Chapter 12: Breakfast and Other Adventures
Cereal wasn't exactly waffles, but it was satisfactory. Amy was relieved to discover they were serving Cherrios, and took a small bowl with 2% milk. After grabbing a spoon and a glass of orange juice to go with it, Amy returned to the table she'd sat at yesterday. It was still empty. Amy took the same spot she had the night before, and began eating her cereal.
"Hey, roomie!" Amy almost choked on her spoon as she jumped in surprise. Sonja had practically materialized next to her without warning, and sat down next to Amy, setting her tray full of strange breakfast foods down on the table as she did. Amy somehow managed not to swallow her spoon and safely remove it from her mouth, though not before she came dangerously close to finding out what it felt like to digest metal. She turned to face Sonja, who was grinning from ear to ear as she put salt on her… alien… toast? What? "I see you're finally awake. About time, too, I've been up for an hour!"
"Eating?" Amy asked in disbelief.
"Nope! I was busy doing my morning workout in the gym. Needed to work up my appetite. Breakfast is one of the most important meals of the day!" Sonja took a large bite of her own breakfast, and Amy turned her attention back to her own cereal.
Grrrurgh… Amy clutched her stomach as it let out a growl. She suddenly felt like she was starving, and took a big spoonful of Cherrios to quell the grumbling. It wasn't enough. That's weird… Amy thought, I'm not normally this hungry in the morning… She too another bite, but found that it also did nothing. Another bite produced only slightly more satisfying results, and she was still hungry by the time she'd finished the entire dish, milk and all. Amy shook her head in confusion, and stood up, walking back to the food line.
Sonja watched in mild fascination as Amy came back with another bowl of cereal and an apple, a perplexed expression on her face. "Is… something wrong?"
Amy said nothing, but peeled the apple with the knife she'd brought with her, taking a large bite into it. She furrowed her brow after she swallowed it, before taking another large bite, until she'd devoured everything but the core. Amy turned her attention to the cereal.
"Roomie?"
"Why am I so hungry?" Amy asked to nobody in particular, before devouring the cereal, spoonful by meditated spoonful. She shook her head when she finished the second bowl – she was still hungry.
"Amy?" Sonja murmured, a twinge of worry in her voice. "Are okay?"
Amy shook her head. Not only was she hungry, but her head was starting to hurt... Oh, yeah, I forgot to take my multivitamin this morning… She stood up. "…I'll be right back," she muttered, grabbing the glass of orange juice and power-walking out of the mess hall.
Amy's headache seemed to intensify as she got closer to the room, and had reached the point that she felt like the inside of her skull was going to burst when she got to her room. She attempted to punch in the number code, and failed, before getting it right the second time and running into the room. She practically ran over to the dresser – now she could only hear a dull roar in her mind – and set the glass of orange juice down.
Her hand was shaking from being unable to concentrate, and a small amount of the liquid spilled onto the dresser. She ignored the spilt juice and reached for her multivitamin jar, opening it and grabbing a pill from the top, failing to notice that she'd spilt one from the side. She threw her head back and swallowed the pill, and stumbled over to the cot. After a moment, the headache eased up, and Amy shook off what little of it remained before standing up, shutting the jar, and drinking the orange juice that remained in the glass, before leaving the room.
She failed to notice the multivitamin that had fallen out, slowly bubbling and dissolving in the puddle of orange juice.