Quarrel at the Canteen

  The canteen was swamped with students. Alex jostled his way through the crowd with his hard-earned bowl of fishball noodles, his stomach growling fiercely as he looked around for a place to sit.

  Suddenly, he felt a hard shove from behind. Alex watched helplessly as his bowl of fishball noodles flew right out of his hands and onto the floor.

  ”What are you doing?” Alex whirled around to see a wide-eyed boy staring blankly at him. “I…” Julian started to apologise but was rudely interrupted by Alex, who started to blame him for being careless and demanded compensation for his bowl of spilled noodles.

  Julian creased his brows in frustration. It was an accident! “You should have watched where you were going!” he retorted. This sent Alex into a rage. The two boys started to raise their voices at each other and exchanged blows. Other students at the canteen noticed the commotion and gathered around to watch, pointing and gawking as the fight intensified.

  Just then, Mrs Ong passed by and saw the situation. She asked both Alex and Julian to calm down and listen to each other’s side of the story. After hearing both sides, she explained that accidents can happen to anyone and that it is important to understand and forgive each other.

  Alex and Julian knew that Mrs Ong was right and were ashamed of themselves for quarrelling in front of everyone. They apologised to each other and worked together to clean up the spilled noodles.

  Jia Hao scrunched his face in frustration as he manoeuvred his way through the sea of students in the bustling school canteen. He glanced left and right, scanning the area for an empty seat to have his lunch.

  “There!” A smile spread across Jia Hao’s face as he spotted an empty bench at the far end of the canteen. He quickened his footsteps, eager to claim the seat.

  Just as he was about to set down his bowl of curry noodles on the table, a boy suddenly appeared and plopped down his plate of chicken rice. “Excuse me, I was here first,” Jia Hao explained. He politely asked the boy to look for another spot. However, the boy, Wei Le, refused to budge. He claimed that he had reached the seat first and that Jia Hao should be the one looking for a new seat.

  Jia Hao was taken aback by Wei Le’s response. He tried to reason with him but his explanation fell on deaf ears as Wei Le refused to listen. The argument soon escalated into a heated quarrel as both parties refused to give in.

  “Stop this instant!” a shrill voice cut through the commotion. The boys’ faces turned pale at the sight of the discipline mistress marching towards them. “What is going on here?” she demanded. Both boys exchanged nervous glances before explaining the situation. The discipline mistress listened sternly, before calmly pointing out that there were other unoccupied seats around.

  Jia Hao and Wei Le hung their heads in shame, realising how silly they were for causing a scene over a trivial matter.