One Really 'Relaxing' Vacation

     The Christmas Acara let out a almost silent growl. "Oh-kay, Furry, hold on!"

     I was hopping around impatiently. This was going to be my first real trip, and I could hardly wait! A.B., my owner, was taking all four of her Neopets to a foreign, exciting place for a vacation, but she wouldn't tell anyone where we were going.

     "Are you done yet?" I whined again.

     I heard a sigh from inside the bathroom. "Furry, I said hold on! Being a teenage Acara means taking more time to get ready."

     "It also means that you are bossier," I mumbled, frustrated with my vain sibling.

     I sighed and hopped downstairs to see if Tommy and Tytall were ready yet.

     Tommy is a Christmas Kougra, and is considered the eldest, although he is the third youngest. A.B. has had him since he was just born. Tommy was also the first pet that she ever painted. Everyone knows that A.B. favors Tommy over us other pets, but no one really minds, since the Christmas Kougra is so polite and down-to-Neopia.

     Tytall, my other brother, is actually the second eldest Neopet in the family. He is a Starry Kougra, and is only thirty-three days older then Tommy. The 'twins', as A.B. sometimes calls them, get along great, and do almost everything together. But you'd never know that they were related if they didn't tell you, for Tytall is very blunt and... crazy, while Tommy is sensible and quiet.

     Anyways, I hopped downstairs to see if the 'twins' were ready yet. Upon reaching the bottom of the stair case, I saw Tommy, dressed in his usual, a T-shirt and blue jeans. He had a pair of sunglasses that rested atop his head. I smiled, glad that someone else besides me was ready to go.

     "Very nice outfit, Tommy," I complimented him. "I just hope we don't go to Terror Mountain. If we do, then I think the whole family will freeze!"

     Tommy laughed. "Yeah - Well, not everyone."

     Tommy must have noticed my confused look, for he jerked a paw in the direction of Tytall. When I saw my starry brother, I burst out laughing.

     "What?" Tytall asked, clearly confused. "Don't you like my outfit?"

     His pure confusion made both Tommy and I burst out laughing again. About three whole minutes later, the laughter ceased.

     "Um...." I didn't know what to say, so I told the truth, "It's... interesting."

     I giggled again as I looked at the floaters on his arms, rubber Lenny around his waist, and scuba diving mask on his face. Not too bad, right? Wrong. The confused Kougra also had on a huge parka, snowshoes, and heavy gloves.

     I was about to ask him a question ("What if we go to someplace like Krawk Island?"), but at that moment, Mari (my Christmas Acara sister) ran downstairs, screaming about how she wasn't ready and that A.B. was coming too soon or something.

     "Chill, sis," Tytall announced coolly. "A.B. isn't even here yet."

     Mari opened her mouth to reply, but stopped as soon as she saw what Tytall was wearing.

     "You can't be serious," Isis complained, shocked.

     "Dude, I'm prepared," Tytall answered the un-asked question, then looked at Isis' outfit, "And at least I'm not wearing some frilly white shirt and to-tight blue jeans!"

     Mari is a very vain character, despite how young she is. (She is actually the youngest pet in the family.) She is always worried what other pets will think of her, and will spend hours in the bathroom. I'm serious, without her fifty tons of make up on, along with her 'stylish' clothes, she looks like a totally different Acara.

     Anyways, back to the story.

     At that point, both Tommy and I could tell that an argument was about to break out, so I changed the subject.

     "Um, Mari," I asked, "You were going to say something about A.B...."

     "What?" the Acara asked, clueless, then seemed to remember something. "Oh yeah. She's walking up the sidewalk now."

     I held back a scream; Mari can be so annoying at times. Anyways, as if on cue, A.B. walked through the door.

     "Hi A.B.!" everyone chorused at different times.

     "Hey there, everyone." The red haired teenager greeted her Neopets, then smiled. "Guess what? I know where we are going for vacation today!"

     Everyone was anxious with anticipation. A.B. deliberately waited a few moments before telling her pets, which she knew drove them crazy.

     "Well?!" Tytall asked impatiently, jumping up and down, pointing to his Lenny floaty.

     A.B. laughed, then said, "Okay okay, I wont keep you waiting any longer. We are going to a place with rides, food, and fun! A place called..."

     I almost jumped up into the air! I knew that she had to mean Roo Island. I mean, she said rides, right?

     "The Haunted Woods!" A.B. finally announced.

     Mari groaned, I kind of sighed in disappointment, and Tommy stayed calm and respectful, but I could tell he was slightly disappointed as well.

     The only one that was happy was Tytall, for he blurted out, "YAY!!!! OFF TO HAUNTED WOODS WE GO!! COME ON, LENNY FLOATY!"

     With that, he ran outside.

     ---

     After two hours on a noisy boat, Isis getting sea sick, and Tytall constantly asking 'Are we there yet?', my crazy family was finally in the Haunted Woods.

     As soon as we reached the Haunted Woods, Isis bent down and started kissing the ground, until she realized how 'disgusting' it was. Tytall let out a snicker, but A.B. put a stop to any smart remarks that were coming.

     "Okay, were here, what do you want to do first?" A.B. asked us cheerily.

     "Haunted house!" Tytall said in unison with my "Deserted fairgrounds!"

     A.B. decided to go to the haunted house first, since it was closer. I didn't mind much, though.

     As soon as we reached the house(or lack thereof), Mari let out an annoying scream.

     "Dude, what was that for?" Tytall asked, clearly annoyed. "You probably, like, scared away all of the ghosts!"

     "I saw a Spyder!" Mari yelped, hiding behind A.B.

     I giggled. Tommy was holding back a laugh as well. Poor A.B. looked stressed out, but I knew she was trying to have a good time, so she hid her stress with a smile.

     "Okay, Tytall," A.B. said, stopping at the front door of the huge, old, scary mansion, "Since you picked the place, you can go in first."

     Tytall smiled, apparently pleased with his newly found leadership, and walked right in, the rest of us following. No sooner did we walk in then a huge Spyder dropped down in front of everyone. It began to wrap everyone up in its 'spyder-string', as Tytall called it.

     I'll spare most of the details, but after billions of ear-piercing screams from Mari, a few extra-girl like screams from Tytall, and a gasp from me (I'm not afraid of Spyders. In fact I wanted a Spyder as a petpet, but A.B. said no way, thanks to Mari being annoyingly afraid of them), we were free.

     Well, after everyone ran back to the road in front of the house, Tytall said something that made A.B. want to pull her hair out.

     "Let's do it again!"

     ---

     "Oh my gosh!" I heard Mari shouting, while we were in the Spooky Petpets shop, "This pile of sludge just moved!"

     Mari screamed, yet again. I rolled my eyes.

     I was enjoying myself, looking at all of the... exotic petpets. I especially liked the Dribblet(which, by the way, Mari thought was de-scus-ting). I asked A.B. if I could have one, and she just laughed a nervous, crazy, shallow laugh, and walked away, saying something about going insane... or something.

     Anyway, Tommy took special interest in the Blorpulous that was sitting on his shoulder. Tommy already has a cute Christmas Gruslen(that was a present for A.B.'s birthday), though, so the Kougra set the Blorpulous back down in its cage and continued to look at other petpets.

     Tytall, though, was the odd one. He was in the Meepit section of the store, having a staring contest with a Meepit-No, wait, make that fifty Meepits.

     All of them were pink.

     "Look, you! I know I can beat ya, I know I can! I can stare anybody down, any time, anywhere! You just name the place and time, and I'll be there, yeah, I'll be there, and I'll win!" Tytall was blabbing and jumping around like a crazed Blumaroo.

     The Meepits just stared back.

     I turned my attention back to the Dribblets and noticed that they came in very limited colors, but in huge quantities. Apparently these little guys and gals weren't very popular among the native Haunted Woods' residents. I wondered why.

     I was about to go look at other petpets when one certain Dribblet caught my eye. The poor little Faerie Dribblet was drooping and hiding in one corner of the cage. Gooey water looking stuff was coming from his/her... eyes? Or so I thought.

     "Aw! Poor thing! It's crying!" I shook my head sympathetically. "Hey Mari, come here, look at the poor thing."

     Mari reluctantly did as asked and actually agreed that it looked pathetic.

     "Poor thing!" Mari said, reaching her hand into the cage and patting the petpet. "There there, it's okay-"

     Suddenly, Mari's eyes got very huge, and she jerked her hand back quickly.

     "Furry. That. Thing. Was. Not. Crying," she announced, shaking, and looking rather pale. "It. Was. Dr-Dro-Droo-Drooling!"

     "What?" I asked, confused.

     I looked back into the cage to see the little Dribblet move around now, apparently stretching from the nap it was taking. Nap. Uh oh. Drool spilling from its mouth and its... head thing. Uh oh.

     I covered my ears, ready for another scream from Mari.

     Instead, she fainted.

     ---

     "Ew ew ew ew ew ew ew," the grossed out Acara repeated over and over and over again as she walked.

     I sighed. It had taken about ten full minutes and a threat from Tytall to use a Dribblet to wake her up before Mari had finally awoken.

     Speaking of Tytall, he had lost the staring contest with the Meepits. But he did not leave without promising to come back one day and try again.

     Tommy hadn't found much anything that interesting in the shop besides that one petpet, the Blorpulous, so he was happy to leave.

     As for me, I didn't quite care either way. I was just happy to be in a new place, exploring new lands, and having fun. Well, if you could call it fun.

     A.B. admitted to having a head ache and had left the shop shortly after I asked if I could have a Dribblet.

     Anyway, at this time, A.B. and the rest of her Neopets (myself included), made their way to the deserted fairgrounds, hoping to find something at least remotely interesting.

     Arriving there, A.B. decided to choose first, and she chose the Coconut Shy. Which, by the way, turned out to be a very bad idea.

     Once we got there, this ugly looking Quiggle singing "I've got a great bunch of co-co-nutsssssssssssssssssssss for you to kno-ock downnnnnnnnnnnn!"

     He was horribly off key. Mari covered her ears.

     Once he finished singing, he announced, "Each throw will cost you one hundred Neopoints!"

     I threw first, and missed horribly.

     Mari threw second and barely hit a coconut, making her a little mad.

     "Stupid rigged game," she mumbled under her breath.

     A.B. went next, almost knocking one off, and getting three hundred Neopoints(yay!).

     Tommy went second to last, also almost knocking one off, which wasn't surprising.

     Tytall went last, and his shot missed entirely.

     Everyone was about to leave, when Tytall picked up about six or seven balls at once and just started throwing them at the coconuts. None of the balls hit a coconut.

     "Ay! You've had yer throws!" the Quiggle announced, trying to get my crazy brother to stop.

     But Tytall kept throwing balls over and over and over again. Eventually, the Quiggle apparently got tired of it and called in 'backup'. About five hundred pink Meepits came walking towards my starry brother, staring at him with their unblinking eyes.

     "Uh, Tytall, I think we should go-" A.B. started, but was cut off by the crazy Kougra himself.

     "You're back, huh? I told you that you would want more! Uh-huh! I am going to kick your little Meepit pants off! Oh yeah! Staring contest trophy, here I come!" Tytall rambled on, gesturing wildly.

     No one bothered to explain to the seemingly insane Kougra that there was no such thing as a staring contest, let alone a staring contest trophy.

     Anyways, all was silent as Tytall stared down the Meepits. Tytall's eyes twitched.

     "Okay, I've had enough, let's go," A.B. said, clearly frustrated.

     A.B. grabbed the kicking and screaming Tytall and dragged him away from the Coconut Shy.

     "I'll get my revenge one day, Meepits! One day!" Tytall rambled, cackling crazily, "Mwhuahahahahaha! Mwhuahahahaha!"

     ---

     After the Coconut Shy incident, A.B. kept a close eye on Tytall and didn't let him near anything sharp. I couldn't blame her. Tytall, who was normally crazy, was being extra crazy that day.

     Anyways, the next place was Mari's choice, so she chose something that she thought would be peaceful enough, Bagatelle.

     After many different 'loser' throws, and a few small wins, everyone left, convinced that the game was rigged. The books 'holding up' the table was pretty good evidence of that, as well.

     After Bagatelle, Tommy wanted to go to Test Your Strength, where he scored a whopping fifty and won a cute but weird looking petpet, the name of which escapes me at the moment. The rest of us lost horribly and got random gross foods or a few Neopoints as side prizes.

     I didn't mind; I ate my 'side prize'. It was quite tasty, but Mari thought it was gross.

     The next few games went pretty much the same way. I chose the Wheel of Misfortune, which made Mari sick, but gave me some Neopoints. It gave everyone else some half eaten book.

     At the cork gun gallery, which was what A.B. picked, no one won anything, and we left almost as soon as we came.

     The annoying Sidney at the Scratch Card place would only let us have one card, but it was worth it, because it was a ten thousand Neopoint winner!

     After that, we played a game of "Carnival of Terror." That was my favorite part of the trip, seeing how everyone came out with a pie in their hands. Tytall had ten pies piled up, which was extra funny when he tripped and most of them landed on the Quiggle at the Coconut Shy. Unfortunately, the Quiggle didn't find it that funny and chased us with a coconut on a stick. Not so surprisingly, the coconut never fell off the stick while he was running.

     Anyways, that is when everyone decided it was a good time to leave.

     Running back to the Haunted Woods dock, I stopped suddenly.

     "Uh guys," I gulped, turning around to face my family, "Where did you park the boat?"

     Epilogue

     We all made it back home to Shenkuu... eventually. After figuring out that the boat was lost at sea, everyone hiked to Sakhmet, where we found out there was no Uni/Eyrie transportation services available at that time. After promising to reserve some Unis for us, the receptionist suggested trying Qasala, so we did.

     After a day's hike, everyone finally reached Qasala to find out that all of their transportation services had been reserved for, get this, us.

     Finally, after about a week of wandering aimlessly through the Lost Desert (and playing Tug-O-War a bunch of times), my crazy little family finally arrived home.

The End

     P.S. Tytall actually won the staring contest! The Meepits blinked and he has a 'Staring Contest' trophy... Don't ask.

Author's Note: If this makes it into the Neopian Times then, YESYESYES THANK YOU THENEOPETSTEAM!!!! :D:D:):)! Okay, now that that is over with, neomail me with any compliments, complaints, comments, or just random neomails if you want :D:)! Neomails are VERY much appreciated! :D:)! Hope you liked my story!