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Grade
7

    In a little store on Elm Street, in the Christmas aisle stood a little blue nutcracker named Chester.  With his shiny blue coat and his silky white beard, he looked out at the crowd.  Carts were stacked high with gifts and decorations. 

 

        Every once in a while someone would look at Chester but purchase another nutcracker instead.  Chester was not sad, not even disappointed, in fact, he was quite relieved!  He wanted a family, but not one that would make him crack nuts.  Unlike any other nutcracker, Chester was allergic to nuts!

 

        He had spent nearly a month in the store trying not to be bought. He had hidden behind the other rows of nutcrackers and shoved others in front of him.  The days had gone by and now, after so much time at the store, Chester felt confident that he would stay at the store forever.

 

        One night, not long after the store had closed, Chester decided to take a short stroll through the aisles.  He passed through the gigantic forest of Christmas trees and greeted other nutcrackers he encountered along the way.

 

        Chester was passing by the candy aisle when he spotted something out of the corner of his eye.  Chester turned around to face a big black sign with broad, white letters.  “Black Friday,” he read “everything half off.”

 

        Chester rushed through the store looking for the perfect place to hide.  “What’s wrong?” asked someone from behind him.  Chester turned around to face a doll in a pink dress. “Tomorrows black Friday, I don’t want to…”  Before Chester could finish, the doll turned around and exclaimed, “Oh boy, I’ll finally have a home!”  Then as she walked towards her aisle she cheerfully added, “I’ll go move my box to the front of the row!”

 

        Chester, unlike the doll, wasn’t excited about being bought.  He searched desperately to find his hiding spot but they would all be on sale, and most likely sold, the very next day.  Finally, after searching for an hour or two, he went back to the Christmas section of the store and hid behind the garlands and wreathes.

 

        At dawn the next day, Chester, who had begun to fall asleep, was startled by a loud racket at the front of the store.  Then he heard the automatic doors open, and the footsteps of an angry mob rush in.  Impatient customers would run over to what they wanted and threw it in their carts.

 

        Not even ten minutes had passed and the shelves were already bare!  Now, with all of the garlands and wreathes purchased, Chester was completely visible!  Just as he had dreaded, a little girl ran over to Chester, picked him up, and took him to her mother.  “Mama, mama!  Look at what I found!” she held Chester up to a tall woman with long dark hair, “can we buy him?  He’ll help us crack our nuts open.”  The tall woman placed Chester in their cart next to a big bag of walnuts.

 

        During the entire trip to the checkout, Chester did everything he could to avoid the walnuts, but the bag seemed to inch its way over to Chester.  The bag got closer and closer by the minute.  Finally, the cashier rescued Chester from the horrifying bag of walnuts and placed him in his own private bag, at least that was what he thought until he spotted a bag of cashews next to him.

 

        The whole car ride was a battle with the nuts, avoiding to be touched by them. At one time, the whole bag of cashews had collapsed onto Chester.  Chester had to use all of his strength to tear through the shopping bag and escape from the cashews!

        Suddenly, the car came to a complete stop and sent Chester flying through the air.  He almost landed on a bag of walnuts!

 

        The woman who had purchased Chester, and brought him to this terrible situation got out of the car and opened the trunk. She seemed surprised to see Chester out of his bag and the bag completely destroyed!

 

        Chester was carried over to the house in a nut-free bag.  As soon as they were indoors, Chester was set on top of one of the kitchen’s slick counter tops.

*******

        It was a few weeks after Chester had been brought to his amazing home.  The walls were painted beautifully, and the white curtains were draped over the large windows giving off the perfect amount of light.  He had seen his new family wrap presents and decorate the house for Christmas.

 

        Even though he was having a great time, Chester couldn’t seem to get nuts off of his mind.  Nuts haunted his dreams and were everywhere in the house.  Nuts in the kitchen, nuts in the dining room, and even nuts in the bedrooms!

        As soon as Chester thought that he would get to spend a merry Christmas with his family, he was proven wrong when he overheard someone say something about a pecan pie.  Then as Chester looked around the room, he spotted a big box of terrifying pecans still in their shells.

 

        The following day, the sun seemed to rise slightly quicker than usual.  When the family finally woke up, they went to the dining room and had their breakfast as they usually did.  Then, the tall woman said exactly what Chester had hoped not to hear, “I’ll make the pecan pie after breakfast,” she explained.

 

        She did exactly what she had said she would; she finished her breakfast, washed the dishes, and then grabbed the pecans and Chester.  She opened the box and took out the first pecan before placing it in Chester’s mouth.  Chester did the first thing that he could think of, and spat out the pecan.  The pecan hit the woman in the head!

 

        As soon as the woman was gone, Chester raced over to the sink and began rinsing his mouth with some water.  He was relieved that the woman never came back to crack the pecans.

 

        Christmas Eve arrived soon after, and Chester loved the sight of all of the decorations; garlands on all of the furniture and lights strung around every window.  The sound of music and laughter filled the air!

 

        By that night, Chester loved Christmas.  Everything about Christmas!  The games, the music, the decorations, and the merriment!  He only hoped that he wouldn’t have to crack any nuts.

 

        When Chester woke up the next day he couldn’t believe his eyes!  Underneath the Christmas tree were hundreds of presents, big and small, of all shapes and sizes.  The whole family ran over to them and tore the paper off.

 

        All of the presents seemed great, but one in particular caught Chester’s attention.  It was small, nothing extraordinary, but Chester knew that Santa had brought it for him.  It was a pack of pre-cracked nuts.  Now Chester could stay with his family and never crack nuts again.

 

        “Thank you Santa,” whispered Chester as he looked out the window to the backyard where the snow had begun to fall.

                                      The End