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Natasha glanced around the classroom, her blue Kacheek ears
swinging as she turned. It was the first ever day of Neoschool and she had been
hysterical waiting for it to come out. She was quite intelligent, but she wanted
to be the best, the smartest, and most importantly, she wanted to take over Sarah,
the genius Zafara. Natasha looked at her classmates. In one corner was a blue
Kougra with a ring through his ear talking to a tough looking Tonu; out the front
was a beautiful Strawberry Usul who was examining her polished nails and talking
to a pink Gelert who continually giggled; and out the back were three pets, a
yellow Chia, a silver Shoyru and a cloud Acara who were quietly chatting.
But Natasha sat straight in her chair, her paws
folded tightly in front of her, and her books in a tidy pile. She was desperate
to learn-after all, wasn't that what Neoschool was all about, anyway?
Suddenly, the ugly red door swung open and into
the room walked a deep blue Lenny. He wore a strange, striped brown tweed coat
and he had an absentminded look on his face, like he had forgotten why he was
even there in the first place.
He noticed Natasha, alone, sitting silently
and straight in the middle of the room and said rather loudly, "Don't you have
anybody to talk to? Or do you not choose to? Miss…?"
Natasha blushed bright orange and said politely,
"My name is Natasha, sir." The blue Lenny laughed.
"Okay, Miss Natasha! Welcome to the Mathematics
class! Please feel free to talk to me! My name is…"
He stopped, a flash of confusion crossing his
face.
"Ah… let's see… oh… I'll remember it later,
but for now…" He strode over to the blackboard and wrote "Mathematics Class"
in messy capital letters.
The teacher motioned for the other pets to sit
down in their desks, and returned to the blackboard, now drawing unusual numbers
and lines everywhere.
Natasha continued sitting in her chair while
the other pets ran to their seats. Next to her plopped a yellow Chia, who, Natasha
noticed, had a thin braid in her ruffle or hair, while on her right sat a cute
green Ixi that Natasha had never seen before.
The Lenny smiled and said, "Welcome to the Mathematics
class! My name is…" He cut off again, looking sorrowful.
A baby Lupe raised his hand and squeaked, "Dr.
Ballard?"
The Lenny nodded his head. "Yes, Dr. Ballard,
that's right. I'd like to welcome you all to this brand-new term. I am very
proud to be teaching you. Yes…" Dr. Ballard bit his lip, which on a Lenny looked
quite weird. Then he leapt up and said very quickly, "We're-going-to-be-covering-problems-today-take-out-your-workbooks-and-do-the-ones-in-them."
With this he strolled casually over to the large teacher's desk and spent the
rest of the lesson twiddling with his thumbs.
Natasha ripped open her book, fast as a bolt
shot from a Staff of Ultranova, and flicked over the pages until she came to
page 14. The heading read, "HARDER THAN HARD MATH PROBLEMS -- ONLY IF YOU DARE."
Natasha rolled her eyes at the childish heading,
fished an elegant pen out of her purple pencil case, and stared at problem one:
Marie Cybunny eats a Mint Chocolate Techo.
Then she gobbles a Green Grassy Cone. Finally she eats three lemon sweeties,
a Potato and Leek pizza, an Ice-Creamy Jelly smoothie, a milk chocolate Poogle,
an Eel and Cheese burger, a snow sandwich, a Teeleaf sandwich, and fourteen
Banana and Kiwi pizzas. With all of that eaten, what more does she need?
Natasha blinked. You couldn't do this problem;
it had no numbers in it! She raised her paw, and the Ixi next to her raised
not her hoof, but her eyebrows. The Ixi leaned over, scribbled something on
a starry notebook, ripped off the page, and passed it across to Natasha.
Natasha ignored the Ixi. She needed to concentrate
on the problem -- passing notes would get her in trouble! Finally, unable to
ignore the Ixi anymore, she snatched the note out of her hoof and read the neat
text: What's the matter?
Angrily, Natasha snorted and scrunched up the
note, shoving it in her Angelpuss backpack, before sticking her paw back in
the air again.
From the corner of her eye, Natasha could just
make out the hurt face of the Ixi, but she didn't guilty at all. It's her own
fault, she thought meanly, and held up her aching arm with her other one.
The Chia next to her began to rudely stare in
Natasha's direction, her pudgy face scrunched up in a look of half-disgust.
Eventually, Natasha brought her arm down. Dr.
Ballard was too busy seeing what kind of Negg-like shape his feathers could
make and didn't look up.
Natasha sighed heavily and wrote down, Flat-U-Less
Tablets, which seemed the most logical answer.
After and hour and a half of Math, Natasha carefully
collected her supplies and walked out of the classroom, headed straight to the
science lab, eager to learn about the Neopian effects of gravity.
Soon after, a muffled sob caught her attention
and she painfully spun around, pushing out of the crowed towards the pitiful
noise. At last she managed to get out of the crush, and who should meet her
astonished eyes but the green Ixi.
She was crying and rubbing her red eyes, crouched
down on the floor next to the rows of gray lockers, her Dark Faerie backpack
lying forgotten next to her.
Natasha blurted out, "What's wrong?" before
slinging her heavy petpet backpack off her sore back and also sitting down,
hoping to bring some comfort to the moaning Ixi.
"I-I thought that maybe we could be friends,"
hiccupped the Ixi. "But you sc-sc-scrunched up my note when I was only t-trying
to help you. I… I knew Dr. Ballard wouldn't answer."
Natasha covered her mouth, now realizing how
rude she had been. She had never been like that before Neoschool, not
ever! And now, in her deep desire to learn something and take over from Sarah,
she had damaged a quality that was most important to her: friendship.
Natasha smiled in a sorry kind of way and patted
the Ixi's quivering back.
"I'm really sorry", she said, and offered a
tissue to the Ixi who promptly dabbed her wet eyes with it. "I let the whole
concept of Neoschool get the better of me: to learn. But know I've realized
the other, just as important factor: to make friends."
The Ixi coughed, but smiled, blinking away the
last of the tears. "I guess I shouldn't have sent a note to you, huh? You might
have got into trouble."
Natasha laughed with relief, and stood up with
the Ixi to go to their next class. "I guess not. But, do you want to be friends
or something?"
The Ixi nodded and held out her shiny black
hoof.
"My name's Mikimachilodomatabilifigiwiakewedaloofusa,"
she giggled, "But you can call me Miki if you like."
Natasha held out her sky blue paw. "Natasha,
but 'Nat' is okay with me."
The two friends hugged and walked down the hall
together, ready for throwing watermelons off the roof in Science. But the only
difference this time was that they had a friend, each other.
The End
Lesson: That friends are important, no matter what; just don't take them
for granted.
Authors Note: I hope you liked it, and if it gets in, it's one of my first
stories! I would like to acknowledge my mum, who inspired me to write this.
If I made any guesses etc. about Neoschool, I'm sorry! This story was written
on the 16th October 2003.
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