In high school, I was at the bottom of the pecking order, but was always sent out of class early for lunch and was always among the first 25 kids in one of the 4 lunch lines with 900 kids per lunch period… so I had prime real estate as far as lunch lines went.
A girl gang (complete with matching jackets) would try to push me aside and wedge their group of 8 to 10 girls in front of me. The first time it happened, I was shocked, then realized they did it to any kid they saw as vulnerable. The next time it happened, I took on the leader—puffed up and got into her face. I got shoved quite a bit, shoved back harder—- always won and kept my spot. After 4 or 5 times, they moved on to other kids and left me alone. They would walk by and gesture at me, but I’d puff up and they’d keep going.
When I changed schools in the middle of my junior year, it took me about two weeks to let my guard down in the lunch line—there were only 150 of us in the whole high school and plenty of time to eat.