Restaurant Fever

Amulya Kuntamukkala

 Restaurant Fever 

Written by Amulya Kuntamukkala

Illustrated by Amulya Kuntamukkala

BRONCO P.R.E.S.S.

Barksdale Elementary School  

2020-2021 

I dedicate this book to everyone who likes to cook as this is a book about cooking and opening a Restaurant!

MEET THE AUTHOR

My name is Amulya Kuntamukkala.  I am 9 years old.  I am in third grade at Barksdale Elementary School in Plano, Texas.  My teacher’s name is Miss Jordan Hickey.  I became an author at the age of seven.

This is my second publication. I have also written “Gracie and Grassy - Friendship is the best recipe.”  The idea for this book came from pretend playing restaurant with my little sister! 

My favorite books and authors are Cupcake Diaries and Thea Stilton.  In my free time I like to play with my sister, ride my hoverboard and watch TV.  My favorite school subjects are recess, Social Studies and Language Arts. 

When I am an adult I want to be an Author and Illustrator.

 

I am 28 years old now and I have the greatest restaurant in New York, but I faced some difficult challenges along the way, here is my story. It all started from a little tiny house. When I was 9 years old, I would pretend to play that I had a restaurant. I always dreamed of opening a restaurant in town. My mom always said “Start small and end big.”

So I opened a lemonade stand in front of our house. We had all types of lemonade: strawberry, cherry, lemon, kiwi and sparkling blueberry lemonade. It was really hot so my lemonade stand was out of lemonade really quickly. 

I had made a total of 50 dollars, but the customers wanted more, they yelled at me really loud so I ran back to the house, grabbed a pitcher of lemonade and poured cups. I wanted to continue this business so I kept making lemonade and selling it, soon another lemonade stand was built. Esmie was the meanest kid in the neighborhood. Now she was stealing all my customers, in the afternoon no one was near or paying attention to my lemonade stand. So I walked up to her stand, “Why’d ya steal my customers?”

She looked at me and smirked at me, and then she looked all innocent like “I have no clue what you’re talking about! I just opened a stand and that is it.” 

I had no choice but to take apart my lemonade stand. I closed my business and went inside, I ran upstairs, flopped on my bed and started to cry. No one even heard me, I looked at the ceiling until dinner. For dinner we were having salad and fruits for dinner, we were healthy eaters. Everyone was quiet, I knew where this was heading, “Honey, dad….lost his job, but he got a new one in another city, we have to move.”

Somehow I wasn’t surprised, this was the 3rd time dad lost his job. “But I just started making friends here!”

“I know, but at least you will be away from Esmie.”

“That is not what I am talking about! What about Ellie?”

My dad motioned to speak but I cut him off and stomped upstairs, I was mad, why couldn’t dad keep a job? I ran to my room and started crying. I took out my favorite cooking book. Usually reading it calmed me down, but it didn’t! For the rest of the night I didn’t talk to my parents, when I slept my parents whispered in worried voices. The next morning my mom told me to pack my things. I ran upstairs, packed everything neatly in my suitcase and I told my room, “I’ll miss you.”  

I hugged Ellie and hopped into the car, I watched as we went. Ellie was standing still, she had a tear in her eye, then she turned around and walked away. It wasn’t fair! Why wouldn’t my parents let me settle down? Will we be on the run forever? I sat in the car not talking until we reached our destination which we reached 12 hours later. 

As soon as I saw my new room I hated it, but I put all my stuff there. Mom looked inside “Oh my! Look at those ugly walls! We can paint it tomorrow.” 

I looked at her then she looked at me “I am fine mom! You can leave”.

Deep down I knew that something was bothering me and I should tell her, but I stuffed that feeling down. The next day was Monday, I had to go to my new school, Bridge Elementary. “But Mom, I am never going to make friends there!”

“You are, now go along you will be late for the bus!”

I walked out the door and closed it, I wanted to slam it, but I didn’t. I got on the bus and started looking for a seat. I found one on the 6th aisle, but as soon as I sat down another student came on the bus with someone else following her, I wasn’t interested anyway so I just stared at the window.

“Ahem.” 

“Oh hi, I am a new student here.”  

They looked at me and said that was their spot, so they forced me to leave. I sat at the back of the bus. Once we came to school, I ran off the bus before the mean girls followed me. As I walked down the hallway I bumped into three girls.

“I am so sorry, I should have watched where I was going!”

“It’s alright, are you new here?”

“Yes.”

“Where is your homeroom?”

I pulled out my agenda looking for my homeroom.

“I am in room 15 with Ms. Amy.”

“We are too! Would you like to come with us?”

“Sure!”

I walked with the girls talking about their classes and mine, looks like I had every class with them! They introduced themselves, Evelynn was a red haired girl with freckles, Camila had dark brown hair and had purple glasses, Sadie had blond hair and played every sport she heard of.

That is when I found my friends, life had become a bit easier, they all loved to cook and my dad was able to keep his job. I told them my dream of opening a restaurant. They were happy for me and I asked them if they wanted to join me, they loved to. After 10 years we were still in touch and we went to the same college! We were finishing up our tests and we were done with school. A month later we got a spot for our restaurant in New York. It was a small brick place with dusty cobwebs all around and the place smelled stinky. There was a tiny kitchen with a sink, stove and cabinets and fridge. We had a lot of work to do and only a tiny bit of time to do so. “Ummm so...Evelynn can you get the furniture and put them in place, Camila please can you get the wallpaper and Sadie can you please get customers to come to our grand opening tonight? I will polish the silverware and organize the kitchen.”

“Sure! Me, Evelynn and Camila have no problem doing that.”

“Thank you guys, I don’t know what I would do without you!”

I walked to the kitchen and we worked hard for a few hours and got our restaurant ready. Sadie came a few minutes after the restaurant was done with a frown on her face. “Oh no! What happened to Sadie? How many people did you get to come to our restaurant?” asked Camila.

“None,” sighed Sadie.

“Everyone said they needed the three star approved by this Madame person. 

 “She is right, Madame Missy was the greatest cook of all times! So we need her 3 stars.” said Evelynn.

“Then let’s prepare.” I said with a confident face.

Camila booked Madame Missy and we got the menu ready. Madame Missy agreed and said she was coming in an hour, we chatted for a bit and when Madame Missy came we all stood up and ran to the door. “Hello, welcome Madame Missy! What would you like to order?”

“Anything, just get started.”

I guided her to a seat and we made salad and some coffee. Sadie was bringing it out and then she tripped over her shoe laces! The coffee cup sat on Madame Missy’s head and the liquid spilled all over her hair and then salad was in her lap. “That is it! I am through with this restaurant! I am not going to even rate it!!!!!!!!!!!!”

She stomped out the door and slammed it. Sadie looked at us and burst into tears. “I am so sorry! It was my fault! I shouldn’t have tripped!”

“Sadie, don't worry! We know it was an accident, we forgive you.”

Sadie hugged us and then smiled. I was happy she was happy, but how were we supposed to get customers, should we close the restaurant down? We discussed that for a while and then we realized we were doing the wrong jobs. Camila was best at attraction and Sadie was really good at cleaning so she cleaned the mess she made while Camila got customers. At the grand opening people rushed in and we gave them samples. They wanted more so we gave them our best and they paid for it. Then Madame Missy ran in, she looked around and then glared at the customer then Camila, Sadie, Evelynn and me. “What are you doing here?! I haven’t rated this restaurant yet and I haven’t given permission to use it. Sadie stepped forward and said “You are not in charge of what people eat! People have their own choices, you can’t and neither can we!” 

“But if you do wanna stay…” Madame Missy cut me off and walked out the door. For once I was truly happy, seeing my restaurant filled with happiness and also my friends having a good time. And that is the story of my dream.