Mushroom Surprise

— Narration in "Mush"

Miss Mush preparing a dish of Mushroom Surprise. ("Mush," 2019)

**Mushroom Surprise** is a dish prepared by Miss Mush in the *Wayside School* books and cartoon. In the books, it is only seen in the chapter "Mush," with passing mentions in other chapters, while it makes frequent appearances in the cartoon. In both series, it is referred to as Miss Mush's specialty dish. It is hinted that it might secretly be a love potion, because it makes anyone who eats it temporarily fall in love with and kiss the mouth of the first person they see.

## Role in series

### Books

The Mushroom Surprise is first mentioned in the chapter "A Package for Mrs. Jewls," when Louis notices that Miss Mush is preparing mushrooms, waiting to eat them later. In "Mush," Ron is forced to eat it after he isn't able to bring a lunch to school. The news of Ron eating it spreads around the school, attracting a large crowd of students, curious what the "surprise" is. Ron claims it isn't bad, and that it tastes like a mix of bananas and spinach. Without warning, however, his face flushes, his eyes change color, and his body starts violently shaking, before finally kissing Deedee, with no memory of the event, and with its perceived taste having changed to a mix of hot dogs and grape jelly. The other students flee, only for Mrs. Jewls to arrive, seeing Ron still eating it. Once again, his face flushes, and his eyes change color. By "Another Story About Potatoes," it's revealed that Mrs. Jewls made Miss Mush get rid of the Mushroom Surprise, and promise to never make it again, with the heavy implications that Ron had kissed Mrs. Jewls.

### Cartoon

The Mushroom Surprise first appears in *Wayside: The Movie*, where Miss Mush offers it to Todd when he enters the cafeteria for the first time, though it ends up burning a hole in the floor. Later on in the movie, Todd uses it to burn a hole into Mrs. Jewls's class, to save the kids from the incoming trash compactor. It appears in the main series for the first time in "Mamaland Blues," where a blob of Mushroom Surprise seemingly comes to life. It subsequently appears again in "Todd Falls in Love," where it has a similar role to in "Mush." Todd eats it on a dare to prove he isn't in love with Maurecia, but he ends up falling in love with Mrs. Jewls instead. He spends the episode enamored with Mrs. Jewls, leaving Maurecia heartbroken, but after Dana helps her realize he may just be suffering the Mushroom Surprise's side effects, she asks Miss Mush for help. Miss Mush claims she saw something similar before, where the science teacher ate it and fell in love with a cactus, but claims there's no cure. However, Maurecia realizes that the baloney freezy, another one of Miss Mush's dishes, would be able to make Todd throw up, which does in fact reverse the effects. Mushroom Surprise has numerous effects.

The Mushroom Surprise subsequently makes minor appearances in other episodes, such as in "French Fried," where Miss Mush introduces it as a new recipe, "Free Stewy," where Todd notices it is on the menu, and "Oh, Brother," where Miss Mush remembers that Goon never ate it. It does not make another major appearance until "Miss Fortune," where Miss Mush prepares bowls of it that can predict the future of whoever eats it. The students, not wanting to eat Mushroom Surprise, feed it to Fluffy instead, but all learn as a result of this, that they have futures as milkmaids, which turns out to be Fluffy's career. Mr. Kidswatter, however, is seen eating it constantly, only finding himself to have a lousy job as a school principal. In an episode in the Season 3 hoax named Mac n Toss, Mac, a boy who loved Maurecia before the events of "Mrs. Gorf" makes her eat the Mushroom Surprise so she'll become a girly-girl again, but Todd plans to make her throw up. Similar to the plot to Todd Falls in Love.

## Trivia

* It is named similarly to the Tuna Surprise seen in "Louis." In "Free Stewy," Miss Mush also prepares a meal known as baloney surprise, though it's made with mushrooms instead of baloney.