The True Meaning Of Smekday

By: Adam Rex

Characters• Gratuity Tucci• Pig (Gratuity’s cat)• J.Lo• Lucy Tucci • Boov• Gorg• Dan Laundry• Christian• Curly • Kat• Chief Shouting Bear• Vicki

Gratuity TucciGratuity Tucci or “Tip” is a thirteen year old girl who tells the entire story through the form of an essay. Her mother Lucy, was abducted by the aliens called “The Boov”. She spends a lot of time searching for her mom alongside her cat named Pig. Even though she is too young to drive, she taught herself how after her mother left. She now drives a car that has a big sign that says “Slushious” on top of it. She meets a friendly boov named J.Lo and they travel together.

PigPig is Gratuity’s cat. She likes J.Lo because he tastes like fish.

The BoovThe Boov J.Lo

The boov are the first aliens to take over Earth. They follow their leader, Captain Smek. They eat strange things and they look like big blobs with eyes. They also talk very oddly. For example: “I will have onto shoot with my gun” means “I will have to shoot with my gun.” They also have seven genders : girl, boy, boygirl, girlboy, boyboy, boyboygirl and boyboyboyboy.

J.Lo is a boov who says he is the “Chief Maintenance Officer”. He makes it so Gratuity’s car can hover. He accidentally sends a message to other aliens (The Gorg), leading them to Earth.

Lucy TucciLucy is Gratuity’s mother. When she found out Gratuity didn’t mean what she thought it did, she started calling her daughter turtle bear. She gets a mysterious mole on the back of her neck that tracks her for the boov. She is abducted on Christmas.

GorgGorg are the second aliens to invade Earth (accidentally contacted by J.Lo!) Their species are actually called Nimrogs but each Nimrog is named Gorg. They are ugly aliens that use telecloners to build their race. They come in huge ships made of Gorg skin. For some reason they hate cats.

Gorg

Dan LaundryDan Laundry is Lucy’s “guy friend”. He spends a suspicious amount of time talking to the Gorg.

B.O.O.B( Brotherhood Organized against Oppressive Boov)

Curly ChristianCurly is the leader of the B.O.O.B boys. They live under Happy Mouse Kingdom.

Christian is one of the nicer B.O.O.B boys. His parents were also abducted on Christmas.

Lightbodies Vicki Kat

Vicki Lightbodie lets Gratuity and J.Lo stay with here for awhile. She is living with her family and a bunch of other people who are hiding from the boov.

Kat is a girl staying with Vicki. She doesn’t trust J.Lo.

Chief Shouting BearChief Shouting Bear is known as a crazy old man. He claims to have possession of an old U.F.O. Gratuity and J.Lo visit him and discover that the U.F.O is a boov ship. Chief Shouting Bear like Gratuity and he saves her from a Gorg. He is indigenous.

Jay Jay(J.Lo)

When Gratuity and J.Lo meet the Lightbodies, J.Lo puts on a ghost costume for disguise. Gratuity lies and says that his name is Jay Jay and that he is her human brother. Kat suspects he is a boov and tries to take off the costume so Gratuity says that he has a condition and if you try to take it off he will scream and pee himself.

Happy Mouse Kingdom

Happy Mouse Kingdom is an amusement park that Gratuity and her mom used to go to. When she was a little kid she saw that the park was always so clean everyday. So she scratched the word “poop” into a ticket booth, where nobody could see it and the next day it was painted over. Gratuity finds out that there is a copy of the whole park underground and every night they switch, and the dirty one goes underground to be cleaned, the fresh one goes on top. The B.O.O.B boys live in the underground park because ever since the invasion, it was abandoned.

AssignmentGratuity is given an assignment through which the story is told:

Assignment: Write an essay titled “The True Meaning Of Smekday”. What is the Smekday holiday? How has it changed in the year since the aliens left? You may use your own personal experiences from the alien invasion to make your points. Feel free to draw pictures or include photographs. All essays will be sent to the National Time Capsule Committee in Washington D.C. The committee will choose one winning essay to be buried with the National Time Capsule, which will be uncovered one hundred years from now. Essays must be at least five pages long.

Summary Part 1Gratuity and her mother Lucy lived peacefully together in an apartment. Then her mother woke up with a strangely large mole on the back of her neck. Each day it got bigger and it even turned purple. Then on Christmas eve, Lucy started sleepwalking out the door. Gratuity tried to stop her, but she couldn’t. Her mom’s mole was flashing. She walked outside and then was abducted by a U.F.O. The next day, Earth was invaded by aliens called the boov. They took over the planet (renamed Smekland after their leader.) They ordered everyone in America to move into Florida.

Summary Part 2Gratuity teaches herself how to live without her mother. She decides to drive herself to Florida. She takes Pig with her and drives in Slushious. She doesn’t have much money so she stops by an abandoned grocery store. She starts to steal some food when she sees a boov. Gratuity locks him in a room until she finds out he means no harm. She learns his name is J.Lo and that he is Chief Maintenance Officer. He makes it so Slushious can float. She also learns that boov can teleport things and clone them. J.Lo tells her that the boov can only clone and teleport simple things and not life forms.

Summary Part 3When J.Lo calls Grautity Turtlebear, she discovers that her mom was abducted to tutor the boov and teach them English. They travel to Florida and there are no humans. A boov instructed them to go to Orlando. Gratuity sees a message saying: Humans, go to the kingdom meet under the castle. –B.O.O.B. Gratuity knows that it means to go to Happy Mouse Kingdom in Orlando and to meet in the underground castle. She goes there and finds the underground castle but she leaves J.Lo because it says humans only. She finds the organization called B.O.O.B. It is a group of boys. They think she is a boov in a suit. Curly, their leader makes her leave but Christian, a B.O.O.B member tells her that his mom was also abducted on Christmas.

Summary Part 4When she leaves, her and J.Lo see a huge ship in the sky, it is very far away. J.Lo tells her that he is not Chief Maintenance officer, he was just fixing antennas. He accidentally sent a message to the Gorg. The boov ships try to fight off the Gorg, but they are mostly all destroyed. Since the ship is made of skin, it heals. The Gorg stole the boov’s telecloner and made it so it clones and teleports Gorg. If the Gorg take over Earth, they plan to take a few humans as servants and then blow it up. Gratuity is stopped by Vicki Lightbodie and she invites her to stay in her home. J.Lo then hides under the sheet and calls himself Jay Jay. They stay for a while but they have to leave when Kat Lightbodie accuses J.Lo of being a boov.

Summary Part 5The Gorg start to take over and they demand that all cats needed to be given to them. Gratuity kept Pig. She goes to see Chief Shouting Bear, who claims to have a U.F.O. J.Lo says it is an old boov ship. Chief also has a Gorg telecloner. When A Gorg comes to take Pig, Gratuity says that she already gave Pig up. The4 Gorg sneezes around her a lot. J.Lo says that the Gorg never get sick. Gratuity finds her mother in a casino with Dan Laundry. He says that the Gorg are going to help us. Gratuity over hears him talking to a Gorg and The Gorg agrees to make him the ruler of the planet.

Summary Part 6Lucy doesn’t like J.Lo but she agrees to let him stay because Gratuity wants him to. They figure out that since the Gorg clone themselves, each time they do they make more mistakes. So now, the Gorg are allergic to cats. The Gorg sneezed around her because she owns a cat. Dan Laundry announces that the boov are leaving and the Gorg have a surprise for the humans. He thinks the surprise is the cure for cancer but they are actually going to blow up the world. Gratuity and J.Lo come up with a plan. They take the telecloner from Chief and clone Pig. The Gorg are overrun with clones of Pig.

There are five whole pages that just say Meow

Summary Part 7The Gorg swell up and leave Earth forever. The boov also left. Dan Laundry took credit for scaring away the Gorg. He claimed that he found out about their evil plans and he defeated the Gorg leader. J.Lo decides to stay with Gratuity and Lucy. Gratuity’s essay gets chosen for the time capsule. The book ends with a news article.

113 Year Old Passes at Time Capsule Unveiling

Local senior Gratuity Tucci, who as a young girl contributed an essay to the National Time Capsule Project, passed away at the capsule unveiling during a Washington ceremony this morning.Tucci’s essay, entitled “The True Meaning of Smekday,” was only one of many items in the unearthed time capsule, including a lock of Dan Laundry's hair and a recording of DJ Max Dare’s single “Hit the Road Smek (Moove, Boov! Mix).”Tucci has been asked to comment on the rumors of an extended version of her essay that documents her life through the end of the Gorg occupation.“I don’t know what your talking about.” Tucci said on Saturday. “And you can leave that capsule in the ground , as far as I’m concerned.” Participants at the capsule unveiling report that Tucci collapsed, muttered something unintelligible, and then added “Pardon my language.” These where her last words.Gratuity Tucci is survived by her husband, two children, five grandchildren, eight great grandchildren and a boov.

ClosingThis book was VERY funny and sad. I recommend it to everyone because it has a mix of genres and it is very entertaining.