2 The city of Foodtropolis was known around the world for being the place where things to eat of every imaginable kind lived, like, ta-da, Badumching: The Dancing Sandwiches. They were a ham sandwich and a cheese sandwich who loved to dance mambo wearing ice skates. This is the story of how they became famous, and how celebrity put their relationship in danger.
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4 The Badumchings were very different from one another. The ham sandwich, for example, was the more conceited one, and wore triangle-shaped glasses that he wouldn’t take off, even when he went to sleep. “They protect my eyes from the glare of the ice” was his excuse. But the cheese sandwich knew that the real reason was that he thought the glasses were super chic, and she didn’t say anything. The ham sandwich was also the more cranky one of the two.
5 “You stepped on my foot again!” he shouted at the chesse sandwich. “You need to be more careful.” The cheese sandwich, again, let it go. “We’re friends,” she thought, “And friends are friends even if one is snotty and the other one isn’t, or if one has more patience than the other.”
6 When the Badumchings finished their shift at the restaurant where they worked, they hurried to the ice skating rink to dance and to skate. They could spend hours
7 spinning, falling down, falling again, and, above all, laughing together. They laughed because in spite of being clumsy dancers with hardly any sense of rhythm, they were happy dancing mambo on ice. So much so that people crowded to watch them, and laughed until they cried. But they weren’t laughing at them. They laughed because they were funny, and because their joy was contagious. But the best thing was that with their laughter everyone forgot about their troubles and their grumpy moods.
8 Word spread throughout Foodtropolis: if someone was sad or in a mood as dark as a storm, all they had to do to feel better was to go and watch the Badumchings. They made their hearts jump with joy, and brought back their ability to laugh. The skating rink was packed with depressed meatballs, weepy cookies, and misunderstood broccolis, and all of them quickly brightened up and smiled.
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11 The restaurant offered them a chance to perform on St. John’s Eve as if they were real professionals. The show was a huge success. It was a full house and everyone shouted, “Bravo, Badumchings!” From that point on they started performing all around the city. That was also when the problems began.
12 The ham sandwich loved to get his picture in the newspapers. He spent more time on his hair than on rehearsing. Everyone called him “the hot one” and he believed it. On top of that, he had less and less patience with the cheese sandwich. He thought she didn’t practice enough, and he got angry when she missed a step. “But making mistakes is our charm,” the cheese sandwich protested.
13 But the ham sandwich wouldn’t forgive her. He only listened to the lemon tree who owned the theatre. The pear promised him a lot of money to make him the star of her show, but on one condition: that he abandon his friend, the cheese sandwich.
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