A Goo Idea!
Story by WeWrite Kids, San Jose, California. Illustrations by Troy Freeman, www.digitalldesigns.com
Long, Long ago when it was the 1970s, did you believe in aliens? Well, if you didn't, you would have been wrong, because in a faraway place was the very sticky world of Alien Universe.
Alien Universe was a weird, egg-shaped planet. It was rainbow-colored and covered with smooth bumps and sticky goo. Everything was sticky and goopy. Even the plants squirted goo! You couldn't walk through the goop; you had to sloop! Everyone had to drive hoover-cars to keep from sticking to the gooey streets.
The aliens were called Gooeyjoobals. Gooeyjoobals looked weird. They had rabbit ears, tiger stripes, dog whiskers, and tails. The money they used was called "gooeys." Gooeys came in different shapes. There were sticky coins with famous Gooeyjoobal faces on them, slimy triangles, and, of course, the eyeball gooeys. Aliens carried their gooeys around in specials pouches with locks. The locks were meant to...
remind them not to waste their eyeball gooeys and slimy triangles. But hardly any aliens used the locks. They were too much trouble to use.
Gooeyjoobals were happy except...
for two big problems. The biggest problem was that water on Alien Universe would not stay on the gooey ground. It kept floating away.
Big water-saving machines...
collected water for Gooeyjoobals to use. But these big machines didn't save much water and everyone had to wait in long lines to use them. No one liked that.
The water-saver machines were enormous — even the ones at home. They looked like a really big container with a huge metal ball on a cable. A ball would fetch water from the well and automatically bring it back to the house.
The second problem was that the family water-saving machines cost a LOT of money. Most of the Gooeyjoobals couldn't afford to buy one. They were too poor.
Water-saving machines cost so much money that only the Queen, called Queen Something, and some aliens who had money could have one in...
their house. Everyone wanted a family machine at their house so they didn't have to wait in line so long for a drink of water. They also wanted their own machine so they could take showers and not be stinky and smelly.
The poor aliens got stinkier and stinkier because they didn't have enough water to take showers. Alien Universe smelled so bad that everyone had to hold their noses. PEE-YOO!
Queen Something was worried. Most of the Gooeyjoobals didn't save their money. That made them poor — too poor to buy their own family water-saving machines. She knew that they wanted to have money for important things but they just didn't know how. Queen Something wanted to help them plan to save.
One of the Queen's ideas was to give the Gooeyjoobals a special pouch to save gooeys just for important things, like their water-saving machines. Another pouch would hold money for everyday...
things and for small fun things, like candy of a ride or two at the carnival. So special pouches were made and given to the aliens. Both pouches had locks, but the aliens wouldn't bother locking either one. If they had money, they wanted to spend it right away!
Gooeyjoobals were poor because they didn't leave their "Important-Savings Pouch" at home and kept spending all their money at the carnival. It was an exciting place called the Great Gooey Fun Place. Everyone was happy and would have a great time there. Gooey money was spent on candy, sodas, and tickets for rides. A Merry-Go-Gooey had rockets that would spin the aliens in circles. The Flat Wheel would spin and squirt goo at them through little holes. But...
the best ride ever was the Alien Circle. It was really fun because it was like a roller coaster spinning in a loop 100 miles per second!
All the fun rides made them hungry and then they'd spend there money on food. Chocolate goo from the Ice...
Cream Gooey stand was their favorite. And there was gooey popcorn, cotton gooey, and double gooey-burgers.
But soon their money from both pouches was gone! Then they would just look at each other, confused. After the carnival, the Gooeyjoobals who wasted their gooeys would go home sad. Now the money for their family water-saving machines was gone.
Most of the Aliens lived in the capital city — a town called Springfield. Icantthinkofit lived there with his family. He had two Gooeyjoobal brothers, Tom and Johnny.
Icantthinkofit's family didn't go to the carnival very much. His parents...
said that if they waited and saved their gooeys now, they could still have fun and buy things they wanted later.
His parents said, "We're investing in our future." They tried to teach their children about investing. They also encouraged their kids to go to school. "In school you learn lots of interesting things that help you now and when you grow up," they would say. "Math is one thing you learn that helps you make more money."
Icantthinkofit and his brothers all went to Goopey-Goo Alien School. Tom and Johnny studied very hard, had jobs after school, and saved their gooeys. It made them feel good and proud because it wasn't always easy to work and save.
Tom helped make money by mowing lawns with his Mowing Water Maker machine. It would scrape goo off the ground and change it into water for the Gooeyjoobals. It didn't make...
nearly as much as a family water-saving machine, but it was better than nothing.
Johnny wanted to help the world, too, and would go around patching up...
all the cracks with a special cement that would change colors. The special cement was what made the planet appear rainbow-colored. It was hard work, but Johnny didn't mind because he was doing a good thing AND earning money.
But Icantthinkofit didn't like going to school, because he didn't like to think. He would go with his friends and waste money at the carnival. If he had any left over, he would spend it on clothes — colorful clothes, sticky clothes, leopard clothes, tight-fitting clothes, and ripped off rock star clothes. Icantthinkofit liked to spend his money on little things. He was jealous of the rich Gooeyjoobals who had hoover-cars and water-saving machines. He was also jealous of his...
brothers. His brothers had a lot more money than he did.
Poor Icantthinkofit wanted to be like his brothers, but he couldn't think of anything he wanted to be or do. He didn't want to think, work, or save money. He was, however, really good friends with Queen Something and she wanted to make him King.
Queen Something was a good Queen. She liked helping out around her planet and helping other Gooeyjoobals. She wanted a King who could think of a way to help with the water problem and the Gooeyjoobals' spending problem. Icantthinkofit definitely couldn't think of anything so she told him not to come back to the palace until he could come up with something that would help the Gooeyjoobals.
That's the end of this Sneak-A-Peek. Watch for more...
More Fun
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