To Adopt A Mutant

     Kids screamed when they saw her. Baby Neopets started to cry. Adults gasped and pulled their Neopets away from the cage when they spotted her. Even the Pound workers didn’t like coming near her; they slid her food between the bars and scrambled away.

     A name might have saved her. She’d seen a terrifying Darigan ‘pet go home with someone because of his name--Brogan. Just Brogan. People loved names, because they could do anything with a name. A ‘pet could be morphed, zapped, painted, dipped, into something beautiful and inspiring, but a name could never be changed. Names are forever.

     Her name was a broken sentence strung out with underscores. The worst kind of "Badly Named," paired with the worst face. Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt. One solitary person had gotten past her mutated features and come closer to her cage to look at her. But when he’d seen her name...he turned around and moved to the next cage.

     She picked up her bowl of Gruel and spooned some of the congealed mixture into her mouth. Over the past several months, she’d been moved further and further back in the Pound, away from the front doors where she could be more easily seen. Every time a cage opened up closer to the back, she got moved to it to make room for a prettier pet. She could see the back wall now--she was just three cages away from the very, very back of the Pound. Some days, she didn’t even see any people at all, except the Pound worker who delivered her single meal. No one bothered to come this far away from the entrance. They always found a cute pet long before they reached her.

     Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt leaned against the back wall of her cage, munching her Gruel thoughtfully. She had to face facts. She would never be adopted, and within a few more days, maybe a week, she would be in a cage against the back wall, the furthest she could possibly be from the entrance to the Neopian Pound. No potential adopters would ever wander so far back. And if she stayed in the back for too long…

     She might become stuck in the Pound. These "stuck" pets were ones that never saw the light of day. Unless someone asked about them up front, by name, they would never be seen. And who was going to ask about her name, Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt? Who would think of that? Nobody. She would be in a dusty corner of the Pound for the rest of her life. She looked down at her now-empty bowl of Gruel. Hopefully the Pound at least remembered to feed her once she was stuck.

     Stretching out on her cot, she folded her hands behind her head and stared up at the ceiling. She wished she could remember the person who created and named her. Then she’d have someone to be angry at. But the opening months of her life were a blur. She didn’t remember anything nice--no favorite toys or delicious foods. She couldn’t remember any smiling faces or kind words. She was created with a horrible name and left to rot even before she was officially abandoned.

     Voices echoed in the concrete building. Footsteps approached. How odd--she’d already been fed, it couldn’t possibly be a Pound worker. As the footsteps drew closer, she also made out the sound of soft pawsteps from a bare-pawed Neopet. Perhaps another ‘pet had been abandoned and was being brought to a cage at the back. Poor thing. She closed her eyes and folded her oversized paws over her chest. It didn’t really concern her.

     "Mom," said a voice. "This is the one."

     "Really?" said a second voice. A short pause. "Ahh, you’re right. She’s the one. Excuse me! Unlock this door here?"

     "That one?" said a third voice, one she recognized as belonging to a Pound worker. "You’re sure? She’s a little...well...she won’t be very valuable to you…"

     "We aren’t ‘pet traders," the second voice said. They actually sounded offended. "Do you always discourage people from adopting? Aren’t you here to help ‘pets find new homes?"

     The Pound worker sounded flustered. "Oh, uh, no, it’s not that, I just--"

     "Please open the lock," said the first voice.

     "Of course, yes, of course," said the Pound worker. A key snicked in a lock.

     Her eyes popped open. That lock sounded very close. Like it was on…

     ...her own door.

     She sat up on her cot and swung her legs over the side to look. Three figures stood in the doorway--the Purple Shoyru who worked for the Pound, and two visitors. And they were looking…at her.

     The visitors had smiled on their faces. One was a Human, a ‘pet owner, probably, with short blonde hair and peaches-and-cream skin and blue eyes behind her glasses. The Plushie Gelert beside her was all decked out in Pirate attire. He looked like a toy that had played dress-up. The Shoyru worker hovered behind them, looking nervously from the visitors, to Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt. The Human knelt and held out her hand.

     "Hello," she said. "I’m Quizzer."

     "I’m Tep," said the other Gelert.

     Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt rose from her cot and stepped hesitantly towards the visitors. She offered her huge, brown paw to the woman, who grasped it and shook it with the utmost civility. She didn’t even seem to care that it was dirty, and a little slimy, and definitely smelly. Even if the Pound workers allowed her to bathe, Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt would probably still smell--one of the many, many downsides to being a Mutant.

     "I don’t know if you heard," the Human said. "But recently, the authorities allowed everyone to build bigger houses. I was approved for an addition to my own house, and I can now have five new ‘pets in the family."

     Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt withdrew her paw from the handshake. She wasn’t sure if she was supposed to say anything. Tep, the Plushie Gelert, grinned at her from Quizzer’s side.

     "Want to join the family?" he asked. "We run a summer camp for orphaned pets. You could work with us, if you want, or you could go to school if you’d rather."

     "School?" Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt whispered. She’d never dreamed of that. She’d never dreamed of anything, not when she was three cages away from getting "stuck" in the Pound.

     "Yeah!" Quizzer confirmed. "You wouldn’t have to go right away. I’m sure you’d want an adjustment period after you come home, just to relax."

     "Home?" Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt repeated.

     Quizzer and Tep both nodded.

     "Mind if I call you Sou?" Tep asked.

     "S-sou?" Im_is_so_ugly_no_adopt said.

     "Ooh, that’s a great one, Tep," Quizzer said. "From So and the first letter of Ugly, right?"

     "I like it," Sou said softly. She looked from the Human to her Plushie Gelert. "But...why? You see my name...you see me..."

     Tep shrugged his plush shoulders. "Names don’t make a ‘pet. My full name is neopet1232616. It’s not even capitalized. So if you take ‘neopet’ and turn it around, it’s Tepoen, or just Tep for short."

     "Do you dislike being a Mutant?" Quizzer asked. "We could talk about getting you painted, or even morphed into a new species."

     Sou shook her head vehemently, her worm-like ears flapping back and forth. "No! Please! I’ve always been this way...this is me." She put her paw on her grimy chest. "I just always wished someone else would see me as me, too."

     Quizzer put a hand on Sou’s shoulder, careful to avoid the spines protruding from her fur. "I want to see you as you. You don’t have to change at all if you don’t want to." She smiled. "Would you like to come with us?"

     Tears welled up in Sou’s eyes. She threw her arms around Quizzer’s waist and buried her face in the Human’s blouse. She felt Tep’s paw wrap around her shoulders and hug her, too. She hoped her Mutant spines wouldn’t hurt him. But then again...he was Plushie, completely made of fluff. Maybe he was cushioned against the spikes.

     "We’re taking her home with us." Sou actually felt the words more than heard them, as they resonated from Quizzer’s chest.

     "If you’re completely sure…" the Purple Shoyru worker said.

     "Of course we’re sure," Tep snapped. "If you’re going to be a wet blanket about it, you can leave and go fix up the adoption papers."

     Sou cracked open one eye and watched the Shoyru scurry away. She smiled and looked at her new...family. Her family!

     "Thank you," Sou said. "I really don’t like her much."

     "She’s not a very good Pound employee," Quizzer agreed. "She should have been helping you find a home, not leave you stuck back here. How long has it been, anyway?"

     Sou let go of Quizzer and rubbed her arms with both paws, as if to brush away the bad feelings. "I don’t know. A long time."

     Tep took a look at the placard on her cage door. "You were created less than a year ago! Have you been in here this whole time?"

     Sou shrugged. "I don’t know. Not all of it--but most of it."

     Quizzer took her paw and squeezed it. "You won’t be in here any longer--and you’ll never come back again. Your home is with us, now." She began leading Sou back towards the entrance to the Pound, where presumably the Shoyru was gathering up the necessary adoption paperwork.

     "You said your house had a new addition put on," Sou said. "For five more ‘pets. So...how many ‘pets already live with you?"

     "Not counting you?" Quizzer said. "Twenty-one."

     Sou almost fell over in shock.

     "Twenty-one?" she squeaked. She wasn’t sure she was ready for twenty-one new siblings.

     Tep grinned at her and slapped her on the back. This time, she was absolutely certain his plush paw had been skewered by one of her spines, but he didn’t seem to notice.

     "Don’t worry!" he said. "They’ll all love you."

     Love her? Spines and worm-ears and bad smells and all? This was more than Sou had ever even dreamed of. For the first time in her life, she was going home to a family.

     The End.