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“Ouch! My foot!” Sleek007 shrieked in pain, as his foot
accidentally hit something for the fourth time.
“My, somebody is getting rather accident-prone!”
I remarked, grinning at Sleek007. I simply couldn’t help teasing him for once,
especially when he had always been the one teasing me.
“And somebody’s awfully ugly today!” Sleek007
shot back, as he gave me a lethal glare that silenced me at once.
“Guys, stop it!” yelled Trisha. Trisha’s forehead
was creased with wrinkles full of worry. We were all sitting at the table eating
our breakfast, while Trisha was reading the newspaper. *Starlight* still hadn’t
arrived yet, but we didn’t notice at all. Maybe it was because we were too occupied
to explain why Sleek007 kept banging into furniture all over the place.
At this rate, Trisha is really going to look
like an old woman! I thought to myself as I took my third helping of Fizzy
Sherbet Jelly.
“I think Jhudora has put yet another curse on
Sleek007… the next one will probably be Bond… then… oh my gosh, *Starlight*
… what’s happened to you?” Trisha was now staring at the kitchen doorway, her
eyes so big that they looked as though they were about to fall out from their
sockets any minute.
A rather frazzled-looking blue Meerca who had
big red angry boils all over her body shuffled in sleepily, yawning and rubbing
her eyes as she walked. Both Sleek007 and I screamed as we hugged each other
in fright. *Starlight* was hardly recognizable at all, and even looked somewhat
like a monster.
“Huh? What do you mean what’s happened to me?”
*Starlight* mumbled as she yawned again and stretched for effect. Obviously,
she still hadn’t realized it yet, and was too tired to even ask why we were
screaming.
“Oh… uh… haha… nothing… nothing,” Trisha added
hastily, smiling weakly at *Starlight* who now seated herself beside Trisha.
Sleek007 and I almost instinctively started to
move away, until we caught Trisha shooting us a warning glare, and a discreet
curt nod of her head telling us to stay where we were. I gave her a pleading
look telling her to spare us, but to no avail. Just then, Bond entered the kitchen.
All eyes, except *Starlight*’s (her eyes were glued to her own food instead),
were riveted to Bond like metal pins to a magnet, and to our ultimate relief,
Bond was still as normal as ever. Bond must have sensed that all eyes were on
him because he blurted out a bewildered, “ What?”
Immediately we all broke out in a chorus of oh
nothings before Sleek007 suddenly howled in pain again, having just banged his
foot against the table … again. After breakfast however, I started to feel nervous
for I was still in mutant form and I knew that mutants were always considered
as geeks in the school.
“I wonder how Violet will react…” I muttered
to myself as I slowly trudged to school with a heavy heart. Even when I was
quite a distance away from home, I could heard the ear-piercing scream of *Starlight*.
Obviously, she’d just discovered the red boils on her fur. Oh well, she’ll
know it sooner or later, I thought sadly.
Arriving at the school gate, I was greeted by
curious and horrified stares from other Neopets. Honestly, that was bad enough,
but Evelyn just had to come up to me and jeer at me, congratulating me in a
sarcastic tone that I’ve just been promoted to being one of the ugliest mutants
at school.
Fortunately, Violet arrived in the nick of time,
and with her own sarcastic remarks and character, she managed to drive a rather
embarrassed Evelyn away. Then turning to face me, I could feel her eyes traveling
over my whole entire figure in cool regard. There was a slight pause, and I
could feel my face practically burning with humiliation.
“I warned you, but you didn’t listen,” was all
Violet said as she continued to look at me from top to bottom
Luck intervened in the form of the school bell,
signaling the start of another long school day. Violet simply shrugged in a
nonchalant manner and faced me squarely in the eye. If was acting as though
me turning into a mutant was no big deal, she was doing it very well.
“Come on,” she continued, throwing her books
into the locker and pulling out the ones that she needed. “Let’s go before we
are late for History class! I’ll race you there!”
And, just for a split-second, I felt a ray of
happiness light up inside me and I beamed broadly, a rather hard thing to do
when one was a mutant. I ran after Violet, thinking that everything was going
to turn out just fine like before, when actually, it was the total opposite.
***
“Hello again, mutant !” Evelyn greeted
me, snickering as she sauntered past me in the cafeteria. I almost felt like
turning around to give her a good whack on the face, but I knew that this action
would only get me detention after school. So I kept quiet instead and went to
get some food.
As I made my way towards the food area, I could
feel all eyes were glued on me. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see some
Neopets nudging their friends to come and take a look at me, since there hadn’t
been a Mutant Usul in the school before. I felt like I was the centre of attention,
except in a bad way.
I tried to ignore it, as I collected my food
that consisted of a shiny red apple, a bowl of chunky meaty stew, and a cup
of purple juppie java and plunked them all onto a tray. However, while I was
walking back to my seat where Violet was waiting for me, somebody deliberately
stuck out their foot, and before I knew it, I tripped over and fell down with
a loud, dull heavy thud as all the contents in my tray came crashing together
with me to the ground.
The worst thing was that my face had landed straight
into the bowl of chunky meaty stew, and when I got up, bits of meat still clung
to my fur, making me look plain ridiculous. I had to borrow a napkin from Violet
to wipe my face and my tears, too, for everybody, except those who were mutants
in the cafeteria, had burst out laughing; laughing at ME.
I walked to my seat in a daze and sat down, trying
my best to hide my tears. If there was one thing I hated, it was letting other
people see me cry. I had never cried before, unless I was really sad or depressed,
and this was one of the particular occasions when I did. Violet looked rather
angry, probably with the others for being so cruel and heartless, and it pained
her kind heart to see me look like this.
As the seconds ticked by, it was as though the
laughing would never end. Violet grew more and more indignant on my behalf.
In the end, she couldn’t take it any longer. She stood right on top of the cafeteria
table, and declared in a loud and heated voice that those who were laughing
were perfectly cruel ninnies who had nothing else better to do, other than groom
their oh-so-perfect fur and tease those who were different from others.
By the time she had finished her emotional ranting,
practically everybody in the cafeteria was staring at her furiously.
Someone had even called Marie, a female Zafara
teacher who taught History, to come and stop Violet from babbling too much.
And so, in the end, Violet got suspended from school for a few days and even
got grounded by her rather disappointed, boiling mad owner. Even though I knew
that she shouldn’t have done that, I was nevertheless touched by this gesture
of friendship. After all, what’s done has already been done and cannot be changed
no matter what.
As for my other siblings… well, they all managed
to recover from the curses Jhudora had put on them, thanks to Fyora’s help…
although we did have to pay a rather exorbitant fee in return! It made a rather
big hole in Trisha’s pocket, so it took quite a long while before she could
save up just enough to buy me another Faerie paint brush. (Oh those suffering
days!)
The weirdest thing was that Bond, mysteriously,
wasn’t affected in any way, although Fyora did make him wear a protective bracelet
around his arm--just to be on the safe side. But we soon found out the reason
why. (Thanks to Fyora’s spies! ) It turned out that Dr. Sloth had just asked
Jhudora out on a surprise date right on the very day she had been planning to
put a curse on Bond. She was so ecstatic that she totally forgot about putting
a curse on Bond, or that we even existed! Which is kind of good, in a way, since
now I know that it’s for sure we’ll never ever hear from her again!
And what about me, you ask. Hmmm … all I can
say is that ever since that very day when I had to go to school as a mutant,
my whole outlook and perception of mutants have changed drastically.
It turned out that during the suffering period
of time I was still a mutant, many other mutants came to talk and hang out with
me, something they didn’t dare to do when I was a Faerie Usul. I was rather
grateful for their company. Other than Violet, all my other friends had deserted
me out of fear and contempt. Even after I was turned back into a Faerie Usul,
I have never forgotten them, my wonderful mutant friends.
I even hang out with them sometimes, although
they first protested, saying that they were not fit enough to be with us, normal,
painted Neopets. It also earns quite a lot of stares from other Neopets when
they see one Faerie Usul mixing around with so many mutants. Even Violet was
brave, and nice enough, to hang out with them, another quality in her that I’ve
always admired when I’d first gotten to know her.
So here ends my story, all recorded down neatly
into my scrapbook. Who knows, maybe one day, it’ll get published in the Neopian
Times for everyone to see, and let them know that mutants ain’t as bad as most
people think they are …
The End
Author’s Note: Hope you enjoyed my story! Neomail me if you have any comments!
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