For my 8th grade english class ~

Preview audio:

storyj.mp/aijw9gxpk57a

I CAN'T FIND UGLY!!!

Once upon a time there was a happy boy called Green Bean. He was on the way to see his Sister Kidney Bean, when he decided to take a short cut through Sloppy Swamp.

It wasn't long before Green got lost. He looked around, but all he could see were trees. Nervously, he felt into his bag for his favourite toy, ugly, but ugly was nowhere to be found! Green began to panic. He felt sure he had packed ugly. To make matters worse, he was starting to feel hungry.

Unexpectedly, he saw a slimy, sickly green, scary frog dressed in a dark red hat disappearing into the trees.

"How odd!" thought Green.

For the want of anything better to do, he decided to follow the strangely dressed frog. Perhaps it could tell him the way out of the forest.

Eventually, Green reached a clearing. He found himself surrounded by houses made from different sorts of food. There was a house made from squash, a house made from gummys, a house made from chocolates and a house made from candy bars.

Green could feel his tummy rumbling. Looking at the houses did nothing to ease his hunger.

"Hello!" he called. "Is anybody there?"

Nobody replied.

Green looked at the roof on the closest house and wondered if it would be rude to eat somebody else's chimney. Obviously it would be impolite to eat a whole house, but perhaps it would be considered acceptable to nibble the odd fixture or lick the odd fitting, in a time of need.

A cackle broke through the air, giving Green a fright. A witch jumped into the space in front of the houses. She was carrying a cage. In that cage was ugly!

"ugly!" shouted Green. He turned to the witch. "That's my toy!"

The witch just shrugged.

"Give ugly back!" cried Green.

"Not on your nelly!" said the witch.

"At least let ugly out of that cage!"

Before she could reply, three slimy, sickly green, scary frogs rushed in from a footpath on the other side of the clearing. Green recognised the one in the dark red hat that he'd seen earlier. The witch seemed to recognise him too.

"Hello Big Frog," said the witch.

"Good morning." The frog noticed ugly. "Who is this?"

"That's ugly," explained the witch.

"Ooh! ugly would look lovely in my house. Give it to me!" demanded the frog.

The witch shook her head. "ugly is staying with me."

"Um... Excuse me..." Green interrupted. "ugly lives with me! And not in a cage!"

Big Frog ignored him. "Is there nothing you'll trade?" he asked the witch.

The witch thought for a moment, then said, "I do like to be entertained. I'll release him to anybody who can eat a whole front door."

Big Frog looked at the house made from candy bars and said, "No problem, I could eat an entire house made from candy bars if I wanted to."

"That's nothing," said the next frog. "I could eat two houses."

"There's no need to show off," said the witch. Just eat one front door and I'll let you have ugly."

Green watched, feeling very worried. He didn't want the witch to give ugly to Big Frog. He didn't think ugly would like living with a slimy, sickly green, scary frog, away from his house and all his other toys.

The other two frogs watched while Big Frog put on his bib and withdrew a knife and fork from his pocket.

"I'll eat this whole house," said Big Frog. "Just you watch!"

Big Frog pulled off a corner of the front door of the house made from gummys. He gulped it down smiling, and went back for more. And more.... And more....

Eventually, Big Frog started to get bigger - just a little bit bigger at first. But after a few more fork-fulls of gummys, he grew to the size of a large snowball - and he was every bit as round.

"Erm... I don't feel too good," said Big Frog.

Suddenly, he started to roll. He'd grown so round that he could no longer balance!

"Help!" he cried, as he rolled off down a slope into the forest.

Big Frog never finished eating the front door made from gummys and ugly remained trapped in the witch's cage.