"Good morning, everyone," Mr. Icky said in Cooking class the next day.
Mr. Freaky stood beside him.
"Mr. Freaky has come to tell us some very exciting news."
"Is school ending early today?" a ghoul asked.
The students laughed.
"No more monster math!" a witch shouted.
"Yeah!" others cheered.
Mr. Freaky held up his hands.
"Everyone, please settle down!"
He took out a handkerchief and blew his noses.
"A popular cooking show is coming to our town this Friday.
It's called Kids' Kitchen Showdown."
"Cool!" a fish monster said.
"I love that TV show!" the witch said.
"But I wish the cooks made more good food like tarantula stew.
They usually make food for people, like chocolate cake and something called lasagna."
"Yeah," the ghoul said.
"Why can't they cook more stuff for monsters?"
Ben had watched Kids' Kitchen Showdown once or twice with his mom, but he didn't really like it.
Why would anyone watch a show about cooking?
Mr. Freaky wrung his hands.
"The show was going to be filmed at People Place Middle School.
But Mayor Hubbletree suggested they film it here at Monster Academy."
"Mayor Hubbletree wants the show to be here?" Mr. Icky said.
Ben saw a bead of sweat roll down Mr. Freaky's face.
"The mayor wants the world to see that monsters and humans can get along," Mr. Freaky replied.
"We can share food and have fun together.
People Place Middle School has already chosen three cooks to compete on the show.
Now it's Mr. Icky's turn to select one cook from Monster Academy."
"Awesome!" a mummy said.
A werewolf howled.
Mr. Freaky turned to Mr. Icky.
"The whole world will be watching this show.
Nothing can go wrong."
The principal blew his noses again and then left the room.
"Okay, students," Mr. Icky said.
"Let's begin today's assignment.
I want everyone to make their very best batch of tarantula stew."
"This is so exciting," Winnie said to Ben as students started gathering ingredients from the pantry.
"Can you imagine being on Kids' Kitchen Showdown?"
"Yeah," Ben said with a groan.
"I can imagine it as the worst thing in the world."
Winnie laughed. "I know you don't like cooking.
But you're better at it than you think.
And we need people to see that monsters make good food too."
Ben just rolled his eyes and reached for his apron.
Usually tarantula stew contained moldy peaches.
But by the time Ben looked in the pantry, the peaches were all gone.
He saw some rotten nectarines with worms.
"Nectarines are sort of like peaches," Ben thought.
He chopped the nectarines and dumped them into his pot.
He dropped the worms in too.
Then he added some fresh tarantula legs and cinnamon.
As he mixed the sauce, green vapors rose from the surface.
"Oh, boy," Ben thought.
"Tarantula stew isn't supposed to look like this.
I messed up!" He looked around the classroom.
Everyone was busy working.
Ben looked into his pot again.
"Ack!" he cried.
His stew was starting to burn at the edges.
He scraped the sides of his pot, mixing the burned edges into the stew.
The stew took on a darker color now.
Ben sighed. "It's ruined."
He turned off the burner on his stove and lifted the pot.
He floated toward the garbage can.
Mr. Icky blocked his path, looking stern.
"You are not going to throw that out!"
The teacher took the pot from Ben and brought it back to Ben's workspace.
"I've watched you do that every day for the past two weeks," Mr. Icky said.
"No more! If you throw out your food every time you mess up, you'll never improve.
You must taste your mistakes!"
Mr. Icky shoved a spoon toward Ben. "Taste it!"
Ben wrinkled his nose.
Then he dipped the spoon into the stew and tasted it.
"I guess it's not that bad."
"Good," Mr. Icky said.
The teacher lifted the spoon to his lips. Suddenly he gasped.
"Uh-oh." Ben froze. "It's even worse than I thought."
Mr. Icky swallowed.
He looked at the stew.
Then he looked at Ben.
"You used rotten nectarines, didn't you? And do I taste worms?"
Ben winced. "Um, I guess so."
Mr. Icky took another taste and closed his eyes.
"This reminds me of a tarantula stew I had in Paris many years ago.
Monster chefs in France always use rotten nectarines.
Ben, you are not just a cook—you are a true chef!"
"Wh-what?" Ben stammered.
"That's ridiculous. I don't even know how to—"
"You have a gift, Ben," Mr. Icky said.
"That's why I'm going to choose you to compete on Kids' Kitchen Showdown this Friday!"