If there was one person who was good at making cherry pies, cherry donuts, cherry cakes, cherry smoothies, cherry cookies and cherry filled cherries, it was ironically the happy bear cub resident in Leafton known as Cheri! At least once a day, a sweet cherry scent would arise from her house and spread throughout Leafton as animals passed by. Then she would set it out on her windowsill to cool where there would be a 30% chance that Alfonso would come around and nab it. Cheri loved to bake with cherries for as long as she could remember, and now that Leafton had provided her with an endless supply of cherries from the nearby cherry trees, she could bake all she wanted! She kept a little stash inside a green with white lines glass jar and made sure no one ever got to them. Because sure, Cheri has maybe one of the sweetest personalities in all of Leafton, but if someone were to do something to possibly upset Cheri, then you wouldn't want to be in a 50 foot radius from her. Getting the main ingredient, cherries, was not a difficult task due to the fabulous well cared for and well watered trees all around Leafton thanks to the tree fertilizer 3.0. But the only issue was getting stuff like flour, sugar, eggs and other stuff for baking. She would always run out of these ingredients fast. Especially sugar, because sometimes she would shamelessly eat a whole bag if there was nothing to do that day or nothing on TV or no bomb tests occurring down the road. Her go to store? The Super T&T. We're not going to lie and say that it had EVERYTHING, but it did have a reasonable amount of stuff, including Cheri's main ingredients. In fact, she was just heading out the door to go and buy some more. As she began walking, she spotted good ol' mayor Harry sitting on Leafton's only yellow bench. Cheri considered Harry to be one of her idols because he was always doing the right thing… usually. She waved him down and began running towards him. Harry was always glad to see Cheri. She made him laugh and even though she was a bit annoying at times, she made a pretty good friend. She also smelled like a cherry. She Slumped herself down beside Harry on the bench and stared at him with a big classic Cheri grin! "Well if it isn't Cheri!" Harry greeted. "Like they say in Canada, what are yeh doin oot and aboot?" "I'm off to go to Super T&T!" Cheri chirped with a smile that would never fade away, even if you burned her house down. "They have such incredible stuff there like for example flour and sugar and eggs and milk and stuff I usually use to make all my pastries for example my cherry pies, my cherry donuts, my cherry cakes, my, well, all the stuff they said at the beginning of the story! And what a story this is going to be! Man I can't wait to head over and finish my cherry cake for Chevre's birthday which is on March 6th so I know I have a lot of time on my hands but still! I have this goal where I want to make a pastry a day! I'm wondering what I should do today though maybe a cherry a la mode because i've never done something like that before i'm kinda nervous but I still think it's going to be fun don't you think?" At this point, Harry had already kinda tuned out already. Shaking his head to snap out of his sudden trance, he looked at Cheri with a fake grin. "Yes, well, i'm glad our town ordinance has inspired you." Harry said. "I'm soooo happy you made that ordinance!" Cherry squealed with glee. "Let me tell you back when I was a kid my mom would NEVER let me bake anything because she thought that I-" Harry sighed. This was going to take awhile…
One childhood recap later…
"...But in the end I learned my lesson: bad things are bad!" Cheri said as she finished off her 3 hour long story. "And that's pretty much how my life was up until this point of time…" Harry, with his classic squinty expression glued to his face, looked dead eyed at Cheri and asked weakly "...Are you done…?" Cheri thought for a moment. "Well I do have my 3 hour long future prediction predictions!" She enthusiastically cried. "NO!" Harry outburst. "...Um, I mean, like, don't you need to head over to Super T&T or something before they close?" Cheri's ever lasting smile turned into a horrified face. "Oh… my… GLORBNOX! YOU'RE RIGHT!" she hollered. She sprung off the yellow bench and dashed her way over to Super T&T. "Bye Harry thanks for hanging out with me we should do it again some ti-" Harry was now the only one sitting on the yellow bench underneath the twilight colored sky. With no one around to disturb his peace and quiet, Harry leaned back against the bench and stretched himself out. It was finally peaceful. "Hey Harry!" A sudden voice called. It was Graham. He sat himself down on the bench next to Harry. "I just finished my prequel to my Lord Of The Ring Maker story! Its called The Hibbit! I'm gonna read it to you now if that's cool." Graham flipped to the first page. Harry groaned.
Cheri bolted all around town. She finally made it up the steps to main street where she saw the Super T&T. Without a sudden thought, she slammed right into the front auto opening doors! And believe it or not, they didn't automatically open. A very worried Timmy walked up behind her. "Um… we're closed Cheri. Yes, closed." he said. "Buf I neef fum ingreefients!" Cheri whined, still slammed against the door. "Please come again tomorrow Cheri. Please do!" Timmy sighed. Cheri removed her body from the door and shook her head. "You don't understand Timmy!" she cried. "My goal is to bake a pastry of some kind each and every day for a year! Without those ingredients, i'm ruined!" Timmy groaned. "Look Cheri, i'll open up the shop early tomorrow so you can bake TWO pastries that day, alright?" He said. Cheri crossed her arms but agreed. "Good good! Thanks for shopping at the Super T&T! … because you don't know how long it's gonna be here…" With an unsettling chuckle, Timmy went on his way home. Cheri looked into the dark store window. She could spot every ingredient she needed. That's when Cheri got an idea. She had always wanted to run a marathon, and now was her time to "practise." She wanted to sneak into the store and grab each ingredient and run all the way home. She could only carry one ingredient at a time when she was running, so she would have to make multiple trips. "This plan is great!" Cheri said. "I can get my ingredients AND practise my running so I could run a marathon! This is so cool! OH! Another idea! I can make this my OWN marathon! Yeah! Cherithon! This idea may be better than the time I created that fire hydrant eating club! Weeee!" Using her spare backup chalk in her pocket, (which by the way, EVERYONE should carry just in case) she made a finish line at the front of the Super T&T. Satisfied, she jogged all the way back to her house and made the starting line. She went inside her house and grabbed a table and put out multiple glasses of water. "Can't run a marathon without hydration!" she exclaimed. She went back inside and came out with a stopwatch. "Yay! Now I can time myself!" Placing herself on the starting line, she took a moment to stretch herself before running. When all the important stuff was out of the way, the first ever Cherithon was about to begin! Cheri counted down. "...3 ...2 ...1...Let's rolllll!" And with that, she took off. And what happened next? Well in Leafton they say, Cheri's running speed increased by 5 stamina that day…
Pacing herself at a well balanced speed, Cheri was running about 15 miles an hour. She dashed up the steps to main street where she saw her finish line. She was sweating fast, but running faster! At the last second, Cheri did a leap over the finish line. She checked her time on the stopwatch. "Not bad…" she said. "But I can do better than that!" Now came the tricky part, getting into the store. Leafton's economical budgets only allowed one building on main street to have a security alarm. That building was the museum. So the Super T&T may of not had a burglar alarm, but they did have it locked up pretty well. But Cheri had remembered that once she had accidentally dropped some bells in the air duct on the side of the Super T&T because she thought it was an Automatic Bell Dispenser. But the bells had actually dropped into the air ventilation system and Timmy had to get a broom and get them out of there for her. So she knew that maybe, just maybe, she could fit in there and get herself into the store. She carefully removed the air duct closing without no one looking and she slipped herself inside. It was dark. REALLY dark. Mix black with dark black and you get this dark. It was also cold. Cheri sat in the vent freezing as she tried to feel her way through the vent. She felt an opening and slid herself down. But she did fall down onto some kind of sliding vent. "Weeee!" she shouted as she slid all the way down before she came out the other end into the store where she flung 6 feet in the air and landed in on a rack full of pots and pans. That noise let alone would've made a good enough burglar alarm due to it being SO LOUD when she fell. A worrisome thought entered her mind, what if that WAS the burglar alarm? She quickly got up and headed towards the baking section. She saw all the ingredients she needed. But which one would she grab first? "Hmmm…" Cheri pondered the thought. "Which one…? Hmmm…" She closed her eyes and picked randomly. "Ah! Sugar! My favorite!" She began to sneak back over to the vent. But she was thoughtful enough to leave the exact amount, and more, of bells on the counter. "There. Timmy will be so happy!" Cheri said as she made her way up the vent out of the store. She had just climbed out when she met face to flashlight! Holding this flashlight was none other than Copper the police dog. Next to him was Booker, Leafton's second best dog cop. "Alright little ms. snatcher, you're snatching days are ovah!" Copper sneered. "Yeah! You're gettin the book! Heh heh…" Booker chuckled. Cheri remained frozen in the blinding light of Copper's flashlight. Her mouth still dropped, her eyes still wide open, her forehead still sweating. She looked around to see if there was any way out of this. There was. It was a grand plan. A fabulous plan. A plan that only people like Cheri could pull off… "OOOHHH NO!" she screamed as she pointed behind Copper and Booker. "A JAYWALKER!" Copper and Booker turned their heads faster than you can say "þ!" But alas, there was no citizen doing the unspeakable act of crossing the street with no official crosswalk light. There was, however, a Cheri running for her life. She sprinted all the way back home with the bought yet stolen sugar. With the police hot on her tail, she wasn't sure that she could outrun the law. "Run run run as fast as you can! If you want to be able to bake a cherry gingerbread man!" Cheri told herself as she ran even faster. She leaped over the river, did a flip over the yellow bench and swung around the lamp post. She was almost at the home stretch! She could imagine countless fans screaming her name as she went for the gold! With her house being to finish line not too far away, she started to pick up speed at the last moment! She was almost there! But there are these things on the ground and they go by many names. Roche, Skála, Βράχος, चट्टान, 岩, Roccia, പാറ, Shkëmb, аска, Skała, or in English: Rock. Yes. She tripped on a Shkëmb. Tumbling forward she sent the sugar flying into the sky where it landed in a tree. The tree exploded. With her face in the dirt and the police now cuffing her, she realized something important… bad things are bad. And she had just done something bad.
"Well she did legally PAY for the item…" Timmy said the next morning as He, Cheri, Copper, Booker and Harry had a meeting in city hall. Harry had his squinty eyed expression as he leaned back in his leather mayor chair. Cheri sat cuffed before him, looking depressed as ever. It may have been the only time anyone had ever seen Cheri sad. "So therefore I think she's learned her lesson. Yes, lesson learnt." There was a long pause of silence in the room before Cheri said "I'm… so… sorry…" Tears were now filling up in her eyes. With a sigh, Harry nodded. "Okay Cheri, you won't be arrested for attempted shoplifting." he said. Cheri perked up again. "YAAAYYY!" Cheri cried as she jumped out of her seat. "However mayor…" Copper spoke up. "There is also another law Cheri broke that cannot be denied, she drew on the stores property… WITH CHALK!" Cheri's happy-go-lucky face got exterminated. "Oh I don't mind that really…" Timmy spoke up. But it was too late. Because Copper and Booker had already dragged Cheri into the back of a Leafton Police Department Cruiser Car, where she would unfortunately spend the rest of her days under arrest for vandalizing public property. Cheri, the always happy bear cub resident of Leafton, would be spending hard time in one of life's most unhappinest and gloomy places.
Behind bars in jail.
It is August 24th, there are 2 chaotic events until Harry loses his mind...