Story Week 13, The Three Little Belchers

The Three Little Belchers

The Belcher Family.

Web Source

Louise, Gene, and Tina spent their summer days working at their dad's burger restaurant, Bob's Burgers. The three kids, bored out of their mind, were looking for something to pass the time.

Louise, the youngest of the bunch, was building a tower out of coasters at the bar when suddenly it crumbled down.

Tina, the oldest more responsible, noticed the fall and said, "That's why you can't coast through building those things." She then continued to softly laugh at her own joke.

Louise then said, "Oh you think you can do so much better?!?"

To which Tina responded, "Ya, I do. I think I can do much better."

Louise all fired up for competition shouted, "Wanna bet? Tallest structure made out of restaurant items wins!"

In true Tina fashion, she lays down the rules, "Fine! We each have an hour to build the tallest structure. BUT the finished product must pass a sturdy test. Gene will be the judge."

Gene looked up from his sound effect keyboard and promptly said, "Just call me Judge Judy."

To start the competition with some flair Gene waved a napkin and shouted, "Let the competition begin!"

Tina and Louise were quick to start. They were running around the restaurant trying to find any kind of building supplies. Tina chose some plastic water cups, coasters, and chewing gum found under the tables to build her tower. While Louise chose empty ice cream cones and napkins. They each took their own booth and worked tirelessly to beat the other. To entrain himself and add to the drama, Gene played his own form of Eye of the Tiger on his keyboard.

Both siblings took different approaches. Tina was taking her time. She focused on building a sturdy base. She was using coasters as the start of the base and then wedged used gum in between the plastic water cups to help them stick together. She continued to build up from there.  Louise was going for height. She created a base of napkins and got started creating her masterpiece, the biggest pyramid of ice cream cones ever.

The time was flying by for the kids. It felt like only ten minutes had passed when Gene made the final five-minute announcement over his megaphone. Tina and Louise were quickly making their final adjustments.

Their concentration was interrupted by Gene shouting into his megaphone, "Step away from the towers ladies! Your time of judgment has come!"

Louise and Tina slid out of their booths and stood behind Gene as he carefully inspected their final structures. Louise was confident she was going to win when she saw Tina's final product. It was nowhere near as tall as hers. Gene pounded his fist on Tina's table but her structure stood tall. He then walked over to Louise's booth table. He used the same sturdy test on Louise's structure but her's went tumbling down.

Tina was mid victory dance when the kids' dad walked in. He saw the mess and let out a deep sigh, "Get back to work kids."

The kids begin cleaning up their mess and started thinking about what they are going to do for entertainment next.

Author's Note:

I was inspired to write this story when I was reading the story The Three Little Pigs. Each pig built a house to live in. The first two didn't use the proper equipment and a wolf was able to blow their houses down. The third one built his house out of brick and was able to keep the wolf out. I am a big fan of the show Bob's Burgers and thought this would be the perfect story to retell using Bob's Burgers theme. In the show, the three kids are always finding ways to compete against each other. I liked the idea of adding sibling rivalry to the storyline. Instead of all three of them building something I thought it would be funnier for Gene, a very sassy character in the show, to judge his sisters' structures.

Story Source: This story is part of the English Fairy Tales (1) unit. Story source: English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Three Little Pigs story link.