Sneaking around outside Smarty’s room was Cliff, Smarty’s cookie stealing cat. Cliff was in the other room and could hear Smarty snoring from behind the closed door. So like any curious feline, he crept inside Smarty’s bedroom to investigate the scene.  Cliff giggled to himself at the sight of poor Smarty zonked out, his head resting on his open history book and the pages wafting back and forth with each loud breathy snore. Cliff was going to wake Smarty from his slumber until he spotted something delightful... uneaten cookies! Hmm...Cliff could either eat the cookies or wake up Smarty and help him finish his history homework. Guess what Cliff, with his weakness for chocolate chips, did??

...Cliff strolled out of the room with the two cookies tightly clasped in his mouth.  Poor Smarty would not finish his history homework for tomorrow’s class....

                                                         ..............What would Ms. Vineington think?!

Ms. Vineington welcomed the class back from the weekend and started the lesson review of the homework assignment,

    “Welcome back class. I hope you all enjoyed the exciting ten chapters in your textbook. I can’t wait to hear what you all have to say! Now...lets start with Italy! What was one amazing fact that you learned about how tomatoes became so famous in Italy?”

Smarty Tomato Episode 1:

Smarty Tomato Learns a (History) Lesson

    It was a rainy and drizzly day in Tomato Town and Smarty Tomato sat snug in his room, resting on his bright blue beanbag. He was finishing his weekend homework assignment for Mrs. Vineington’s history class. The students were told to read ten chapters in their history textbook, Tomatoland: A Long History. Ten chapters!?  Even little Smarty, whose favorite hobby is reading his collection of spaceship books, thought that ten chapters was a lot! But Smarty, being a dedicated student, spent his Sunday night curled up reading his sturdy red history book.

   He had just finished reading Chapter Three, (‘Tomatoes in Italy: Tomatoes Make it BIG!’) , when he began to feel unusually sleepy. The combination of the sound of soft pitter pattering of raindrops outside his window, with the warm happy feeling in his tummy (after just eating two of his moms freshly baked chocolate chip cookies), made his eyes droop in a relaxed gaze and suddenly he slumped into his beanbag and fell fast asleep.

     But Ms. Vineington was not so accommodating.....“I’m sorry Smarty, you are always the first to answer, so lets start with someone else. We can hear from you later. Cherry T, lets hear from you!” Cherry squirmed in her chair,  but softly opened her mouth and spoke,

    “Well tomatoes are famous for being loved by Italy... there wouldn’t be pizza without us. Like the traditional pizza called Margarita. Pizza Margarita is just wheat flour crust, red tomatoes, green basil and white mozzarella cheese. We tomatoes are kinda the most important part,  thats what I think.” Ms. Vineington smiled with approval of her answer. Smarty frowned in his chair,  as that was the one and only comment that he had in his head to contribute. Now his mind was blank! 

    “OK class,  now lets all talk about the most important event in our history,  Chapter Eight: The Great Fruit Versus Vegetable Debate. “ Smarty felt his red face turn even redder, his green stem wilt and and his tiny feet curl up with nervousness because he hadn’t read any of that chapter!  “Now,  we all know from Mr.Toots science class that fruits are categorized as being basically any produce item wish a fleshy rind the contains seeds. Like a peach or an apple, or even an untraditional fruit like a berry with seeds on the outside.  Now what happened with a famous ruling in the year of 1893 that forever changed the fate of us tomatoes?” The class was silent. Not one arm shot up in the air to answer the question.  A frustrated look appeared on Ms.Vineingtons face.  “Smarty? How about you? Now is your chance-I know you just love to contribute! I’m sure you read every last word in this chapter.”

    Back at home, Smarty curled up in his bright blue beanbag with his books and his cat Cliff by his side. “Now Cliff, you let me fall asleep last time, Don’t let me fall asleep tonight! OK?!” Cliff shook his head in agreement while handing Smarty a piece of paper. “A contract? It says you will keep me awake in exchange for two cookies?” Smarty looked at Cliff and giggled.... “OK Cliff...Silly Cat.” Cliff snickered to himself and nuzzled up between Smarty and his book. Smarty read and wrote the whole night long. And this time Smarty stayed awake.....even if Cliff didn't”  

Until his next adventure.....THE END.

    The next day at school Smarty felt very nervous. He had never fallen asleep without finishing his homework assignment. He had never come to class unprepared! He desperately hoped no one would notice.

    Smarty froze in his chair and used his head to think of the most logical answer! Tomatoes were indeed fleshy items with seeds inside,  so did that mean he was really a fruit? Smarty improvised his answer...

    “Well in, uh, 1893, umm, the great announcement was, uh made that we tomatoes were the very best, um in the whole produce kingdom and we were given the title of greatest, um greatest, um, greatest produce with seeds...meaning FRUIT around. I would think....” Smarty’s mind spun as he imagined all the signs in tomato town that referred to tomatoes as vegetables. But in a split second noticed that indeed, tomatoes DO have seeds inside their skin...so they must be fruits.

     “Smarty! Did you not do your reading? “  The teacher asked.

     “No Ms. Vineington,  I fell asleep.”  The entire class gasped and spun around to look at little Smarty.  

    “Well that’s too bad,  did ANYONE do the reading?” Not one tiny tomato looked up.  Ms. Vineington was not amused. “ Well class IF you had done your reading you would have read about the most astonishing event in our history! The event in 1893 where tomatoes, a pure FRUIT by scientific classification, were legally proclaimed by the Supreme Court to be a vegetable! Tomatoes were never taxed as fruits,  but once the legal ruling was changed, we were taxed as vegetables. This ruling has been one of the greatest controversies in our history. Well, that and the late 1900’s ruling that ketchup is indeed counted as being a vegetable serving in school lunches....but I digress. This famous ruling is a crucial point in our history and you should all have read about it!” Ms. Vineington was very upset.  The class was silent and suddenly Smarty stood up and said boldly to Ms. Vineington,

    “ Goodness, I feel awful. I think the whole class should read about this amazing event and bring you a ten page book report about it tomorrow. I know it would be an honor to read further about this ruling in 1983!” Ms. Vineington’s angry eyes softened and she smiled at Smarty,

    “How nice of you dear, that is a great idea and I know you will all come back with amazing reports since you are such wonderful students.” Just then the school bell rang, brrrriingg! and the tomatoes scurried out of class. But as Smarty was leaving, a big group of tomatoes gathered at the door and heckled him as he walked down the hall, “Booo! Hiiisssss!  Booooo!”

    “What?” Smarty asked loudly among the angry shouts. I apologized for us and now Ms. Vineington isn't mad anymore!”

    “Yeah but now we have to do a ten page book report by tomorrow!” Angry little Tony T Tomato whined back at Smarty.

    “But it will be fun!”  Smarty smiled. The other tomatoes groaned and walked away, leaving Smarty to feel sad and a bit confused. But he skipped on home to do his report. He was really excited!

...read with someone you like a whole bunch!

Smarty, having actually read that entire chapter, shot his arm up into the air and hoped to contribute to the discussion.