Zapped!

     I put my Fangy, Skippy, on a leash and took him outside for a walk. I figured Abby wouldn’t care. Sure, she freaked out and demanded to know where I had been when I left without telling her, but she was just overreacting.

     Skippy and I walked to Neopia Central – we got the new copy of the Times, picked up a couple things from the Money Tree, and I decided I’d take a quick peek at the Rainbow Pool before we went back.

     As we approached the colorful waters, I looked around to see owners grinning as their newly painted pets stepped out from the water – rainbow, starry, speckled, so many beautiful colors! There was even a faerie Lupe admiring her reflection in the water. I then gazed over at the Petpet Puddle to see a green Fangy emerging from within it.

     “That’s gonna be you one day, Skippy,” I told him, to which he responded with a cheerful growl.

     Holding onto Skippy’s leash with one paw, I began to flip through the Rainbow Pool catalogue – all the way to the Xweetok section, and I saw it – an image of a beautiful faerie Xweetok. “And that’s gonna be me,” I muttered to myself. But who was I kidding? Abby wasn’t going to paint me faerie anytime soon. She was too busy saving up her points for a lab ray map, one she wasn’t even going to zap ME with! I was doomed to be a plain blue Xweetok for the rest of my life.

     We walked all the way back to our house near Kiko Lake, to find a less than thrilled Abby standing at the door with her arms crossed over her chest. “Just as I thought,” she muttered.

     “Um... Sorry, Abby,” I said, as I bent down to release Skippy from his leash, “You don’t understand – mutant Slorgs crawled into my room through the window and began to attack me, so I had to run away!”

     “You don’t have a window in your room.”

     “I don’t have anything in my room because you’re cheap,” I mumbled to myself under my breath as I took Skippy inside, walking straight past her. Abby slammed the door and followed me in.

     “What did you just say, Axelia?”

     “I said my doughnuts have everything inside gloom and go roar, you see.”

     Abby completely ignored my response as I attempted to feed Skippy some leftover green pepper omelette – not even he would eat it. “I don’t want you going out and not telling me where you’re going, Axelia,” she said as if I cared. “You could get hurt and it would really disrespect me as an owner if blah blah blah blah, blah blah, and blah blah blah.”

     Okay, so that’s not really what she said, but that’s what it sure sounded like to me. “Are you listening, Axelia?”

     “Yeah, I am,” I told her as I finally got Skippy to eat, “And I won’t do it again.” Abby nodded and left the room. Once she was gone, Skippy spit out some of the omelette I’d given him – I figured I’d leave it for Abby to clean up.

    ***

      Abby had just left to get hot dogs for dinner in Neopia Central, and I sat outside reading while Skippy ran around the yard. He was being quite a handful, though, trying to run to places he wasn’t supposed to, or chewing on things he really shouldn’t chew on. I wondered if this was what I was like for Abby, and decided that it probably was – and for me, that was a good thing. I tried to completely ignore Skippy as I flipped the page, but I felt a small nudge in my side.

     “Skip-” I looked down to see a cute little Angelpuss with a yellow letter in its mouth. “Ooh, we have a neomail!” I squealed, putting my book to the side and taking the letter. The Angelpuss flew off, with Skippy running after it.

     “Probably just some lame neomail for Abby from-” I paused again as I glanced at it. It had my name on it! With a grin, I ripped it open immediately. It was from my friend Kinley – well, I wouldn’t consider her my friend. She was a spoiled green Ixi who got everything she wanted and then bragged about it to my friends, who she just followed around. I began to read it aloud.

     “Hey, Axelia!” I started, mocking her annoying voice, “I just got painted strawberry and – strawberry?! Did you know that was a color, Skippy? I sure didn’t.” Skippy gave me a pathetic look before he continued biting at Abby’s flowers. I started reading to myself again. “So, she wants to meet up at the Art Centre and show off, huh?” I saw that the mail was also forwarded to our other friends, and I sure could use a bit of fun with them to get Abby’s stupidity off my mind.

     I got Skippy’s leash from inside and threw it on him. He was looking at me with wide eyes the whole time. “Yeah, Skippy, I know, Abby said we shouldn’t, but who cares about her? This is important! Maybe I should bring that blue paint brush Abby keeps in her room and ‘accidentally’ push Kinley into the Rainbow Pool...” I pondered the idea for a while, but we left soon enough.

     I strolled into Neopia Central and peeked into the Art Centre – they didn’t seem to be there yet, so I thought I’d get a smoothie first. A super lemon grape smoothie sounded quite good to me right then and there. I left Skippy outside for a second, got my smoothie, and left the store. But just as I went to grab hold of his leash, I heard evil cackling from behind me. “Uh, wh-” I just kept getting interrupted today, didn’t I?

     But just when I turned around, the only thing I saw was a bright flashing light! I was blinded for a couple of seconds, though it felt like a whole week, and when I gained my eyesight back, I blinked a couple of times to be able to see. I felt a lot shorter, and there was a strange breeze as well. I looked around, and the first thing I saw, was a baby Bruce holding a ray gun running off, still cackling.

     Only one thing could have happened. Boochi.

     But when I heard a familiar giggle, the fact I just got zapped was of no importance to me right then. I had to hide! “Come on, Skippy!” I cringed at the sound of my own voice – it sounded a lot more high pitched and... And baby-like.

     I ran into Uni’s Clothing, Skippy leaving muddy hoof-prints as he chased after me. We heard girly shrieks as I bumped into racks and mannequins and even Unis! I stood in the window as a mannequin. I just needed to wait for Abby to pass by, and I was good to leave. I watched her walk past the store with a take-out bag in her hand. She glanced in the window for a second. I can only think she was noticing the trampled racks.

     But then she walked in.

     Abby strolled right past me and into the hat section – she knew I loved hats. And she knew I loved that pink and green sun hat – so she picked one up and inspected it. “Axelia is going to love this,” she smiled to herself. Yeah, too bad I couldn’t even wear it. As Abby checked the price tag, I saw a blue Uni approach me. She pulled her heart shaped sunglasses down with a well polished hoof and eyed me.

     “Get out, and never come back! And especially never bring back that awful creature of yours!”

     I clutched Skippy close and stuck out my tongue at her. What a childish thing of me to do. As I exited the store, I glanced back to see if Abby noticed and sure enough, she turned to an Usul next to her and scoffed, “Children!” The Usul just rolled her eyes and went back to looking through the racks that weren’t knocked down.

     The next thing I realized was that I couldn’t go see my friends like this. But I couldn’t let Abby see me like this – What was I supposed to do now?!

     That’s when I remembered – I had to run to the National Neopian and grab that extra blue paintbrush from Abby’s safety deposit box. I could just paint myself back with it and she wouldn’t even notice!

     I started my journey to the bank, running as fast as I could, holding Skippy tightly. As I ran, various Neopians pointed me out to their friends, owners, or pets – “Aw! Look at that cute little baby Xweetok!” I just wanted to turn around and tell all of them that there was absolutely nothing cute about me.

     I stopped at the Rainbow Pool and gazed in at my reflection. Pale off-white fur, light purple eyes and a little blue bow. I frowned at my reflection, but I had to remind myself I wouldn’t be like this for long. And I had to go faster – couldn’t let Abby find me. Just across the street was the bank, so I strolled on in. I walked up to the front desk and the green Skeith smiled down at me.

     “Aw! Look at the adorable baby Xweetok! You are so cute; I could just gobble you up!”

     My eyes widened, knowing that he probably wasn’t kidding. “Uh, yeah, adorable, cute, gobble, I know – anyway, you know a lady named Abby Sol, don’t you? She has a bank account, and a safety deposit box here, right?”

     The Skeith made a disapproving face at me. “How do you know that many words? Aren’t you a little too young to be in Neoschool?”

     “No, you don’t get it!” I whined.

     “And how do you know Abby? She doesn’t have a baby Xweetok!” the Skeith continued.

     “Okay, Mr. Big Hungry Skeith Man! Let me into Abby’s safety deposit box or I’ll... I’ll...” I yelled, not able to finish as I was so embarrassed at the fact that it came out as nothing more than a mere whine. The Skeith could only grin at me. Yeah, if a baby Xweetok had demanded such things of me, I would have had a silly smile on my face too. I wasn’t intimidating at all anymore!

     “Look at the cute little baby, trying to act all mature and steal a nice lady’s money and valuable items! Aww, so adorable!” The room was filled up with a chorus of “Aww!” and “How cute!” At this point, I was probably the angriest pet in all of Neopia.

     Setting Skippy down to destroy the place, I attempted to climb up onto the desk. With my new height, it took a couple of attempts, but I managed to do it. Once I at least measured up to his chest, I grabbed onto his collar and pulled him down to my level.

     “Look, buddy – you’re going to let me into that safety deposit box whether you like it or not! You know why?! Because just a little while ago I was that blue Xweetok that Abby had! But no, not anymore! I had to go and disobey her stupid rules and be stupid and get zapped by stupid Boochi with his stupid ray gun because he’s just so STUPID!” His eyes were wide – Maybe I could be intimidating! Well, a little at least. I continued on, “Now I need that blue paint brush of hers so I can get myself out of this mess and back to Kiko Lake before she finds out and if you don’t give it to me I’m going to-”

     “Axelia?”

     I let go of his collar and turned around, falling off the desk as I did. Abby walked over and looked down at me, now holding onto a wide-eyed Skippy. “Axelia! I can’t believe you did this! I’m sorry, everyone.” She stopped to look up at everyone in the bank. And then back down at me. She helped me up, and I was dragged back to Kiko Lake.

          Of course, I got yelled at. I mean, I disobeyed Abby and look what that got me into! She grounded me for two weeks, and said she wouldn’t paint me back either because being baby from now on would be punishment enough. I even used a “But I’m too cute for you to be mad at me, right?” line with the best cute face I could pull, but I suppose it didn’t work for someone who knew the true Neopet I was behind the baby face.

     After dinner, Abby did want me to help her with the dishes, just as a little extra something because she loved to make me miserable.

     “I don’t know how I’m going to explain this to my friends,” I told her in that annoying whiny voice. “I’m not a baby, so I shouldn’t be painted baby! Everyone’s going to make fun of me. I mean sure, it’s a rare color, but why couldn’t Boochi zap Neopets and make them become faerie?!”

     She passed a plate into my paws for me to dry. “Well, at least one good thing came out of this, Ax.”

     “What?” I asked, looking up at her. I’d really love to hear something good coming out of this, after such a terrible day.

     “You’re going to look so cute in little feetie pajamas!” she squealed, giving me a pat on the head. “While you’re grounded we can go pick some out! Oh, and little bows too! Maybe I should get you a pacifier too, shouldn’t I?”

     This was going to be a long two weeks.

The End

Based upon real events involving a real baby Bruce with is real ray gun and a really stubborn Xweetok who never listens!