Jayjay the Mutant Quiggle by calla25
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Jayjay sat in the playroom of his neohome playing with his Blue Ixi Plushie. His owner had gone to Neopia Central for some groceries, leaving him alone. A long time ago, the Blue Ixi Plushie had been Jayjay’s favorite toy, but now, although he still loved it, he longed to play with other pets. He heard a tap on the window. He looked up. It was a Quiggle, like him, but the Quiggle was checkered to his mutant. He smiled and waved. He waited for the favor to be returned, but the Quiggle at the window glared at him even though Jayjay had done nothing wrong. “Hey, three eyes! You’re ugly and you look like a monster!” it chanted.
Jayjay wanted to yell something back like, “I’m a pet too, you know!” or “It’s not on the outside that counts!” but he felt a lump in his throat. A single tear rolled down his cheek. He swallowed and looked down at his toys: a Blue Ixi Plushie, a Kassegat Jig Saw Puzzle, a Darigan Faellie Action Figure, and a Blue Quiggle Plushie. These four toys weren’t just toys to Jayjay; these were his friends. Jayjay wished that he could bring the plushies to life. He picked up his Blue Ixi Plushie. As much as he loved it, a plushie could not take the place of a friend.
Even more than that, Jayjay wished that he could be a Quiggle of a different color – purple, pink, checkered, Christmas, even a basic color like red or blue – anything but mutant. He hated being mutant. He hated when other pets would come up to tease him because he, as they told him, was a “misshapen Quiggle”. That was why he was playing inside. When he played outside, he was fair game to mean, young Quiggles.
When Jayjay was first created by his owner, he was yellow, but soon after his owner bought a Quiggle Transmogrification Potion and gotten Jayjay to drink it. Although the potion tasted horrible, Jayjay loved the effect. He was so excited to be a mutant Quiggle! It was such a wonderful day, the day he turned mutant. That was the day that Jayjay’s owner gave him his Blue Ixi Plushie.
When his owner got home, he found Jayjay sitting in his Orange Grundo Chair, crying. “What’s wrong, Jayjay?” he asked. “Why did you turn me into a mutant?” he asked. “Why?” Jayjay’s owner knew about how the other neopets teased Jayjay, but there was nothing he could do because he simply didn’t have enough neopoints to paint him another color. He said: “Were other pets teasing you again?” Jayjay nodded and a few more tears rolled down his cheek. His owner grabbed a Shiny Gold Tissue Box and dried Jayjay’s eyes – all three of them.
“And,” he sobbed, “I was playing inside! Not outside, but they still teased me through the window!”
Jayjay had an idea. “Can you close the window shades? I can’t reach. If the shades are closed, no one can see me and no one will tease me!”
“But Jayjay,” his owner said, “it’ll be awfully dark then, won’t it?”
“I’ll turn on the lights.”
“But Jayjay,” his owner objected, “if you close the shades, you’ll just be isolating yourself. You need to be strong. Don’t give in to those mean neopets.”
“Then can you paint me another color? Please?” he begged. “I mean, not anything fancy. Just a basic color.” Jayjay’s owner sighed. “I’m sorry, Jayjay,” he said. “I can’t. I don’t have enough neopoints to buy even a basic colored paint brush, and I don’t have my starter paint brushes anymore.” “Than what can I do?” Jayjay asked. “Just be strong, Jayjay. See, those mean pets, what they’re teasing you about is something on the outside – your looks. But it’s more important to pay attention to what’s on the inside. Get what I mean?” Jayjay shook his head. “Not exactly.” Jayjay’s owner took him to the front window. He propped Jayjay on his knee so he could see outside. He pointed across the street where two pets were playing. “See that faerie Aisha?” he asked. “Yeah.” “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” his owner said.
Jayjay stifled a sob. He nodded. The neopet was beautiful; very beautiful. And Jayjay envied it. He and his owner watched the Aisha play. The neopet that the Aisha was standing behind, a green Draik, had a Blue Ixi Plushie just like Jayjay’s. The Draik hugged the plushie. Suddenly, the Aisha grabbed the plushie away from the Draik. Jayjay gasped. He and his owner watched as the Aisha ran away with the plushie and the poor green Draik sat down and cried.
Jayjay looked up at his owner. “That faerie Aisha took-”
His owner nodded. “Yes, I saw. So you see, Jayjay, a pet can be beautiful on the outside, but not on the inside.”
“Oh,” Jayjay said. “I understand now.” “And as for you, I think that you’re beautiful in both ways.” Jayjay smiled, but didn’t answer. “Can I go outside?” he asked his owner. “Of course you can!” Jayjay hopped down from his owner’s knee, ran to grab his Blue Ixi Plushie, and went outside. The checkered Quiggle who had teased Jayjay earlier that day yelled something to him, but Jayjay ignored him. He ran across the street where the green Draik was still crying. “Hey,” he said. The Draik was startled. “Who are you?” “I’m Jayjay.” He held up his Blue Ixi Plushie which had been his favorite toy for almost as long as he could remember. He hesitated before saying, “Here, you can have mine.” The green Draik smiled. “Thank you.”
“You're welcome.”
Jayjay started to walk away, but the green Draik said, “Hey! Jayjay?” He turned around. “Yeah?” The Draik held out his hand. Jayjay realized that the Draik wanted to shake his hand! He held out his short little arm. “My name is Doro,” the Draik said. “Do you want to play with me?” Jayjay smiled. He nodded. The two pets played all afternoon. Jayjay offered to get his Kassegat Jig Saw Puzzle, but Doro said he had something better. “Be back in just a second,” he told Jayjay. Doro was right – what he brought out was better than any board game Jayjay had ever seen – a Destruct-O-Match Chess Game! As the two pets started to play, two other pets walked up to them. They were Quiggles, and one of them was the checkered Quiggle who had teased Jayjay that day. The other was a blue Bruce. “Can we play?” the checkered Quiggle asked. “Sure you can,” said Doro. “We want to play with you,” the checkered Quiggle said to Doro. “But we don’t want to play with that ugly monster.” He pointed at Jayjay. Jayjay swallowed. All of his confidence and his ability to simply ignore the hurtful insults left him, but as he started to get up and walk away, Doro spoke. “Jayjay,” he said. “Come back here!” He then turned to the two Quiggles. “Don’t talk about Jayjay that way! He’s my friend, and if you want to play with me, keep in mind that Jayjay’s playing too and there’s nothing you can do about that!” Jayjay gasped. Doro was sticking up for him! As if on cue, the faerie Aisha who had taken Doro’s Blue Ixi Plushie walked up to them and turned over their Destruct-O-Match Chess Game. “Hey!” Jayjay protested. “Why did you do that?” Jayjay looked around. The checkered Quiggle, and Bruce, and the faerie Aisha were all glaring at him. “Because I can,” the faerie Aisha said. “Why do you do things like that anyway?” Jayjay asked. “I mean, our board game, Doro’s plushie – what’s the point? What do you get out of being mean?” Jayjay expected the Aisha to insult Jayjay, but instead, he sighed. “Okay,” he said. “The real reason I do things like that is because I just want to play. No one will play with me.” “We’d play with you,” Jayjay said. “If you just ask.” The Aisha gulped. “Can – can I play?” Jayjay looked at Doro, and Doro said: “Sure you can, but can you please give me back my plushie?” The Aisha said, “Okay,” and handed it to him. Doro now had two Blue Ixi Plushies. Jayjay looked at his, but was two shy to ask Doro for it back.
Doro saw him staring at it. “Here, Jayjay,” he said. He held out both plushies, one in each hand. “Take your pick.”
Jayjay smiled, and took his Blue Ixi Plushie back. “Thank you.”
“No, thank you.” The faerie Aisha looked at the Destruct-O-Match Chess Game and then at Jayjay and Doro. He noticed a problem. “Hey guys,” he said. “Only two can play this game.” The three pets looked at each other. None of them wanted to exclude someone, and none of them wanted to withdraw themselves from the game. “I’ve got an idea!” Jayjay exclaimed. “I’ll get my Kassegat Jig Saw Puzzle from my neohome. That way we can all play!” Then he looked at the checkered Quiggle and the blue Bruce. “Do you want to play, too?” he asked them. The checkered Quiggle looked surprised. “You still want to play with us after what I said to you?” Jayjay nodded. “Well,” the Quiggle said. “Yeah, we want to play.” He hesitated for a moment. “And I’m sorry about, you know, what I said.” “No problem,” Jayjay said in forgiveness. “I’ll go get my puzzle so we can play.” And as Jayjay ran across the street towards his neohome to get his Kassegat Jig Saw Puzzle, his owner smiled at him through the window, and gave him a thumbs-up.
The End
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