Magical Disclaimer: I don't own Winx…
Oh yeah…I hope you're good and hungry by the way.
Mr. Jones and the potato surprise
Mr. Jones worked in the mess hall at Red Fountain, he had for the past 15 years. And in those years that had passed many things had happened to poor old Mr. Jones, most of them bad. His wife of 20 years divorced him, his children said that he was bitter and no longer called or visited, and the other day when he went outside his dog was hit by some rotten teenager in a car.
Oh how he hated that breed, the teenager.
Especially teenage boys.
More specifically the ones from Red Fountain….
Everyday they made fun of his comb over and graying hair, they threw bits of bread at him as they called him names like 'Grouchy Mcgee' and 'Oscar the Slouch'. He put up with this EVERYDAY, no exception, and he took it with a sour face trying to ignore their jeers and name calling. He knew that one day he'd just snap, blow his top, but what he didn't know was that that day was not far away…
A senior boy with fins on the side of his head complained to the headmaster that Mr. Jones had spit in his casserole, despite the fact that Mr. Jones disliked the boys he ran a very clean kitchen and would never do such a thing. But the headmaster had to take the complaint seriously and he told the old cook that if they received another complaint like that he would be fired, this was not the first time a student has brought Mr. Jones to his attention.
It just wasn't fair. Every day he put up with the boys and the professors never saw how they treated him.
That night Mr. Jones went to his little house in the city and came up with a plan, the boys would surely pay for their cruel ways. He took a book off the shelf in his living room, one he hadn't seen in years. During his young days he'd been studying to become a wizard, but he ended p dropping out because he could no longer pay tuition. And to be truthful he'd been a slacker of a student, but that didn't mean he didn't have talent.
Mr. Jones used his anger and rage to create a potion, one that he would put in tomorrow's lunch dish and then the boys would be the ones to be made fun of. He worked on it into the early hours of the morning until his stove was a mess and his glasses were fogged with steam. It was perfect, absolutely beautiful.
He put his masterpiece in the fridge to cool and went to bed for a few hours.
The next afternoon during his shift Mr. Jones had a big smile plastered on his face. He came to work early carrying a big bag and started making his potato surprise for the little snot eaters, he poured in the entirety of his potion into the mixture before the rest of the staff arrived. He couldn't help but grin as it bubbled and boiled, the smell was exotic to him and made Mr. Jones fly to the moon and back in his mind.
And then they arrived. The sweaty, smelly Red Fountain boys wearing their t-shirts with swear words across the chest and torn up pants. The boys were confused by the grin on his face as Mr. Jones gave each of them a BIG helping of potato surprise, but he didn't care. Besides, pretty soon it would be clear to them all why he was so happy.
"What's up with the cook today?" Helia, a long haired specialist, whispered taking a seat next to a cute brunette named Brandon, "that smile on his face is a little creepy."
"Who knows? That guys has problems, I swear." Said a red head named Riven as he took a big bite out of his meatloaf like some animal. So much for table manners.
"Well he might not have so many problems if half the student body didn't hassle him everyday," the blond one Prince Sky spoke up. "Wow, these potatoes are awesome!"
A boy with glasses nodded in agreement. "Yes, I wonder what the cook put in them! They're sensational!"
"Ugh! I don't know how you guys can eat that stuff." Brandon scrunched his nose at the dish and ate some yams instead.
The other four boys at his table ate the potatoes like mad, in fact so were most of the students in the mess hall and this made Mr. Jones smile. Not too long now!
Just as Riven was in the middle of swallowing another bite he stomach felt strange, like something was crawling inside it. He stopped eating and held his belly in pain.
"Aww man! I don't feel so good!"
"Neither do I!" Helia moaned, he too was starting to feel sick
Pretty soon the entire mess hall was full of boys who were starting to feel the effects of what Mr. Jones had done to them, he watched from the kitchen as he scrubbed a pot clean. The grin on his face increasing with every sickly groan, but OH this was not the surprise…
Prince Sky looked down at his hand, it was changing!
"What the heck?!" He screamed as little blonde hairs started sprouting everywhere like wildfire, he wasn't the only one it was happening too. Every student that ate the potato surprise started growing hair all over their bodies that matched what they had on their head.
The entire room quickly began to look like it was full of giant tribbles (1 !
Codatorta, a professor, saw this and called the headmaster immediately but he too was baffled by what was happening. The headmaster observed that only a few students remained normal and asked them what they thought.
"They ate the potatoes." Brandon said, "I had the yams."
"The potatoes you say? Did any of you other boys have the potatoes?" The headmaster asked the other hairless students, they all shook their heads. With this information the headmaster immediately went to the kitchen to confront the staff there.
He asked of anyone had tampered with the potatoes, his eyes narrowed as he came to Mr. Jones who still had that smile on his face.
"In a good mood today Mr. Jones?"
"Yes, very." The cook replied happily.
"…it was you, wasn't it?"
"And if it was?"
"…you know that you're fired."
The grin from Mr. Jones's face didn't disappear, no, it GREW. He'd finally had his revenge against the bratty boys of Red Fountain, not even being fired could ruin this!
So Mr. Jones grabbed his bag, hopped over the counter and into the mess hall. And there he shouted at the top of his lungs, "guess what boys? That was the surprise! Potatoes! They make you grow hairs on your chest!!!!"
And that was the last time any student ever saw Mr. Jones, some say he grew himself a full head of hair and moved to another planet, others say he's still out there waiting around the corner for them. One thing is certain though, no Red Fountain boy EVER picked on the kitchen staff again.
Oh, and the boys that grew hair were cured of their over active follicles, most of them scarred from ever looking at another potato in their life…
The End
Some wise words to live by: Don't eat the taters…
(1) Tribbles, furry little critters in the Star Trek universe. Basically hair balls.