Dashed to Pieces

Bland white tables filled the empty space of the Sabin cafeteria. The dirty, tiled floors were always streaked with stains by this time of day, left from the kids that had first lunch. The janitors never cleaned the cafeteria until after the second lunch group had finished and staggered back to class. Even then, it was rarely the janitors that cleaned the dirty tables or mopped the food splattered floor. There were several assistant principals at Sabin Middle School, four to be exact. They each were in charge of a part of the alphabet, or rather the kids who had the first initial in their last name fall under that part of the alphabet. The four assistant principals, along with the office councilors, the janitors, and the almighty principal himself, would stand watch over the lunch groups like giant sentinels. They were always watching and waiting, waiting to catch any troublemaker that dared to let himself be seen. It was a deadly game of cat and mouse, with the loser cleaning tables in the cafeteria after lunch. If this demeaning task wasn't enough, the unfortunate soul was left with the further dishonor of a slow walk down the deserted halls and an embarrassing late entrance back into class.

At lunch there were no assigned tables, but for the most part everyone sat in the same place everyday. The tables tended to be divided into groups, with everyone sticking to their own group. Overall the lunchroom was relatively peaceful. It was at one of these tables, in one of these groups that I spent my lunch hour together with my friends. Collin, Travis, Jason, my best friend Chris and I all sat together everyday at lunch. Together we would spend our short break in the middle of the day telling jokes and stories, playing practical jokes and making plans. On more than one occasion one of us would be caught by a watchful janitor and sentenced to table cleaning duties. There were even a few occasions when we were all unfortunate enough to be held after wiping tables at the same time. And so it was during our time at Sabin, the lunch hour became a time to look forward to during the long days of school.

We always sat at the back of the cafeteria, near the underachievers. It was always in the back of the lunchroom that anything exciting would happen, the kind of things that would get you assigned cleanup duties. Oddly it was always the front of the cafeteria that the cafeteria monitors would stand watching. Of course if they stood in the back then we would all just move to the front, turning the front into the back.

Nearly everyday, someone from our group was cleaning up after lunch. If it wasn't us, then it was someone there because of us. We weren't too cautious, and we enjoyed the notoriety too much. We were all well known to our teachers and councilors, as well as to the principal and his many assistants. We weren't bad kids, just mischevious. Our teachers knew this so they didn't give us too hard a time, just cleaning duties and an occasional detention if the laws of justice so demanded.

The janitors at Sabin were a motley lot, best described as having an uncanny resemblance to pirates and sheep herders. They had a rough and untamed appearance, as well as the manners and choice of words of the seamen of old. They were men who had dedicated themselves to the life of the mop, along with repairing, cleaning, and obeying their captain's orders. Although these tasks were surely in their job description, these modern day rascals were never to be seen engaged in any of these tasks. Instead they were constantly barking orders at children and taking disciplinary action one would expect of an authority figure. They patrolled the halls like police officers walking a beat in a prized part of town. It was in this atmosphere that the tradition began of having the troublemakers scrub the tables after lunch. And, if not enough miscreants were found, it was a common practice to just grab randomly any kids that were around and have them stay after to clean the tables, even if they had done no wrong.