Almost Perfect

Well so it happened within the perfect neighborhood was a committee of residents who took every possible measure to keep the neighborhood desirable, for example they would tell that neighbor that painting the whole house bright pink was not a good idea, and keeping all trash off the streets. It just so happened that the head of that committee was a young lady named Celia, who had become successful in the stock market. She had four of the brightest and strongest pets, Milo, the baby Grarrl, Diana, the Faerie Usul, Cherry, the Island Eyrie, and Simon, the Darigan Zafara. They were all a perfect family who lived in harmony for years until one day Celia had to go for a business trip to Faerieland.

“I’m sorry guys, just showed up so unexpectedly,” Celia apologized while she was packing that afternoon, “Oh when she come?”

“Who?” Milo inquired as he folded Celia’s socks.

“The sitter, she said she would be here before I left,” Celia eagerly glanced up at the clock.

“Oh not Ms. Phina again,” Cherry sighed, “she was so strict.”

“No it’s not Ms. Phina, it’s my sister,” Celia grabbed more clothes and started stuffing them into her suitcase.

“You have a sister!” all in pets stared at her in awe.

“Well, um, yes. I showed you a picture, didn’t I?” Celia handed over a picture in a frame that stood on her dresser. It showed her standing next to a skinny girl with black, wavy hair.

“We always thought that was a friend,” Diana said, “You two look nothing like each other.”

“Yes well, that’s a good thing isn’t it? Siblings always hate it when people compare them to one another, ah she must be here!” Celia sighed with a relief as the doorbell rang.

All five of them rushed downstairs, and opened the door. There stood the girl in the picture, except she had gained some weight, and her hair was wavier than anything. She wore old, worn-out jeans, with a skirt over them, and an “I love Sloth” T-shirt. Even more, she wore a green polka-dot hat on her head.

“Sis!” the girl threw her arms around Celia, messing up Celia’s perfect bun.

“Hello Stella,” Celia said quite ram shackled, “these are my…”

But before she could say anything, Stella ran forward and pinched Milo’s cheeks.

“Hi there, cutie!” she said happily.

“Erm, hello Aunt Stella,” Milo said uncomfortably.

“Oh what pretty wings,” Stella reached to touch Diana’s bright green wings.

“Hello!” Diana beamed with a fake smile, flying up just in time.

“Oh you’re a pretty birdie!” Stella patted Cherry on the head.

“Did she just call me ‘birdie’?” Cherry whispered to Diana.

“And wow, you look tough! Bet you’re great at the battledome!” Stella shook hands with Simon.

“Um, no, I don’t battle. I prefer to write poetry,” Simon said in a serious tone.

“He he! A Darigan pet who writes poetry,” Stella giggled rudely.

“Um, well Stella now you know everybody. These guys will show you to a room. Now I have to go, bye all!” Celia waved a hand, picked up her suitcase, and walked outside.

The pets gave their owner a look to their owner as if begging her not to leave them. Then Cherry and Diana carried the suitcases upstairs to a guest room, all the while Stella let out long whistles and commented on how everything was all pretty, and shiny, and looked expensive.

“Well here’s the room” Milo opened the door, revealing a grand guest room, with a bathroom and a king-sized bed, which included a silk canopy.

“Wow! This is a room is made for royalty!” Stella ran in and jumped on the bed, “Oh, it’s comfy!”

“Well, we’ll let you unpack,” Diana said dropping the last suitcase, “Lunch is in exactly 23 minutes.”

“Exactly in 23 minutes, eh? What has Celia got you all timed?” Stella said amusedly.

“It’s just a custom, breakfast is served at 8am, lunch is served at 12:30 pm, tea is at 3 pm, and dinner is at 6 pm,” Diana said coolly.

“Yeah, but Celia did come with the idea, didn’t she?”

“Yes, but we don’t mind at all.”

“Sheesh, that girl always had everything timed, bet she even has specific times to use the restroom!” Stella giggled.

“Yes, well see you then,” Diana left the room.

****

“What is this?” Stella asked incredulously prodding her food with the wrong fork.

“Its fish fillet with garlic sauce over it,” Cherry replied coldly.

“Oh, why isn’t he eating it?” Stella asked pointing to Milo who was eating cheese with broccoli.

“I’m a vegetarian,” Milo replied sternly.

“A Grarrl who’s a vegetarian, oh boy!” Stella leaned back in her chair laughing.

“Well what’s your job?” Simon asked trying to break the awkward silence that followed.

“I’m in the market,” Stella said using the butter knife to cut the fillet.

“Oh the stock market?” Diana beamed.

“No, I wait outside stores for hours after hours waiting to buy a rare item from the restocks for cheap and sell it to the people for a lot more!” Stella said happily.

“Oh, that must make a handsome profit,” Simon said.

“Erm, not really, usually one of the shop keepers finds me waiting outside their shops for hours, and tells me to get lost or else.”

The rest of lunch was quiet except when Stella gave a long, loud belch at the end, by which the pets wrinkled their noses in disgust.

“Well I guess it would be polite for me to wash the dishes. Hey! I can show you guys this plate-juggling trick I used to do!” Stella stood up.

“No! It’s okay, I’ll do the dishes!” Cherry leapt up quickly and gathered Stella’s plates.

“Oh okay, can I go to the pool?” Stella asked.

“Yes!” all the pets replied hurriedly.

Later when Stella left for the pool, the pets began discussing their temporary owner while they cleaned up the table.

“She is ten times worse than Ms. Phina!” Diana exclaimed.

“Tell me about it, did you see her table manners!” Milo said angrily picking up his plate.

“No wonder Celia didn’t tell us she had a sister, man if had a sister like, I wouldn’t want anyone to know,” Simon exclaimed.

****

All the pets agreed it would be the worst week ever. And indeed things didn’t get better. Stella managed to ruin half the kitchen when she was trying to cook a ‘surprise’. And she also managed to embarrass everyone at a tea party in the neighbor’s house by belching loudly, and putting her feet on that table. Finally it was Saturday, nearly the last day they would have to spend with Stella, but the pets unfortunately, had enough.

“Why couldn’t we have stayed at the Neolodge?” Milo said miserably and he pulled out pink ribbons Stella had put on him.

“I don’t know. Did you see how she embarrassed us at Ms. Trista’s tea party, we’re going to be the laughing stock!” Diana said sadly.

“Not if I can help it, I’m leaving!” Cherry said angrily.

“Leaving, where?” Simon asked.

“Anywhere, I can fly wherever I want to. I can’t stand another day with that mad girl!” Cherry heaved a small knapsack on her back.

“Wait, I’m coming too!” Diana said flying upstairs for her purse.

“Me too!” Milo exclaimed stuffing junk in his backpack.

“Well don’t leave me alone with her!” Simon ran upstairs for his stuff.

****

The pets set off when Stella finally fell asleep after listening to rock music on full volume for an hour. Diana suggested they got through the woods, where they probably won’t get spotted, and all agreed. The woods were thick and hard to navigate through especially in the night. They all decided to stop soon enough and take a rest in front of a large tree.

“Man, these woods are something, we should’ve just flown,” Cherry sighed.

“Well we would have been seen then, and we’re trying to run away, we don’t want o be seen, especially since we’re so close to the neighborhood,” Diana said taking a big gulp of water.

“This is silly, we should have flown, now we’re too deep in the forest to fly over, look how thick these trees are,” Milo massaged his feet.

“Hey, you hear something?” Diana tilted her head forward.

“Yeah, its that tree creaking, it’s going to fall over!” Simon pointed to the large tree, which was tilting over.

“RUN!” Cherry yelled.

Simon, Cherry, and Diana were ably to move out of the way, but unfortunately Milo tripped over a rock, and the other pets watch mortified as they were helplessly going to watch their baby brother be trampled by the tree.

“Watch out!” Stella jumped out of nowhere, and grabbed Milo before the tree flattened him, unfortunately the tree toppled over her leg, and she gave a loud yell.

“Aunt Stella!” Milo cried.

“Hurry, we have to try to lift this thing of her!” Cherry yelled as she and the other pets heaved with all their might to lift the tree long enough so that Stella could remove her leg.

“Aunt, what were you doing here?” Diana asked after they successfully got Stella’s leg out from under the tree and were now loading her up to Cherry’s back, who would take her to the hospital.

“Oh I went to go check on you guys in the night, and saw you were all gone, so I went outside and saw footprints that might have belonged to you people. So I followed you guys here, and saw that Milo was about to get squished, so I got him outta there.”

“Oh Aunt Stella, we’re sorry it was all our fault,” Milo said miserably, “We decided to run away.”

“Nah, guess its my fault, after all never babysat rich pets before, probably was not used to it, Celia seemed desperate to find a sitter, and I decided it would be polite since I’m her sister to help her out. After all she got me out of tough jams when we were kids,” Stella sighed.

“No, it’s not your fault, at all,” Simon, said grimly.

****

They were able to get Stella to the hospital, and the doctor fixed her up, and said all she had was a broken leg and would get better soon.

“I guess not everyone can be the perfect babysitter, eh?” Stella chuckled as the pets brought her back home and laid her on a bed.

“Yeah, but don’t worry Aunt Stella, you’ll always be the perfect babysitter for us,” Milo beamed.

THE END

Author’s Note: Feel free to give feedback!