the trees with bricks to sit down, eating a sandwich with his green backpack next to him, looking nervously from left to right to the closest tables, with his face aiming down but looking up ashamed.

Bingo doesn't need a degree in dog phycologist to figure out what the Cavapoo was feeling.

She knows that the Cavapoo needs company.

And she knows she needs company too.

2+2= 4

"Yeah, let's go," Bingo thinks as she goes back up and checks the cell phone for damage. Luckily for her, it was still intact…and with no message from Lila. Bingo puts the banana back in the bag and the bag back in her backpack, and slowly as a snail, she gets up the table, unnoticed by her sister and her friends, puts her backpack behind her, unseen, undetected, and takes off walking to the Cavapoo.

"Wow…Really Bluey?" Bingo thinks rolling her eyes and still on her way to the Cavapoo. "Whatever…Think girl, what can you say to him? he must have that device on his ear, so be respectful, Bingo…you don't wanna go to the principal's office on your first day, right?"

With everything on the tip of her tongue, Bingo stands close enough to the Cavapoo to start a conversation, but the kid is looking away from her, "Hi!"

"AH"

However, the Cavapoo jumps and snaps his head to Bingo with a startled face.

"Oh, sorry" Bingo apologizes with a nervous smile and tone. "I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"It's… OK, " the Cavapoo says in between panting with an accent Bingo heard in the math class. "I forgive you."

Now that the Cavapoo's attention is on her, Bingo continues, "I was wondering if I could eat with you? I noticed you were here by yourself, so I thought you needed some company."

The Cavapoo's soft pants transform into exciting nods with his head. "Yeah! Thanks"

With the Cavapoo's approval, Bingo sits on his right and says, "Im Bingo, by the way. We have math class together in the first period."

As Bingo takes off her orange backpack, The Cavapoo exclaims, "Really!?... Actually, I remember you…You said you like watching… insects."

"Yeah!" Bingo exclaimed "They can be fascinating creatures…Hey, can you remind me your name?"

"I'm Dougie." The Cavapoo extends his hand to the red Heeler. "It's my, first year, here"

"No way." Bingo grabs his hand to shake it. "This is also my first year here."

"How are you, liking it?" Dougie asks

"Ehhh." Bingo raises her hand horizontally and tilted it from side to side. "It could be better."

"hahaha…Im loving it"

"How?" Bingo asks, amazed, with her eyes slightly up than normal

"Because I can hear now," Dougie says, moving his ear aside and showing Bingo the implant.

"Wow" Bingo reacts, awestruck as she leans closer to Dougie's device with the same morbid curiosity as before. "Looks amazing"

"I know," Dougie says, covering the device with his ear. "I got it, a few, weeks ago; it's amazing hearing, things, now."

"Wow, so like…Now you can hear me clearly."

"Yeah?" Dougie raises an eyebrow

"Oh…yeah, now I realize how stupid that sounds" Bingo says, scratching the back of her head with her hand. "Soooo, how does It work?"

"The transmitters, i have behind, my ears" Dougie shows the device again "receive the, sound, and send It, to the…inside of my, ear, and It, translates sound, to my, brain"

"Oh, I think I understand," Bingo says with her hand under her mouth. "So what would you like to do, Dougie?"

"Spend, time, with my mom" Doguie answers. "But now, that, I can hear, I have been, trying a lot of different, things"

"Oh I see what you mean" Bingo happily interrupts Dougie. "Now you are hearing the stuff you couldn't hear before."

"YEAH!" Dougie exclaimed while nodding cheerfully. "It's amazing, hearing music, videos, videogames, the TV, and, people; it's impressive, But sad, that it's now, that I can hear,"

"Yeah…" Bingo slowly nods as a tear comes out of her right eye. "Oh!…" But Bingo rapidly puts a hand on her right eye to stop it

"Happy tear?" Dougie jokes with a smile on his face

"Maybe…" Bingo responds as she takes her hand from her eye

"Haha, yeah, it's a happy tear."

"Why are you so sure?" Bingo asks as she passes the hand on top of the eye to remove the excess water

"Cuz, my mum, has a lot, of those, tears too" Doguie explains innocently.

"Eh…you sound like an angel, you knew that?"

"No?..." Doguie looks around, confused at Bingo's comment, "People, keep telling me, I sound weird."

"Why?, I mean, it's different, but not weird."

"Cuz, it's recently, that I, started to speak. Now, im attending, therapy"

"Ohhhhhhh" Bingo leans her head back as the realization hits her. "If that is the case, you speak very well. I don't have a hard time listening to you."

"Really!?" Dougie exclaimed with his tail wagging as Bingo proudly nodded her head. "Thanks, Bingo"

Now Bingo starts to wag her tail at the same time as her newfound friend; despite the fact today didn't go as expected for the red Heeler and the fact that her sister straight up forgot her existence, connecting with the Cavapoo…connecting with Dougie, to not make him feel so alone in lunch break injected a new wave of morale in Bingo, morale that makes her think that maybe her first day in middle school is not so bad after all.

Bzzzzzz*

"Oh" Bingo's tail stop wagging as she feels her cell phone vibrating and pulls it out of her hip.

New message from: Lila*

"Oh!" Bingo eye's snap open and immediately open the notification as Doguie's tail stops moving, and he tilts his head to the side confused

Lila: Sorry Bingo, I couldn't go to school today. I woke up sick.

Lila: Idk when I will be able to come back my mother thinks it is the flu, so maybe in 3 days

Lila: Idk who convinces you to go today but im happy for you

Lila: good luck at school today; I believe in you

"Yeah…" Bingo softly speaks as if the whole weight of the world got off her and texted back

Bingo: Thanks Lila. Take care

With the message sent, Bingo's attention turns back to the Cavapoo "Sooooo, what do you wanna talk about?"

"What about, you speak, about insects? Like your favorite, insect" Doguie suggests with a smile and a tail that started to wag again.

"Ohhh, good idea…" Bingo blissfully reacts as she puts her two hands at the height of her chest and begins to explain to his new friend


If im not mistaken, chapter 2 was like 600 words, chapter 3 was like 1500, chapter 4 was like 1800 and now this chapter has 2000 words….by the end, the final chapter will look like a chapter of the Clash or the one-shot I did that have over 10k words.

Well till next time