lunch sack on the table and took a seat As she did Colleen McGill plopped down across from her She looked upset What’s going on Ava asked as she unwrapped the sandwich her brother had made for her It was loaded with turkey Swiss cheese a generous amount of pickles and spicy mustard It was sliced diagonally into two nearly perfect triangles My lunch Colleen groaned I think someone stole it Ava looked up just as she was about to bite into the first half of her sandwich Are you serious Ava replied You sure you didn’t leave it at home or something Colleen shook her head Not a chance I remember putting it in my locker and seeing it before second period 8
It didn’t fall out or something Ava knew she’d know if her own lunch had fallen out of her locker I know it was stolen Ava Colleen insisted because I found this in my locker Colleen handed her a small business card Ava looked at the card In the upper left hand corner was the face of what looked like a robber It was a pixelated 8-bit drawing a throwback to video games from the 1980s The thief had beady eyes and looked like he could use a shave In the middle of the card were the words Lunch Bandit followed by a web address What the heck Ava whispered to herself She flipped open the cover of her MyPad and pulled up a web browser She typed in the web address and waited Nothing loaded up 9
Can you get on the wireless Colleen asked Ava looked at the Wi-Fi signal strength The school had a password-protected wireless network to keep students from surfing the web from their phones when they should be studying Doesn’t look like it Ava said I’ll have to give this a try after school Colleen took the card back It’s weird right Someone stole my lunch and Is that my lunch Miles shouted from the other side of the cafeteria He ran toward one of the other lunch tables Did you take that Ava looked at Colleen and stood up just as Mao brought her tray of meat loaf corn and a carton of milk to the table 10
What’s going on Mao asked looking around Ava watched as Miles snatched a lunch bag from Peter Yeboah’s hand The bag ripped and a bagel a packet of pretzels and a handful of small cookies fell to the ground That’s my lunch Miles Peter shouted Look what you did Well someone stole my lunch Miles cried He held a small familiar white card in his hand for the rest of the lunchroom to see I thought it was mine Miles looked at the rest of the sixth graders in the lunchroom His face was flushed red with anger and embarrassment A girl in the corner of the lunchroom cried out Same here Mine was taken too 11
