Heather's New Home: Part Two

      Heather nodded. Liski and her other pals joined Sheb. "Shake out your pockets," the Darigan Kougra told her.

      "What?!"

      "I mean, turn your pockets inside out," she replied, rolling her eyes.

      "I--"

      "Or, we'll do it for you," the Grarrl said. He and the Jetsam reached into the side of her blue dress. When they turned out her pockets, Liski picked up the items. She looked at a green book. "Illusen's Ixi? What a great read," she said sarcastically. "And look, a cute little Yellow Ixi Notebook. I assume your greatest secrets are here."

      "No! That's my address book. Please don't take it!" Heather cried.

      "Aw, why would we need some faerie-hairy-friend address book?" the Aisha laughed. "Ahh, but look. There's something useful." She looked at the bag of neopoints in her hand. "It's heavy."

      "No, that is my money I got for my birthday! Give that back!"

      "Make me." Liski turned, and she and her friends walked off. Heather picked up her books, close to tears. It was pointless trying to get her money back now. She sat back on the rock, sulking, waiting for the bell

      That night when Heather finished her homework, she was about to go down to dinner when Carmen knocked on the door. The girl walked in. "Heather, we're a bit low on food. Either you go out and get us some milk, or buy from your school cafeteria tomorrow. I can't, I'm still fixing dinner."

      "I can finish fixing it while you go out."

      "I'm afraid it's a bit too dangerous, I'm making Blue Bomberry salad. I need to heat it a bit... and you know how they can explode."

      "Alright, Carmen, I'll go."

      Carmen gave Heather directions and some cash, and Heather was on her way. The little store was on the corner of Evil Street and Tombstone Road, a block away. To get there she had to walk past the Game Graveyard, the place where most of the shrieks at night came from. I guess games are alive, Heather thought with a shiver. She walked past the old iron creaky fence, trying to move fast.

      Suddenly someone grabbed her by the arm. She tried to scream, but no voice came out. She wheeled around, looking straight into the eyes of Sheb, the ghost Jetsam.

      "Let go of me!" she cried.

      "No."

      "What are you gonna do to me?"

      "What do you think? You're jingling all over, I suspect that Faerie-lovin' owner of yours finally gave you your weekly allowance?"

      "Go away!" she shrieked.

      "No!"

      Heather, looking into the glowing red eyes of the Jetsam, decided she couldn't let them bully her. They would get her, eventually, of course, but she couldn't let them do it now.

      "All right, all right, but I have to get them, they're in my backpack," she lied. The Jetsam let go of her, and instead of turning around, Heather bolted straight for the woods on the other side of the road.

      "Hey! Where do you think you're going?" the Jetsam called after her, but she didn't turn around. After running for a long time, she stopped to catch her breath. It was dark here, she could see the first stars coming out above the treetops. She sat down on a log, trying to think of what to do next. The Jetsam would give up, after all, she didn't have that many Neopoints on her, and at the same time she knew she couldn't go back. Heather felt that going back would somehow provoke the bullies.

      Suddenly, she heard a twig snap. She looked around, seeing a running silhouette of someone. As it came closer she realized it was a rainbow Bori, apparently running after something. "Oh, sorry," he panted. "I was just looking for my Doglefox, Chash. Have you seen him?"

      "Uh, no," Heather replied.

      "Oh, sorry to bother you. He escaped today when I opened the door." He laughed. "What's your name? Do you live here?"

      Heather, taken aback by his straightforwardness, answered, "My name is Heather. I uh-- yeah. I moved from Faerieland."

      "Faerieland? That's cool! Mine is Sam. We used to live on Mystery Island. My sisters and owner, I mean."

      "Oh... so you have a petpet?"

      "We all do. Maria, she's the pretty Christmas Wocky, she's got herself a Meowclops, Carrie, a Plushie Kacheek, has this Plushie Rock, and Tess the Island Krawk has a Faellie. Why, don't you have one? Do any of your brothers or sisters have one?"

      "Well, no. I never thought about it. And -- I don't have any brothers or sisters, anymore. They -- were lost. My owner's other account," Heather sighed.

      "Oh! I'm so sorry! Hey -- look at the time!" Sam glanced at his watch. "Dinner! Would you like to come with me? You can send your owner a neomail saying you'll be here. My owner won't mind."

      "Okay."

      So that's what they did. Carmen was happy about how things turned out, and Heather promised she'd tell her everything when she got home. It turned out Gillian, Sam's owner, was a wonderful cook. They had fixed a delicious Angel Hair Salad (saying she got the recipe from the Kelp owner himself), along with a beautiful Blueberry Deluxe Cake and some Mulled Fruit Juice.

      "So, is this the type of food you have every day?" Heather asked after they finished, licking her lips.

      "Oh, yeah, usually. Gillian has about a thousand cookbooks with about a thousand recipes in each," he laughed. "But yes, we usually have something like that."

      "Wow."

      "Well... shouldn't you be getting home now?"

      "Oh, yes. It might be quite a long walk, though."

      "Where do you live?"

      "Tombstone Road," Heather said, giving him her house number.

      "Hey, that sounds familiar... I'll walk you home. Let's take a shortcut through the woods." So they went to the back of the house, and entered the forest.

      "So, are you going to school?" Heather asked.

      "Yes, as a matter of fact, I start tomorrow. I'll be in Spider Lane School."

      "Oh, really? That's where I go to!"

      "Cool! It sounds like fun."

      "Well... it... listen, you'll get bullied," Heather told him.

      "Oh?"

      "They took about 2000 neopoints from me today, and they were going to take more if I hadn't run into the woods."

      "Oh. Well, bullies don't scare me." They walked in silence for a while, when suddenly Heather spotted her own house right ahead of them.

      "How did you know I lived here?" she asked, amazed.

      "Well... I've been searching all over for Chash, you know, and I remember seeing your house. When you told me here you lived I remembered it was right behind mine," he grinned.

      "Okay, well, see you tomorrow," Heather said.

      "Bye," Sam replied.

      "How was it at, uh, Sam's house?" Carmen asked when Heather walked through the door.

      "It was great. Gillian, his owner, cooks great food."

      "Well, good night, Heather."

      Heather only remembered she promised Carmen that she would tell her what happened at school when she was already in bed. Actually, it was the last thing she thought that day.

      "Attention, class," Mrs. Kast told them the next morning. "We have a new student, Sam. Be nice and ask good questions. Come in," she said to the door. Sam walked in, smiling. Heather couldn't help but smile herself.

      "Tell us a bit about yourself," Mrs. Kast told him.

      "Well, I used to live on Mystery Island," he started. "I have three sisters, Maria, Tess, and Carrie. A Christmas Wocky, Island Krawk, and Plushie Kacheek. My owner's name is Gillian. We each have a petpet: I have a Blue Doglefox named Chash, Maria has a Meowclops, Tess has a Faellie, and Carrie has a Rock..."

      There were murmers around the classroom. Heather's grin was getting smaller, it was obvious Sam made a great target for his new classmates. Sam just kept talking. "My owner likes to cook and sew. I love reading and playing sports--"

      "Very well then, Sam," Mrs Kast stopped him. "We really do need to get our math done." She handed out sheets of paper.

      Sam found an empty desk beside Heather's. "This looks like a good school so far to me," he told her but Heather just smiled.

      Sam sat with Heather during lunch. They got even more frowns, which made Heather look down at her food (Carmen had run out yesterday to buy more). Sam ignored them, talking about his life and his family.

      Liski came over. "So, I see you've got a new friend?"

      "Yes," Sam replied.

      "Wow, you're lucky to have found someone whose appearance is just as silly as yours," Liski said sarcastically, eyeing his Rainbow coat.

      "I'm sure she's 10 times more lucky than you ever were. Probably 10 times smarter, too," Sam told her. Liski just walked off.

      "They're going to get you," Heather warned. Sam ignored her statement.

      After they finished lunch, they went outside, to the edge of the woods. Heather saw Tefton and Kermis marching toward them. "Watch out," Heather whispered.

      "So, the little Faerie couple," Kremis smirked.

      "And I suppose you are the two bossy idiots that are supposedly the meanest pets in the school, but are really not because you simply force everyone to say that?" Sam asked them.

      "Well, we, uh..."

      "Yes? Is there a fee I have to pay for not being liked by the majority of the school?"

      "Oh, uh... come on, Tefton." The two turned away.

      "How do you do that?" Heather asked Sam, her eyes wide.

      "I laugh at them. Have them taste their own medicine. Heather, you can't let them anger you, or scare you. It makes them stronger, but if you laugh at everything they do it confuses them, makes them uncomfortable. After all, having two people laughing at each other is a pretty weird and uncommon thing," Sam said. Heather stared at him. "It will scare them off. Another few incidents like this, and they'll just start to ignore us."

      "Sam! Sam!" Heather cried, running up to his house.

      "What?"

      "I told Carmen what happened, she's going to try to get my neopoints back that were stolen from me."

      "That's great."

      "But that's not the only good news. She said my brothers and sisters were found! They're back! Because of that, we are going to visit them and my old friends."

      "Awesome."

      "And she said I can take someone with me. I said you!"

      "That's great! Thanks!" Sam siled, stroking Chash's fur as the petpet played with a ball.

      "So, you found him?"

      "Yeah. Gill was looking through the shed and he was curled up on some rugs," Sam told her. "And I'll check with Gillian to see if I can go."

      Sam, Heather, and Carmen walked through Faerieland. "Wow, Faerieland is beautiful," Sam commented, amazed. "You used to live here?"

      "Yes."

      "I sure wish I did."

      "There!" Carmen said, pointing. "That's our old house!"

      They opened the door, and were nearly suffocated by four pets; Todd, Heather's Disco Chomby brother, Sarah, a little White Aisha, Martin, a Sketch Eyrie, and Brenda, the Pink Lenny.

      "Everyone," Heather shouted. "Meet Sam, my new friend. Sam, this is Todd, Sarah, Martin, and Brenda."

      For the weekend that they were there, they all had lots of fun. Sam was interested in Martin's collection of posters, and in Todd's petpet, an Island Noil. They went to see Jhudora, and even caught a glimpse of Fyora herself.

      "That was my best weeked ever," Sam said once they were back at Sam's house. "Maybe if you could ask Carmen and I'll ask Gill we can move to Faerieland."

      "I thought you liked it here," Heather said.

      "Not as much as Faerieland. After all, it is nice when others are nice to you."

      "They are nice to us here, now," Heather reminded him.

      "They're only nice because they're scared of us. They really hate us inside."

      "Carmen, can I talk to you?" Heather asked as she walked through her front door.

      "Yes?"

      "Sam really likes it in Faerieland, and we both don't really like it here."

      "And your point is?" Carmen questioned.

      "My point is that I want to move back to Faerieland. Sam is asking Gillian."

      "I don't see why not, since we have a house there full of family that miss us so. Matters if Gillian will mind."

      "Hooray! Thanks, Carm, you're the best."

      "Did you ask Gillian, Sam?" Heather asked.

      "Yup. She said yes if your owner said yes."

      "That's almost exactly what Carmen said!"

      "We're moving to Faerieland!" both of them cried in unison.

The End