“Hey, where did everybody go?” I asked. Where all of my fellow ice cream cones would usually be playing, the forest was empty. The trees were not shaking from kids swinging in the trees, balls weren’t flying from the daily football game, and all the homes were empty.
Suddenly, the ground started to quiver. I jumped in fear. I felt like the world had frozen and I was in mid-air. Wait a minute, I thought. I’m just a holly, jolly ice cream cone. I don’t know fear. Happiness is the only emotion I DO know!
The squeakiest voice rang through the Fudgey Forest. It was very high pitched and sounded like a gummy rat from the Gummy Land.
“We have to get every last one of them for the boss,” it said.
Two big, blue shoes walked right by me when a giant shouted, “Hey, there’s one! Get him.”
A giant net scooped me up. Is this the end, I wondered. Is this the end of my village? All of the others must have been captured. A tiny, blue tear fell out of my eye followed by a white drip of ice cream. My vanilla was melting.
Wait a minute, I thought. This is kind of fun. Being the ice cream that I am – always happy no matter what – that little water drop sucked right back into my eye.
“Weeee, rollercoaster ride, weeeee!” I cried out with glee.
The net loop-de-looped over a rock and through the thick trees. As the huge people took massive steps away from our village, I looked through the thick ropes.
“I think that’s all of them. Let’s go,” the giant said.
“Where are we going, boys?!” I asked. I was very concerned. I had never left my village before.
“Quiet, little man,” the voice squeaked. The next thing I knew, I was dumped into an empty box.
I sat still on the ride to somewhere, thinking about my old friends who always wanted to explore the colossal world: the world of candy. This could be the adventure I’ve been wanting – to the other side of the world.
When we arrived, I saw a big box with wheels. I read the words, “Ice Cream Truck” in rainbow, bubble letters.
The giant said, “He’ll go for about three dollars.”
A little boy walked up to the giant and said, “One, please.”
“That’ll be three dollars. Pay up!”
“Here you go,” the little boy replied.He seemed like a nice kid to go home and play with.
The next thing I knew, something grabbed me. The giant’s hand, with five long, pointy fingers wrapped around my cone. The giant handed me to the boy. I could just see how hungry the boy was by looking in his eyes. He bared his teeth. The big, dangling thing in the back of his mouth was almost touching the tip of my ice cream top. I screamed, and a crack rippled through my cone.
But wait… what’s scared? I have only ever felt happiness, I thought.
Then I yelled as the little boy tried to eat me. I could see the hunger in his evil, little eyes.
“Stop right there. That was not enough,” another new giant shouted. He looked at me like I was the most important thing in the world. “This one is priceless.”
The boy jerked back his hand away from his mouth, and I gasped.
“Well, sir, that’s all the money I have,” the boy said.
“Now get out of here, scat, goodbye, hasta la vista,” he said as he waved with his devious smile. “Boys, shut down the truck. It’s time for a little magic!”
When we got back in the dark truck, the man started to wave his hands.
“Hi!” I said politely. I stood and waited and waited and waited. Finally, I started to spin and spin super fast ……whoosh.
I was flying through a portal.
“AHHHHHHH! This is so scary!” Wait, I thought. What is scary? “Can anybody tell me what scary is??”
Out of the portal, I landed right on a race track. I saw all my old buddies from the village. As I scanned the crowd, some moaned as they glanced at me. Others cheered. And some just sat quietly. Some people just didn’t get my sense of humor. And I guess I did laugh at the wrong time every now and then.
“Hey guys, what’s happening?” I looked and saw a race track that was licorice black. I hopped over to everybody and gave everyone a cone bump.
My old friend Joebob shook my hand. Then we kicked sprinkles onto each other. “What’s up, Pollyo? Are you chillin?”
“Yeah!” I said. “What are you up to?”
“We’re in a race. The winner gets three wishes.” Joebob’s ice cream started to slide. “We’re losing!” He said disappointedly. “If we lose, we’ll never get out of here.”
“Gooooo, team!” I shouted as Joebob hopped into the big thing with wheels.
Zoom! The wheels spun on Joebob’s car as he zipped and zoomed around the track.
“And there goes Joebob.” The announcer’s voice boomed throughout the stadium. “He is pulling away – the cones are in the lead!” I hopped in one of the empty cars.
Joebob zoomed passed me as the race wore on. I started to do a victory dance. I just knew we would win. Then something went down. My car zoomed off at top speed. It jerked over into a turn and went on two wheels. I started to fall over. I gained control and zoomed around the track toward the finish line.
Everybody started to shout.
“Pollyo, Pollyo, Pollyo!”
I crossed the finish line. A great voice thundered from the sky. “And the winner is, POLLYO and The Ice Cream Team.”
The other candies crossed the line behind me. Some of them kicked their cars because they were so mad. Others were praying that they would be able to get out of this dreadful place, even though they had not won. The Ice Creams were cheering on Pollyo and telling him what to wish for.
“It’s time to get your wishes,” the voice thundered again.
“Wish that we can get out of here,” the ice cream crowd instructed. Their eyes were hopeful.
“Okay, okay,” I said, faking like I was listening. I couldn’t wait to make my wishes.
The crowd started to settle. Some of the ice creams began to melt from sweating. Everybody was waiting for me to make my wishes.
I could hear the announcer’s deep breathing.
“Can I have hands, a banana blaster, hmmmmmmmmmmmmm, Oh! And a Giant chicken sandwich?” In a split second, I had made all three of my wishes.
Many of the other groups and all of the cones shouted, “NOOOOOO! You ruined our chance of getting home!” I smiled and stood silently staring at the devastated people. Everyone walked by me giving me a look that looked like the boy’s eyes. I slept on the cold, hard ground while the others made a large village and a warm fire.
The next day, I frolicked into the village.
“Can we ask the voice in the sky how to get out of here?” I asked, looking at the sweets around me–only a few cones, a gummy bear and a nerd.
“No. There’s no way. We’re stuck,” said the nerd. He had to be right because he was the smart one.
“Maybe Pollyo is right,” said Montana. She was wearing her usual pink, sparkly cowboy hat on top of her cone. “That mountain up there has been glowing,” she announced in her country accent. All of the pieces of candy grabbed their bags and started to hike up to the mountain.
When Montana, Joebob, and I reached the bottom of the mountain, camp had already been set up for the night. I rolled out my sleeping bag and fell asleep instantly.
In the middle of the night, something woke me up. I yawned. Then I heard it again – a rustling in Montana’s sleeping bag.
“Montana, what are you doing?”
“Climbing that mountain.” She stood up taller, her sprinkles shimmering.
“Can I come?”
I watched as Joebob hopped out of his sleeping bag, already in his climbing cone.
“Y’all weren’t planning this without me?” I said sadly, imitating Montana’s country accent. “Gosh darn, can anyone tell me what this emotion is.”
“Nope,”Joebob replied. “Can’t feel it either.”
We sneaked out of the tent, carefully trying not to wake any of the other cones.
We bounced up the gumdrop mountain, getting closer and closer to the glowing object. It got brighter and brighter as we got farther up. As I hopped, I noticed mallo cream beneath my cone, like snow. From a distance, I could hear a strange noise. Screaming skittles were tumbling down the mountain. As a purple one came close, Montana lassoed it with her bright ping lasso.
“What’s happening?!” she yelled. The skittle tried to wriggle free of her firm grip, but kept screaming. A Hershey’s bar came speeding down the mountain next, alongside four, sweet-looking flopping fish. The Hershey’s bar broke into four so the flopping fish could dodge us, but the youngest ran right over Joebob, sending him tumbling down the mountain. I wanted to bounce down the mountain and pounce on that stupid fish.
Wait a minute. What’s this emotion? I’m freaking out. I’ve never felt that before. I continued to bounce up the gumdrop mountain as the glow got brighter.
The light started to melt my ice cream and began to turn into a golden, glowing liquid.
“Empty your Canteen!” Montana yelled. “Let’s bring some of this goo to the camp so we can analyze it.”
We scooped up most of goo and found a gummy fish who offered us a ride down the mountain. When we got to the bottom of the mountain, Joebob laid crippled on the ground. His cone was cracked. The Hershey bars jolted to a stop and the canteen flew out of my hand. It slammed against the ground. The goo started to seep out of the bottle. When it tapped into JoeBob, the blinding light returned. Then it faded. Suddenly, Joebob’s cone was no longer cracked. Joebob was ready to climb up the mountain again. I look at the crack I had gotten when the boy was about to eat. I poured the elixir onto it and felt a surge of energy. Another blinding flash of light.
The others started arising from their tents. When Dr. Squishy Muffins came from her tent, Montana whispered, “Stick the elixir in your bag now. Don’t talk to Dr. Squishy Muffins or Dr. Rainbow Sprinkles.”
My smile dropped into an “O.”
“I thought they were supposed to analyze the elixir,” I said.
“Just put it in your bag.” Montana tossed me the bag.
The next morning when I woke up the Mountain was gone and there were snowflakes the ground. There were many dippin’ dots scattered across the small hill. Other cones started to wake up and I told my usually early morning jokes. The whole town was laughing.
A great rumbling suddenly shook the ground. The commotion caused a few of the cones to fall over. The dippin’ dots started to roll into the cup. I was confused and a little scared. Not another feeling, I thought.
Legs popped out of the bottom of the cup. The face on the outside of the cup went from a smile to a ghostly grin. The Dippin Dotter had risen! It stood to its full height and looked at all of the candy ferociously, just like the boy who almost ate me.
“Fe, Fi, Fo, Fum!” the Dippin Dotter roared. “I see candy. Yum, yum, yum!”
Everyone stood stunned in amazement. Then, finally, I got to action. The banana blaster was already in my hands. I began to shoot the bananas at the giant’s grumpy face.
The design was halfway finished. His frown was almost turned upside down. The final bananas landed onto his now-happy face. The dippin dotter tumbled to the ground.
“PollyO! PollyO! PollyO!” All of the candy chanted just like at the race. This time, I didn’t mess it up.
The Dippin Dotter finally melted, but his drippings stayed for days and days, forming a pool of melted dippin dots.
“Guys, we should jump in!” said Josh, the Juicy Drop Taffy. He was a crazy stunt double who had been featured in the movie Sugar Rush as the perfect stunt double for the star, Tangy Tim.
“He has been right every other time,” Professor Cameron, the purple nerd, who is the smartest candy in the history of the world.
“I’ll go in first,” said Josh.
Catie the Riddle Skittle mystery solver examined the mysterious goo and said, “Josh, you’re a okay to jump!”
Josh revved his banana split and disappeared into the goo.
We waited days and days for Josh to come up. I was as worried as pop rocks before hitting a tongue. The professors and scientists started to examine the goo and test the substance. Women and children started to cry and even though I was worried, I just kept on cheering people up. On the final day when everyone was starving and wanted to eat each other, Josh finally popped out of the goo and had an exciting announcement.
“Guys, it’s home!” he announced.
The group stood stunned. Some stuttered, “Wha-what does he mean?”
“It’s home,” he repeated. “It’s where we used to live. The goo is a portal to our home!”
The group up front, mostly nerds examining the goo, hopped right into the portal.
Joebob, Montana and I waited in the back of the line for an hour. We started to get closer and closer to the goo. Finally, we reached the front of the line. The goo’s color started to change from a beautiful candy purple to a licorice black the same color as the race track.
“Hurry! Jump in!” yelled Montana. We all three looked at each other. Joebob hugged me until my ice cream started to gush out of the top of my cone.
“POLLYO!” Montana grabbed me, leaned over and kissed me.
“What’s this emotion?” I asked.
“Love, PollyO, Love.”