Sophomore Stories Part III "The Power Ball"

After waiting many hours, as was custom, to get the best available student seats at a KU Basketball game, we were let in the door 3 hours before tipoff. As we entered, ushers handed each of us a complimentary Power Bar which we stuffed into our pockets as we ran to secure good seats under the basket. Once we settled in, the free Power Bars quickly became the focus of our attention.
As college students, not only are we mostly poor and grateful to receive free food, we're also immature enough to play with our free food if it tastes like berry/chocolate/honey nut flavored cardboard. Upon the realization that our complimentary semi-edible energy bars were not going to be eaten, James fashioned his on to a ball. I gave him mine, which he quickly added to his, noting how the two bars molded together.
We started looking for, and easily finding, discarded Power Bars on the floor of the bleachers. Six, seven, eight more Power Bars and our sticky mass was growing. After exhausting our supply of Power Bars from the floor, we started asking fellow students if they would donate their free bars. Not suprisingly, most gladly handed them over, although we experienced a couple of 'wince' moments when a couple of students apologized, saying they had already eaten theirs.
Before long, we had over 20 bars and we could hardly open the dumb things fast enough. Every 3 or 4 bars added, James would laugh his unique laugh and say "man, this is awesome" or "man, this is disgusting!"
As we kept adding more and more bars, nearby students took note and began collecting more bars for our cause. Meanwhile the 'ball' of Power Bars had grown to the size of a honeydew melon.
By now, both my and James' hands were covered with sticky, Power Bar residue and the bars we added were only making our Power Bar ball misshapen. James then took the mostly pink ball of molded together Power Bars and hoisted it one-handed over his head which drew a large cheer from the student section. Then I went to thoroughly wash my hands.
Soon, the game started (my how that time flew by) and we were caught up in the action. Sitting behind the basket at KU carries with it a certain responsibility. For it is the job of the students sitting in that particular section to attempt to make it as difficult as possible for the opposing shooter to make free throws. As the second half started, we were ready because the entire first half, KU had been shooting at our basket. We started with the basic tactics...everyone hopping up and down, pointing our arms to the left and moving them over our head to the right as the shooter was letting the ball go, etc. Well, none of it was working, until, James hoisted the Power Bar ball up in the air. It got a reaction from the students, and we don't know if the shooter saw it or what, but he missed! Then, I took the Power Bar ball and everyone was shhhhing in preparation to scream once the shooter was about to release the ball. Right before everyone yelled, I slammed the disgusting mass onto the bleachers as hard as I could. It made a tremendous noise and the shooter once again missed. We were laughing uncontrollably and not even paying attention to the game at this point, reveling in our vicarious participation of KU's basketball success.
We tried our tactics a few more times with some players overcoming the mystique of the Power Ball and some who were not so fortunate.
When the game ended, James decided to carry it with him back to the dorm, mostly over his head in triumph, celebrating the KU victory. He brought it back to our room and there it sat for a couple of days, brining us warm feelings as we waxed philosophical about the strange powers behind the mass of energy bars.
Eventually, the Power Ball found its way into a cardboard box and then onto the ledge outside our 5th story dorm room...and there it sat, until May...when it was removed by the Lawrence biohazard squad.