In part 2 of our season finale, the Story Pirates execute an elaborate heist to save their ship from Henrietta Hudson (Mykal-Michelle Harris), the biggest name in NYC tow trucks. Featuring two new stories: “The Dancing Cupcake,” a song about a cupcake who wants to dance in your house, sung by special guest Sara Bareilles and written by Violet, a 9-year-old from Pennsylvania, and “The Portals,” a story about the challenges of running a retail store that deals in time and space, written by a 6 year old from California named Lincoln.
Scroll down for the original stories behind the episode!
Illustration by Camila Franklin
The Dancing Cupcake (feat. Sara Bareilles)
by Violet, age 9, Pennsylvania
Our adaptation of The Dancing Cupcake was written and produced by Ellen Winter
Sara Bareilles appears courtesy of Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment
The Portals
by Lincoln, age 6, California
Once upon a time there was a Portal Chef. He liked to make portals. He grew his own Portal Forest, and lots of people came to buy them. He also liked keeping portals in his pockets.
Instead of cars, they would use portals to come to the store. Everybody really liked the portal store.
One day, the Portal Chef was out picking portals when he saw one that looked unfamiliar. While most portals are colorful, this portal was gray. Even though the portal looked unfamiliar, he didn’t think it could be too bad, so he just kept on picking portals. He finished up, and went back to the shop to sell them.
One of his customers asked “What is that portal?” The Portal Chef replied “Oh, that’s probably just some kind of cool portal.” The customer is like, “Huh. Can you try it out?” The Portal Chef said “Sure!”
The Portal Chef pullllled the portal out on both sides until it was big enough for him to fit into. He heard a sound that sounded like a “ROAARRRRR.” The customer said “That doesn’t sound like a good portal.” The Portal Chef replied “Nah, I just wanna try it out.”
Then, he smelled a smell so disgusting that even he was like, “EW!”
But he still stepped in anyway.
As soon as he stepped in, he DISAPPEARED, and so did the portal.
The customer said, “oh great. Now he’s trapped in a different universe.Guess I have to run the portal store!”
Meanwhile, the Portal Chef landed in a little grassy field. He started walking around, when he saw some interesting animals. Soon, he saw a couple of walls. The walls were kind of bricky and stuff. He started to walk closer, and closer. And then, it turned out to be a maze!
The Portal Chef said, “Hey, why don’t I enter?”
And then, he started walking for a little bit. And then, he saw a dog, but this was no normal dog. It had three heads! The dog was like “ROARRRRRR!” The Portal Chef said, “Why don’t we call this place the scary monsterverse!” And then, the Portal Chef ran and ran. He felt like he was running forever, but not getting anywhere! And then, he saw a bush. He was like, “YES! Why don’t I hide there?”
The three headed dog was like “Hmm? Where is he?” and he started grazing in the field.
The Portal Chef waited one hour. While he was waiting, he had an idea. “Why don’t I use a portal?” He just grabs a portal from his pocket, a brownish pink portal. When he tries to use it, it just EXPLODES and it gets sugar powder in his eyes. So he was like, “I guess we can try another one some other time.”
So he kept on walking. And walking. And then, he saw a double path.So he took the way forward, and then he ran across another double path. And then he took the way forward and he found another double path. This kept happening until finally he found a password wall. So, he was like, “Why don’t I think?” After a while he was like, “Whoa! I have an idea!” The wall was like “No. Not the right one.” Ummmm, “Scary?” “Correct, but beware of the knight,” said the wall.
The Portal Chef started walking. The walls started getting closer together until he couldn’t fit through them. So, he put some sunscreen on himself to make him a little slippy. And then, he started squeeeeeezing through. It got tighter and tighter until POP. So, he saw something glimmering in the night and then he saw it was THE KNIGHT...
He reached into his pocket and grabbed another portal. This one looked like a leaf, but he didn’t care. So, he punched the portal and then it opened up. He went in, but instead of going home, it went right over the knight! He fell onto the knight and the knight was like “OUCHIE!” Then the knight was knocked out.
The Portal Chef waited for two hours. Then he came out.
So, the knight was in the field where he saw the dog. So they started battling.
The Portal Chef started walking for a little bit, and then he saw another password wall.
Meanwhile, back at the shop. The guy was having so much trouble! There were so many customers, that he was like, “Here you go, here you go, here you go!” And then he said, “OK, I think we should close the portal shop for one day!” So he closed the portal shop. He started picking portals. So he found an unfamiliar portal and he was like “Gasp! We should put this portal in the bad portal drawer!” On the way there, he dropped it on the floor, and it opened up, but he was like “I don’t care. I’m just not going to step there.”
The next morning, customers started coming again. So he started working and just in the middle of it the Portal Chef POPPED out of the floor! He was sweaty and his clothes were so muddy from the dog that the customers thought that he was a mud tower! He started going to the lake. While he was going to the lake the customers thought he was a mud monster! As he was going to the lake he saw something that looked a little grayish, and a little portalyish. He picked it up, and he was like “Gasp! I should put this one back in!” But as he was doing that, he was juggling it. While he was juggling it, one time
Roll Call Stories
The Sandwich Family
by Alba, age 5, Missouri
“Hi sandwich”
“Hi water”
“Hi sandwich”
“Hi chip”
“Hi sandwich”
“Hi tomato”
“Hi sandwich”
“Hi spoon”
We party.
Dance dance dance. Dancey dance dance. Dance dance dance. All of them danced.
Then they slept, slept, slept. The water sleeped standing up. The sandwich sleeped upside down. Then they woke up in the morning.
They were a family.
“It’s snowing,” said the spoon. “I’m going outside, yay yay yay, I’m playing outside too.”
“I’m going outside too,” said the tomato.
The tomato sunk in the snow. The spoon said, “Oh no! I’ll get him.”
He scooped him out on the snow and took him back inside.
The tomato thought he was drowning. “Oh no! I’m drowning in snow.”
He was cold.
Then they went to bed.
Then a giant sneaked up to them and took a bite of the chip. The things on the plate said “Oh no! Chip is gone!”
They needed a new sister. Then they had many little sisters that were pieces of chip after the big one was eaten, they had tiny ones.
THE end
I Did
by Hugh, age 8, Canada
That One Sunny Halloween Night
by Alia, age 11, Wisconsin
“It was a dark and stor-“ Narrator #1 started, getting cut off mid-sentence by Narrator #2.
“No, no, no, no. That is not how this story begins.” The other narrator said. “This is how it really went: It was a sunny afternoon. Halloween was, in fact, today….”
*story begins*
“Mom, I’m going trick-or-treating!” Juniper calls, heading out the door without waiting for a response. Her friends are waiting for her just outside her house.
“Are you ready?” one of them says.
“Yeah! Let’s get going!” Juniper said.
The group of 5 friends, including Juniper, head down the driveway and make their way down the street.
“Trick or treat!” they all say excitedly, as they reach a house and knock. It looks like a normal house to everyone, but the door slowly creaks open to reveal… a giant slug with a party hat and Star Wars pajamas!
Everyone is in so much shock, that we just stand there, staring at the slug.
“Hey, you know staring’s rude, right?” The slug says.
Juniper nods. “Y-yeah.”
“Umm…” one of the friends say. “What happened to you?”
“I was put under the curse from a witch, and now I’m a slug wearing a party hat and Star Wars pajamas.”
“We can see that… can you change back?”
“Not unless you find the witch and steal one of her potions!” The slug says.
“We’ll find the potion.” Juniper promises, and her and her 4 friends head toward the very sunny forest.
They walk through the sunlit forest until they reach a small hut, and inside you could see a bunch of potions. The witch is inside, sorting through her potions and throwing a few out the window. And one that Juniper picks up happens to be a potion for turning slugs with a party hat and Star Wars P.J.s back into a human.
“Found it, now let’s get back to the slug.” Juniper says.
“I have a better idea, throw it.” One of the friends says, picking up the potion and throwing it.
“Thanks!” comes the distant yell of the slug/human.
*story ends*
“You see? That’s how the story really goes.” Says Narrator #2.
“Whatever,” Narrator #1 says. “It’s still The End.”
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That was all for “That one Sunny Halloween Night”
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The Monster Who Finds Monsters
by Noah, age 6, Texas
