It was a hot, sunny morning, and Lily’s long, brown hair was sticking to her face. Her blue eyes were watching the cars pass by as she waited for her friend, Emily. Emily had orange hair with bangs and freckles. Look for the red van, thought Lily. Blue car… white truck… red van! She saw Emily’s bright green eyes running out of the car.
“Emily!”
“Lily!”
“I missed you so much!” Lily screamed. “Come into my house. I am so excited you are moving next door!”
“Me too!” Emily said. “Let’s play Candyland.”
“Okay,” Lily said. “Come inside. We should have it… here it is! Hmmm, this says special edition. Oh well.”
“I’ll be the red character! And I’m going first!” Emily called, grabbing the red character.
“I’ll be the blue one,” Lily said, taking the blue. “Let’s start!”
Lily and Emily placed their pieces on the board. Suddenly a big tornado pulled them into the game!
“What’s happening?!” screamed Emily.
“I don’t know!!!” yelled Lily.
They looked around. All they could see was black. They looked down. They saw the Candyland board!
“We’re getting sucked into the game!” screamed Lily. “Oof! Emily, you’re all red!”
“You’re all blue!” Emily returned.
“What happened to us?” Lily questioned.
“I don’t know,” Emily answered.
“Okay,” Lily said, “maybe we got sucked into the game, and we have to play the game till we get to the end so that we can escape. Do you think that’s right?”
“That’s pretty straightforward, but sure,” Emily said. “No wonder the box said special edition. Well, let’s roll the dice. But first of all, where is the dice?”
“There is no dice,” Lily stated.
“Okay,” Emily said, “then we should pick one of those cards.”
“Aw, we landed on a green. We were one away from the rainbow bridge!” Emily whined.
“Well, we landed on a green, so deal with it,” Lily said.
“Okay, anyway, let’s pick another card,” Emily said.
“We got the Gingerbread man,” Lily told Emily.
“Let’s move to the gingerbread space now.”
They went to pick a new card.
“We got a double blue!” Lily squealed. “To the second blue space!”
“I still don’t get why we traveled into the game… maybe we are special!” Emily thought out loud.
“Yeah, there is such a big chance of that,” Lily said sarcastically. “Anyway, we should pick another card.”
“Okay, we got a yellow card,” Emily said.
Lily said, “You can pick a new card.”
“Can we go to Lollipop Woods when we pass by?”
“Yeah, fine,” Lily said. “Now look, this card says to go to the next two yellows.”
“Yes!” Emily screamed. “We get to go on the Gumdrop Pass. But it’s too bad we didn’t get to go on the Rainbow Trail. That’s closer to the end.”
“It doesn’t matter,” Lily said.
When Lily and Emily looked around, they saw so many good stuff. They saw gumdrops, and farther away, they saw lollipops. The mints were huge. There were huge candy canes, and they were all white and red. And the gumdrops were all different colors and had sparkles, and when they saw the lollipops, the lollipops had swirls in the middle. And Jolly was even there! He was a big, blue blob.
Their next card was a backwards card. They had to go back to the last purple.
“Aw,” Emily said. “Seriously?”
“Oh! But now we can go into the Peppermint Forest.”
“We’ll save that for another time,” Lily protested.
“Okay, new card.”
They picked the next red.
“Well, just our luck,” Emily said. “We landed on a licorice space. We have to lose a turn!”
Lily said, “Look! There’s a Gingerbread cookie. Maybe he’s gonna take the next turn. And then we’ll go.”
When the Gingerbread cookie rolled. He got a double red.
“Wow, he’s lucky!” Emily said. “Let’s just pick another card. Here it is. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes!!! We got the nut card. Can we please meet Gramma Nutt?!”
“Fine,” Lily said.
“Whoo hoo!”
When the girls passed Gramma Nutt, Emily and Lily started laughing. A basket dog was jumping on top of them! The basket dog was literally a basket with a face on it. It was beige with the same weaves that’s on the basket. But when they looked around, they saw trees filled with nuts from bottom to top. And then they saw Gramma Nutt. She looked so nice.
“Come on in, girls,” said Gramma Nutt. And then she asked, “So, what are you girls’ names?”
“I’m Lily, and she’s Emily,” answered Lily.
“Oh, those are very nice names,” Gramma Nutt complimented. “Well come in, what are you waiting for?”
“Okay,” Emily said.
“Would you girls like to try my famous nut pie?”
“I guess,” Lily said.
“Here’s a slice.”
When Emily took a bite, her face was starting to turn red.
“I don’t feel so well,” she said.
And now she was talking weirdly. It was like her tongue was sticking out of her mouth.
“Oh no, Emily, I think you’re allergic to nuts!” Lily said, sounding worried.
“Gramma Nutt, do you have any medicine?”
“Oh of course, dear, this happens all the time. Here’s a nice cup of medicine. You should probably keep that with you in case your allergies come back.”
“Oh thank you, Gramma Nutt,” Lily said very gratefully. “Okay, Emily, have a little and let’s go.”
As they were leaving, Lily started yelling at Emily. “Emily, did you even know that you were allergic to nuts?”
“Um, I don’t remember,” Emily answered.
“How do you not remember your own allergy?”
“Okay then, let’s just say that I didn’t know I had an allergy.”
“Fine, Emily, I’m only letting you go this time,” Lily grunted. “Now, let’s pick a new card.”
“Oh seriously, we got a green?” Emily whined. “That’s one space ahead!”
“Stop whining, Emily. Why don’t you pick a card this time?”
“Fine! I will! I actually wonder how we get all the cards. Does the deck follow us or something?”
“Yes, Emily,” Lily said.
“Oh, good to know. Well anyway, I got a blue.”
“Okay then, go to the blue.”
Lily said, “New card! This one is a double blue again. That means we have to land on a licorice space. Ughhh,” Lily groaned. “And here comes the Gingerbread man.”
“Seriously, how does he always get the best cards? He got the double orange!”
“Okay, anyway, our next card is a lollipop! Yay!” Lily said excitedly.
“Wait, wait, wait, wait, can we go into the Lollipop Woods? We have to go into the Lollipop Woods,” Emily pleaded.
“Fine, but I hope you’re not allergic to lollipops too.”
“I won’t be, don’t worry.”
“Okay, let’s go then.”
“Wow, I never knew a lollipop forest would be so scary considering it was made out of lollipops. There are so many sticks! There’s like a wall of sticks. And it’s so colorful. But then there’s a part of it that’s just brown black, white, and gray. It’s so ugly but pretty at the same time. Wow,” Lily said.
“Look, there’s the Lollipop Fairy,” Emily squealed.
She had brown hair, and it was all put in a ponytail. She had dark brown eyes and a sparkly, bright, purple dress with lollipops around it and shimmery blue shoes.
“Hi,” Emily screamed up to her.
“What are you doing in my Lollipop Forest?”
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry, we’ll leave!” Emily yelled.
“It’s okay, it was just a joke.”
“Phewf!”
“So, what brings you here to Candyland?”
“Well, the game board that was at my house — it said special edition but we didn’t really know what it meant — we got sucked into the game, and we’re trying to end the game, and hopefully there’s a way out in the Candy Castle,” Lily told her.
“Oh, I think there’s a portal in the Candy Castle,” said Lolly.
“Oh good,” Lily sighed.
“Well, you two should be on your way. And be careful not to get frosting from Princess Frostine. She gets a little annoyed when you do that.”
But Emily wasn’t listening to her.
“Anyway, we should probably pick a new card,” Lily stated. “And this card is… yellow!”
“Oo, that’s pretty far,” Emily said.
“Oh look, there’s Princess Frostine. Now we should pick another new card.”
“This is going by fast!”
“Ice cream! Wow, we’re really lucky!”
“I bet she won’t mind if I just take a little frosting,” Emily thought out loud.
“Emily, no!” Lily yelled, but it was too late.
Emily had already eaten it.
“What? You think I’m allergic to frosting too?” Emily said, still recovering from her nuts allergy.
“A little, and Princess Frostine hates it when people eat her frosting,” Lily yelled. “Oops, I should not have yelled.”
“WHO ATE MY FROSTING!!!” Princess Frostine yelled.
“Run!!!” Emily screamed.
“You shouldn’t have either,” Lily whispered.
“I’m sorry,” Emily whispered back.
“Now by order of me, you must move back five spaces. Normally you would move back ten spaces, but you didn’t take that much frosting, so I’m letting you go for ten spaces and only giving you five,” screamed the Frosting Princess.
“But…” Emily started.
“Don’t argue,” Lily said under her breath. “Go to the last purple.”
“Fine.”
Emily backed up along with Lily. Lily and Emily picked a new card.
“Red,” Lily said. “Move up to the red.”
“Oh look, we can see the Candy Castle from here,” Emily said. “New card! Let’s see. This one says double green. Okay, now all we have to do right now is just hope that we don’t get any yellow. Lily, you pick this time.”
“And this says… yellow! Seriously? Here comes the Gingerbread man. How is he so good? He got double purple!”
“Losers!” the Gingerbread man shouted.
“Hey!” Emily shouted back. “Okay. Time to pick a new card.”
“This says purple. Go to the purple!” Lily said.
“Oh, we’re so close to the Candy Castle! I can’t wait. Finally, we’ll be able to go back home,” Emily squealed.
“Yeah. This card says another purple. Hm, strange coincidence!” Emily said. “But, Lily, are you sure that there’s going to be a portal in the Candy Castle?”
“Let’s hope so,” Lily said.
“Okay, now what did we get?”
“This card says… ready? Red! Oh, we’re one away from the Candy Castle! Come on, let’s do this! Now, any card will get us there, unless it’s a backwards card and let’s hope not. This card says… go back to the nearest blue!”
“Seriously?!” Emily shouted. “Wow, just our luck. Now we have to go back to the rainbow. Now this card says orange. Seriously. Why does it have to be orange? It is one space away.”
“This card says… blue! We made it to the end!”
“Yes! Now we can finally go back home!” Lily said.
“Hello, kids,” greeted a big man with a white beard and two bushy eyebrows.
“Who are you?” Lily asked.
“Why, I’m King Candy!”
“Woah, do you know if there’s a portal in the Candy Castle to get back home?” Emily asked.
“Sure, kid, you just have to answer one riddle. Come on inside.”
When Lily and Emily looked inside, they were amazed. There were gumdrops and candy canes all in rows, and the long carpet was a fruit roll-up! There was caramel everywhere, and the king’s throne was gummies with candy canes around it and gumdrops on top of the candy canes.
“Woah!” Emily said. “Who made this?”
“Everyone in Candyland did,” answered King Candy.
“Oh my god, we didn’t notice it before, but look, there’s Gloppy, the chocolate monster!”
They heard Gloppy yell, “Good luck getting home, kids!”
He was a big, chocolate blob with the darkest eyes you’ve ever seen and chocolate chips around him and a big smile.
And then suddenly, the king’s face got all serious.
“Now, you have to answer one riddle to get home. You got that?” said King Candy.
“Okay,” stuttered Emily.
“Yeah,” Lily answered.
“Okay. Here’s your riddle: I have stripes, but I’m not a zebra. I look like a hook, but I have nothing to do with Peter Pan. I’m normally red and white, but I’m not a Milk Snake. I can be eaten, but I’m not a strawberry jelly sandwich. I’m minty, but I’m the opposite of toothpaste. What am I?”
Lily and Emily had to take a moment to think about this.
“Let’s see,” Lily said. “It has stripes, but it’s not a zebra. It looks like a hook, but it has nothing to do with Peter Pan. It’s normally red and white, and it can be eaten, and it’s minty. What could it be? First, let’s think what candy has stripes. Well, a mint has stripes. And it does match with minty.”
“But how about the hook?” Emily thought out loud. “It could be… a candy cane! That’s it! King Candy, is it a candy cane?”
“Yes, you are correct!” King Candy shouted.
“Okay, where’s our portal home?” Lily asked.
“Well, all you have to do is go through this curtain made of sugar.”
“Okay,” Lily said. “One, two, three, go!”
Lily and Emily jumped through the curtain. The curtain felt so soft and smooth, and they did get a little taste of the sugar. It felt like so long to get out of the portal back and to their house. But finally, they just landed on the floor. When they looked around, they saw black. But when they looked down, they saw their houses.
“Yes, we’re finally home!” Lily said as she landed on the floor.
“Finally!” Emily said. “Now, I never want to play Candyland again. How about Monopoly?”
“Hmm, that’s weird, this says special edition. Oh well,” Lily said.
The End