Last week I was given one of the most interesting class assignments I’ve ever had. The assignment’s mission was simple, get rid of twelve bags of cookies in any way I see fit.
Simple enough, now how to get rid of them?
After receiving the cookies, I quickly darted through the rain to get to my next class and then went to the activities fair immediately after. I walked in drenched, but the cookies remained dry underneath my hoodie. (I’m sure walking around with a huge square stomach was quite the site to behold.)
Once I got to my table at the activities fair, one of the AOII girls tried to persuade me to give her the whole box. She even said she’d grab them and run away just to make my story interesting. As tempting as that was, I wanted to test out another idea I had in mind.
I went back to the library after the activities fair, once again shielding the Keebler fudge stripes from the rain.
Once I got back to the library, I started dropping the cookies onto random tables. I was curious if anybody would be daring enough to take the cookies if they saw them left behind on not one, but multiple tables.
A few people that were busy studying glanced up at me to see what I was doing and then went back to their work, too busy to pay attention to me for more than a few seconds.
I positioned myself in the big, comfy chairs right next to the Spoonholder so I could view the library from the best vantage point possible. Now it was time to sit back and watch.
A few minutes in, a girl set her stuff down at one of the tables I had dropped cookies on. She went over to the Spoonholder, ordered her own snacks, and got settled into her work. She was there for a couple of hours, but she never paid the cookies any mind.
As time passed, one of the Sodexo workers picked up a bag of cookies that was on one of the table close to her. She put it down two seconds later after commenting, “Those look good,” and moved on with her work.
Eventually I goaded my roommate into taking the cookies off of one of the tables next to us. She made her actions deliberate, trying to draw attention. From the way she slowly walked over to the table, glanced around and snatched the cookies off of the table, I thought she would garner some attention for sure.
It was to no avail. The only cookies that went missing were ones the Sodexo workers removed from the tables closest to them.
I gathered up the rest of my cookies, shoved them in my already overflowing bag, and headed back to my room. The library was a bust.
A few days later I revisited the assignment and decided to give the AOII girls a treat during our busy recruitment week.
I walked into the room with cookies and dropped them on the floor, announcing that it was first come first served.
Megan responded with a “yasss, bitch,” as she hadn’t eaten dinner. Justine mirrored that sentiment and asked if she could take another one for later.
The cookies all disappeared as the hungry AOII members snatched them all up and finished them in no time.
And just like that, the assignment was over.
I will take “interesting.”
Darted. Settled in. Goaded. Garner. Snatched. All good, lively verbs. Work on including sensory detail.
I had a similar experience. When I offered the snacks to people I knew, they didn’t have any problem taking them. However, when I gave them to random people, I had to goad them into it. I thought you method was interesting. Overall, I liked your story because it was funny, and you seemed to really take it seriously, which shows.
I also thought about just leaving the cookies out instead of talking to people to see what they would do, but didn’t get that far. Maybe it would have worked better in Buck’s?