Author: Halle Wakkuri – First Place Junior Division 2023
Once upon a time there was a fridge. There was nothing special about this fridge, it was a normal fridge, just like any other. The fridge belonged to a karate teacher named Frank Bacon. Mr. Bacon had a wife and two kids. This story is not about the Bacon family. It is about the fridge. Inside the fridge there was a karate club led by Sensei Pickle. He had seven students: Tomato, Cheese Stick, Carrot, Butter, Lettuce, Ranch, and his top student, Mushroom. You see this karate club had a special job: they protected the whole fridge from any rotten food that tried to make other foods join their side. Lately it had been hard to recruit new karate students because everyone in the fridge had heard about Egg’s accident.
To get you caught up, everyone was practicing their flying sidekicks and Egg flew a little too far and rolled off the top shelf. Dr Pepper tried to save him, but it was no use. Egg had a big crack. You see, it was every food’s dream to be eaten, so every food in the fridge dreaded two things: going bad and getting eaten by Mr. Bacon’s dog, Joe. To everyone in the fridge, he was known as Sloppy Joe. Anyway, it was almost Mr. Bacon’s birthday, so Mrs. Bacon bought him a cake and put it in the fridge. When Sensei Pickle heard about this, he immediately called an emergency meeting of the karate club.
“Alright everyone,” yelled Sensei Pickle, “you may have noticed it is almost Mr. Bacon’s birthday and they have bought the cake earlier than usual, so that means the Rottens have more time to convince Ms. Cake that she doesn’t want to be eaten.”
Cheese Stick interrupted, “But who wouldn’t want to be eaten?”
Ranch added, “Yeah, I mean, especially with the honor of being a cake.”
Carrot agreed and said, “Yeah, it’s easy being cake. Everyone wants to eat cake. It’s not like people stick candles in carrots for birthdays.”
Tomato said, “When Mr. Meat was thawing, I overheard him telling someone that a rotten found his way into the freezer and convinced Ice Cream to go bad.”
Butter shuddered, “That’s horrible! Ice cream is way better than cake. It’s nice and refreshing.”
Lettuce said, “Well, cake doesn’t make your head freeze like ice cream does. My doctor said I have to stop eating ice cream because it makes my whole head freeze.”
Irritated, Sensei Pickle said, “Anyway, we must protect Ms. Cake so the Rottens don’t do any harm. Mushroom, I’m leaving you in charge of tonight’s guarding.”
Mushroom replied, “Thank you Sensei. You know, I think I have a plan on how to stop the Rottens. First we have to…”
Then suddenly the light in the fridge got brighter and everyone ran into their spots. Sensei Pickle dived into his jar, Cheese Stick ran into place, Carrot cartwheeled into her bag, Tomato lunged into his drawer, Butter slid on the shelf, Lettuce leaped into place, and Ranch tried to hop into the door shelf, but the door was yanked open so fast that he missed and landed on the floor. His cap flew off and his insides oozed out. All the foods watched quietly, like statues not making one sound. Mr. Bacon’s little girl put the cap back on Ranch and set him next to Sensei Pickle’s jar. Spoiled Milk was right behind the jar, so he decided to push Sensei Pickle right off the top shelf. The jar flew out right onto the floor and smashed into a million different pieces. Sensei Pickle was now laying on the floor. Mrs. Bacon ran in and when she saw the mess, she sternly told the little girl to pick it up. Mushroom sat in place sadly, looking down at his sensei. Mrs. Bacon walked away, and the little girl was about to pick up Sensei Pickle with the intent to eat him, but right before her little fingers could grab him, the dog ran by and gulped him whole. The little girl shut the fridge doors and all the food quickly got away from Spoiled Milk.
Mushroom looked over at him and said to the karate club, “Come on let’s go.”
Lettuce, Tomato, Ranch, Cheese Stick, Carrot, and Butter all looked at him thinking of what to say.
Tomato said, “I have homework to do.”
Ranch said timidly, “I don’t feel great. It feels like my insides are outside of me.”
Carrot quickly said, “I’m coming, Mom.”
Butter explained, “You don’t want me, I have butter fingers.”
Lettuce said, “I have an awful headache.”
Cheese Stick replied with enthusiasm, “You can count on me Sensei Mushroom.”
Mushroom sadly replied, “Just Mushroom is fine.”
So off went Lettuce, Tomato, Ranch, Carrot, and Butter. All that was left was Mushroom and Cheese Stick
Mushroom said, “We need to plan how to stop the Rottens from getting to Ms. Cake and I have the perfect plan.”
Later that night, Cheese Stick and Mushroom stood, hidden in plain sight within two inches of Ms. Cake. They were waiting for any Rottens to arrive. Just then Spoiled Milk and someone else walked onto the shelf, but it was too dark to tell who the other food was. They walked up to who they thought was Ms. Cake when all of a sudden Cheese Stick came zip lining in on a noodle and kicked Spoiled Milk down to the ground. Then Mushroom came spiraling in!
In a tone of surprise Mushroom said, “Egg what are you doing here?” For the first time they could see Egg. He was a pale color with multiple fruit stickers on his head to keep his crack from getting any bigger.
“It’s Evil Egg to you Mushroom!” replied Evil Egg. Just then Evil Egg did a perfect flying side kick hitting Mushroom and Cheese Stick. They fell down. By this time, Spoiled Milk had finally gotten up. They grabbed what they thought was Ms. Cake and drove away in their to-go car. Cheese Stick and Mushroom got up rubbing their heads in pain.
Cheese Stick was worried, “What will we do now? They took Ms. Cake.”
Mushroom proudly replied, “That’s what we wanted them to think.”
He stepped out of the way so Cheese Stick could see Ms. Cake still sleeping in the corner of the fridge.
“It’s not going to take long before they notice though; we need a new plan.” Mushroom said, leader-like.
Cheese Stick asked, “Isn’t there a bowl of soup from yesterday on the second shelf?”
Mushroom hesitantly said, “Yeah, what were you thinking?”
Cheese Stick quickly explained, “Well, if we take some of the noodles, we can make a tripwire to make them fall into the soup.”
Mushroom said, “Hot Sauce can distract them.”
Cheese Stick said approvingly, “Exactly. Tomorrow is cleaning day so when Mrs. Bacon sees the soup…”
Mushroom finished, “She will throw them both away. But how will we do it all by ourselves?” Just then Tomato, Butter, Ranch, Lettuce, and Carrot all showed up.
Ranch said, “We’re here to help!”
Cheese Stick replied, “We’ll tell you the plan on the way to the second shelf!”
On their way, Cheese Stick and Mushroom told them what to do.
It was all set up when Spoiled Milk and Evil Egg came running full force toward them. Hot Sauce sprayed them in the face, they tripped over the noodles, tumbled into the soup, and sank deep down. The Karate Club had gotten rid of the Rottens. For now.
The next day they were all practicing their karate moves when five more foods decided to join. Sensei Mushroom was happy they were safe at last. Or so they thought. You see, today was Mr. Bacon’s birthday, so Mrs. Bacon would not be cleaning out the fridge, and that meant they had an unknown enemy, Hot Head Soup.
The End… For Now
