Mischief Managed: Part One

      Once upon a time there a little Kau named Kauvara.

    She decided to throw a slumber party for the neighbourhood kids with her friend Tarla the Ixi. They spent the afternoon making handwritten invitations adorned with ribbons, sparkles, and cute little petpets. Then they dropped them at all their friend’s houses after dinner.

    Throughout the next day at school, Eoow, Antidotal, Vergieal, Erebusx, Riviarus, Batoon, Aerodraft, Pitbullo, Grikket, Peyphetos, Waterpaarden, and Weeli all ran up to to Tarla and Kauvara.

    “We are so excited about your slumber party!” Eoow said.

    “Ooh yes, should we bring snacks? Well, besides honey, because I always have honey with me!” Vergieal asked.

    Grikket chimed in with “can we bring party decorations?”

    Kauvara grinned at Tarla. Tarla grinned back.

    “Of course! Bring whatever you like!”

    “Great we’ll see you tomorrow night!” Pitbullo exclaimed.

    Mira waltzed up to Tarla and Kauvara after school.

    “So.. I hear you guys are throwing a party?”

    “Yeah. It’s going to be so much fun!” Tarla said with a smile.

    “Well it’s probably going to be just as lame as you… but I guess I’ll come since I finished my project for the science fair already.”

    Kauvara shuffled back and forth and shot a glance at Tarla. “Well.. we.. umm.”

    “Great. See you then.” Mira walked away.

    Kauvara looked over at Tarla.

    “Well, I guess she’s coming now.”

    “Greeeaaaaaat.”

    After school that night, Tarla and Kauvara were talking about the party.

    “Should we bake desserts or do karaoke?” Tarla asked

    “Why not both?” Kauvara answered.

    “Oh, what about making face masks?” Tarla suggested.

    “I love that! What a great idea! What should we make them out of?” Kauvara questioned.

    “I’m sure we could mix something up! There has to be something around here that will work”.

In science class the next day, people were finishing up the last of their projects for the science fair. Mira walked past Frank’s project and laughed.

    “Aww look at this. Your project is so pathetic compared to mine. It is never going to win.” Mira smirked.

    Frank scowled at her.

    “Oh by the way did you hear about the awesome party this weekend? Didn’t think so. It’s supposed to be amazing”.

    Mira flipped her hair and kept walking.

    Tarla look at Kauvara with a raised eyebrow.

    Kauvara just shook her head and looked away.

     Kauvara and Tarla were talking about their wonderful face mask mixture during lunch. The other kids were starting to get excited about the slumber party and it was the talk of the school. All of the kids seemed excited about it except for little Frank who kept to himself.

    “We better get going on all the stuff for the party!” Kauvara said.

    “Don’t worry we will after the science fair! We will have lots of time. But if I have extra time tonight I’ll get started” Tarla said reassuringly.

    The next day they raced to the gymnasium early to set up their projects for the fair. They picked side by side booths and started to unpack their displays.

    “Kauvara, I managed to get the face masks done last night! So at least we have something done for tomorrow night” Tarla said excitedly.

    “Thank goodness because I spent all last night finishing up my project!” Kauvara said.

    “HURRY UP!” Both girls looked over to see Mira stride into the gym with someone carrying all of her supplies. He picked the biggest booth and set up her display as she walked around the room. Mira spotted Tarla and Kauvara struggling with setting up their projects and decided to take advantage.

    “So I see your projects are going so well” Mira said sarcastically.

    “We’re doing just fine thanks” Tarla mumbled.

    “Maybe one of you will actually place this year.. Oh well. Goodluck because you’re going to need it!” Mira chuckled to herself and waltzed back to her booth.

    “Somebody really needs to beat her this year” Kauvara huffed.

    The principal entered the room with the science teachers.

    “Judging will begin in 20 minutes everyone, make sure your projects are ready!”

    Just then something shattered on the floor. Everybody immediately searched for where the sound came from. Frank was looking at the floor in horror at his smashed beaker.

    Mira just grinned at Frank.

    “Better luck next year, loser”

    The science teachers walked around the room and slowly judged everyone’s projects. When they reached Tarla’s booth they hesitated.

    “And what is this contraption supposed to do young lady?” one of the teachers asked.

    “Well, it’s a cleaning robot that can clean your room for you! You just press this button here and tell it what you want it to do.” Tarla explained.

    “Sweep the floor.” she commanded

    The little robot Gwortz popped a broom out of his belly and began to sweep.

    “Well done Tarla. Very impressive.” The judges said as they made notes on their clipboards.

    They stepped over to Kauvara’s booth.

    “And… Kauvara! What do you have for us today?”

    “This is a colour changing potion. As it gets hotter the colours get warmer. As it gets colder the colours get cooler.” Kauvara said with a grin.

    She turned on the hot plate and it began to turn a deeper red. She put some ice around the potion and it turned.. Yellow?

    “It’s supposed to go blue.. Umm maybe it needs more ice!” she said sheepishly.

    She piled more ice around the potion and it turned a darker yellow.

    ‘We’ve seen enough. Thank you.” The judges walked away.

    Kauvara’s heart sunk.

    “But I practiced with it so many times!”

    “Don’t worry Kauvara, you’ll figure it out. I’ll help you.” Tarla said.

    The girls watched as the judges reached Mira’s booth.

    “Alright Mira, what did you come up with this year?” The judged asked.

    Mira smiled her fake smile and took the cover off her project.

    “This is an miniature engine for a Laserjet x6300 spaceship. I did all the calculations and my cousin, the scientist and astrologer, checked over everything. He said it would be functional at a larger scale.” She said proudly.

    “But they’ve only just made the x5000!?” one judge stuttered.

    “Yes, exactly. But this one has a higher fuel capacity because it uses fuel more efficiently which would allow for longer trips, but it’s also smaller so they would have more room for supplies” Mira explained.

    “Well.. we’ll have to check over the calculations… but this is quite groundbreaking if you’re correct.”

    “Don’t worry, I am.” Mira stated.

    Finally the judges made it to Frank’s table.

    “So Frank what do you have for us?”

    “It was supposed to be a Petpet Duplicator.. But I ruined one of the ingredients.. The science is all explained in my paper though! If I mixed the missing ingredient with the liquid in this flask, I just have to pour it in the top of this machine here. You place a petpet in one side and it will create an identical petpet in the other side!”

    “That is a fantastic Frank, but if you can’t show us, we can’t give you a great score on this.”

    “But it works! I just have to get more Pure Ummagine powder!” Frank stammered.

    “I’m sorry Frank. No demonstration, no score.”

    The judges finished looking at the rest of the student’s projects and tallied their scores.

    “Alright students! We have made our decisions!”

    “Third place goes to Tarla’s cleaning robot! A robot I’m sure many of our students could use to clean their own rooms!” The judge said with a laugh.

    “Second place goes to Erebusx’s project titled ‘How Paintbrushes Affect Our DNA’! Very fascinating stuff.”

    “And finally… first place goes to Mira’s spaceship engine!”

    “Congratulations everyone! The projects keep getting better each year!!”

    The judges handed out the trophies and participation ribbons. Mira smiled for her picture for the school newspaper and walked straight to Frank’s booth.

    “Maybe it you weren’t such a klutz you’d win one of these Frank” Mira gloated.

    Frank gave her a death stare.

    In math class, Frank glared at Mira from the back of the classroom. As he thought about how to make himself feel better, he glanced down and noticed something sticking out of Tarla’s bag. He grinned then looked around to see if anyone was watching. He pulled her backpack closer using his foot and reached in. He felt around until he found what he wanted and closed his hands around it. He dropped it in his own bag and when the bell rang he took off.

    He ran home and went straight to his garage. After tampering with it and adding a few ingredients of its own he was satisfied and decided to go out for a stroll. So he went into Neopia Central to get a hot dog and sat by the Rainbow Pool. He heard a loud pop and turned quickly. Frank realized the sound was nothing to worry about and turned back to his hot dog.

    All the Neopians around him gasped as the Rainbow Pool immediately started to change colour. A rotten stench began to drift up from the swampy water. He panicked and looked around for the bottle but realized it wasn’t beside him...

To be continued…