"Food Truck"
It started on a rare location that appeared to be a forest. Jessica and her family, specifically her mother Patricia and her little 6-year old brother Sam, were in line for one of the food trucks that served a Ramen Taco. A lot of the food trucks in the area along with it combined two of their favorite meals: Chinese and Mexican. Sam was still confused about the product itself. "What's a Ramen Taco?" Jessica smiled at her younger brother, eager to enlighten him. "Only one of the greatest foods ever! They actually combine ramen noodles into a shape of a taco, fry it until it hardens, and then they fill it with hamburger meat, lettuce, dressing, tomatoes, and cheese like it's a taco! It also comes in a vegetarian style, fortunately for you." Sam became greatly excited for his long-awaited food. "Oh, wow! I can't wait to eat one!" Meanwhile, the bears didn't share Sam's kind of optimism. "Oh, man. When do we get to eat? This line's taking forever." "Ice Bear's tired of staring at this guy's butt." In an act of sensitive caution, the guy in front of the bears moved forward a little bit. Panda might be the most anxious of them all. "Can you tell me how much longer? I may die soon." "From up here, I would say... 15 to 75 minutes." Suddenly, a guy with a beanie hat showed up with a Ramen Taco, catching their attention. "Whoa! Is that the Ramen Taco? Lucky!" Panda took a picture of that, blinding the consumer with a short flash to his inconvenience. Then, he walked away briskly with the taco, a photo of which Panda desired greatly. "Wow. There it is. I want to eat my phone now. I told you we should have settled for the Mac and Cheese Pizza truck." The moment those words left his mouth, Grizz put his paw down (literally). "No, Panda. When it comes to food, we never settle." "Okay, okay." "We're good, law-abiding citizens, and we deserve that Ramen Taco. Maybe 10 of them." Ice Bear didn't feel as though he can even have enough time of his life to enjoy them. "Good-bye, cruel world." Then, Ice Bear collapsed, causing the rest of the stack to topple as well.
Eventually, Sam, Jessica, and Patricia managed to get theirs and noticed the bears. Jessica became surprised and elated that they're here. "Guys?" The Bears noticed Jessica and her family as well. "Jessica? What are you doing here?" "Ice Bear wants to know." "Well, it just happened to be our ideal spot to enjoy exotic foods and nature at the same time." Panda saw Sam and grew curious. "Who's this little fella?" "This is Sam. I should've told you I had a brother, but-" "N-No, no. It's fine. I actually like the little guy." Suddenly, Sam jumped onto Panda's leg and climbed up. Panda was grunting as Sam tried to scale the black and white mountain of a bear as Jessica giggled. "I'm guessing Sam likes you too." Panda grumbled in embarrassment as she continued to giggle. Jessica asked the bears a question as she pryed her brother from Panda's back. "So, you guys holding up?" "Actually, I don't know if we can hold on for much longer." Suddenly, the vendor shouted to the bears. "Order 74! Next!" Immediately, the bears rushed to the vendor. Sam had a theory. "They must really be hungry." Patricia found herself in agreement. "Yeah. No kidding." After seeing the bears, Sam grew excited about them. "So, Jessica, when did you meet the bears?" Jessica chuckled before telling him her answer. "It was about the first day after we moved in."
From then on, she proceeded to tell the whole story about how she played a great game of Basketball, only to be plunged into a world of Vigilantism and busting the dreaded Pigeon Cartel, the criminals responsible for their missing items. Sam was really impressed. "Whoa! You actually arrested the bad pigeons?!" "Yep. That was a one-time thing, though. I don't know if that's going to happen again." Then, she heard a faint voice. She could've sworn she heard Grizz yelling at the vendor. "Oh, we understand! Your food stinks!" Panda and Ice Bear drag Grizz away from the vendor. "No! I'm not done complaining yet! I will be heard- on the internet!" Jessica grew confused about the reason for his outburst. "That's weird. What made Grizz act like that? I guess Ramen Tacos just aren't for everyone." Patricia had a different theory. "Or maybe he's angry, because he wants the food, but he can't have it." "What do you mean, Mom?" "Just look at the sign." Jessica looked at the sign that said no feeding wildlife. "Oh. That." "Its obvious that he's mad, because he can't have it." "It could mean anything, Mom. They're not exactly wild." "Sure, they're domestic, but I don't think it gives them the right to eat foodmade by people." Jessica became offended, but knew better than to mess around with her mother, given her anger issues. "Let's agree to disagree."
After eating the Ramen Tacos, they spent the day playing in the grass with their frisbee and looking at the clouds. One of the clouds looked exactly like Panda, so when Jessica took notice of that, she blushed beet red instantly. And so it went, until they heard honking from a distance. At the table, Jessica and Sam noticed a food truck with the state of California as the background. "Look, Mom. A new food truck." "That's weird. I thought every one of them was here." "Can we go look, mom?" Patricia agreed on one condition. "Alright, as long as Jessica goes with you." "Cool! Thanks Mom!" With that, Sam pulled on Jessica toward the new food truck. When the door opened, music played as Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear introduced their new food truck. Panda held a sign in the shape of California with the word Calzone in it. "It's the Beeeeaaar's Calzone!" "Ye-e-ah!" "The bears?" "Yay!" Patricia saw all that she needed to see. "Oh. That explains it." Grizz cleared his throat and proceeded with the announcement. "Anyways, come and enjoy our wonderful calzones!" "Please!" "Whoo! Ha!" "Mm-hm!" As Grizz chuckled, everyone else went back to their own business while Sam immediately ran for Grizz with Jessica behind him. Grizz noticed Sam with wide eyes. "Oh. Hey there, Sammy. What's up?" "Can I have a Calzone?" Grizz got out a tray of free samples for Sam. "Sure thing. It's only one free Calzone sample per customer." "Cool!" Sam gladly took the Calzone and ate it. When he did, his eyes went wide with wonder. "It tastes so good!" Jessica grew impressed. "Wow. How'd you do it, guys?" Ice Bear was eager to answer the question. "Ice Bear followed passion of cooking." Jessica took the sample herself and was impressed. "Oh, wow! This is amazing!" "Ice Bear knows." "How come no one else is eating them?" "Don't worry. We'll fix that soon enough. Okay guys, you know what to do." With that, they turned their hats and chapeau to the side and got down to business.
While they did so, Jessica and Sam sat down on the table, where Patricia was suspicious. "So, I've noticed the bears had their own food truck." Sam filled in to answer her. "Uh-huh! And their food tastes so good!" "But I thought you liked the Ramen Taco?" "I still do, but their food is so much better!" Patricia decided to talk to Jessica. "Listen, Jessica, I know they're your friends, but how do you know they won't get into trouble?" "That's the thing, Mom. We don't." "So why aren't you doing anything about it?" "Mom, their food is actually pretty darn good. Honestly, I don't see any downside." "What if they start feeding the wildlife?" "Pfft. Come on, Mom. Even they would never do that." "What makes you so sure?" "Well, they don't have the money to pay for the fine." "Well, they're not going to get any by the looks of it." Patricia pointed to Panda trying to attract attention with a sign. "Fresh Calzones!" Panda was having trouble with the sign just as a person walked by. "Okay. H-Hey, would you like to try a Calzone? No? Okay." Panda then flipped the sign inadequately as another person passed once again. "Oh, hey, you should get a Calzone! Or not. Just keep walking. That's fine." While trying to flip the sign, he smacked himself in the face. "Oh! Ow." Jessica giggled at Panda's mishap, leaving a confused look on Sam's face before he understood and changed it to a smug grin. "You love Panda, don't you?" "W-What? I just think he's funny and cute." Patricia got Jessica back into the conversation. "Jessica, the point I'm trying to make here is that these, uh, how can I say this nicely, animals are more trouble than they're worth." "That's why I want to be their friend, Mom. Sure they have a lot to learn, but they'll learn faster if I'm with them." "You mean like how you ended up on the news?" Jessica started to act matter-of-factly. "I'll have you know, I caught a Pigeon Cartel, Mom." "You're lucky you did, or we'd be having a different discussion." "The point I'm trying to make is that I want to be their friend because it helps them. And for the record, they're not just animals, Mom." "We'll see about that, young lady." Sam tugged on Mom's shirt. "Mom, can I get another Calzone?" Patricia wasted no time giving him her answer. "No." "But why?" "If you want to get a Calzone, take it up with your sister." Jessica grumbled at her mother, not because Sam's being dumped on her a lot recently, if anything she's happy to look after him, but it seemed like bad parenting on her part. Patricia saw the look and scolded her. "Don't give me that look. You know I'm not going to take part in their ridiculous act of protest." "They're not protesting, Mom. They're just trying to sell food." Anger aside, she calmed down and took Sam with her to the bear's food truck. "Come on, Sam." As they were walking they saw that the bears were having no luck with their business. Panda saw a bug and moved the sign directly above it to squish it, but the bug still went along. Grizz had no luck giving away free samples either. He tried to get the attention of a customer. "Samples?" However, he didn't seem to notice and walked away from him. Grizz art his head on the truck and sighed disappointedly. Only Jessica's voice broke through their stupor. "Excuse us. We'd like to get two California Calzones please." Ice Bear saw that as a happy moment and instantly got out two Calzones fresh from the oven. Sam received the Calzone and was grateful. "Thank you." "So, any luck?" Panda answered her. "Not really. Other than you two, no one else wanted to eat our Calzones." Jessica felt sorry for them. "Oh. Sorry Ice." Not to say he wasn't grateful for his two customers, but the fact that no one else came to eat his culinary masterpiece drove Ice Bear to the brink of rage quitting, as he tossed his apron and chapeau to the floor and walked out of the truck growling at the sky. Panda was still confused about the way things have been going on. "I don't get it. Our food is good. Why do people eat that stuff?" Patricia's voice gave them the answer. "Because, you're wildlife. And no sane person would eat foods made by wildlife, no matter how culinarily inclined you are." Jessica started growling to the point her teeth would break on contact. "Why are you being such a jerk, Mom?! At least have some sensitivity!" "Animals aren't sensitive, Jessica. That's just simple science." "Simple Science, my foot! They're not just animals!" However, Grizz's desperate act proved her wrong. "Hey, you! Why don't you eat our food, huh?! Why?! It's so delicious!" Jessica saw Grizz's said desperate act and tried to calm him down while Patricia smiled to herself. "Grizz, stop!" Jessica got in between the man and Grizz. "Look, Grizz, I know how much you want them to have some Calzones, but that isn't the right way to do it. Now, just calm down and let him go." Grizz took a deep breath and responded calmly. "Okay." With that, Grizz let the man go. "Sorry, sir. Please, go on with your day." Patricia chuckled as she knew that she wouldn't have to prove her point. "If that isn't animalistic behavior, I don't know what is. The fact of the matter is, you animals can't sell food to people, never mind do it properly. So I suggest you give up on your protest, go back to the cave you live in, and stick with it." With that, Patricia walked away with a smug grin on her face, leaving Jessica growling and tearing her hair out. Panda tried to calm her down. "Uh, Jessica?" However, when Panda tried to calm her down, she snapped like a twig and instantly started yelling. "You can forget it, Mom! Because they're the best darn food truck ever invented! And if they shut down, then you'll be missing out on their greatness! So the joke's on you!" As Jessica huffed and puffed, Ice Bear applauded. "Ice Bear accepts preach." After calming down, Jessica realized her mistake of an unnecessary outburst. "I made it personal, didn't I?" Panda nervously answered. "Yeah, you, uh, kinda did." With that, Jessica growled. "I'm sorry, guys. She's just such a- Argh! I'm going to go for a walk." Sam ran over to the profusely angry Jessica. "Wait! Jessie!" As Sam ran after Jessica, Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear were all alone again. Grizz put his head down in sadness. Panda petted Grizz's back. "There, there."
At the woods, Jessica stormed in a huff as she thought of Mom's snide remarks. "What gives Mom the right to call my friends animals? They know how to do stuff people do like everyone else! WHY CAN'T YOU OPEN YOUR EYES AND SEE THAT?!" As she yelled, it echoed throughout the whole forest. Jessica then stomped on her feet to a nearby tree with some shade and sat down, snorting out a puff of air, before noticing Sam's sad look. "Sam. I-I didn't mean-" Before she could finish, Sam hugged his dear sister. With that, Jessica hugged him just as tightly. Sam wanted to know the cause of their dispute. "Why do you hate Mom so much?" Jessica didn't know what to explain to him. "I-I don't hate her. It's just- We just disagree on this food truck thing, that's all. I was trying to help them, but she was being so insensitive to them. They're more than just animals, and she knows it." Sam wanted to know why she's being rude to them as well. "Why's Mom being so mean?" "I... I don't know. I wish I knew, but I'm not some sort of crystal ball that has all the answers. Mom was nice to them when they brought me back home, but why is she acting that way now?" As she took in the surroundings, she noticed an extreme lack of wildlife in the area. "Hmm. That's weird. We usually see one or two animals in the next quarter hour." Sam had an idea. "Maybe they went somewhere else?" "It wouldn't be that easy, Sam. The only place they would go besides here is-" Suddenly, realization dawned on her about the lack of animals in the area. "Oh, no. Sam, we're going back, now!" With that, she took Sam above her shoulders and ran with him.
When they came back, she'd noticed that the bears were giving their food to animals. "Here you go, sir." "Come again!" "Oh, man! Totally owned those other food trucks!" Then, the bears noticed Jessica in a state of panic. "Whoa, Jessica. Are you doing okay?" "What... have you... done?" Grizz was more than happy to answer. "Oh, nothing. We were just giving out food to our customers. We took your mom's advice and started selling them to wildlife." "No. No, no, no, no, no! You don't know what you've done!" Suddenly, the vendor of the Ramen Taco and a few others stormed over to them. "Hey! What are you guys doing?! You're driving away all the customers!" To emphasize their point, they pointed to the wildlife eating random foods from other people. Meanwhile, Patricia felt too highly of herself to pay attention to her surroundings. "I don't think it's too early for a victory sip." However, when Patricia got to the Coffee truck, she found that animals are giving away money and directly using the mug of Coffee to put some into their cup. "Uh, never mind." Patricia then got an idea as to how this happened. "Wait a minute." As she looked around she noticed the bears in a heated argument with the vendors. "Oh, you're just jealous, 'cause our Calzones are legit!" Suddenly, a bird swooped in to steal the Calzone from Grizz. "Hey! You didn't pay for that!" Suddenly, a herd of deer ran toward them, scooping up Panda in the process. Next, a pack of Possums snatched the Calzones like ninjas. Then, a wolf made off with a string of sausages. In the chaos, animals began attacking trucks and people, because of their dissatisfaction. The vendors climbed onto one food truckfor safety, as did Jessica with Sam in tow, Patricia, and the bears. Once they were trapped, the bears spoke to the vendors. "Fellow food truckers, Ms. Bailey, on behalf of myself and my bros, we'd like to say, 'our bad'." The vendors had begun to lose hope and began to mourn. "That food truck was all I had." "My food truck was passed down to me for three generations." "I lost my family in that food truck. I will never see them again." However, a woman and a child stepped up toward him. "Oops. Never mind. There they are." Despite the chaos, Patricia never lost her smug face. "Still think they're more than just animals?" Angry as she was, she was more focused on solving the problem. "You're enjoying this, aren't you Mom?" "In a word, yes." "Well, there's a time to be smug, and a time to actually solve the problem. Okay, everyone calm down. We just need a plan to get out of this." Panda didn't seem to be paying attention to Jessica as he somberly got out his phone. "One last picture." After he took the picture, a flash came on, giving Grizz an idea. "Wait! That's it!" Grizz snatched the phone from Panda's paws. "Hey, I'm not done posting it!" When an animal tried to jump into the truck, Grizz snapped a photo of it and scared it off with its flash. "Step off!" Jessica knew that Grizz had found a ticket out of their predicament. "Grizz, you're a genius! We'll use the flash to scare them off and get away from here in one piece!" "Follow me, food truckers! To freedom!" With that, Grizz was the spearhead of the escape route, taking pictures of every animal that lunged at them, providing safe passage. Escape seemed within reach. "Come on, everyone!" Suddenly, a hawk caused Grizz to drop Panda's phone to the floor, and ended up falling along with it and Panda. When they got down, Ice Bear slid down briskly while Jessica leaped down. "Are you guys okay?" Their situation proved to be quite perilous as a pack of animals surrounded them. Patricia slid down next to them as Grizz tried to calm them down. "Get behind me, guys! You guys up there, be cool. We got this under con-" However, they were already running out of the forest. Grizz found it insensitive. "Well, that was kind of rude." Patricia felt otherwise. "Actually, I'd say that's appropriate." "Mom..." Patricia tried to explain the reason for her statement. "I mean, isn't escaping the whole point of this?" The animals continued to swarm them, cutting off any chance of escape. Unfortunately, Panda's phone was low on battery. "Oh, no! The battery's dead!" In desperation, Grizz chucked the phone at them. However, it only managed to hit a skunk who stared at them blankly. Sensing what was about to happen, Jessica gave them a warning. "In the truck. Now." They were given no more incentives when the skunk turned and stuck its tail up. "Run!" Only Jessica, Sam, and Patricia got in the truck, closed all the windows, and ducked. Outside, an atomic explosion of Skunk Stench filled the whole area. As a result, it scared the animals off to the forest. Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear were happy that they survived. "Hooray!" However, they realized that they smelled nasty. "Ugh!" When the truck opened up, Jessica and Patricia peeked out. "Is it over?" With one smell, they instantly gagged. "Yeah, it definitely is, Mom." When Sam smelled it, he wasn't as bothered by it as they were. "It smells like raw Gasoline."
Over time, the forest rangers arrived and sprayed water everywhere to try to eliminate the raw Skunk Stench. Meanwhile, Grizz, Panda, and Ice Bear were dousing themselves in tomato juice to get rid of the stench as a ranger was fining them. "Okay, that's a fine for feeding the animals, selling without a permit, driving an unregistered truck, and disturbing the peace." Grizz was indifferent about it. "Yeah, it's not like this is the first ticket we've ever gotten." The ranger ripped off the ticket and handed it to Panda. "Thank you, officer." Far away, Patricia and Jessica were settling their dispute. "I'll say this about the bears. They know how to make things eventful." "That's true. But why have you been acting like such a jerk to them?" "To stop this from happening. I was being snide and insensitive to do what a good mother should do; prevent an incident before it happens." "Well, we can't stop them from happening, Mom, even if we try. It's okay to make mistakes if you learn from them. After today, they learned to leave food trucking to the food truckers. You know who taught me that?" Patricia immediately felt sheepish. "I did." "Now, what did you learn?" "To let them make their own mistakes and solve them themselves." Jessica was happy to hear it from Patricia. "That's right. Come here." With that, Jessica and Patricia hugged each other while Sam divulged in his own Calzone, spared from the Skunk Stench. The bears watched as they made up. Grizz was still leaning on the positive. "Well, at least we taste great." When Grizz tasted himself, he changed his mind. "1/4 star!"
A/N: Thanks so much for those reviews, guys. I mostly started this to give the limelight to a certain extra, who I feel should be more involved. Take a look at the bginning of the Food Truck episode and you'll see who I'm talking about. To make her more involved, I may or may not change her role completely depending on the episode. :) Also, you could expect at least 2-3 episodes later each week. Keep those positive reviews coming!
