Zigby's First Day at the Academy: Food Fight!


Join me in this contest sponsored by Marcie Colleen of The Write Routine, “Food Fight: Zesty Onomatopoeia Slinging.” The rules are simple: between March 4-8, comment on this post and any other participants’ posts (links here at The Write Routine). Your task is to continue the story in the comments. You must include at least one word of onomatopoeia (words that are sounds, like ZING, POW, SPLAT) and one thrown item of food. You cannot repeat an onomatopoeia and the story must flow from the previous comments. Be creative and join the food fight! You can win a prize if you are the most prolific food slinger (in this & other posts), and one author's story will also be awarded a prize. 


Badge by Julie Rowan-Zach

Zigby's First Day at the Academy: Food Fight!


            Zigby groaned. Two of his hearts sank to where his three stomachs began. Great. First day at Aliens A-1 Academy and he was already odd alien out. Not that he looked so different from the other kids in the lunch room. Other Martians like himself balanced trays, books, and drinks with multiple hands. Venutians slithered to and fro on slimy tentacles. Earthlings slouched together acting sullen and too cool to be seen with the gassy Jovians.

            No. What set him apart was his food. He had gotten his food from the same cafeteria lizard-lady that everyone else had. But his looked different than everyone else’s.

His portions were undistinguished gray-looking blobs, like every other lunch he’d ever had at any school in any planetary system. The other kids, however, had food that glowed. And moved. Some hovered and shot electric green sparks. The kid next to him had creepy looking cauliflower. He could have sworn evil eyes blinked slowly at him.

            What had the kids done? Was there a secret sauce that activated the food? Did the other kids have secret powers? Did they actually eat the stuff?

            A Venutian girl next to Zigby nudged him. “Hey, kid,” she said. “You must be new here. We’re about to start the annual Food Fight.” She narrowed her eyes as she looked at his inert blobs of food. “You need to weaponize your food.”

            “What? How do I do that?” Zigby asked.

            An Earthling sniggered as she said to a friend, “Newbie alert. Let’s welcome him to the Academy.”

            “Watch out!” the Venutian girl yelled. She grabbed a glowing carrot with her powerful third tentacle.