By: Tyler Nichols

One day, my brother and I were selling lemonade and chocolate chip cookies by the side of the road. Business was going great. We had already sold three batches of cookies and seven pitchers of lemonade. It was very hot out side so my brother and I were selling lemonade better. We had so far made $21.50 from selling lemonade at $.50 a cup. The cookies had made us $18.25 at $.25 a cookie (the cookies were small) For a grand total of $39.75 (So far). My brother, Doug was the salesman I was the guy who ran back and forth getting more lemonade and more cookies from our mother who continuously made cookies and lemonade.

I ran back inside to grab another batch of cookies. One of the cookies looked weird so I taste tested it- big mistake. ZAP!!! I began shrink or else every thing around me was getting bigger. I decided on the shrinking idea. I wonder how tall I am? I thought to myself. Wait, I remember, we left the craft cupboard door open. There are rulers in there. I ran to the cupboard and then realized that I was going to have a bit of a problem climbing the high shelves. Hum. I thought how would I get up there? It’s two high for me to climb. Wait a sec, I bet that there’s so much stuff in there that I could just climb up them. It was a brilliant plan. I took one look at it and traced my way up. I clamored up the shelves very slowly.

After about 15 minutes of climbing, I finally got to the third shelf were the rulers were stored. I found that it was very had to lift it up so I leaned the ruler against the wall. According to it I stood three and a half inches tall! “Help.” I said to my self. Being in here won’t help me. Besides I need some food its lunchtime. I knew that the refrigerator door would be to heavy to open so I had to look for something easily opened. Just as I was about to climb down, realized that the rulers might come in handy when I climbed up or down things. I tossed the rulers down and then climbed down by my self.

I had decided that any cookie crumbs on the floor were mine. Using the rulers I climbed up the stairs to my kitchen. The cookies we made were both crummy and delicious. In fact they were so crummy that I found chunks of cookies the size of my head. I chowed down until I was full. After lunch I decided that I was going to get pretty tired if I had to walk all around the house I need a form of transportation. I thought. All of a sudden, I heard a familiar purr near me. I turned around and saw my cat Sammy purring. He always liked to rub my legs but now it would be my whole body. Help! I thought there is a giant cat behind me, and he wants to rub me! Uh-oh was my last thought before Sammy came rushing at me.

“Ooof !” I said as Sammy’s momentum knocked me down.

“Moow?” Sammy said

“No!” I yelled and ran. It was useless. Sammy charged after me. His nose hit me it just the right spot that I flipped over on to his head. This is it! I thought my form of transportation! I climbed backward onto Sammy’s back and held on to his fur. I rode Sammy for a while but then decided to try to get on to Jasmine- one of our other cats, but she wouldn’t let me.

There was only one cat left to try, Sylvia. She was watching my bird, Sylvester, as usual. I climbed up her tail and she didn’t notice. I was square on Sylvia’s head and nearly within arms reach of Sylvester’s cage. If I can get up there I thought I might be able to have some time to think with Sylvester. It was a brilliant plan; I could spend some time with Sylvester and try to make myself back to normal size in the later. It all depended on the fact that Sylvia stayed like this long enough that I could jump to and hang on to Sylvester’s cage.

One, two, three, I thought Jump! I swung my arms back and leaped in to the air. I flew forward and grabbed the bars of Sylvester’s cage. Only then did I look down and realized that if I hadn’t made it I would have gone SPLAT! I climbed up and circled around the cage until I came to the food and water insert bars. They lifted up instead of being pulled open. I decided that it would be easier to open them and crawl over the food than open the cage door with one had and holding on with the other. I crawled in over the food and found Sylvester right in front of me, chewing away. I climbed down past him and landed on the cage floor. I climbed up he side and crawled across the perch to the other side. There I sat for a couple of hours thinking of possible ways that I could get back to normal and how I got like this. I remembered the odd shaped cookie, and when I took a bite out of it, I had shrunken to this size: 3 1/2 inches tall…

“Chirp! Chirp!”

“What the- I said. “Oh, it was you.” I said looking at Sylvester. I must have dozed while I was thinking. I thought I still need a way to get out of here and back to my normal size! My mind was racing I wonder if there is any more of that cookie left. Maybe if I ate another bite out of it, it would make me back to normal size again. But then there is the issue of getting out of here. I am going to have to wait until one of my cats come up to look at Sylvester. Wait a sec here, I know, I could ride Sylvester out. The cats would chase him back into his cage but hey; it’s a way out.

I climbed up the cage walls until I came to the main door. I pushed open the door and waited. I knew that Sylvester would eventually fly out of the cage, when he did, I would jump onto his back and wait until he landed. Then I would climb off his back and start the search for the strange cookie.

It felt like I had sat there for an hour before Sylvester decided to fly out of the cage. He flew out and I jumped, but Sylvester was flying too fast and I fell, plummeting to the earth. I just hoped Sylvester was as loyal as he acted. When I had climbed in to his cage, Sylvester recognized me and didn’t hurt me. I saw a flash of blue just before I closed my eyes to meet my grave.

When I opened my eyes again, I wasn’t in heaven. I was sitting on my carpet and Sylvester was standing beside me.

“Chirp! Chirp!” Sylvester said.

“Thanks old buddy. You really are a life saver.” I said quietly to Sylvester. Suddenly, Sylvester flew off.

“What is it?” I said, getting on my feet.

“Moow?” A familiar purr came from behind me. Sammy was standing there giving me that face that said come here and give me a good petting. “Hi Sammy.” I said. Sammy continued to purr and charged. This time I was ready. Just as Sammy’s nose was about to hit me, I jumped. I landed on his head and crawled back onto his back as I had done before. “Yee ha!!!” I yelled. Sammy slowed to a walk as he approached the kitchen. “Well, this is my stop” I said to Sammy. He didn’t sit down as he usually did. “Oh come on Sam. Could you please sit down? The fall would kill me. I’m three and a half inches tall and that’s a hard tile floor.” I began to rub Sammy’s back. This usually made him sit down. It did. I slid down Sammy’s back and searched for the odd looking cookie.

The rulers that I had used to get up to the kitchen before were still there. I climbed up them and then dragged them up. Using the rulers I was able to climb on the counter. Once on the counter I saw a glass of fresh lemonade and a sheet of cookies on the other side of the sink. Using my rulers I was able to use them to climb across the sink to the cookies. Sitting there was the odd looking cookie.

Well, here I go. I thought. I closed my eyes and went up to the cookie, and took a big bite out of it. ZAP!!! Now I was three centimeters tall!

“Darn it.” I said to myself. “Ooof!” I said as a wave of lemonade came washing over me. The zap of me getting yet smaller must have knocked over the lemonade glass over. I thought. Now the odd little cookie had turned a cyan color in stead of an olive greenish color when the lemonade had washed over it. Well, maybe now I should try it. It might reverse the effect. I thought, it was a brilliant plan.

I walked up to the cookie and took another big bite out of it. ZAP!!! I was three and a half inches tall again. I took another bite out of the cookie this better put me back to normal size I thought because I’m almost out of cookie! ZAP!!! I was back to four feet and ten inches.

I grabbed the cookie sheet and walked out the door and felt the fresh hot air. I went out to the lemonade stand and said to Doug, “Well sorry I was gone so long, I had quite the experience. Here are those cookies.”