Sanity is forbidden Circulation: 176,283,379 Issue: 341 | 2nd day of Hunting, Y10
Home | Archives Articles | Editorial | Short Stories | Comics | New Series | Continued Series
 

Good Differences


by doopingla

--------

She sat against the sill of the window and looked out at her siblings. All Lupes. Why hadn’t she been born a Lupe like them? She could hardly ever do anything that they wanted to do. She couldn’t snack on Chia Treats with them since she had no grudge on that species and she wasn’t nearly as fast as her siblings. Now was too late, though, since morphing potions were pretty expensive. Rita would have to live with herself as a Zafara. She sighed deeply after coming to this conclusion.

      “Hey Rita, it’s time for dinner! Could you get your siblings please?” her owner called.

      “I’ll get them!” Rita called and hurried outside to gather them. They followed her inside, discussing what they’d been playing. Rita attempted to ignore their happy faces as she sat down and looked away when some Chia Treats were set on every plate but her own. Her owner frowned at Rita slightly but confronted her after the Lupes had raced outside to continue their game.

      “What’s wrong?” she asked. Rita shrugged.

      “Nothing’s wrong,” she lied. Her owner chuckled slightly.

      “You’re not a very good liar, Rita, now tell me what’s the matter,” she said.

      “Why am I a Zafara? The rest of my siblings are all Lupes, but I’m a Zafara. I can’t do anything that they can. They can all do whatever I can do,” Rita told her. Her owner sighed and shook her head.

      “Rita, on the contrary, you can do lots of things that your siblings can’t do. You just have to figure them out for yourself,” her owner explained and walked away. Rita grumbled at this piece of advice.

      “Yeah, thanks for the help, like I’ll ever find anything that I’m good at,” she grumbled. Rita then went upstairs to watch her siblings play from the window sill. When they went inside, she plopped herself down onto her bed and stared at the ceiling, thinking about what her owner had said. It wasn’t true, she concluded. Her siblings could run and play Lupe games that she couldn’t. Her siblings could also eat Chias, which she couldn’t, and they also had a better sense of smell.

      “Hey Rita, could you please help us?” one of her siblings, Shield, called. Rita rolled over and grumbled to herself on her bed. They just wanted her to get up so they could bug her. They didn’t really need help.

      “We can’t get the cookie jar from the top shelf!” another of her siblings, Ship, called to her. Rita rolled her eyes at this.

      “Of course you can! We have a ladder in the living room!” she called back irritably. Why couldn’t they just let her sleep up here?

      “Well, the thing is, Rita, we can’t get a hold of the cookie jar,” Dogboy called, sounding very embarrassed. Rita hadn’t thought of this.

      “All right, fine, I’m coming!” she yelled. She hopped off of her bed and went downstairs, glowering at her siblings for making her leave her room. She grabbed the ladder and shoved it up against the table with unnecessary force. Soon Rita realized she didn’t need it and Ship helpfully put it back. Rita pulled the cookie jar from the shelf and set it down on the ground.

      “Um, Rita, we can’t get it open,” Shield pointed out. Rita turned and opened it before going back upstairs. She plopped herself down on the bed once again and tried to sleep. New thoughts intruded upon her, though. They were thoughts about cookie jars mostly, but Rita wasn’t hungry for cookies. She’d just had dinner, after all. She thought of cookie jars because her siblings couldn’t get them open or down from the shelf. This proved her owner’s point, but barely. This hardly qualified as something that she could do that they couldn’t. Hurray, she could open a cookie jar. There was nothing excitingly special about that. Sure, it was helpful, but for the most part an unimportant skill. It wasn’t even really a skill. You just twisted the lid, and it came off to reveal your prize. Still, though, Rita’s siblings could not do it. Rita scowled at her ceiling, rolled over and fell asleep.

***

      In the morning, Rita got up and yawned, feeling exceptionally tired. Today was a Saturday, a day to do nothing. Today was a day of sleep, and though Rita was exhausted, she couldn’t fall asleep again. Grumbling, the Blue Zafara got out of bed and went downstairs to make breakfast. After that she went outside to find something to do.

      “Go get it, now, Ship!” Shield shrieked and Rita winced at the loud noise. She looked around the scene and found that her siblings had been flying a kite. They had been, until it had gotten caught in a tree.

      “I’d told you to be more careful with it,” Dogboy growled.

      “It was an accident! My goodness, I already said that I was sorry about a dozen times now!” Ship snarled. Rita sighed and lay down on the grass. She didn’t wonder how they could hold a kite string and not a cookie jar. A kite string would fit in a Lupe’s mouth. The rest of her siblings finally noticed her presence and Ship hurried over to her, followed by Shield and Dogboy.

      “Could you please get the kite, sis? They’ll kill me if it’s broken!” Ship pleaded, gesturing at Shield and Dogboy, who did look very threatening at the moment. Rita sighed and knew that, as the eldest sibling, she should get the kite to be responsible. That’s what her owner kept telling her, anyways. She got up and, still grumbling quietly, went over to the tree.

      “Fine, I’ll get it. Try not to lose it again, though,” she told her siblings before climbing up the tree. It was amazing how easy it was. In fact, Rita really enjoyed the climb. After letting the kite fall lightly to the ground at Shield’s paws, Rita swung around in the branches, oblivious to her owner watching her from inside their Neohome.

      “Once again, I’ve been proven correct,” she whispered with a small, smug smile and turned away. She picked up a copy of the Neopian Times and began to read, glancing back out the window every so often to watch Rita playing in the trees.

      Rita finally hopped out of the tree and onto the ground, humming cheerfully to herself. She’d had no idea that she’d had an audience, but Shield was standing right in front of her with a smile on her face.

      “That was amazing! How did you do that?” she asked in awe. Rita shrugged.

      “I just used my arms to swing from the branches; nothing really special,” she said, slightly embarrassed as the rest of her siblings spoke up.

      “I wish I could do that!” Dogboy said enviously.

      “I wish that I had opposable thumbs,” Ship added. Rita smiled slightly as they continued to speak wishfully of being like her. It was strange that a few minutes ago she had been wishing to be like them. Now she knew what her owner meant by the things that she could do that her siblings couldn’t. After a while, Rita’s siblings went back to playing their games and for once Rita didn’t wish that she could join in. Her differences were a good thing.

      “I told you so,” said a voice from behind her. It was her owner and she was smiling in the way that she always did when she was proven correct.

      “I suppose you did,” Rita admitted. She didn’t really care that she’d been wrong, though, and soon went back to the tree. Never again did she wish that she were a Lupe. Her differences were for the very best and she would never take that for granted.

The End

The stars in this story are real Neopets by the names of rita0000, p2_shield_f8d_9, dogboy23_8 and 9_ship_glx_9. Thanks to their owner for letting them be in this story.

 
Search the Neopian Times




Great stories!


---------

The Meepit Army Chronicles: Durian Wars
"A Feepit prisoner has escaped!"

by dogglefoxgirl

---------

The Tree of Everlasting Meeples
"Have you guys been living in a sack? Meeples are Meepit apples. Only visible to Meepits..."

Art by ssjelitegirl

by ssjelitegirl


---------

The Search For A Cybunny
I mean, really – if Cybunnies were just roaming the countryside here on Roo Island – wouldn't we see them more often than just one day a year?

by esleyoga

---------

Ten Acts Of Kindness, A Techo Story: Part One
If there was one thing he'd learned about the world, it was that he had to put up a tough front...

by indulgences



Submit your stories, articles, and comics using the new submission form.