Reggie the Veggiesarus Rex

By Samuel Bowley, aged 8

It’s a well-known fact that ALL Tyranosaurus-Rex were carnivores…meat munchers…down-right flesh guzzlers. Apart from one…Reggie. On the outside, Reggie looked like any other T-Rex: razor sharp teeth like jagged daggers, eyes like orange flash-lights and a forest destroying tail. But…there was something VERY different about Reggie. He was a VEGETARIAN!!! His favourite foods were broccoli and ripe tomatoes. This all began after Reggie had an unfortunate experience with a Braceosaurus called Brian and a chicken leg (don’t ask)! Nobody understood Reggie’s diet. This would be a usual dinner time chat:

“Eat your meat Reggie”.

“But I don’t eat food with a face”.

“If you don’t eat your meat, it might eat you”!!

“Gulp”!

One morning, Reggie stomped his way to school. Reggie liked school, which made him a ‘nerd’. He got an A+ in Combat and Camouflage, but an E- in hunting (herbivore!). One thing Reggie didn't like about school was the other carnivores. They thought he was weird for being a veggie and made fun of him. This made Reggie miserable. He could often hear them sing songs about him, that went something like this:

“Reggie the veggie, give him a wedgie”

…and they usually did. The worst of these bullies was a ferocious Velociraptor called Broc. Broc had big muscly legs, meat gripping toe claws and teeth like sharpened spears. He was the leader of a pack of Velociraptors called ‘The Fearsome 5’ (made up of Scraggy, Meat-Muncher, Ripper and Slasher) and they ruled the school.

This particular day, Reggie was (thankfully) getting over his most painful wedgie yet, when he overheard Broc and Scraggy discussing Reggie’s prized vegetable patch. He hid behind a great oak tree to listen.

“How do we know where the patch is”?

“Got that covered”.

“What we gonna do”?

“Tonight, we’ll trash Reggie’s patch. That’ll teach him for being a veggie”.

Reggie froze in horror. He couldn't believe it. “What am I going to do”?, he thought. Then, Reggie had an idea that would save his patch and shoo the bullies off once and for all. Reggie ran home and hatched his plan.

“I’m going to need a LOT of vegetables”, he muttered.

Reggie set off to his veggie patch. Reggie’s vegetable patch was his life. He grew every vegetable imaginable – courgettes the size of samurai swords, tomatoes like wrecking balls and sprouts like bowling balls. Reggie set to work on ‘Operation Broccoli’.

Later, Broc and his gang sneaked up to the patch. Reggie hid, trembling. Scraggy stepped onto the patch. He didn't notice the wire. Several fat tomatoes fell from a tree, splattering him to the floor. Ripper was next. Suddenly, a massive pumpkin on a rope came gliding towards him, knocking him high into the sky. Broc ran forwards, but slipped on marble like peas and landed face first into mushy greens. Defeated, they all ran away in fear and never bothered Reggie again.

So, the next time you leave your veggies, remember, they could save your life…they did Reggie’s.