A Day In The Life

      “Wait-” I began, but the front door slammed shut before I could finish.

      As if on cue, my other three pets raced past me, gathering whatever they needed for the day. They hardly spared me a passing glance as they shouted where they were going today, and for how long. The three of them scampered through the door. Suddenly the house was quiet, and I was alone in my large neohome in Terror Mountain with only their petpets to keep me company.

      I sighed with a small grin. My pets were all in their teens now and hardly seemed to have time to spend with their owner, especially on Saturdays. Although I was usually quite busy on a daily basis, I found myself with not much to do on this Saturday in the Month of Hunting. I sat on a couch in the living room and opened a book to pass the time until they returned for supper.

      I couldn’t really focus on it, though, and I found myself wondering what my pets usually do on their Saturdays. What would it be like to live a day in the life of one of my neopets?

     * * *

      Marallai let out a sigh as she leaned against the tall oak tree with her yellow lined notebook and basic pencil. It was a warm, sunny day in Neopia Central. Most pets were out shopping, or running around playing in the spring sun. Everyone around her seemed to be having a great day.

      Everyone besides her, that is. Marallai didn’t like sunny days like this. She got her inspiration for poems from gloomy days. She liked writing sad poems. A day like this gave her no words for depressing poetry. It was too bright for the shadow Xweetok, the sun seemed to be reflecting off of everything around her, and she had to squint every time she looked up.

      “Why didn’t I go to the Haunted Woods?” she muttered to herself, putting her notebook down. It was very windy back in Terror Mountain, so she couldn’t sit around outside all day and write with her papers flying around.

      Finally, she focused her attention on something else. Her eyes locked on the Wishing Well a few meters away. There were a lot of pets and owners around, wasting their neopoints in the Well, some actually hoping to receive an item, others trying to figure out the avatar.

      “How ridiculous,” Marallai murmured to herself. “Why waste neopoints on such a useless thing?”

      Finding herself bored, she decided to get up and give the well a look. The moody Xweetok casually walked over to it, eyeing it somewhat curiously. She glanced down the well, trying to see what lay at the bottom. However, looking inside, she only saw darkness. It was too dark down below to see how deep it was.

      Letting out a grunt, she turned around. She noticed a few pets and owners giving her an odd look. Embarrassed, she turned and stared back at the well. Reaching in her pocket, she pulled out a few neopoints, and grudgingly tossed them in.

      “Um, I wish for a... Gathow, I guess,” she said quietly into the well.

      She did like Gathows, and she was getting bored with her White Gruslen anyhow. Marallai quickly walked away from it, and sat down in the grass. She suddenly felt a twinge of hope that she might possibly get her wish. She sighed and rolled over in the grass. The sun had warmed the fur on her back, and it suddenly made her spirits rise.

      Against her will, she broke out into a grin, and closed her eyes as she basked in the sun, rolling in the grass. Perhaps the sun wasn’t such a bad thing after all.

     * * *

      The blue Cybunny dashed swiftly into the backyard of a medium-sized neohome made mostly of bamboo. She looked around before sliding up against the wall near a window. Glancing inside to make sure nobody was home, she slid open the window and quickly hopped inside.

      Jeniquea found herself in the neohome’s kitchen. Glancing cautiously into the next room before entering, she made her way to the second floor, and to a bedroom that looked like it belonged to a teenager.

      “This is it,” she whispered to herself.

      She was familiar with most of the neohome, but she was too nervous about getting caught to remember where her friend’s bedroom had been. She looked out the window to make sure none of the family members were returning, and then set to work.

      Jeniquea pulled out several boxes of apple potpourri from her backpack. With a smirk, she began pouring it out into her ex-friend’s drawers, filling them all to the brim. Afterwards, the vengeful Cybunny threw the remaining potpourri around like confetti, and watched it settle onto the floor and furniture of the bedroom.

      Pleased with herself, Jeniquea admired the mess she had caused. The room stunk like apples, and the once blue and brown room was now spotted with red.

      “This’ll teach Jamie. How dare that Kyrii called me temperamental!” Jeniquea said out loud to the room, to no one in particular.

      Then she quickly made her way back downstairs, and out the back door. After she was off their property, she made her way casually to Hubert’s Hot Dogs for lunch. She bought herself a Chili and Cheese Hot Dog. As she paid for her lunch, Jeniquea heard a familiar annoying girly voice call her name. Jeniquea turned around to see a gold Kyrii running over to her.

      “Jamie?” Jeniquea asked.

      “Listen, I’m SO sorry for insulting you the other day. I was just mad. I know I forgot our school project, and we’ll lose points on the grade, but I’m willing to take the blame. You had every right to be angry with me, and I didn’t mean to call you moody. Are we friends again?” the Kyrii explained.

      Jeniquea sighed, then smiled.

      “Yeah, I guess,” she said, grinning.

      Jamie smiled back and threw her arms around the Cybunny in a hug.

      “Oh, I’m so glad! I hate fighting with friends,” Jamie exclaimed.

      “Me too,” Jeniquea said.

      “Well, I have to go home. I’ll see you later!” Jamie said as she left.

      Suddenly Jeniquea felt a pang of guilt. Jamie’s room was still flooded with apple potpourri. The Kyrii was not only a neat freak, but she also despised apples. There was no doubt Jamie would be furious when she got home. She would automatically know Jeniquea had done it, too. It would take days just to clean up the potpourri, and even longer to get rid of the stench. Jeniquea slapped her forehead, suddenly wishing she could undo her actions.

      “This is why I need to stop acting on impulse,” she muttered to herself as she walked out the door.

     * * *

      Tak plopped down on a bench and reached into her bag. She pulled out a bottle of water and took a big sip. She was playing a game of yooyuball with several of her friends to practice for the upcoming Altador Cup. Not all of them were rooting for the same team, but they still enjoyed practicing nonetheless.

      “Are you ready to play a second game?” Vicki, a strawberry Poogle on Tak’s team asked.

      Tak grinned up at her.

      “I’m always ready,” the fire Wocky replied confidently.

      She stood up and took her place as left forward on the field.

      A spotted Aisha on the other team was letting them use her petpet for the game. The blue Yooyu wasn’t trained professionally at Yooyuball, but it was managing pretty well. Since they didn’t have a referee, the pets were keeping scores themselves, and played until one team had scored five points.

      Suddenly, the Yooyu launched itself between the two teams and let out a squeak to announce the beginning of the game. Tak immediately made a dash for the petpet. She grabbed it and turned to the right, throwing the Yooyu to the right defender, a desert Gelert named Emma.

      Emma caught the Yooyu and ran straight towards the opposite goal. The other team’s left defender tried to stop her, but failed. The Gelert easily made her way around the shadow Kacheek and scored the first goal.

      Tak’s team erupted in cheers, and they went back to their starting positions. The little Yooyu seemed to be enjoying himself, as he eagerly made his way between the two teams and called out to start. This time, Tak missed the Yooyu. The other team’s right defender grabbed the Yooyu before her. Tak chased after the checkered Shoyru with determination. She caught up to him easily.

      She made a dash to the left and curved in front of him and snatched the Yooyu from his paws. Tak turned around again, and made a run for the opposite side of the field. Just as she was about to pass it to Vicki, the Shoyru glided through the air and caught the Yooyu as she threw it.

      Suddenly, the Yooyu jumped out of his sling and started squeaking at him angrily. The Shoyru backed away from it and looked around at the other pets staring at him.

      “You’re not allowed to fly in Yooyuball,” Celina, the spotted Aisha explained to him. “That’s why Aqua’s yelling at you.”

      “Aw, come on. It was just a small glide!” he explained to the angry petpet.

      Celina shook her head.

      “It doesn’t matter. It’s an unfair advantage to the pets without wings,” the Aisha said.

      “He may not be trained as a professional Yooyu, but he’s certainly very serious about the game, isn’t he?” Tak commented.

      The Shoyru rolled his eyes.

      “Come on, Aqua, it's okay. He’s going to follow the rules now,” Celina said, picking up her ranting Yooyu.

      The Yooyu let out a final growl towards the Shoyru, and then followed his owner back to the starting position.

      The ten neopets continued to play until late in the afternoon. Tak’s team had won overall, with the number of winning games being 15-9. As she was getting ready to leave the park, Emma walked up to her.

      “Hey, good job today,” she said, reaching out her paw.

      Tak gave her a high-five.

      “You too,” she replied.

     * * *

      Gaz let out a contented sigh as she sat down on one of the nice leather sofas in the Magical Bookshop. She had spent most of the day window shopping with three of her friends in the hot sun, and it was nice to finally relax indoors away from the hustle and bustle marketplace.

      The Nimmo who owned the shop had installed a small reading area for his customers to use, with the condition that they must be reading a book that they had bought from his shop.

      She was reading Petpet Biology. Although it wasn’t a story, it was still interesting to read. Gaz loved to learn, and she enjoyed learning from books and life experience much more than sitting at a desk in a neoschool.

      Now that Gaz was older, her owner had been letting her travel around Neopia with her friends, and could do what she wanted on weekends.

     Gaz finished reading her book within an hour and a half, and it disappeared in a puff of purple smoke as she turned the last page and closed the book. She coughed and brushed it away. Instead of standing up right away, Gaz looked around the reading room, and realized the only other pet in there with her was an older green Acara reading a small book. Gaz squinted to read the cover from her seat, and saw that it was called Sloth Hair Tips.

      Gaz raised an eyebrow. Who would want their hair styled to look like Sloth’s? She looked outside through the window to her right. The sky was turning a shade of orange as the sun began to set. Gaz sat up straight as she realized she would be late getting home if she didn’t leave immediately.

      The desert Kougra quickly gathered her belongings that had been carelessly thrown at the side of her chair. She thanked the shopkeeper on her way out and rushed to the docks to catch the next boat to Terror Mountain.

          * * *

      I sat up as I heard my four pets rush through the door simultaneously. I closed my book and went into the front hallway.

      “Hi, Allison. Did you have a good day?” Tak asked me casually as she walked in, her sisters trailing behind her.

      “Oh, it wasn’t bad. What about you girls? How was your day?” I asked them.

      They all muttered an answer as they walked past me.

      “I enjoyed the sunshine... won fifteen games of yooyuball... made up with Jamie for about thirty seconds... went shopping and read all day...” Their responses all seemed to merge together as they entered the kitchen.

      I followed them and watched as they all started taking out food and dishes for dinner, as I wasn’t all that great at cooking.

      “Well, I’m glad you all had fun!” I said.

      They all grunted in response, and I smiled. ‘They’ll come around by tomorrow,’ I thought to myself as I walked out of the kitchen. For Sunday was chores day.

The End