Smell part 2
It was smelly. Keith drug the box from under his bed. Maybe food goo had to be cold? Maybe Hunk could help?
Tentatively Keith got a finger full of the goo and touched it to his tongue. The near immediate gag reaction was answer enough. He hauled the box to the door.
Carefully sliding the door open he checked the hall, finding it empty he proceeded out with the box on his way to the garbage room.
Thankfully he was able to make it there and back without notice, but he still didn’t have a solution to the problem. He didn’t mean to do it. Most of the time he wasn’t even thinking about it.
He’d done it at school. Iverson had him grounded from simulations for a week when his stash in his room was discovered, said he was a thief; but he didn’t steal the food it had been his.
He’d done it at one of the boys home. That time some older boys had found it and wiped out his stash. He’d gotten into a big fight with them and even though he won he lost, because again he wasn’t supposed to take the food and he shouldn’t have kept it and eating his food was not a reason to break the other boy’s arm. He’d been kicked out and further ruined any chance of finding a real home.
The first time he remembered had been in school when he was very young. The fosters he was with at the time were awful. The older boys beat him up, they barely fed them and the youngest kids got the least food, and the foster parents just ignored them. Being in the middle Keith shared his food - what there was of it. It was then he discovered at school he could get seconds and food from the sharing table. He would fill his pockets and sleeves and smuggle food to his desk and when no one was looking load up his backpack to take it home.
Ironically it was the smell that outed him that time too. He’d forgotten a milk in the back of his desk. He’d gotten a spanking for wasting food from the teacher. He’d been in tears when they’d sent him to the office to call home. He knew the foster home would kick him out. He didn’t know the foster father would beat him with a belt and break his arm.
His stomach rumbled and he wondered if there’d ever been a day in his life when he hadn’t felt that hunger and the fear of not knowing when or if he’d have something to eat. Maybe the next time they were planet-side he could find something that would keep.