"OK class, get out your science books," said a voice
from the front of the room. And elderly green Kau with a blue dress covered
in white spots entered the room. Her faded orange curly hair covered her head
and her horns. She watched the class intently as they rummaged through their
desks for their textbooks.
"Ms. Hyper, I don’t know where my book is!" exclaimed
a red Quiggle. His eyes were crossed in a comical fashion and he kept looking
around the room.
"Shoe, I took your book away when you tried to
eat it. And my name is Ms. Heffer, not Ms. Hyper!" the teacher barked. "Now
go share with JadePaw!"
The red Quiggle looked to his right where JadePaw
sat. JadePaw was sitting erect in her chair; cloud painted hands folded neatly
on her science book. Square red spectacles sat on her long Draik snout. She
looked over at Shoe and flashed him a smile. Shoe slowly nodded his head and
looked over on her textbook.
"OK class, turn to page 104," the teacher ordered
the class. JadePaw flipped through her book to the page Ms. Heffer was talking
about. "As you can see, this page describes a project. Corresponding with our
studies on heat, you'll go into partners to create a thermos. Make sure you
follow everything you've learned about heat to be able to trap it into a container.
You can choose your own partners... Oh yes, JadePaw, can I have a word?"
JadePaw slowly nodded and walked up to the front.
How could I be in trouble, she thought. I've never done anything to get into
trouble! She walked up to Ms. Heffer and was taken into the corner.
"Now, you're a very bright student, you know
that, correct?" the elderly Kau asked. JadePaw replied with a quick jerk of
her head. "Good, so you won't mind if I partner you up with Shoe, would you?"
"Shoe! But he's... er... not exactly all up there,"
JadePaw pointed out as she tapped the side of her own head.
"Now JadePaw, Shoe may be a couple of threads
short of a plushie but I'm sure with your guidance you can help him get an 'A'.
Please? Remember, there's a position as hall monitor opening up this spring."
JadePaw thought about this. Hall monitor? It
was very tempting. The cloud Draik exhaled and nodded. "OK Ms. Heffer, I'll
be Shoe's partner." JadePaw walked back to her seat where Shoe was trying to
eat the book. She snatched the science textbook away from him and put on a reassuring
smile. "Now Shoe, I'm going to be your partner for the thermos project. OK?"
"Friend!" Shoe exclaimed as he leaped out of
his chair and wrapped his Quiggle arms around JadePaw. JadePaw forced a smile.
This won't be too bad, she thought. Will it?
***
Ding Dong! JadePaw sprang over to the door later on that evening. She opened
it to see the familiar red Quiggle standing there. Like usual, his eyes were
crossed and his head kept darting around as if he had just consumed four Tigersquash
Cappuccino with a small Mint Tea to top it off.
"Shoe, I told you to be here by 4:00 NST. It's
now nearly six!" JadePaw exclaimed. "What happened?"
Shoe entered the NeoHome with one of his fingers
up his nose and replied with a simple, "I got lost."
"But I made a track with red paint, set up six
signs pointing to my house and told everyone I knew to tell you where to go,"
JadePaw replied.
"Very confusing," Shoe murmured.
Suddenly, a teenage boy entered the room. He
was TK, JadePaw's owner. He walked over to the red Quiggle and put his hand
out. "Hey, you must be 822_shU_73432_neo_2!" TK greeted.
"TK, you aren't supposed to cal him that! Ms.
Heffer says it brings back bad memories of the pound," JadePaw whispered.
The Quiggle scratched his head and started looking
at the ceiling. Shoe suddenly looked at TK with his crossed eyes. He pulled
his finger out of his nose and shook TK's hand. TK pulled back his hand slowly
and looked at it.
"I think I need to take a shower," he muttered
as he darted toward the washroom.
"Erm... Shoe, why don't we go into the kitchen?"
JadePaw asked.
Shoe shuffled into the kitchen followed by JadePaw.
JadePaw opened her backpack and took her science book out. She turned to Shoe
who was staring at her. Shoe looked deep into JadePaw's crimson eyes. They glistened
like two pools of strawberry jelly. Shoe just kept on staring at her.
"ER Shoe? Are you OK? Come on, we've got to get
a start on this project. I have an empty peanut butter jar we can use," JadePaw
noted as she pulled out the plastic jar All we have to do is insulate it...
probably something black will work. I'll go check my room, stay here." JadePaw
hopped out of her chair and scurried off to her room.
Shoe eyed the plastic jar. He shuffled over and
picked it up. He held it in his hand and suddenly shoved it in his mouth as
started chewing on it. He flattened the plastic jar in his mouth as JadePaw
entered the kitchen.
"I found this thick black--SHOE!" JadePaw shrieked.
She ran over and pulled the peanut butter jar out of the Quiggle's mouth. The
transparent jar was crushed flat. She looked over at Shoe who was licking the
wall. She closed her eyes and breathed in, then out, then in, then out then
finally looked back at Shoe. Shoe looked over at JadePaw.
"Wallpaper is yummy in my tummy," Shoe said as
he shuffled back over to JadePaw who put on a smile as sincere-looking as she
could make.
"Hehehe, that was real funny Shoe!" she lied.
"We can use an empty can of Neocola to insulate instead. It won't be as good...
but nothing's perfect, right?"
Show ran up to her and wrapped his arms around
her in a big bear-hug. The Draik struggled with all of her strength against
the Quiggle and finally managed to peel Shoe off of her. She forced yet another
smile.
"OK, anyway this black fabric should insulate
the can when we wrap it around the can. I'm lucky I found it, it was from a
costume I had for a school play... we only have one of it though, so be sure
not to wreck it. OK?" JadePaw asked as she held up the piece of fabric for Show
to see. Shoe took it from JadePaw's hands and looked at her. Before she could
do anything, he blew his nose on it. He wiped his nose again and handed it back
to JadePaw.
"Oh... hehehe," she managed to fake-laugh, but
it came out forced and hoarse. "That's... good. ER OK, we can paint the can
black then. That would store the heat then." She opened a cupboard door and
pulled out a small container of paint and a long brush. She brought it back
to the table and took the container's cap off. She poured some paint carefully
onto a plate. As soon as Shoe saw it, his eyes lit up.
"Finger paint!" he blurted out. Before the Draik
could do anything, he grabbed JadePaw's hand and pulled it into the paint. Surprisingly
Shoe had a lot of power in his arm, and pulled JadePaw's body too. Her face
landed smack into the paint. JadePaw slowly brought her black face up to reveal
a purely livid expression on it.
"Look... what you... did," she stared at Show.
You could almost feel the malevolence pulsing from her heart.
"Friend!" Shoe exclaimed and hugged JadePaw again.
JadePaw pushed Shoe away from her.
"No Shoe, we aren't not friends. I hate you.
I hate your crossed eyes. I hate your jerky neck. I hate that brain the side
of an olive that's in your stupid Quiggle head! I've been nothing but polite.
Get out of my house before I go all kung-fu AND MAKE YOU!" she shrieked.
Shoe's hung his head. A single tear dropped from
his eye. The Quiggle walked over to the door and shut it behind him. JadePaw
just stood there, feeling rotten to the core.
***
The next week, JadePaw entered her Neoschool classroom with her thermos project
in her hand. She beckoned Shoe and walked over to the teacher. After the incident
at her house, she didn't talk to Shoe again and finished the project all alone.
She planned on informing the teacher how much Shoe really did.
"Is there a problem JadePaw?" Ms. Heffer asked.
"It's about Shoe and I," JadePaw said. JadePaw
looked over to Shoe standing next to her. Shoe was staring at his feet.
"Oh, how was the project? No problems with the
partnership I suspect," Ms. Heffer said.
"As a matter of fact--" JadePaw began. She looked
back over to Shoe. Was it really his fault he was a couple stripes short of
a Buzzer? "There wasn't a problem at all Ms. Heffer." Shoe's face lit up. JadePaw
laughed as she saw him dance around.
"That's great JadePaw, I knew it would work out!
And since you did so well on this project, I've decided to pair you two up for
the rest of the projects this year!"
The End
Author's Note: Shoe (822_shU_73432_neo_2) is a real Neopet and belongs to
my kuleio account. The Neopets in that account will be used whenever I'm in
need of a character in one of my short stories. Anyway, Neomailing will feedback
(good or bad) is appreciated. Thanks!
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