So there I was, sitting at the end of the row of tables and away from everybody else like a doorstop, and it was loud, and not the kind of loud you can tune out. And it was chili day. The whole place smelled like meat chunks. Barf. So I packed up the sandwich I’d made with the cranberry relish and goat cheese, which Mom says isn’t a sandwich because it doesn’t have meat, and left. I just put it all on my lap and rolled on out and down the back hallway that leads to the exit doors by the gym.

I sat in a little ray of sunlight that snuck past the dumpsters outside and finished my lunch, and then the bell rang and… I just needed another minute, was all. Except when Lauren found me, I might have been dozing in the sun spot and it might have been after too much “travel time” had passed for me to blame it on the chair. But I wasn’t trying to skip class. Really.

The thing is, kids skip all the time, and yeah, they get in trouble. But nobody freaks out about it like they do with me because I’m a health risk. And okay, yes, it was maybe a teensy bit antisocial to go eat in a corner by the dumpsters, but sometimes it’s all just too much. I get tired of bearing witness to everybody else’s normal.

I never got sent to time-out when I was little. I think the teachers couldn’t bring themselves to lock me and my wheels in the corner. But I wish I could now. I wish I could just declare a giant TIME-OUT from school and people and take a long nap in the sun.

I think about The Great British Bake Off again and how happy the winner looked, holding up his English muffins like a doof next to tiny Mary Berry. I bet no one bothers Mary when she wants to eat alone. I bet she dines like a queen. One day I will write her a real letter and ask her to tea. I could handle company if it were Mary. We would sit in easy silence and let the food speak for us.

Two days later I’m at school, sitting out front by the curb and waiting for Mom to pick me up. It’s freezing. I don’t care what they say about winters in the South; it still feels like a bucket of ice water thrown over you every time you go outside.

“You want your jacket, honey?”