Words: Ana Garcia Rodriguez (she/her)
CW: bullying/discrimination
Ya que finalmente habían devorado la pata de cerdo, apá tenía su hueso lleno de sabor. El domingo tocaba cocido. No sé por qué los domingos, quizás porque el día es lento, o porque estamos todos juntos. El cocido era el plato favorito de Lara, perfecto para antes de caer en un sueño profundo.
Whilst Lara tied her tie and slid her socks up, her Dad made her lunch for the day. He made sure to vary it all the time. Today, Lara got cocido leftovers with some pieces of chorizo and carrot.
What’s that?
Soup.
What are those chunks?
Just ham.
Lara had a bad habit of disconnecting after lunch, her head heavy, her eyes weakened. Her teacher’s monotonous reading of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory didn’t help. On returning home, her Mum had prepared pepitos.
¿Un pepito de lomo?
Sí, por favor.
A Lara le gustaba hacer sus deberes en la cocina mientras mamá cocinaba, así le contaba todo sobre su día. Mamá preparaba lentejas, ya empezaba a hacer frío y decía que Laura necesitaba el hierro, así estaría fuerte. Lara supuso que mañana le tocarían lentejas.
On seeing the large portion of food in her lunchbox, Lara couldn’t help but become irritated. This meant that she’d have to wait to heat it up and then wait for it to cool down. By that time her friends would be playing outside. Although that may be for the best. Looking back at her table from the microwave, Lara saw that only 2 girls were left. A wave of relief came over her on seeing that Maisy was one of them. She usually kept to herself. But the other, Kacey, didn’t. She was loud and opinionated and kind of fearless. It frightened Lara. She sat down, leaving one seat between herself and the pair.
She began eating as they finished, moving to take their leave. Whilst patting the velcro of her jacket together, Kacey saw Lara’s food from above.
What is that?
It’s soup
Why is it brown? And what are those bits?
They’re lentils.
Maisy came over and looked down, though she didn’t say anything. Instead, she just met Kacey’s eyes. No more words were exchanged, but as they skipped towards the yard, arms intertwined, braids bouncing, giggling in harmony, Lara couldn’t help but wish Dad could’ve just given her a simple sandwich.
The day after, she asked him for just that. Ham, she said.
The clouds shrouded the streets today. This meant that Lara got to eat in the classroom. She’d get to show off her sandwich. During playtime, she searched for her snack in her bag but noticed she had fuet. Maybe on a dry day Lara would’ve eaten it. Outside. But it was too risky now. The scent would’ve caught too much attention. Too many questions, none of which Lara wanted to answer. None of the other kids were interrogated about their food like she was. That was an oddity Lara didn’t like. Plus, the majority of the girls didn’t eat during break. Lara only did because Dad added snacks to her lunch, but in reality, she would’ve preferred nothing. So, she left the fuet in her bag and returned to play games with her friends.
As they recreated Van Gogh’s sunflowers, Lara’s stomach rumbled painfully. She found that drinking water eased her hunger, although this meant frequent visits to the toilet. Even so, all she could focus on was counting the minutes until lunch, and checking obsessively that the rain continued. Finally, she unravelled the tin foil from her sandwich and the unforgiving smell of chorizo announced its presence in the room. What is that smell?
Ew!
Where is it coming from?
Heads turned towards Lara, but she placed her sandwich on her lap before the connection could be made.
Mientras mamá cocinaba, Lara hacía los deberes en su cuarto. Mientras, se comía el fuet de antes. Hoy fue la primera vez que Lara comió en el baño del colegio, y no le gustó. La mezcla de olores le causó alguna que otra dificultad para tragar.
Dad?
I’ll take care of my snack.
And, can you change my lunch?
He began offering alternatives, but none seemed to be the right answer. Dreadfully, it rained the day after. No agreement was made over what Lara would eat at school. Lara herself didn’t know what she did or didn’t like anymore. She didn’t want those pale and skinny sandwiches the other kids ate nor the potent meals Mum and Dad made for her. Contemplating the portion of cocido in her bag, Lara grabbed her water bottle instead, and skipped away to play with the other girls who had big and colourful water bottles.
