Dragon ladies at dinner time 
.
We had a horrible one who used to collect the dinner tickets with long, gnarly fingernails that were painted in thick chipped varnish in mauve or cerise.
You had to write your name and form on the back of the ticket - sensible because it solved loss or theft - and if you had someone else's ticket you'd be questioned about it. The dinner ladies knew hardly anyone's name, so it was more a job for teachers, but sometimes they'd ask if they spotted the same name twice close together.
Every other dinner lady accepted the explanation: 'I forgot my tickets so I borrowed one from a girl in my class and I'll give her one of mine tomorrow' because it was usually true - especially when the two kids were standing together.
Not this one. The borrower would miss dinner and get sent to the deputy head. She must have got so sick of this. I don't understand why it kept happening.
We also had this daft rule where pupils with packed lunches had to sit on separate tables. Packed lunches were quite unusual. The only girl I knew who had one was vegetarian - also unusual then. She'd sit with us otherwise she'd be lonely. One of us would sneak out a second plate and cutlery and we'd all put bits of food on it so it looked like she'd be eating school dinners. Meanwhile she'd hide her lunchbox under the table and take surreptitious bites of her sandwiches in case this woman was on patrol.
She was once confronted about it but we got away with it.
I now wonder whether it was an official rule or just this power-crazed woman.