Plum's Present

     ‘Stephie, do you know how much they cost?’ Stephie’s owner, Sarah, asked. ‘About twenty million neopoints! I’m very sorry, but we don’t have that kind of money just lying around.’

     Stephie frowned and ran into her room and jumped onto her bed.

     ‘It’s not fair!’ she yelled out. Other Neopets got Candychans; why couldn’t she? She lay down and frowned into her pillow.

     All of a sudden the door opened and Stephie’s Faerie Polarchuck, Plum, ran into the room.

     ‘Stephie! Stephie!’ she yelled. ‘I got another Paint Brush from the Faeries at the employment agency.’

     Plum worked very hard at the employment agency where she worked helping the Faeries get everything organised.

     ‘It’s a Baby Paint Brush!’ yelled Plum, full of excitement. But Stephie didn’t seem to care; most times she would have jumped up and given Plum a huge hug and a treat, but today she did nothing.

     Plum ran downstairs to a cupboard where she had over 100 Paint Brushes; she was very proud of her collection. She placed the Baby Paint Brush inside and ran back upstairs.

     ‘Stephie, is there something wrong?’ asked Plum. She tried to get up onto the bed with her but couldn’t reach. Then she remembered; she was a faerie Polarchuck now! So Plum flapped really hard with her wings and flew about 30 centimetres in the air. Luckily she was able to grab onto the bed before she fell down again. She wasn’t too good at flying, as she had only had her wings for a few weeks now. She looked down at the floor, quite proud of herself, and turned to Stephie, expecting praise. But it never came.

     ‘Stephie?’ Plum asked, ‘What’s wrong?’ She poked the Shoyru in the back and continued to ask.

     ‘Plum! Stop! You’re annoying me!’ exclaimed Stephie.

     ‘But you’re sad,’ Plum said sheepishly.

     ‘Well, it’s just that...’ Stephie trailed off.

     ‘Yes?’ Plum asked.

     ‘Well, I really would like a petpet Candychan, but they’re really expensive, and Sarah doesn’t have enough money,’ replied Stephie.

     ‘Hmmm...’ Plum said. How could she get her owner a Candychan?

     ‘I’ve got it!’ Plum exclaimed.

     ‘What?’ asked Stephie.

     ‘I know how to get you a Candychan,’ Plum replied.

     ‘How?’ asked Stephie.

     ‘It’s a surprise!’ and Plum ran out of the room. Stephie rolled her eyes and lay back on the bed, expecting Plum to make her a Candychan out of paper or ice-cream.

     Plum pulled the cupboard open; the Paint Brushes glimmered back at her mysteriously. She began loading as many of them as she could into a box; Mystery Island Paint Brushes, Pirate Paint Brushes, Baby Paint Brushes, Lost Desert Paint Brushes and heaps more. She taped the box up and ran outside to the Magic Paint Brush Shop.

     The old, tired Uni behind the counter looked down at Plum pathetically.

     ‘Can I help you?’ asked the Uni. Plum jumped up onto the counter and opened the box.

     ‘How much for all of these?’ Plum asked. The Uni gasped and nearly fell off her chair. There must have been about fifty Paint Brushes!

     ‘Goodness, little one, wherever did you get these?’ she asked in awe.

     ‘I earned them,’ Plum replied proudly. The Uni sat down and got out a piece of paper. She sorted through the Paint Brushes one by one, scribbling down their value on the paper.

     ‘I only need twenty million,’ said Plum, looking at the Uni’s paper. The Uni looked up at her with a raised eyebrow, and then continued on with her work.

     After about ten minutes, the Uni put down her pencil and looked up and Plum, who had drifted off to sleep.

     ‘Ho-hem,’ coughed the Uni. Plum awoke and looked sheepishly at the old Uni.

     ‘Well, little one, I can give you twenty five million for all of these, but you can take back these if you only want twenty million,’ said the Uni, putting about nine paint brushes back in the box. Plum nodded.

     ‘Thank you very much,’ said Plum, as she wrapped the box up again.

     ‘Hold on, little one, you need your payment,’ said the Uni. It took about five more minutes for the Uni to count out all the neopoints, and Plum had to struggle not to fall asleep.

     ‘There you go, little one,’ she said as she handed Plum a brown package.

     ‘Thank you very much,’ Plum said, and she ran out of the shop back home.

     Plum quickly put the rest of her Paint Brushes back in the cupboard before running off again, this time to the Petpet Shop.

     Plum ran up to the counter and rang the bell. A brightly dressed Usul came over to the desk to help Plum.

     ‘I’d like to buy a Candychan!’ exclaimed Plum. The Usul chuckled.

     ‘My my!’ she said. ‘Do you know how much they cost, little Polarchuck?’

     ‘Twenty million neopoints!’ Plum said proudly.

     ‘And I don’t suppose you have that much, do you?’ asked the Usul. Plum opened up the brown bag and showed the Usul all of her neopoints. The Usul gasped.

     ‘Wow! You must have been saving a while,’ she said, and she headed into the stock room. A moment later she came out carrying a little Candychan with a piece of paper.

     ‘Her name is Kelly,’ said the Usul, petting her.

     ‘Thank you,’ Plum said, grabbing the Candychan’s hand and pulling her home. The Usul put the money in the till and smiled. ‘How cute!’ she said.

     ‘My name is Plum!’ she said to Kelly. Kelly looked at her sheepishly and smiled.

     ‘Hello...’ said Kelly.

     ‘Look, this is your new home!’ Plum said, pulling Kelly inside.

     ‘Steph!’ Plum yelled. ‘I’ve got a surprise for you!’

     Sarah’s voice came from the kitchen. ‘She’s still in her bedroom,’ she said.

     Plum ran over to bedroom, Kelly at her side.

     ‘Steph! Come look at what I got you!’ yelled Plum

     ‘Hello...’ said Kelly. Steph got up from the bed down at the two petpets. Her eyes grew wide.

     ‘Plum! How did you... I mean... oh my goodness!’ she said, grasping the adorable little Candychan in her arms. Plum laughed and ran outside; she had to tell someone the good news!

     She quickly rang the doorbell and Celine the JubJub appeared at the door.

     ‘Hello, Celine, is Sunny home?’ asked Plum

     ‘Sure, she’s in her bedroom,’ replied the JubJub. Celine was one of Stephie’s good friends, and Sunny, Celine’s Island Snowbunny, was one of Plum’s good friends.

     ‘Sunny!’ yelled Plum. ‘I’ve got fantastic news.’ Sunny looked up over her neat royal petpet bed to Plum. Sunny was a very spoilt petpet; she had nearly everything she could ever want.

     ‘Hello, Plum,’ said Sunny. ‘What is it?’ As Plum told Sunny about what had happened, Sunny started to look sad.

     ‘What’s wrong, Sunny?’ asked Plum.

     ‘Don’t you realise what’s happened?’ Sunny exclaimed. ‘Stephie is trying to replace you! And now that you’ve bought her a new petpet, she can!’

     ‘No! Stephie would never do that to me,’ said Plum.

     ‘Then why does she want a new petpet? She already has one!’ said Sunny.

     Plum was shocked. It all made sense. Why else would Stephie want another petpet? She didn’t like Plum anymore!

     Tears sprang into little Plum's eyes and she ran outside. As fast as she could she went over to the dock and asked Mr Henn the Eyrie if he could take her to Faerieland.

     ‘I can, but I’ll have to drop you off in the outskirts, else I won’t have enough time to get back.’

     Plum jumped on Mr Henn’s back and they flew over to Faerieland; she wasn’t sure how she would make it to the employment agency, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t wanted anymore.

     ‘There you go. Now do you know how to get to the employment agency from here?’ asked Mr Henn. Plum nodded.

     ‘Thank you,’ she said and ran off into the distance.

     After about half an hour of wandering around, Plum knew she was lost. She needed to get up high to see the gate. She ran into an old abandoned building and climbed all the way to the top floor. She looked out the window. There was the wall, but where was the gate?

     ‘It is probably on the other side,’ Plum thought, ‘at least a couple of days walk.’ Plum sat down in the middle of the room and burst into tears. What was she going to do?

     Meanwhile, back at home, Stephie was playing with Kelly, until Kelly got tired and fell asleep. After that she went looking for Plum, trying to figure out where she went. All of a sudden she got a neomail. Celine had asked Sunny where Plum went, and Sunny told her what she said. The JubJub thought her petpet may have upset Plum, so she asked Stephie if she was okay.

     ‘Oh no!’ Stephie said. ‘I think she’s run away!’ As quickly as she could, Stephie ran over to the dock trying to find Mr Henn.

     ‘Mr Henn!’ she yelled, ‘Mr Henn!’

     The old Eyrie looked around at the distraught Shoyru.

     ‘Whatever is the matter, my dear?’ he asked.

     ‘Did you take Plum anywhere?’ she asked.

     ‘Well, yes, she told me to take her over to Faerieland,’ said Mr Henn.

     ‘Oh no!’ cried Stephie. She ran past the Eyrie and headed to the dock. She burst into the air, flying as fast as she could over to Faerieland.

     As Plum sat on the floor sulking, she saw the shadow of a faerie appear in front of her. She turned around and standing above her was a beautiful faerie in a green dress.

     ‘What’s wrong, little petpet?’ asked the faerie. Plum told her what had happened.

     ‘Would you like me to take you to the employment agency?’ she asked.

     ‘What’s the point?’ said Plum, ‘a petpet without an owner is like a rose without petals...’ said Plum. The faerie moved over to the window and gazed up at the sky.

     ‘Plum, come over here,’ she said. ‘Take a look at that.’ She pointed up at the sky. Plum went over to the window and saw a Shoyru flying amongst the clouds.

     ‘Stephie!’ she yelled. Plum turned to look at the faerie, but she was gone.

     ‘Umm...’ she trailed off. She looked at the sky. ‘I can do this,’ she said to herself. She opened the window and walked to the back of the room. She looked at the window and ran toward it. She burst out of the window and flew up towards the sky.

     ‘Stephie!’ she yelled. ‘Stephie!’ She felt her wings quickly begin to tire.

     The Shoyru looked down and saw her petpet flying towards her.

     ‘Oh no!’ she said. Steph dove down as fast as she could toward Plum and grabbed her in her arms.

     ‘Oh, I’m so sorry I left!’ Plum exclaimed.

     ‘Oh Plum, I would never leave you,’ said Steph. ‘You’re my best friend.’

     Plum looked up at Steph. ‘Thanks,’ she said.

The End