Luna leaned tiredly over the counter of the Slushie
Shop. IcyNeka, the Eyrie that owner the shop, was out buying ingredients for
her newest slushie recipe.
While reading The Neopian Times, she flipped
to the Terror Mountain News page. In a corner was a small ad, "Cooking contest".
At first, Luna didn't pay any attention to it, but when she found out the prize
was 10000 NP plus a mystery item, she couldn't resist. She only needed 8000
NP more to open "Luna's Place" and the extra NP would help buy a home of her
own or eventually built her little room attached to the main bar.
The mystery item could be very valuable, so
she could sell it and buy silverware, plates, pots and pans and so on for her
bar.
"Romano!" she called excitedly.
"What?" the antisocial fire Lupe came from the
kitchen. "Is this place going to be shut down by health inspectors?"
Luna glared.
"No, but look: a way to build the bar!"
Romano's eyes swept over the writing.
"You're not a master chef, you know!" Romano
replied, wanting to return to the kitchen.
"No, but I DO have an excellent recipe for Chocolate
Snow Slushie, which is sure to win!"
Romano looked at Luna as if she were crazy.
"You can't POSSIBLY think you'll win that thing!"
he yelled.
"Of course, piece of cake!" Luna said, then
smirked. "Get it? Cooking contest? Piece of cake?"
"I get it, but you don't! There's gonna be some
though competition there! You won't win with some slushie recipe!"
Romano stormed out.
"I will too!" Luna yelled once more.
The competition was in two weeks that gave Luna
enough time to fix up the bugs in her slushie and add new aromas. It was a time-consuming
task, but she managed to finish "training".'
She turned up one hour early at the giant hall
the contest would take place. The bag with ingredients seemed heavier and heavier.
She found her table, number 52. Unpacking the stuff, she could notice a snobby-looking
striped Kau next to her. On her other side, a poor red Lupe that probably signed
up for some extra NP.
The judges announced the contest starting. Luna
raced to mix the ingredients and believe me, using those things they give you
at cooking contests isn't very hygienic.
Somewhere between opening the jar of snow and
blending the chocolate and vanilla flowers, her table shook.
"What's going--" Luna's sentence was interrupted
by the table collapsing.
The blender stopped and a crack showed on it.
"Oh no!" Luna picked up the liquid inside it
and poured it into an empty bowl. Glaring around aggressively, she could see
the Kau and a glowing Korbat snickering one at the other.
"Are you all right?" a soft voice asked, interrupting
Luna's revenge plots.
"What?" Luna asked, not taking her eyes off
the two.
"I can see you have some trouble, so I'd like
you to take this--" Luna turned with her teeth showing at the bright red Lupe.
She was holding out a blender. "I don't need it."
Luna was shocked. Was she giving her the blender?
"I don't need it, take it," she said smiling.
When Luna didn't react, the Lupe put the blender
on the floor and retreated at her own table.
The white Lupess picked up the table and used
the blender to finish her recipe.
The contest was over and the judges were walking
around the tables, judging.
"So, who are you?" Luna asked.
"I'm Sariel Coldfyre. Call me sari!" she cheerfully
extended a paw.
"I'm Luna McSilver. Nice to meet you," Luna
whispered, just as the judges stopped at her table.
The results came fast: that snobby Kau was in
first place, Sari was in second and Luna was fourth. Luna had only got 2500
NP and a Christmas Dogglefox.
"If only that Kau hadn't collapsed the table
on my vanilla flower!" Luna thought angrily. She closed her eyes and tilt her
head back. Opening her eyes again, she noticed something that made her somewhat
proud.
"That's it!" she dashed towards the security
room.
***
And first prize goes t--" the judge, a fat Kacheek, was going to award the
Kau, but he was interrupted by Luna's pants and yells.
"I have *pant* proof that *pantpant* she's a
cheater!" everybody gasped at Luna's words. "She hired someone to sabotage everybody's
recipes!"
The judge glared fiercely at the white Lupe.
"This better be good!" he growled.
"It is!" Luna said with a serious look on her
face.
After five extremely long minutes in the next
room, Luna and the judge came out with different expressions on their faces.
Luna seemed cheerful while the judge angry.
And where do you put the Kau (or the Korbat)
that stole ingredients from every single table, so the recipes would fail?!
"First prize goes to miss McSilver, who so kindly
made a sample of her slushie for me, using all necessary ingredients. She gets
ten thousand Neopoints, a scatchcard plus the 2500 NP and the Dogglefox she
had previously won because of unmasking that crook!" he pointed a shaky hand
at the snobby Kau.
"And Sari gets second place!" Luna yelled excited.
Later...
Sari, Luna and the little Christmas Dogglefox
sat at the Slushie Shop, celebrating.
"Now I'll be able to open 'Luna's Place'!" she
yelled, raising in the air a slushie.
"To Luna's!" Sari yelled, smiling broadly.
"By the way, Sari..." Luna glared towards Sariel.
"How would you feel about a job? As a waitress, nothing special, but at least
you'll have money to feed yourself!"
Sari was silent.
"I'm not the only one I've got to feed," she
finally said. "Our owner bailed out on me and my siblings a very long time ago...Lily
and I are the only ones old enough to work. Bo and Moni are roughly month-olds."
Luna's smile disappeared.
"Then you'll feed yourself AND you siblings,"
she muttered.
"By the way, when will the bar open?" Romano
asked.
To be continued... | 
