Finally Out

     She knew no one wanted to adopt her, with her shaggy coat and trembling legs. She could not bear the fact that she was a lonely green Kacheek that no one wanted. She had seen many painted pets get pounded and adopted in a couple hours.

     Poor Izzy was in the back of the pound where nobody wandered. The only pet as unlucky as her was the poor white Grundo named 2gether4ever. She had made quite the relationship with him.

     Then, one day, a small girl named Katie122333 came in the pound. She loved Kacheeks, and with her came a boy named Luverofpi who loved Grundos. They both looked at the hopeful painted pets in the pound who were in the front, but went to the back instead.

     Izzy rejoiced when she saw them. Katie left Luverofpi (whose real name was Conner) behind in the front of the back while she looked in the very back, right where Izzy and 2gether were.

     Katie glanced at Izzy and 2gether's cages and smiled. She called Conner over and pointed at 2gether.

     "Hmm... 2gether4ever, huh? I'll call you... hm, how about Together?" Conner said. He opened the cage with the key hanging on the metal bars of the cage and walked Together back to the staircase he had come from. Katie grabbed Izzy and followed him.

     The pink Uni smiled as she saw the two of them coming up the stairs. "Are these the pets you want, Izzy12321 and 2gether4ever?" she said kindly, gesturing at Izzy and Together.

     "Yes," Katie and Conner said in unison. The Uni handed Izzy and Conner each a stapled piece of paper, filled with writing.

     "This is all the info on Izzy12321 and 2gether4ever," the Pink Uni said as Katie and Conner tried to find the most comfortable position to hold the papers in.

     Katie looked through the papers. It was two pages long.

     They both deposited their NP into the filled cup and walked out of the dreadful pound.

     They went their separate ways, Conner to Brightvale, Katie back to her Neohome, which was positioned right in Neopia Central.

     Izzy walked into an unfamiliar house. It was big and had two floors. There was a kitchen which could seat four. Izzy wondered who her siblings were.

     A royalgirl Kacheek and a faerie Kacheek all of a sudden popped right up. "Hi! I'm Penny555, or Penny," the royal Kacheek said. "And I'm Tori..." the faerie Kacheek said, "but my real name is Tori987654321."

     Taelia and Toria welcomed Izzy to the household by showing her around. There was also a cozy living room, a den, a family room, a dining room, and a bathroom. Then they walked upstairs.

     They walked upstairs to find Katie's bedroom, Penny's room, Tori's room, and finally the guest bedroom, which was now Izzy's room.

     Izzy's room had a walk-in closet, but instead of clothes, there was books. Books of all sizes and shapes. Nonfiction, fiction, fantasy, auto-biographies, biographies, realistic fiction, and more surrounded Izzy. When she asked Katie how many books there were, she answered, "Most in Neopia."

     Izzy loved reading, but had only read one book in her life. That was one that her n00b owner was kind enough to give to her.

     Izzy flopped on her radiant pink bed and smiled as the sun set. She wondered how Together was doing. She got into her pajamas and went into her closet and got the first book she had seen. It was called All About Water Faeries. And she fell asleep knowing as much as she wanted to know about water faeries.

      ***

     Izzy woke up to the smell of pancakes. She jumped up, got dressed in a black sparkly shirt and jeans, brushed her teeth, and ran downstairs. She ran into the kitchen and found her owner, all alone, flipping pancakes on the griddle. "Well, aren't you an early bird?" Katie joked. She smiled as she flipped a pancake on Izzy's plate. "I hope you're hungry, I made more than I thought I could eat, and Penny and Tori aren't huge eaters..." Katie said, rubbing her stomach.

     Izzy sat down at the table when Penny walked in, a new dress flowing from her. She sat down beside Izzy and started gobbling down her pancakes.

     Izzy looked hungrily at her plate as she stabbed her pancake with her fork. It broke apart, and Izzy ate it. She took a sip of orange juice as Katie brought them both a bowl of blackberries.

     "I picked these yesterday and no one noticed them," she explained, taking a berry from Penny's bowl and inspecting it. She put it back in the bowl and went upstairs to get Tori up.

     Izzy looked at her bowl of berries and picked at them. She knew that Katie had not read her information sheet, or she would've given Izzy raspberries instead of the blackberries.

     After breakfast Izzy went into the family room to watch TV. Right after she had turned to the Neonews channel, however, the doorbell rang. Tori ran to get it.

     Izzy muted the TV and listened to the conversation. She looked at the foyer and saw a Pteri step into the house. He was soggy, and Izzy knew that it had started to rain.

     "Oh! Hello, Fairy," Tori said. Fairy looked snobby, and was painted faerie. Penny raced to Izzy's side and whispered, "Fairy is such a snob and show-off and meanie. Tori thinks she's sweet, but whenever Tori's not around, Fairy's a monster. But Tori comes, BOOM! She's sweet again."

     Fairy smiled at Izzy. Izzy smiled back. Tori raced to the kitchen saying, "I'll go make some tea!"

     Izzy gulped. This is where things got nasty.

     Izzy stared at Fairy accidentally too long. Fairy noticed. "What are YOU looking at?" she said quietly, so Tori wouldn't hear.

     "N-nothing..." Izzy stammered.

     Fairy turned to Penny. "I know what you were whispering to the new kid. You were whispering that I'm a meanie." Fairy scowled. Penny shook her head wildly. "I-I was j-just telling her all a-about y-y-you..." Penny stammered nervously, trying not to make eye contact with Fairy. Fairy sniggered an evil snigger. "Yeah, right."

     Just then Tori came in. "The tea is cooling down. Oh! I forgot to introduce Fairy to you. This is Fairy, a thoughtful faerie Pteri. Fairy, this is Izzy12321. Izzy, Fairy's real name is Fairyclouds. Such a beautiful name..." Tori said, her voice trailing off.

     "Where did you meet Fairy?" Izzy asked, glancing at Fairy nervously.

     Tori giggled. "Once, we were both at the neoschool store to buy pencils. We figured out that we were alike in many ways. I'll never forget that day."

     Tori ran and got the tea. Fairy clapped and yelled, "OW! Penny punched me!"

     Tori came running. Izzy pushed Penny down rather fiercely.

     "What? Penny hit you? I don't see any marks, nor Penny." Tori contemplated. "Izzy, what did you see?"

     "I just saw Penny go to the bathroom, then Fairy clap and yell," Izzy replied. She covered her mouth and giggled at Fairy's shock.

     "It DID sound an awful lot like clapping. Fairy, what do you have to say for yourself?" Tori said sternly. Fairy gulped. Finding no loophole out of the situation, she said, "Yes. I did that, to make myself look cool and to get Penny in trouble. Now I realize that getting other people in trouble to make yourself look cool is wrong. Sorry..."

     Tori nodded. "I forgive you." she said. She smiled.

     They all went to get their tea. Izzy had had tea last night, and the way she made it was putting a huge pile of honey at the bottom and then not stirring the tea. Then she spooned out the honey at the bottom when she was done with the actual tea.

     After the tea, the quad went shopping. While Penny pulled Izzy to the Chocolate Factory, Fairy and Tori ran off to the Kadoatery to look at the kind people who fed the Kadoaties.

     Izzy went back home with five bags of candy. She sighed. She would never eat all this candy!

     Izzy had a yummy dinner of spaghetti. As she drifted off to sleep, she thought one thought:

     'I love my new family.'

The End

Author's Note: If you are reading this, I MADE IT IN! Thank you for taking your time to read my first-ever winning submission to the NT! :D