Slimy Celebration by Catherine Davis

Runner Up, 10-12 Grade Fiction

There was a group of salamanders. It was one salamander's birthday and he had been preparing the night before for his party. He had made a cricket cake, a worm stew, and spider cider to drink. He invited all his salamander friends to come over to his den. He made sure that his home was extra damp and humid so everyone would be comfortable. When the time came around for everyone to show up nobody had arrived. His stew was going cold, the ice in his cider was melting and the damp puddles he had been sure to make extra perfect were evaporating. He was starting to lose hope that anyone would show up. Suddenly his roof started to shake. The walls of his home were being ripped from the soil. It was suddenly so bright he couldn't see anything and it took a few seconds for him to adjust to the light. When he finally could see again he saw a creature he had never seen before. It was something that walked on its back 2 legs, used its front 2 legs to hold and move things and had short hair. It reached down with its front foot and picked him up. It looked at him from behind a piece of glass that made his eye look bigger. He was put in a small glass box and in the back of a truck. It was so dark that he just decided to take a nap and not worry himself. He woke up feeling heat on his back and on a damp piece of moss. He saw people looking at him from the other side of the terrarium and pointing colorful little boxes at him. He saw himself on the other side of the little boxes. They were taking pictures of him. Then he saw that others were taking moving pictures. In hopes to be remembered and liked, and to make a good first impression like his mother taught him, the salamander shook his tail back and forth and started to do one of his traditional salamander dances. The people loved it. They smiled, took moving pictures, and laughed. Over the next few weeks of living in this glass box the amount of people coming to see him began to double and even triple. He heard people outside the box calling him “The Tiktok famous dancing salamander” whatever that meant. The people who ran the building with the glass boxes began holding parties to make money for other animals with him as the face. After one full year of him living his best life of being loved, appreciated, and cherished. The people of the building started throwing another party. He assumed this was just another party to make money for his friends. No, they were celebrating his one year anniversary being at the, what they called, a zoo. He saw them putting up a banner that said “Happy Birthday Salamander!” He was ecstatic. People lined up and took photos and then the manager of the zoo came forward with a microphone. She began to say how much they appreciated Salamander and how much he's done for the zoo. She said he's raised thousands of dollars for rescued animals and put a smile on so many faces. She finished the speech by saying that even though they didn't know his real birthday because they found him in the wild, this was his birthday to them because its when they found him. Of course they did not know it actually was his real birthday but he didn't care because this was the best birthday he's ever had. Salamander went on to live another 50 years. His birthday celebrated every year. Over his time at the zoo he managed to raise $1.3 Million for Habitat for Humanity and other organizations. He will forever be known as the salamander that stole people's hearts.