Looks are Everything?!

by Sah the Acara

I remember when my owner first created me. Out of all the pets she chose me. I was her very first NeoPet, in her very first account. She paid lots of attention to me. Coming on everyday to feed and play with me, but that was a long time ago, and things have changed...

Things changed because of my look. When they made the first change to me, my owner was furious, not at me exactly, and not at the NeoPets team because they must have had a reason for changing me. But she was angry. She started spending a little less time with me. Though at the time I thought it was because she had adopted three other pets. Then, when the NeoPets team changed my look for a second time, my owner had had enough. You should have seen the fit she threw once she had logged on and saw me. She said I looked like my face had been bashed in with a shovel. I was very hurt. I knew my owner didn't mean to hurt me, but she did. I had already felt terrible about my appearance.

From then on, my owner looked at me a little differently. Whenever we passed the pound, she always looked as if she would like to go in, and get rid of me. I was thankful for my owner's sensitivity. She hated the thought of getting rid of any of us, no matter how we looked, especially if we happened to be her very first NeoPet.

Well, one day my owner entered our tidy little cottage while me and my siblings were eating breakfast. She kept her coat on and said a nice "hello" to all of us and helped us clean up the breakfast dishes, then she motioned for me to come into a different room with her.

"Hi Sah!" she said, a little too cheerfully. "Guess what?!" she said, "In my other account I adopted a Poogle from the pound!" she smiled. A fake smile? I thought. This was the time when Poogles were no longer available to create, so I knew why she was so happy, but why did she look like something was wrong?

"That's great!" I said with a hint of hesitation."

What was going on? My owner looked down. "Ummmmmm.....well I was wondering if you would like to visit the pets in my other account........." she trailed off.

"What do you mean 'visit'"? I asked.

"Well, this Poogle is really nice. And I would like to give it a really good home in this account.......temporarily." She looked straight at me.

"And what about me?" I asked. "Well you have a had a good home in this account for a very long time. You could stand living in a worse account for a little bit." She looked down again.

"So what you're saying is......." I paused, was this possible? "That you want to put me in your bad account so you can bring that cute little Poogle in here? You just don't want to feel bad by getting rid of me!" My soft voice got louder and louder as I thought about it. I knew she didn't pay much attention to her other account. It was more or less a "backup" account in case of some kind of emergency.

My owner looked at me with sad eyes. "Please get your things," she said in a soft voice. I looked at her, she couldn't do this, she can't be doing this. But she was. We walked to a special clearing in the woods where I guessed the transaction would be taking place. I looked up and saw a cute little red Poogle. She looked as happy as if she had just won the lottery. My owner smiled at the sight of her. The Poogle walked up to me.

"Hi!" she said brightly. "My name's Amanda_1617. But you can call me Amanda!"

I looked at her. No wonder my owner would rather have her. It would be just the thing to top off her account. Four cute pets, whom she could afford to shower with all sorts of luxurious gifts such as paintbrushes and pet pets. I looked at my owner waiting for her to tell me when to go away into her other account. But I saw her staring at me and the Poogle.

She took the Poogle aside for a moment where I guessed she was telling us where to find our cottage. But instead I saw the Poogle smile turn into a frown. Then my owner patted him and he went away.

"Come on," she said to me. "We are going home."

My owner is still not pleased with my look, but what can she do? She brings me to the lab ray almost everyday. I think she wants me to turn into something else, or maybe she wants me stronger. She is happy with my new color though, the lab ray changed it. But remember everyone, looks aren't everything in any world, real or cyber.

The End