Jumping to Conclusions

      She grabbed a random book off of the shelf. Nimmos. She shrugged. The Nimmo on the cover was red like she was, and she thought, "Should I get a book about my own species?" Shaking her head, she put the book back on the shelf, only to see it be snatched away by a Tonu who looked like he was on a mission to buy something, anything, today. She noted this expression on many of the other neopets in the store.

      She pulled the book next to it out and took a look at its cover. Quiggle Facts. She put it back on the shelf. "Why get a book about a species so similar to mine?" she figured.

      Just then, she spotted it, a book with a slight glimmer, resting on top of one of the shelves. It seemed that the other neopets had given up on trying to reach it, and instead scrambled for the books closer to their height range. A small grin appeared on her face, and she jumped, high up, and grabbed it. She looked below her just in time to see-- uh oh, another neopet.

      "Ouch!" cried the Quiggle she fell on top of.

      "Sorry, sorry!" she cried with equal volume, but with more concern and less pain. She bounced onto her feet, feeling awful that she hadn't suffered a scratch, and worried she'd hurt him. He got up and rubbed his head.

      She frantically looked around for something she could offer for forgiveness, her eyes eventually getting to the book she held in her hands. Four Leaf Clovers - Fact or Fiction?

      "Here," she said suddenly, holding the shimmering green book to the similarly colored Quiggle. He looked at her, puzzled, and she explained, "To make up for falling on you."

      "Oh," he said. He took the book, and for a moment, looked it over. He handed it back. "Hm," he said, "I think I might be more interested in this one..." He pulled a large grey textbook off one of the shelves.

      "Medieval Dictionary?" Nora said, eyebrow raised.

      "What can I say? I like learning books."

      She looked down at the book in her hand. "I guess I like... books on plants?" She laughed.

      He smiled and said, "Maybe luck?" Nora laughed again, and the two of them headed towards the counter to haggle with the blue Nimmo who ran the store.

      After a relatively quick transaction, they walked out of the store.

      "I'm Nora," the Nimmo said, holding out her hand.

      "Martin," he said, shaking her hand with his. "I was thinking that maybe I'd go try out this dictionary, do you want to come with me?"

      "Why not?" Nora said, and they headed towards Meridell.

      When they arrived, the first thing Nora saw was a little patch of clover. She rushed over, analyzing every little sprout, trying to see if there were any with four leaves.

      "Yes!" she shouted, as Martin made his way over. "I found one!" She hopped around, holding a little green clover with four leaves. Martin smiled as he observed the somewhat ridiculous sight.

      Looking around, Nora spotted Turdle Racing, and immediately pulled some NP out of her pocket.

      "You bet?" Martin asked her, surprised, as she handed her bet to the starry Scorchio, picking Poopy as her Turdle of choice for the day.

      "Every once in a while. It's fun!" Nora said, watching as Poopy started, going to the outside of the ring, stopped, started again, and lost to Smelly. "Oh well," she said, grinning in spite of her loss. She twirled the clover between her fingers, thinking she should read that book on them and find out whether or not they really gave you luck. "Where to?"

      "I was thinking maybe Cheese Roller."

      "I'm horrible at Cheese Roller!" Nora said with a smile.

      "Well, you can pick the cheese, and I'll roll it. How does that sound?" Martin said, opening his dictionary and flipping to the letter C. "Cheese, cheese, cheese," he muttered under his breath as he looked. Nora giggled, thinking she'd never hear anyone say that again. "Ah-ha! Here's a list of cheeses," he declared, handing her the heavy book.

      "Um..." Nora said, looking at the cheeses. "Here's one that sounds interesting! Ever had brick cheese?"

      He nodded his head as they walked up the hill to the Cheeseroller stand, and said, "It's really little chunks of cheese kind of glued together with softer cheese. I'm more a fan of sweeter cheeses myself, but whatever you want!"

      The cheese was ordered, although the Quiggle did look sort of longingly at the honey cheese, then the timer started, and Martin took off down the hill, sprinting with his cheese as it dodged rocks by mere inches.

      "Yikes!" Nora cried every time it looked like he would hit something, but just before he did, he calmly nudged the cheese away from it. The cheese rolled past the finish line, and the Nimmo clicked his stopwatch.

      "Fifty-two seconds!" declared the neopet, wrapping the cheese in paper before handing Martin his slightly dirt-sprinkled prize.

      Nora handed him half the NP for the cheese, and they walked over to a hill (slightly smaller, without the risk of being hit by rolling dairy products) to eat.

      "How do you like your cheese?" Nora asked.

      "Plain," he said, unwrapping it and taking a piece, which he ate without anything added.

      "Huh," she said, thoughtful. "I like mine with stale bread," she said, taking some, that she'd bought a few days ago, which were not stale at the time, out of her backpack.

      She also brought the glimmering green book on clovers out to read, and opened it, quickly finding a section on luck. "Is a four leaf clover really lucky? There have been recent experiments to see if such a myth could really be true, but so far, they have been inconclusive. While a half of the neopets that held a four leaf clover when they bought and scratched a Race to Riches Scratchcard won a prize of some sort half didn't. The same results were shown when the neopets did not have a clover with them." She closed it, bookmarking the page with her four leaf clover. Placing it back in her backpack, she smiled, thinking about how silly that seemed.

      The sun was starting to set, and she remembered that she'd fallen on Martin just a few hours ago. "Again, I'm sorry you broke my fall earlier."

      The Quiggle thought for a second, and then seemed to recall it himself. "It's completely fine. I definitely had a fun day afterwards."

      Nora pondered something for a few moments, the ability to ponder being one well associated with her species. "Martin, before I met you, I thought Quiggles and Nimmos were pretty much alike. Now I know that's wrong."

      "At least in our case," Martin noted, before putting more brick cheese in his mouth.

      "At least in our case," Nora echoed, placing some cheese on her bread with a smile.

The End