Then shoves pie? - 3.14 #sol17 Story Challenge

"Dig, if you will, the picture." -Prince, When Doves Cry

It's about 9:30 in the morning on March 14th. A slightly larger than average sixth-grader barrels into the classroom, marginally unaware of his surroundings or the people in them. From his left arm, a partly unzipped backpack dangles and swings. That same arm also curls around a helter-skelter stack of books and notebooks. His opposite arm balances decidedly more precious cargo: two grocery-store pies of some creamy variety, tufted with whipped cream, scattered with chocolate sprinkles, precariously snug in plastic shells.

I'm talking to another student and watching the pie procession with anxious side glances. It takes less than five steps for the careening boy to list just enough that the top pie slides into space. There's a cartoon moment where it floats like Wile E. Coyote before his long plummet to the canyon floor. The pie then neatly flips 180 degrees (upside-down cake?) and does a passable Wile E. Coyote splat. The plastic shell cracks like an egg, crust and cream spraying out. To his credit, the pie-carrying culprit doesn't make a sound, neither a laugh, nor a cry. He gets to cleaning.