“Taste this.” Mrs. McGreen passed around freeze-dried string beans.

They were dry. They didn’t smell green, but they tasted green.

We were in Health class and it was just three weeks before the F.O.P. Parade. Mrs. McGreen was talking about nutrition, which is what you eat. Mom says that Bixsters need to eat different things than humans eat. So I didn’t listen.

Mrs. McGreen finished the lesson by saying, “To stay healthy, you need to eat right. You need lots of exercise. And you need lots of vegetables.”

Then Mrs. McGreen said, “Kell, I was talking to Chief Glendale this morning when he dropped off Mary Lee at school. He tells me that your mother has a greenhouse.”

I nodded.

“Does she grow vegetables?”

I nodded.

“Could our class visit her greenhouse and see her vegetables?”

On the outside, I nodded. But inside, I wanted to cry. Because we didn’t have Earth vegetables in our greenhouse. Mom would have to plant some fast.

“Very good,” said Mrs. McGreen. “I will call her later.”

Mrs. Parrot, the science teacher, came into the health room. “Are you ready?” she asked Mrs. McGreen.

She nodded and said, “Class, we have an announcement.”

Mrs. Parrot said, “Here is what you get to do. You get to try out vegetable recipes. Won’t this be fantastic?”

She waited. But no one said anything.

Mrs. Parrot said, “You get to find vegetable recipes that you like. In two and a half weeks, we will have Nutrition Day!”

That meant Nutrition Day would be the same week as the F.O.P. Parade. That would be a busy week.

“You must bring samples of your favorite recipe for everyone to taste,” Mrs. Parrot said. “Isn’t that fantastic?”

She waited.

Bree said, “It sounds—yummy?”

I groaned.

Freddy asked, “Will there be prizes?”

“Maybe,” Mrs. Parrot said. “We can try to have prizes.”

Mrs. McGreen said, “We will tell you your partner now. We want you to partner with someone who has a different family life. That way, you’ll get to try different foods. I wanted to work with Aja or Freddy or Bree.

Instead, I got Ting. Her grandfather came from China, which is on the other side of Earth. When we first came to Earth, we almost landed in China. Bree was working with Aja, and Freddy was working with Mario.

Mrs. Parrot said, “OK. You will sit with your partner for the rest of class. You can talk about food you want your partner to try. This is fantastic.”

 

Ting liked to eat hamburgers and pizza, just like every other kid in third grade. But her family knew lots about eating Chinese food and eating with chopsticks.

Eating with sticks sounded fun. I didn’t like Earthling forks anyway.

Ting has straight black hair and dark eyes. She said, “Your eyes are strange. Are they silver or what? Where did your parents come from?”

“They traveled around a lot,” I answered the second question.

“What is your favorite food?” she asked.

I wanted to say grawlies, but I couldn’t tell her about that.

Ting didn’t wait for an answer anyway. She said, “I love cicadas on a stick.”

“What is that?”

“Big brown bugs.”

Oh, no! Not bugs again. “Are you serious?” I looked across the room to Bree and Aja. I bet they weren’t talking about eating bugs.

“Yes. We went to China last year to visit my cousins. And I ate cicadas on a stick. And scorpions on a stick. Very good. Crunchy and salty.”

Some Earthling girls have no taste.