Dedication
This book is dedicated to our parents, our siblings and teachers.
Aparna Srinidhi Jagannathan
Divya Sikka
Nora Cai
Weitong Wang
A long time ago in a place far, far away, in California, Samson, the manager of Hollywood, hired three little pigs. The first piggy worked in the acting studio, which was made of straw. The second piggy worked in the costume studio, and it was made of wood. The third little piggy, which had the most brains, worked in the office, which was made of brick.
One day, the manager got a pretty bad report on the pigs! In the report he read that they had created mayhem in the studio. Some more details in the report are as follows: “One of the pigs had made a lion sound and created a shopping mall scenery! Another pig had made a sheep costume for the movie star. The secretary had shouted “pork” and hot coffee was spilled on the manager’s secretary by a little pig!”
Pigs, as you know, are very offended when someone refers them as “pork”.
When the manager heard about the pigs’ role in the “big incident”, he was really mad and decided to fire them. He walked to the studio and yelled, “You’re fired!!!” But no matter how loud he yelled, the first little piggy did not dare to come out. So, the manager huffed and puffed and blew the acting studio down! Then he ate the first piggy for breakfast.
The manager was not satisfied. In the afternoon, he strolled to the costume studio and shouted, “You’re fired!”. The second piggy pretended to be away and said nothing. But, the manager became suspicious. He blew the studio down and ate the second pig for lunch. “Hmm” he said, “This piggy has a little more flavor than the previous one, so the next one must be very good!” so he thought. As dinnertime came, he walked to the door of the office. He was very keen to find out the flavor of the third pig. Barbeque sauce? Cheddar cheese? Samson was salivating for sure.
The manager got to the office. But the third piggy knew he was after him. So he ran to bin 1.4 and put on the suit of the founder of Hollywood (the manager’s boss) and face paint so he wouldn’t look like a pig dressed in a formal suit. Just as the manager burst in, he saw his “boss” waiting for him. So he said, “Boss! Have you seen a little pig around here?” The disguised piggy said, “Chasing those poor pigs? They are a great pigs! YOU ARE OFFICIALLY FIRED! The “founder” looked so furious that the poor manager ran out of the room terrified.
The third piggy had just enough time to hide before the real founder walked in. “Samson? Samson, where are you?” the boss asked. Then he yelled, “SAMSON! THIS IS NOT FUNNY!” When no answer came he sighed and walked away. Then, he shouted, “HEY! I THOUGHT I PUT MY PANTS IN BIN 1.4!” The pig almost burst out laughing but quickly scrambled to Little Red Riding Hood’s house who lived in the house right next to the office to get some advice on what to do. Red Riding Hood invited him in for tea and cookies. The pig sat down and told her the whole story.
“The Boss is a really greedy man!” Riding Hood said, “When I starred in a movie for him, he did not pay me my share of delicious donuts!” Then the piggy said, “Hmm…let’s team up and find a way to make the boss think I was innocent!” Just then, the telephone rang. Red Riding Hood picked it up. She frowned. “It’s for you,” she whispered. The third pig spoke into the phone. “Hello? He cautiously whispered, but then…he heard the boss yell, “I KNOW WHAT YOU DID AND I’M COMING FOR YOU!” The piggy immediately put the phone down in fear.
“We need to come up with a plan”, said Red Riding Hood. So the two friends thought, and thought, and thought. Ding! The third, smart little piggy came up with a plan. “Let’s sneak around the big boss and steal Samson’s suit from bin 1.4! Then, we can “admit” that I, as the “manager” did everything wrong and it was not the pig! The boss will get mad at me and he’ll think I’m the real manager. After I sneak out of disguise, he won’t know the difference and he’ll get mad at the real manager and maybe he’ll even fire him.” “Great idea, you know, we make a great team”, said Red Riding Hood. And with that, the two friends set off back to the costume studio of Hollywood.
“There’s the boss and manager talking together! What are they talking about?” whispered the pig as they were hiding under a desk. ”Leave this to me, I can sneak around almost anything!” exclaimed Red Riding Hood. “Good luck!” whispered the pig and with that, Red Riding Hood left.
Little Red Riding Hood came back looking very scared! She said, “They are planning to eat you! When you come to work tomorrow, the manager will come up to you and tell you that you are fired. Then the boss will suddenly sneak up behind you, grab you, and eat you! They think that they tricked you with the phone call, and made you think that they were coming for you today. When they don’t come for you today, it will make you think that everything is good and you will come to work tomorrow! I am worried, and you should be very careful!” “OK”, said the piggy thoughtfully…
The third little piggy and Red Riding Hood thought long and hard. Then finally they came up with a plan! They would sneak past the boss and manager and get the manager’s costume from bin 1.4 and then go back to Little Red Riding Hood’s house. The third little piggy would spend the night there, and in the morning put on Samson’s suit and get to the Founder of Hollywood’s office before the real manager got there. Then the disguised piggy would “confess” of doing everything wrong and the boss would get mad at the manager. Then he would flee before the boss found out what had really happened. When the real manager arrives at the office, the boss would tell him that he already told him to leave and that he was fired.
“Now all we need to find out is when the real manager and the boss come to work,” the little piggy said. Red Riding Hood and the piggy glanced over to where the manager and boss were. “Remember,” the boss was saying, “I’ll be at work at 5:30 tomorrow morning. You come along at 6:30 and then we can put our plan into action.” Then the boss and the manager left the office. “What a coincidence, we got exactly what we wanted!” said the piggy.
They were so excited that they thought they would never sleep, but surprisingly in the end they, slept so soundly that not even an earthquake could have woken them up. Oh, those two sleepyheads! In some ways, that was actually really good because they needed to be prepared for the next day’s action. The pig and Red Riding Hood were both dreaming of ways to destroying the manager and boss (obviously). Both of them couldn’t wait to launch the plan into action.
Then, finally, morning did come and their alarm clock woke them at 5:40 AM. They excitedly got out of bed and the piggy put on the manager suit. They skipped along to the founder’s office and went over their plan one more time. They heard the boss in his big office talking and making phone calls frantically even though it was only 5:50 in the morning. Wow, he must have been busy!
The pig took a deep breath and then went into the main building. “Good luck!” whispered Red Riding Hood as he walked in. The plan was that she then would go to her mother’s house so she would be safe if the boss and the manager found out their plan. Her mother’s house was near the creek, which wasn’t too close to the office, but not too far either, so she would be safe. When the piggy entered the building, he noticed that there was another secretary at the desk at the far end of the room. She was talking on the phone and had papers, nail polish and soda cans all over her desk. He thought that a similar coffee accident would be even more catastrophic in her case. Yikes, mess on top of mess! Anyway, the secretary gave the pig dressed as the manager a dirty look and said into her phone in an annoyed tone,” Sorry, I will be right back with you, I have somebody over the phone
to take care of.”
The secretary then turned to the piggy and said” Well, hurry up then, I’ve got something to do!” The pig hurriedly said, “I’ve come to see the Founder of Hollywood.” “Ok.” she said “It will be one minute then.” Then she hurried out of the room probably to tell the founder that someone wanted to talk with him. She came back to the piggy and said “Come on then, come with me.” She took him to the founder’s office and said, “He will be with you in a moment,” and then she left hurriedly, evidently happy to get back to her phone call. The door opened and the boss looked out. He said in a surprised voice, “I thought you were going to be here by 6:30! It’s only 5:50!” The piggy hadn’t thought of that! He said, “I decided to come early, I have a confession to make! I did everything wrong, It wasn’t the piggy’s fault! You shouldn’t fire him! Please don’t! I did all of those things hoping to get the pigs fired! And now I understand what a shame it is to fire good and cute pigs who have done no harm.” “Well,” the founder said, “You did do things wrong and so… YOU ARE FIRED!”
The piggy ran out of the founder’s office quickly to give him the impression that he was really terrified and sad. But inside, he felt as if he was drinking hot chocolate with marshmallows and whipped cream on a cold winter day, which technically meant he was extraordinarily happy. But there was one thing that bugged him: what did him and his dead brothers do wrong? He had to ask the manager what had happened and it was clearly obvious that it was going to be pretty deadly and very, very, very, complicated. How would he do it?
The pig rushed to Little Red Riding Hood’s house. But it was empty. Then he remembered that she had went to her mother’s house to stay. Lucky for him, he knew where Little Red Riding Hood’s mothers’ house was. He left right away and arrived there in five minutes. Pigs have fast legs, and that was for sure. “Hello.” said Little Red Riding Hood and invited the pig inside their house. Why are you huffing and puffing so much? Are you going to blow our house down? Are you a disguised wolf or a little piggy?” “I am indeed your friendly piggy, thank you very much.” said the little piggy, rolling his eyes. Red Riding Hood’s mother heard the pig and brought out a plate of cookies. She wasn’t surprised; Red Riding Hood had told her a great deal about her piggy friend. The pig told Red Riding Hood his question. Little Red Riding Hood thought about it carefully. “I have an idea.” she said, and with that, she beckoned for the pig to follow her to her room upstairs and turned on her computer.
“That’s a great idea!” whispered the pig after Red Riding Hood narrated her plan. They were going to type an e-mail to the manager asking what the pigs did wrong and make it as friendly as possible. They typed and sent the email. When they checked the e-mail after a few minutes, they saw a reply. And this is what it said.
Dear (not dear at all but I don’t know what else to write) Pig and Red Riding Hood,
Isn’t it obvious what you did wrong? You dumped coffee on the poor secretary and you tried to get me in trouble with your other porky brothers. [“Hey!” said the piggy]. This is all your fault. Maybe I wouldn’t have eaten up your brothers if you hadn’t started all of this.
From,
The very angry manager
“What in the world?!” exclaimed the little pig and Red Riding Hood at the same time. “I never dumped coffee on the secretary. She dumped coffee on me. This is a pig mess!!!” yelled the piggy. “It probably became a rumor. People probably mixed up the words: “… the secretary dumped coffee on the pig…” had become “…the pig dumped coffee on the secretary...” explained Little Red Riding Hood. “We need proof to tell the manager what really happened.” replied the pig. At that moment, Red Riding Hood’s mother entered the room. “The founder and the manager have arrived!” she exclaimed. They demand for you to come. Please be careful!” The pig stomped down the stairs, with Little Red Riding Hood following close behind.
As the manager was talking to the founder about the e-mail, Little Red Riding Hood’s mother brought out some tea, but she stumbled on a pine cone and the tea spilled all over the floor. The manager didn’t notice the tea and slipped and fell hard on the ground. The pinecone and tea mixture had some effect on the manager! Out of nowhere, they heard snorting sounds and the two “dead” pigs that were supposed to have been in the manager’s tummy leaped happily out of the dumbfounded manager’s hat!
The founder, the manager, the third little piggy, Little Red Riding Hood, and her mother’s eyes practically popped out. Then the talking began. “How in the world…” stammered the manager and the founder. Then the three little pigs and Little Red Riding Hood explained the real story to the manager and the boss. “The secretary dumped coffee on us.” said the second little piggy. “But why?” asked Samson, who had started to believe the pigs. “It was because we made a sheep roaring in a shopping mall scene when we were supposed to make a tiger and a pig stranded on a lifeboat (known to pigs as Life of Pig).” replied the pigs bashfully. Samson actually started to laugh. “Come with me.” he said, and the founder, the pigs, and Red Riding Hood followed him.
Samson led them to the secretary-who-had-dumped-coffee’s office. “Wait here,” he said and he entered the room. The pigs heard him talking to the secretary about the movie called Life of Pig, and then the manager and secretary stepped out of the office. “I’m sorry for dumping coffee on you. It was a bad decision and I realize my mistakes.” said the secretary to the three little pigs. “Why don’t we team up to make our own movie about sheep roaring in shopping malls?” asked Samson to the pigs and Red Riding Hood. “Sure.” they replied. But Little Red Riding Hood also had a question. “Will we get our share of delicious donuts?” she asked. “Ok,” said Samson and the boss. And so, with movies and donuts, the three little pigs, the turned-to-be-good manager and founder, and Little Red Riding Hood lived happily ever after!!!