A different looking ‘stable’

Mr. Minchest leads your group into another building. This one is smaller than the expanse you were just in, and it seems a little more… clinical? The floors are linoleum, the walls are some kind of sealed brick. Despite the same bedding of hay, even the stalls are a lot more clinical. While you feel like you should be a little more concerned that Penelope was stripped and treated like an animal in front of the whole class, you somehow feel… blasé. For some reason, you don’t really care. It doesn’t feel right to languidly act like nothing happened, but really… nothing did happen. I mean, it’s not like Mr. Minchest hurt Penelope at all, so who cares?

You can’t help but notice a bowl full of white spheres sitting on a table. They kind of remind you of rasgulla, a delicious treat you had when you went to an Indian restaurant in Fond du Lac once. Mr. Minchest soon speaks up as he gestures to the white spheres.

"This is for the girls only. Every girl needs to take one, but only one. This is very important. You have seen what happens if the rules are not followed, I trust you to keep to the rules and make sure the others adhere to this, too."

The girls in your class quickly get into a line while the boys merely watch idly. You carefully watch to see how the girls react.

The first girl in line, Umi, gingerly grabs one of the balls and, with a moment’s hesitation, pops it into her mouth. Within a second, she makes one of those iconic poses every chef hopes for: eyes looking up, knees bent, a slight smile and a deep “Mmmmmm”. Umi licks her fingers as she moves back to the group. Next, Penelope takes hers and lets out a similar hum of satisfaction. However, you see her secretly grab another one and quickly shove it in her face in hopes that no one caught her.

You’re mortified by Penelope’s disobedience. What is she doing? Just listen to the man. Next up is Emily. Emily has always been SUPER demure. She’s like a southern lady straight out of the 19th century. You see her grab a ball and spend about a good 10 seconds staring at it and at Umi and Penelope who have rejoined the group still wearing content smiles. A cough from the girl behind her, Caroline, finally elicits action. She puts the ball up to her mouth and swallows. However, you spy her not-so-stealthily slip the ball back into the bowl. Why can’t people just listen to Mr. Minchest!?

For a long while (finally) girls know how to listen to directions. They grab 1 ball, no more, no less, and eat it as they are told. Understandably, it looks delicious and you want to make sure everyone gets to try one. However, Janet breaks the chain by also trying to put her ball back without being caught. She returns to the group. As Lorena in front of you quickly scarfs down her ball and returns to the group, you are the last one left.

So what will you do? There are still plenty of the balls left, so it wouldn’t be obvious that you didn’t have one… or that you had multiple, for that matter. Although being the last one, you do have a heightened audience. But then again, Penelope, Emily, and Janet received no backlash. Hmmmmm…