Feeding Frenzy (Watty Award Winner)

Fighting for Java: Chapter Twenty-Four

Sun streaming into his dorm room roused Ducky. He sat up and took the ASA tablet with the glass of water he'd put on his side table the night before. Shutting his blinds, he lay back down. Halloween was over and, despite Tonya's dire warnings, he had survived. Too bad Priya's triumph had been spoiled by a bomb scare.

After they were ejected from the cemetery, the party had moved into a field just beyond campus, and happy carousing had ensued until the cops came. It seems they didn't approve of lighting bonfires on other people's property.

"Are you up Zain?" There was a big lump in his roommate's bed, but that didn't guarantee anything. The guy was such a slob, Ducky regularly found lost props and camera equipment stashed in the bedding.

A quick check of the clock explained Zain's absence. It was already 11:00 a.m. and Zain, unlike Ducky, was a morning person. It was a good thing he was such a good sound editor, otherwise Ducky might not forgive his cheerfulness about attending 8:00 a.m. lectures. On a Sunday he was probably doing something even more obnoxious, like working out at the athletic facility.

Ducky would have gladly stayed in bed. The only things he had to look forward to were essays to write and placating Priya about last night's fiasco. Unfortunately, his stomach could out-growl a tiger. He threw on a bathrobe, socks, and some Birkenstocks, and shuffled to the elevator, promising himself coffee. Oh magical elixir, cure of hangovers and fatigue! The magical brew would stop his head from throbbing, open his eyes and restore his wits.

# # #

The sight that greeted him at the cafeteria was beyond anything he imagined in his wildest movie scenarios. Troupes of students brandished trays at the cafeteria ladies, who defended the food with ladles and long-handled pots. Young men and women were shrieking and stealing bananas, leaping up and down in triumph and stuffing their faces.

A cluster of campus police were there too, but instead of stopping the students, they stuck their hands directly into heating trays and pulled out handfuls of bacon. The eating wasn't split exactly along student/employee lines. In some instances, cafeteria staff gorged themselves on sausages, while students either tried to elbow their way in, or walked out in open-mouthed disgust.

Ducky ran back to his room to get the NEX-VG30H. He had to capture this cafeteria carnage and stream it live to the net, now! He would watermark it with his name. The footage was guaranteed to make the news -- all over the world.

This was more than a food fight. It was inspiration. Cue the suspenseful music. He could already hear the horror trailer narrator, in the studio of his mind:

Cafeteria! In a world gone topsy turvy, it's a showdown between the eaters, and the fierce cafeteria ladies who stand in their way.

When Ducky returned, Zain was standing on a table, filming a skirmish between servers in hair nets, and university students waving plastic trays. One tall guy moved in on them with a baseball bat.

"Hey!" Ducky yelled. "Put the bat down!" He wedged his body between the cafeteria ladies and some of the more warlike-looking students, a couple of whom were taller than he was, including the one who looked like he really wanted to use that bat.

"Please. Talk this out. Tell the ladies what you want." He held his hands up, palms outward.

"We want the food, all the food," said the tall one. He smacked his bat into his hand, and stepped up to Ducky, squaring his shoulders.

"No, it's mine!" shrieked one cafeteria lady, launching a flying tackle at the bat wielder and knocking his knees from under him. A moment later she was sitting astraddle him with the bat raised over her head, smirking. "Who's calling the shots now, you snotty little rich kid! I'm sick of you, all of you!"