Prologue
“Hee hee hee!” a young man wearing an evil smile and a Stupendous Sprinkles tee shirt with the name tag Jerry laughed evilly.
He grabbed a dirty, gray bucket on the ground with a food dye-covered hand. With the other, he held his nose because it smelled like rotten salmon with vinegar poured onto it that was left out for a week. Jerry yanked it up and sauntered past a glowing, red clock displaying 3:45 a.m. Anyone watching the scene could tell that his coworkers obviously would not be there for a few hours.
He poured the glowing liquid onto the conveyor belt, covering sprinkles in green goo. Jerry slapped the bottom of the bucket to make more of the toxic-looking slime ooze out.
Jerry frantically looked back and forth for a good hiding place. He decided on a musty, old closet with a Staff Only sign on it. At least, it used to say that. Now it said “S af nlv,” the mark of the sixteen years that it had been untouched, until very recently.
Jerry let the light streak into the room for the first time in sixteen years. He didn’t open the door all the way, though, so the sides of the room were still covered in the blanket of darkness. Jerry tucked the bucket under the folds of a dusty apron that left gray trails on his fingers so that his coworkers couldn’t read the side that said “Radioactive!”
Jerry positioned the apron back to how it had been and closed the door quietly. He turned off the lights and the conveyor belt. But he paused before leaving the factory. First, Jerry laughed maniacally.
Chapter One
Don Utshop was the owner of a donut shop. One day, he thought to himself that he should put rainbow sprinkles on his donuts, not just frosting. He had been getting bad reviews for not having sprinkles. People loved sprinkles, so Don decided to go buy some.
Don thought to himself, I’m so lucky! I’m a donut shop owner, and I live right around the corner from a sprinkles shop! Stupendous Sprinkles, here I come!
He grabbed everything he could find to store the sprinkles in. He found a Don Utshop’s Donut Shop tote bag, a Golden State Warriors backpack, and a brown paper Whole Foods bag. He intended to stuff as many sprinkles as he possibly could. “Every single sprinkle matters, right?” he concluded.
As he gathered up all the bags inside the shop, he was brainstorming donut ideas. I’m going to have sprinkles! Think about all the possibilities! So many donut ideas! He smiled.
As he pulled open the brass doorknob, Don’s head was filled with bright colors and flavors. Could he make a donut that was no donut, just sprinkles stuck together? Maybe a plain glazed donut, but covered five inches high in the sprinkles? He almost ran into the street, because he was so excited.
Chapter Two
Don halted so abruptly on the curb that he almost skidded backwards. But he just pivoted on the heel of his left foot and kept going towards Stupendous Sprinkles, like it never happened.
Even if he got hit by a car, Don wouldn’t let business slow. He would bake donuts in the hospital and hire his son, Pean Utshop, to sell them. He would have to make sure that Pean wouldn’t put nuts on all the donuts, though, because some customers were allergic. Pean wouldn’t eat anything besides nuts.
The reason that he wouldn’t let business slow wasn’t because he was a loyal shop owner, though. The reason was because Don really loved donuts. If he closed his store, he wouldn’t get free (maybe not free) donuts.
As he approached the big, pink building, Don got a whiff of sugar. He breathed it in and held it for a moment, delighted with the sprinkly goodness. He had forgotten how delicious they were, for he had not had a single one in sixteen years. That was when he had stopped working at Stupendous Sprinkles. (Dramatic foreshadowing!) (Dun-dun-duuun!!!)