The Move

      “Thank Fyora,” Ann the cloud Poogle sighed with relief, “we were waiting for you to be done with business. So how much money did we make?”

      Hannah chuckled nervously as she put her belongings down and getting a hug from her pet, Konjik the baby Kiko. “Actually none.”

      Spike the blue Shoyru spit out his orange juice and turned to look at his owner. “You said you were going on a business trip in order to get us painted!”

      Spike was disappointed beyond belief but not as disappointed as Ursula the ghost Usul was to hear that she wasn’t going to be painted as a usukigirl. “You said I was going to be a star! I was going to be Neopia’s next top idol!”

      Ursula flew over to Hannah after dropping her cereal and stared in disappointment. Hannah gave Ursula a stern look, bent over, and said, “I never said that. You said that. Actually, I have better news than that can ever be!”

      Kon looked up at Hannah and asked, “Better than all of us getting painted?”

      Hannah picked up Kon and said, “Better than that. The good news is all of your cousins are going to be moving in with you guys!”

      No one was laughing, no one was smiling, only staring at Hannah in disbelief. “ALL of them?” Spike asked as he backed away slowly.

      “All of them. All four families are going to be moving in. In fact, we’re going to be making some renovations throughout the day while you guys help move. I’m assigning each of you a family to help move over here. No butts!” Hannah knew they were all going to complain about moving the families out before the thought came to them.

      “Ursula, you’re going to the Haunted Woods. Spike, Krawk Island. Ann, Mystery Island. And since I don’t want Kon to get into any fights, you’re going to the apartment in Roo Island. Be back at the end of the day for the special surprise part of this move.”

      “Oh boy, what could be more special than us being forced to live with seventeen other people, most of which are insane?” Ursula asked sarcastically.

      “Do I really have to go to that mess of a house? I’ll be mailed back in a million pieces!” Spike complained.

      “Guys, why don’t we take this as an opportunity to get to reconnect with our extended family. I mean, how long has it been since we’ve seen any of them?” Kon asked.

      The Creep family didn’t have much time to think before Hannah booted them out the door. Four carriages were lined up for each pet, each decorated to show which land they were from. Hannah handed each pet their Petpet and started to walk back to the house. “I love you all and when you come back, everything will be changing!”

     -Spike-

     My mom had some nerve, booting us out that quickly. I was beyond upset but being the oldest sibling, I had to keep a straight face for my siblings. The moment I was out of eyesight from anyone, I start to sniffle. “Ming, I don’t wanna have my dumb cousins here. They’ll wreck my room!”

     Ming cooed and cuddled up in my lap. “Why’m I even taking a carriage to Krawk Island? She knows I can fly!”

     I complained the whole ride there. At some point, Ming got sick of me talking and just covered his ears the whole ride. Once we got onto the ground, Ming opened the door and immediately rushed to the house. It was a normal house in the front and in the back, it looked like a big pirate ship. My mom made it a special order for the girls because of how much they begged for one. It wasn’t abnormal for a house in Krawk Island to have a ship attached to it, but usually, that stuff is in the water and not physically attached to the house.

     As I got closer to the door, I heard more things clacking in the background. I knew what that meant: Keen and Lily were duelling and odds are Louis was the prize. One of two things happens when you interrupt a duel: you become a hostage or an opponent. I’ve been both and neither has turned out well for me. Either way, I had to get them rounded up for the move or else whatever they were gonna do to me would never be as bad as a punishment from Hannah.

     I rang the doorbell and all noise on the other side stopped. The door slowly creaked open and on the other side was a toy pirate sword. I guess they decided that instead of a hostage, I was gonna be an opponent. Ming immediately knew what was happening and climbed onto my shoulder like my own pirate familiar. I picked up the sword with caution and walked inside, keeping the sword to my front. As I looked around the main room, I saw they had already packed their belongings into cardboard boxes.

     Hannah already told them? I guess that means she told us last, I thought. Me thinking about something other than the fight made me slip my guard as I heard a few cardboard boxes shuffle around.

     “I got you!” I heard a familiar voice scream behind me.

     I turned around and heard the loud clack of two wooden objects hitting each other. A large pirate Lutari faced me, grin from ear to ear. “Kind of dirty to stab me in the back, huh Lily?” I asked as I pushed her off.

     I jumped from the ground to on top of a stack of boxes. While Lily was taller than me, I was faster than her. Lily chuckled and leaned against her sword. “Pirates play dirty. True pirates that is,” Lily said smugly.

     I heard a scream from the sky. “I’ll show you who’s a real pirate!”

     A yellow blur sped past my face as I saw the Xweetok smack her sword against Lily’s, causing Lily to fall over. “Had enough yet?” Keen asked.

     Lily looked up to Keen with Keen’s sword in her face. Lily swiped at Keen’s legs, causing Keen to jump back onto the boxes while Lily got back on her feet. “A real pirate would’ve taken me out, not jumped back to safety!” Lily said as she put her sword in her mouth and climbed the stack of boxes Keen was on.

     It was as if they had even forgotten I was in the house. While I was waiting for them to start attacking me again, I felt a tug at my ankle. I looked down and saw that Ming was pointing to a different stack of boxes, one that looked like a fort. I followed Ming’s lead inside the fort and found a blue Hissi tied up. I untied him and asked, “Louis, why are they fighting now?”

     “Something about how Keen isn’t a real pirate because she’s yellow and not pirate so she wanted to prove herself or something to Lily. That’s about as much as I was able to hear before being tied up as hostage. So I guess you’re here to take us to your place?” Louis asked.

     “Yeah, but how are we gonna get two pirates to ninja central?” Louis patted me on the shoulder and slithered out of the cardboard fort. I followed him out and started to watch the chaos unfold.

     “Girls, Spike needs to take us to Shenkuu!” Louis screamed. For someone so small and young, he was able to grab their attention very easily.

     The girls stopped in their tracks and went over to argue with Louis. Even though everything was packed, they still didn’t want to go to Shenkuu. It was understandable because both Keen and Lily were ride-or-die pirate fans and hated everything ninja. I don’t know how books-are-the-best-invention-neopia-has Louis ended up with two girls who settle all arguments with sword fights (or toy sword fights because Hannah knows they would take it too far).

     They both groaned and walked over to me. “So what’s the plan for today?” Lily asked. It was as if Lily had gone from a raging pirate willing to die for her cause to someone with responsibilities.

     “Well, according to Hannah, we have a surprise at the end of the day but we need to be there to get the surprise. Do you understand what that means?” I asked.

     Keen rolled her eyes and said, “Basically we need to be packed and at your place by whenever. Luckily, we’re packed but how are we gonna be able to get everything over there?”

     “Hannah said there should be moving carriages on Krawk Island. We just need to find them. Also, you can’t say Spike’s place anymore because it’s gonna be our home too,” Louis explained.

     Lily walked to grab the keys to the house and moaned, “I feel like a traitor to all of pirate kind moving to Shenkuu, home of ninjas. Why are we doing this again?”

     “Something, something, family bonds,” I said before we all marched out.

     To be continued…