Sam and Debbie Pentel, who were a tired but happy couple, had two children, Matt (13) and Valerie (11), who couldn’t be more like their parents. Matt liked to color inside the lines and cook for his family like Debbie, while Valerie was a funny, outgoing person who liked to please everyone, just like Sam. This story starts with Matt deciding to make lasagne for dinner. Valerie, meanwhile, was working on a food biology project for her Science teacher, Mr. Yung (even though he was about fifty-something). Because he was a bitter and disciplinary guy, Valerie wanted to do really well on her project. Debbie and Sam spent the time between getting home from work to having dinner by pleasantly playing cards in the dining room.
Because she was in a rut, she started reminiscing about when Mr. Yung was nice, like at the Back-to-School Potluck last year, and how he was fawning over the lasagne that her brother made. She then had the excellent plan to use some of Matt’s cooked lasagne strips for visual aids. She snuck into the kitchen (thankfully, Matt was using the restroom) and took quite a few pieces of the hot, bare lasagne noodles into her room. Matt returned and immediately went to Valerie’s room fuming. She shamelessly showed him the noodles, or what was left of them; the edges had been cut with her sparkly pair of alligator teeth scissors. He started ranting and arguing, but Debbie and Sam, who didn’t approve of arguing, heard and shouted, “YOU GUYS OUGHT TO FIGURE THAT OUT PEACEFULLY!”
Reluctantly, Matt used the dilapidated noodles to finish the recipe, while Valerie went and apologized to both him and their parents. Coming back from the dining room, she started to help Matt, who had almost finished dinner. At last, they presented it to Debbie and Sam, who are perplexed by what they see. Because they were polite, they tried the lopsided, choppy lasagne, and exclaimed that it was the best, juiciest dinner that both of them had ever had. They reported the new food phenomenon to the newspaper, and Matt and Valerie became famous for their discovery. If you find the right solution, any accident can be rewarding.
Young and Learning 