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An Aisha sat alone on the new Neoschool benches. She bit
into her apple and stared out at all the cheerful other pets, playing with their
siblings or friends happily. Most had finished their lunch. But after being bullied
out of her lunch money, all she had left was her shiny red apple that her owner
had bought for her.
It was Carla’s first day. They yellow Aisha
was an only pet. Everyone teased her, especially Filch Fletcher the Korbat.
He and his goonies were always bullying Carla and she didn’t do much anything
about it.
She had no friends. In class, she sat next to
a snobby Acara. The pet’s name was Tanya and she the most popular pet in school.
She had followers and it was impossible to speak to her because she was always
surrounded with pets pleading to get her autograph.
No, Carla was a just ordinary, plain Aisha that
loved to read. One thing she despised of everyone was that her owner never let
her eat sweets or chocolate. She saw those brownies in the Cafeteria, fresh
from the oven. But you had to buy them for five hundred Neopoints a piece and
her owner wasn’t quite as rich as the rest.
“Hey kid!” a voice rang out behind her. Carla
turned around just as she bit into her apple and a football fell between her
ears. She winced in pain and felt tears stream down her eyes. “Hey, don’t be
a cry baby.” The pet that yelled out sneered, picking up the football and tossing
it into the air.
Carla picked up her hand-me-down lunch bag and
tossed her apple core into the garbage can. She then walked into the big brick
building that was called Neoschool. How she loathed of this new invention of
Neopia. While her owner played games and bought healthy snacks for her, she
had to come to this horrid place.
She walked into the cool classroom of Grade
Six and placed her lunch bag into her cubby-hole. She examined the rest. Some
pets had baseball caps or wads of gum. Others baseballs and footballs or in
Tanya’s case, a whole container full of lip-gloss. Carla took out a gum piece
and stared at the wrapper.
Finally, minutes later, she was chewing on a
big piece of gum. The bubble gum was pink and soft and it squished sugary juice
out as you chewed. She peeped through all the other cubby-holes and found six
cookies, twelve bars of chocolate and a pack of double fudge Faerie brownies.
She stuffed them all in her face, placing her gum behind her ear. “Mm…” the
Aisha smiled to herself, rubbing her stomach. “Yummy!”
Ding! Ding! Ding!
Carla dashed to the garbage can and threw out
all the wrappers. She peered through the window at the top of the door and saw
pets of all kinds milling through the hallways and making their way to their
classroom. She brushed off her lips for any last cookie crumbs and ambled her
way to her desk.
As soon as she sat down in her seat, the door
opened and her class filed in. Behind them, Mrs Green followed. She stood in
front of the classroom, holding a clipboard. “Hello everyone.” She smiled sweetly.
“Hello Mrs Green,” everyone replied in unison.
“Today,” the Wocky continued. “We will be learning
about Art. Now, you will all get up and walk to Mr Lupid’s classroom. Remember,
you may bring your snacks along if you haven’t finished them at lunch.”
The sound of chairs scraping back made Carla
feel a little uneasy. While everyone walked to the back of the classroom, Carla
walked to the front to line up. She looked over her shoulder nervously. Would
they notice that their snacks went missing?
“Hey!” a blue Elephante shouted. His trunk trumpeted
angrily. “Where are my brownies? My mom made them last night!”
“Yeah, and where are my cookies? I bought them
fresh from the Bakery!” a Green Lupe pouted crossly. Suddenly, almost every
pet in the class was yelling and shouting that their goodies went missing.
“Calm down everyone, clam down!” Mrs Green ordered.
Everyone hushed. “Now I’ m sure that there is a reasonable explanation. Now
who was in here first?” She looked around the class and Tanya piped up.
“Mrs Green, Carla was the first one when I walked
into the classroom. I didn ’t even see her outside!” She smirked at Carla and
the Aisha felt her stomach do a flip-flop.
“Carla, did you see anyone suspicious around
here? Stealing cookies and sweets?” Mrs Green asked gently, placing her paw
on Carla’s shoulder. Carla gulped and shook her head. “Alright,” Mrs Green said
calmly, as everyone started arguing and complaining again. “Let’s solve this
mystery after we get back from Art.”
*****
The rest of Art for Carla was a drag. Everyone, especially Tanya, kept shooting
her suspicious looks as she straightened her clay whale. No one can find
out, she thought to herself, no one.
After Art, they sauntered back into their class.
Some were still upset from their loss, others were just plain sad. Carla sat
back into her desk, but only to find a note stuff into it. “I know you did it,”
Carla read silently. She glanced at Tanya who gave her a smirk.
Carla gulped and pretended that never happened.
She stared straight ahead of her and wrote down her History assignment. 'I know
you did it.' Those words drifted through Carla’s mind.
When the bell rang signifying that recess had
begun, Mrs Green pulled Carla aside. “You don’t think I’m the sugar snatcher
too do you?” Carla asked nervously, wringing her hears together making them
twist and turn.
Mrs Green looked into her eyes and shook her
head. “I just hope I’m right,” she said softly. She patted her on the shoulder
and picked up bunches of papers. “Say, I see you out there alone at recess all
the time. Want to help file some papers?”
Soon, Carla was filing away in the Teachers
Lounge. The big gray filing cabinets sat in the corner of the room right next
to a large window displaying the playground. She spotted Tanya in a sea of faces.
She was reapplying her lip-gloss.
“Done!” Carla said triumphantly when she finished
putting the last paper away.
“Wow, that was quick.” Mrs Green mused. “I wonder
how you do it Miss Baker.” Carla blushed a deep red and sat down across from
her teacher. “Is there anything you want to talk about?” Mrs Green asked, sipping
coffee from a coffee mug.
“No…” Carla said unsure of what to say. She
didn’t want to tell her teacher what she did. Mrs Green nodded her head and
glanced over the top of her newspaper.
“I’m sure Mrs. Owen has a lot on her feathers.
Why don’t you see if she needs any help?” Carla nodded her head and hopped off
her seat. She wandered out of the Lounge and off to the Grade Three class.
But when the Aisha got there, there was no one
in sight. She walked into the room and figured she would just wait until the
teacher got back from where she was. She looked over some papers and found a
wrapped piece of chocolate cake laying untouched.
Carla gulped. Should she take the chance? She
looked outside into the hallway. No one was in sight there either. She carefully
unwrapped the piece and gulped it down in one bite, enough to still be able
to taste the chocolate. She dropped the wrappings into the can and wandered
out.
“Excuse me!” a voice screeched as Carla fell
backwards. She clearly walked into something. She looked up and saw Mrs Owens’s
strict face.
“Oops, sorry Mrs Owen.” She blushed scarlet.
“I was just walking into your room to find you to see if you needed any help
with anything. I just finished helping Mrs Green file some papers.”
“I see…” the teacher peered over her spectacles.
“Well, I do not need any help I’m sorry to say. But if I do, I’ll just tell
you and you can meet me in my classroom.” Carla nodded her head.
The two went opposite ways. Mrs Owen went into
her room. Just as Carla was turning the hall corner, she heard a loud shriek.
She brushed evidence off her lips and continued down the hall.
*****
“Hi Carla! How was your day?” Carla’s friendly owner greeted her at the front
of their NeoHome.
“Erm… interesting,” Carla said. She thrust her
Art sculpture into her owner’ s hands. “How do you like it? It’s supposed to
be a whale,” she added as she saw the look of surprise on her owner’s face.
“Very creative,” her owner smiled.
“Thanks!” Carla grinned. “You’re the best!”
It was her owner’s time to blush. But all the same, Carla skipped into her home
to enjoy the rest of the day.
*****
The next day, as Carla was reading the bulletin, she saw a horrifying sheet
pinned up. It read in big bold letters:
Sugary Sweet? Or Sourly Bad? You Decide! On the first day of school,
cookies and other goodies went missing! Who is this thief? If you catch
a pet searching through a desk or cubby-hole., report that person straight
away to Tanya Ash. She’ll then type it up for the Dr Ballard. So help us
out by keeping an eye out!
“You like my paper I see?” a
voice snickered behind her. Carla whirled around and faced Tanya, the horrible
reporter. “You know once they catch you, you’re expelled.” She made expel
sound like a bad word!
“Yeah, well, you never know who it is!” Carla
replied angrily, stamping her foot. She turned on her heel and walked straight
ahead into someone! She fell and she felt herself being picked up.
“Carla! What are you doing?” she opened her
eyes.
“Kat, what are you doing here?” her owner smiled
back.
“I just wanted to congratulate you on what a
fine day it’s been. Anyway, I was wondering if you’d like to give your old owner
a hug?” Kat outstretched her arms and just as Carla was moving forward to give
her owner a hug, Tanya put out a paw and Carla slipped, falling backwards, her
book bag unzipping open and everything spilling out.
Everyone gasped.
Apart from the homework that lay untouched,
candies of all sorts spilled out, littering the tiled floor with assorted colors.
Carla burst into tears. “What’s wrong?” Tanya taunted, cackling happily. “Afraid
you would’ve gotten caught?”
Carla looked up, her face tear-stricken and
she pointed a threatening paw at her enemy. “You watch Tanya,” she said angrily.
“And you’ll get what’s coming to you!”
For a minute, Carla forgot about the candy and
all the people staring open-mouthed. For a second, Carla smiled triumphantly.
“Yes,” she confessed, gathering up the candies. “I did eat all the candy from
the cubby-holes But I bought my own from the Chocolate Factory and the Bakery
with my own Neopoints that I earned, and I was about to return all the candy.”
“Well I’m glad you confessed Carla. That was
a very brave thing to do.” A voice said quietly. Tanya eyes loomed enviously
as Mrs Green helped the poor Aisha.
“Why didn’t you tell me you liked candy?” Kat
asked, hugging her pet protectively. “Why? I would’ve bought some for you! There’s
no problem in just eating a little per day.”
“I thought you would think of me and be… disappointed,”
Carla said, squeezing her owner back. “But I did everything right in the end…
right?” She looked up uneasily at everyone and sighed.
But then she heard the sneer. “Right? You did
everything wrong! I think you should get a whole month’s worth of detention!”
Tanya scoffed.
“Miss Ash, I believe this is none of your business,”
Mrs Green said through pursed lips and Tanya immediately shrank down. “But yes,
Carla, even though you stole, you returned. Now let’s get on with our day.”
“So you mean I’m not punished?” Carla asked
nervously over Tanya’s loud ungrateful hiss. Mrs Green smiled and nodded her
head.
Carla spent the rest of her day returning all
of the candy that she stole to all the kids and teachers. Finally, when she
finished returning the last brownie, she had a couple more sweets all to herself.
For once, she sat down by the school wall and munched on the sweet lumps of
sugar happily.
The End
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