"Without being able to read, how do I know what I'm supposed to do and where I'm supposed to go? How can I earn more food?"
Alistair realizes this problem and decides that after making a stop to the cafeteria, it is a must to head towards the library.
He quickly dons the clothing folded neatly on the bed and takes a look in the mirror. Luckily it isn't a button up shirt or anything complex. Only a T-shirt with the Diamond In The Rough logo on the left pectoral, and black cargo pants.
After fully clothing himself he exits his room and darts towards the cafeteria. Upon entering it he notices the long line of students waiting to get a plate of food.
A few minutes before Alistair arrives, the cafeteria is in complete disarray. Students are piling in at the conveyor belt station where food is distributed and are shouting at each other trying to get to the front.
Some students even escalated even further to using some of their abilities to move others away or get ahead of them. The counter has a young lady who appears to be new and unable to handle the rowdy behavior.
One older student even tries to flirt with the young lady in an attempt to get more food.
Just as the young lady was becoming overwhelmed, an older woman entered the cafeteria wheeling in a long table with a cloth draped over the contents resting on top of it, and walked to behind the counter.
Completely ignoring the students fighting over lunch, she puts her apron on and begins pointing her finger at each student.
"1,2,3..." She begins counting each of them, committing their faces to memory. The students completely ignore her, only staying interested in getting to the food first.
Then the older woman presses a button on the side of the conveyor and halts the production of the food.
The students immediately quiet down as they noticed the source of their commotion being messed with. They all direct their attention to the older woman and some children who have been students for a while turn ghostly pale as they see her.
"So...I noticed you all taking very good care of my protege here." She smiles and announces towards the crowd of children. "I would like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart!"
One of the newer students who finds this scene bizarre blurts out, "Shut up and just get the food ready! We're hungry!" Sporadic cheers come from the crowd. Other students begin moving away from the children who cheered making them stand out even more.
The students who knew the woman the best immediately break away from the group and get into a neat and orderly line waiting for their turn to get food. Trying to play it off as being good students the entire time.
The older woman turns to look at each of those students and then completely stone faced says, "Your food privileges will be suspended until I say otherwise. Anyone caught giving food to those students will have their food privileges suspended as well."
The student who spoke up previously retorts, "You can't do that! I have a meal card with a lot of points on it! I earned my food! If you do this I'll report you to the headmaster personally!" He smirks thinking that she wouldn't go to overboard knowing this could get reported.
"Oh you mean my husband? Please feel free to tell him and if he has any concerns he can bring them to me personally." She smiles the young man with a malicious grin.
Immediately that young mans face pales at the realization that his complaints would fall on deaf ears about this overbearing woman. His next statement stuck in his throat he decides to retreat and not anger this woman any more.
Seeing the leader of the uprising backing down, the other new students whose heads blew up from confidence now find themselves deflating from realization.
The woman then turns to the remaining students who were waiting for her judgement and says, "Now then, I was going to give everyone a reward for working well with my successor here while I was retired. Now however, I see that none of you are worthy of my meals."
She grabs the cloth on the table she wheeled in and pulls it away in a dramatic fashion to display mouth watering exotic foods.
The smell from the food on the table suddenly bursts out through the cafeteria leaving the other food that was being brought out one by one on the conveyor belt looking like nothing more than slop.
One of the students who knew the woman summoned up the courage to speak against her, "Please Mrs. Diamond! You can't punish us all for getting a bit rowdy over food! You make the best food in the entire school! Some of us save up points for a long time just to get a taste of one of your recipes!"
Mrs. Diamond looks at him and smiles capriciously. She says, "You know, you're absolutely right. How about this. Anyone who was not a part the chaos that I walked into right now can have as much food as they want."
The students become flabbergasted at her shamelessness. Everyone knows that all students rush to the cafeteria as soon as it opens in an attempt to get a meal before they close down for the day. After all, the cafeteria can only stock so much good food and it is first come first serve.
Not to say that there is not food for those who can not get there in time. The only downside is that they would have to personally go and buy the ingredients with their own points. Which, after enough times can add up to an astronomical sum.
"What there's no one coming up to eat? Even after I went through all the trouble to make this?" Mrs. Diamond speaks with schadenfreude written all over her face.
At this moment the doors to the cafeteria open and a new student who no one has seen before walks in.
Alistair enters the cafeteria under the watchful eyes of the crowd and Mrs. Diamond who is shocked by the emergence of an unknown child.
He walks up to the front of the line where the food is. He sees that it is all food that is cooked and, though savory to the normal tongue, is unappealing to him.
He is immediately filled with dread at the prospect of the situation that happened at the feast happening again. He noticed that anything that is cooked or that is not considered raw meat is forcefully expelled from his body.
He walks over to the lady serving the food and asks, "Do you have any food that I can eat? This stuff is inedible."
The students in the line next to him, Mrs. Diamond, and her protege drop their jaws in shock at what they just heard.