IM SORRY BUT HE WOULD HAVE HAD LUNCH WITH LITTLE SHANEY. AHH. ! Maybe one day he makes them little pack lunch to have in the backyard at the cottage…. Uh oh I made myself sad again :/
okay i’ve been thinking about this all day and i just wanna dream for a moment about a world where they did actually go to the same elementary school.
12 y/o shane hollander hated lunchtime and also the after lunch recess cuz he wasn’t interested in talking and playing the way the other kids were and felt so out of place. so he starts spending that hour in the main office every day, because he took a liking to one of the secretaries who lets him sit by the window with his hockey books and his packed lunch and mostly leaves him alone. sometimes she sends him on little errands around the school or gives him small tasks to do around the office, which he absolutely loves.
one day ilya gets brought in during lunchtime for fighting on the playground. he’s a bit of a problem child but the school staff knows he’s struggling with english and has difficult stuff going on at home. so as ‘punishment’ they decide he has to stay in the office during lunch and recess for the rest of the month and help shane with whatever tasks he’s assigned. (side note all of the teachers absolutely LOVE shane and really want to see him connect with someone his age cuz he is just the sweetest kid)
it’s totally awkward at first cuz they both refuse to talk to each other, but shane notices ilya barely picks at his hot lunch tray and starts asking his mom for an extra turkey sandwich and snacks to bring to him (he doesn’t like the hot lunch either). and he also notices ilya eyeing his book curiously all the time, but he doesn’t really know if he’s judging him or what until he leans forward and says “i like hockey” in his thick little russian accent. and so shane scoots the book closer to the middle of the table and they look at it together in silence until ilya works up the nerve to ask what some words mean, and suddenly they’re talking every day :)
by the time the month is up ilya is doing better in class and getting in less trouble, and he’s clearly gained confidence interacting with his peers in his second language.
and baby shane is so so happy to finally have a friend. that first day of the new month he’s dreading lunch time all day bc he forgot what it’s like to eat alone. until ilya walks in right on schedule with a board game he checked out from the library that he thought shane would like. and shane shyly takes out the extra food his mom had packed anyway out of habit. and they’re pretty much inseparable from there on out <3
