Good day. My name is penguin12334556. I am a little blue Bruce, with four Bruce
chicks of my own. But enough about me. This article is more important.
Anyway, being a Bruce, I am pestered with lots of questions and requests.
Everyone knows that Bruces hold major dance-offs in Happy
Valley. These dance-offs, however, are in a secret location, so other
NeoPets cannot interfere. It is not prejudice. We Bruces just like keeping to
ourselves during these special holidays.
Still, I felt bad for all the NeoPets who haven't seen this wonderful contest.
That is why I wrote this. You will learn what it is like to be a Bruce in these
major dance-offs. I am sorry, but I cannot reveal the location, for that is
top secret :)
12:00 - Lunch Time and Take Off
It is time to head off to Terror Mountain. I am excited, and ready to do my
best in the ice skating. With me, are my four little Bruces: babszio, Zonkow,
Eudyptulaminor and Dodgoo. We all take a small boat toward the icy snow-caps.
1:00 - Inspection
When we make it to our secret location, we are first inspected by a number of
Bruces. In order to keep Lupes and Meercas out of the competition (they have
great fun trying to wreck it), we must make sure that every Bruce coming into
the area IS a Bruce. A couple of years ago, a Meerca tried to get in wearing
a Bruce costume. If it hadn't been for his long tail sticking out, he might've
gotten in.
1:30 - Locker Rooms
My chicks and I all waddle into the locker rooms. I send Zonkow and babszio
to the male Bruce room, while I go to the female room with Eudyptulaminor and
Dodgoo. We spend a lot of time there, cleaning up from our journey. That includes
washing our face, taking a quick shower, scrubbing under our wings, and brushing
our beaks to a perfect shine.
2:00 - Health Inspection
We don't want any sick Bruces going out into the ice. They could get hurt easily.
So, a doctor Bruce comes around and make sure every one of us is in tiptop shape.
He checks our wings, to make sure they are "flappable," then he inspects our
feathers. He opens up our beaks to make sure there is no yucky stuff inside.
And finally, he looks at our eyes to see if we can see well enough.
3:00 - Practice
Practice takes a lot of time. We must each lubricate our feet with fish slime.
This way, we can skate easily upon the ice. However, even though we go fast
with greased feet, it increases our chances of falling, so we must have an equal
amount of speed and balance. All four of my chicks hurry out onto the kiddie
rink. They are not really skating in the real competition yet, because they
are too young. You need to be an adult Bruce in order to play in these games.
I skate around the real rink, making sure that I have both balance and speed.
Those are the two key factors. I will earn a lot of points if I go quickly,
but if I fall, I am out of the competition. It is very tough.
4:30 - Skater Introductions
We all wait patiently while a Bruce with a microphone introduces each of the
Bruce skaters in the competition. This takes about an hour! For the Year 3 major
dance-off, here are the skaters who participated:
Skooch the Slippery
Big Foot Billy
Brucey B
Captain Snapper
First Mate Clipper
Sinkz the Loser (poor fellow)
Charles Feather III
Luke Zebababa
"Icy Wing"
Finally, they say: "penguin12334556 the Swift." I hop onto the ice. Many of
my friends cheer for me as I skate in a figure eight, do a twist, then finish
it off with a head stand. I heard the clapping of many happy wings.
5:00 - Competition
Now it is time for the hard stuff. All the players get onto the ice and start
to dance to the music that is playing in the background. It is slow music at
first, because they always wanna make it easy in the beginning. Then, it goes
faster and faster, and you gotta keep up. I am skating around the edge of the
rink, doing a couple of flips. I look over at the score board. MY SCORE IS LOW!
I had to figure out a cool stunt that would earn me extra points. Quickly, I
began to do an Irish step dance! That gave me five extra points. I was in second
place so far.
Luke Zebababa began to break dance, when all of the sudden he tripped and
fell right on his bottom. He is out of the competition. I feel sorry for the
new comer. But then, all these other Bruces start to fall. The music is getting
way to fast for them. Icy Wing, Brucey B, Skooch, Big Foot Billy, Captain Snapper
and First Mate Clipper, all smash into each other. They are all taken out of
the game.
Charles Feather III tries to trip me with his foot. A whistle is blown, and
he is taken out of the game for cheating. Now it is just me and Sinkz. We circle
each other like awaiting Pteris. Closer and closer we come, until we are beak
to beak. This will be easy, I thought. Sinkz stinks at this competition.
The music blasted, and do my amazement, Sinkz was copying me! He was doing
an Irish step dance as well. Quickly, I moved my feet faster on the ice, taking
care not to slip, but Sinkz was a fast one. He just kept on dancing, without
even a worried look on his face. I had to admire him.
Suddenly, one of my feet slipped up, and I fell on my belly. A whistle was
blown, and the championship went to Sinkz the Loser (now referred to as Sinkz
the Step Dancer). I shook his wing, and I went over to the kiddie rink. There
were my own Bruces, giving me hugs. After all, I was in second place! That deserves
some credit, don't you think?
In case you are wondering, I won the Silver Bruce Statue for being in second
place. I don't mind. It is not the Gold Bruce Statue that urges me to skate.
It is just the ice and the music ;) | 
