"Alison! Alison, wake up! We're gonna be late!" I opened my eyes, and saw
a blue catlike creature with four ears perched on my stomach.
"Late for what?" I murmured sleepily. The clock on my dresser read: 5:24 AM.
"The showcasing of the new Usuki doll at Usukiland!" she said. "How could
you forget!?"
"The what doll?" I asked.
"The Usuki doll! She's a gorgeous Usul, and comes in several different varieties.
There's Flight Attendant Usuki, Hawaiian Usuki, Fun in the Sun Usuki....."
As KiwiBonk continued naming off the dolls, I flopped out of bed, and pulled
on a wrinkled pair of pants. It was still dark outside, and I saw Korbats swooping
through the night.
"KiwiBonk, did you have to wake me up this early?"
"Yeah, I was up all night just thinking about it! I wonder what she'll be
called. Maybe 'Princess Usuki', I don't think they have any named that.....
Come on, the place is probably packed." She hopped over to the Porthole. "Bring
your money, hop to it! Snap snap!"
"We only have 3,000 to spend... if it's any more than that, I'm not buying
it...."
As luck would have it, we were transported directly in front of the Usukiland store. KiwiBonk was right. It was packed! It was mostly girl pets invading
the store, but there were some boys, too. KiwiBonk spotted a fellow Aisha friend
of hers, Martini123.
"Hi, Martini!" she cried. Her owner, I noticed, didn't look very happy, and
was dressed rather richly. Martini was dressed almost as lavishly. She was painted
with a Faerie Paintbrush, and had numerous glittering collars around her neck.
"Hello, KiwiBonk! Do you know what the new Usuki looks like? I heard that
it's dressed like the Faerie Queen, and it costs a million Neopoints!"
"Woah! I hope not," she breathed.
"Even if it did, Mommy could afford it, couldn't you?" The Aisha looked at
her 'mommy.' "Yes, sweetums. Here, have a Negg to make you happy." The girl
handed her pet a Fish Negg, and she gobbled it up messily. KiwiBonk looked enviously
as Martini burped and her owner gave her a Lime Slushie to wash it down.
"Hey, Alison!!!!" I heard a voice cry. Twinky_toes, better know as my friend
Julie, was heading straight towards me, her pet following close behind.
"Hi," KiwiBonk called. Melon_beri, the Chia giggled in greeting.
"Do you know everyone in Neopia?" I asked my pet.
"Only the weirdos."
"Hey, Alison, my pets dragged me here. Usuki is so cute, but so expensive.
Melon_beri has been bugging me the whole way here. I popped out on the Faerie
Cloud, and she nearly had a fit because Usukiland was so far away."
"Hello, Julie," Martini's owner said coldly.
"Hi... who are you?" she replied. Martini's owner turned on her heel and stomped
away. Martini, seeing no other choice, followed, waving goodbye to KiwiBonk.
"Do you know her?" I asked.
"Nope."
KiwiBonk squeaked as a Usul stepped onto the podium behind the microphone.
"Woah, it's her! The real Usuki!" The crowd gasped, and I was instantly pushed
on all sides by excited people and their pets trying to get a closer look.
"Hello ladies, gentlemen, NeoPets and Usuki lovers everywhere," the Usul said.
"This is a very exciting day for me, and I'm sure it is for you, too."
"Someone's stepping on my foot!" Julie whispered.
"My wonderful staff have created yet another beautiful doll for you to add
to your collection." The camera flashes coming from every direction were nearly
blinding me. "I know you can hardly wait to see the new Usuki Doll, so I won't
keep you waiting any longer!" A woman wearing a lab coat wheeled out a covered
tray. "Here is the all new Usuki Doll!" she ripped off the white cloth. The
crowd gasped. KiwiBonk struggled to get closer.
"The Faerie Princess Usuki!"
"Whoa!" KiwiBonk gasped. Julie's pet climbed on top of her so that she could
see. "She's beautiful, just like they said!" Melon_beri said.
"This Faerie comes equipped with a magic wand, for granting spells! Her lacy
wings are just right for flying through the clouds. And she even comes with
a Tiara, just like the Faerie Queen's!"
The crowd cheered. "These people are nuts," Julie said. "The Faerie Princess
Usuki will be sold, for 100,000 Neopoints (Including taxes, H.S.T, G.S.T, M.S.T,
and buyer charges.), at the Usukiland Entrance. Please hurry, because there
is only a limited amount." The Usul stepped off the podium, and the scientists
followed.
"Alison! Alison! You have to buy me one!"
"Quick, Julie, before it's too late!" Melon_beri cried.
The crowd had already started moving towards the entrance. Julie butted her
way through the line. "Excuse me. Watch it, fatso. Hey! Move it. Outta my way."
"Hey, KiwiBonk," said Melon_beri. "Isn't that your pet?" She pointed to a
tiny white speck on the roof the Usukiland Store.
"It is!" KiwiBonk started to scream at the top of her lungs. "SNUFFS! SNUFFS!"
The snowman shrieked in return. "Alison, you have to get Snuffs! He could slip
and hurt himself!"
KiwiBonk started to cry. I shoved people and pets aside, and several rude
remarks were shouted my way. "Jeez, this is like a war field," I thought. There
was a stack of pink boxes and people were literally stomping, punching and trampling
to get one. I saw Martini123's owner on top of everyone else, clutching a box.
Turning my attention to the snowman stuck on the roof, I noticed that he grasped
a Usuki doll. "Good for you, Snuffs."
I saw Julie grab a box from some guy, and run for her life. The boxes were
nearly gone now, and most of the crowd drifted away. Suddenly, a box-less girl
cried out: "Hey, look at the snowman!" and pointed at Snuffs. The crowd roared,
and pinned me to the wall as they started climbing up the side of the Usukiland store. KiwiBonk wailed louder than ever. Snuffs looked terrified, but held
his ground in front of the box.
But his valiant bravery and incessant shrieking were no match for the crowd.
A little boy grabbed the box, and an older girl grabbed it from him. But Snuffs
wasn't one to give up easily. He bit the girl on the leg, and she dropped the
box. He took it in his mouth, and flung it toward KiwiBonk. The crowd jumped
off the roof, and tackled the Aisha. Snuffs, letting out a terrifying battle
cry, rolled off the roof, and savagely attacked anyone within his reach. I saw
a tiny, eight inch high snowman lift three kids my age off the ground, and slam
them down in a weird, wrestling-type move. He head-butted a young boy, and knocked
down the rest of them like dominoes. Growling like a savage, he stood in front
of a dirty, bruised KiwiBonk, who smiling proudly and clutching a battered package.
The crowd slowly backed away. When there were 20 feet between them and the brutal
snowman, a Chia called: "Retreat!", and they ran away without looking back.
"Wow, Snuffs, that was amazing!" KiwiBonk gushed. "You are totally the best
pet!" Snuffs shrieked proudly.
"KiwiBonk, you're all beaten up!" I exclaimed. "Come on, I'll take you to
the hospital."
At the Neopian Hospital, I saw several other pets and owners suffering from
the battle at Usukiland. One girl I talked to had a pet Kyrii in a coma, and
an 11 year old boy had a broken arm.
"Snuffs is my hero," said KiwiBonk quietly, as we waited at the reception
desk. "If it weren't for him, I wouldn't have this Faerie Princess Usuki."
"KiwiBonk, you haven't even opened the package yet," I said.
"Oh, yeah." She began to get excited. "I left it on my seat." KiwiBonk left
to go get it. Snuffs, who was being extremely protective of KiwiBonk since the
incident at the store, followed close behind.
"Yes, how may I help you?" said the red Elephante behind the desk.
"I have a pet with several bruises, and a Abominable snowman suffering from
loss of snow and several cuts."
"From the incident at the Usukiland store?" she asked. I nodded. The kind
Elephante shook her head. "It's criminal, that is. That place should be put
out of business. Every time they come up with a new doll, the hospital is packed
full of pets with broken bones and bruises everywhere."
Suddenly, KiwiBonk came running, eyes full of tears, with Snuffs screeching
uproariously.
"Alison......." she gasped.
"HEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!" Snuffs yelled.
"It's gone!"
"HEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
"What's gone?"
"HEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!"
"Snuffs, shut up!"
"HEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!"
"My package with the doll inside. Somebody stole it! Somebody.... they stole
it... it's gone... I......."
"HEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!"
"Where was it?"
"On the chair."
"Come on, let's look again." Giving the Elephante what I hoped was a apologising
look, I followed KiwiBonk to the pink plastic chairs where we had sat while
waiting for service. They were now occupied by a girl with a Shoyru on her lap,
and a Chomby playing by her feet.
"Excuse me," I said, "But my pet has lost a pink box with a Faerie Princess
Usuki in it. Have you seen it?"
"No, but my pets and I will help you look for it," she said. The six of us
searched high and low throughout the hospital, but found nothing. KiwiBonk burst
into tears when our search proved to be in vain.
"But, I wanted it so bad," she sobbed.
"Yeah, but Snuffs didn't even pay for it," I told her.
"I bet Martini's owner took it," she said. "She's mean and rich and snobby
enough."
"But, we saw her with her own package, remember? She couldn't have taken it."
KiwiBonk was sad for several more days. A week after the incident, I invited
Julie and Melon_beri over for some Churros, a kind of biscuit that is KiwiBonk's
favourite food. Melon_beri brought her Faerie Princess Usuki, at KiwiBonk's
request.
"Yeah, okay...." Melon_beri said doubtfully, when they spoke on the phone.
When they arrived, Julie and I sat down at my cheap aluminium table, sipping
slushies and stuffing ourselves with Churros. We didn't even talk, our mouths
were so full of food. We just kinda chewed and watched our NeoPets play.
First they played with KiwiBonk's large collection of Fuzzles, then they did
tricks with her new yo-yo. Finally, KiwiBonk begged to play with the Usuki.
Melon_beri took a plastic bag out of Julie's book bag, and dumped its contents
on the floor.
"This," she announced, "is the Faerie Usuki doll." There was a few pieces
of wing, half a tiara, and the remnants of a magic wand. The rest looked like
sawdust.
"It's a piece of garbage," Melon_beri warned. "I fell apart the fist time
I tried to play with it. What a waste of 100,000 Neopoints. We'll never buy
a stupid Usuki doll again, will we, Julie?"
Julie shook her head. I gave KiwiBonk a 'I-told-you-so' look, but she chose
to ignore it.
The End
Author's note: Sincere apologies to who's name or pet's name is Martini123. That
character was made up, and not meant to resemble an actual person (Or pet.) Thanks
to twinky_toes and Melon_beri for letting me put them in my story. KiwiBonk has
two brothers and a sister now, and you can read about KiwiBonk's past adventures
in past issues of The Neopian Times. | 
