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"C'mon you guys!! Get down here!!" Sweetandspicy99 called.
"Coming Sweet!!" Spicybaby99, her Christmas
Kougra, shouted back. She nudged her baby sister with her nose, trying to wake
her up. When the attempt failed, her Christmas Gruslen, CandyCane, hopped into
the cloud playpen and helped shove the baby Zafara onto the Christmas Kougra's
back. CandyCane shoved the Zafara's petpet Ona awake, and the four trundled
downstairs.
"Sorry Sweet, it took a while to get Sugar down
here," Spicybaby99 said, indicating the sleeping baby Zafara on her back.
"Well, hurry up, and wake her up!! Sweet's got
something important to tell us!" The hyper one of the family, Tart, couldn't
sit still while she waited for the announcement. Tart was a red Ixi, who were
sometimes known to be overly hyper. Of course, her hyper petpet Faellie probably
didn't help matters either!!
"C'mon! C'mon! Sit down! Sit down! I wanna hear
the news! I wanna hear the news!" the Faellie said.
"SugarFrenzy! Shush!" Tart yelled.
Silence fell onto the room. Tart never told
anyone to be quiet, unless she was talking herself.
"Thank you. Go on, Sweet."
Sweet stared at the Ixi for a minute. "Sweet?"
Tart said.
"Yes, yes, of course. Well, as you guys might
know, I've been working on getting all nine lab maps for a while now."
"Yes, yes, we know. Get to the point!" Tart
said.
"Well, I got the last piece at the auctions
today. Which means that one of you will start going to the lab ray from now
on."
"Well, why did you need me for that? You could
have just gotten Spice down here," Tart said, getting up to go to her room.
"Uh-uh. Tart, Spice isn't the one that will
be going to the lab ray. You are."
It was Tart's turn to stare. "What? But I thought
Spice was your best fighter! Wouldn't you want her to be the lab rat?"
"Well, no, you see..."
"Tart, think about it. Sugar and I are both
painted. You're the only one who's not. And I hardly ever fight. Once in a while,
but not very often," Spice said, raising her eyebrows.
"Tart, just think, you're gonna be a lab rat.
Isn't that exciting. Maybe you'll be turned some awesome color or something.
Won't that be cool?" Frenzy, the Faellie, said with excitement.
"No, no it won't," Tart mumbled. She turned
and ran upstairs to her room.
* * *
After clawing at Tart's door for an hour, and watching CandyCane head butt
the door for another ten minutes, Spice sighed and headed downstairs.
"Any luck?" Sweet asked as she stroked a sleeping
Sugar's fur. (Yes, I know. She is always sleeping!)
"Nope. And I think CandyCane's got a concussion,"
Spice said as she slumped onto the ultranova sofa.
Sweet laughed at this, and Sugar stirred in
her lap. "Oh well. Maybe I should go talk to her. Will you take care of Sugar?"
"Yeha, I'll take her up to her room."
Sweet got up and walked into the kitchen. "Uh,
Sweet, did you forget where Tart's room is?"
"No, but a little bribing never hurt, did it?"
Spice shook her head and laughed. "C'mon CandyCane.
Help me, will ya?" CandyCane shoved Sugar onto Spice's back, and then nudged
SweetiePie-the Ona-awake.
Spice headed upstairs to her little sister's
room. As she stepped inside the cloud filled room, she almost stepped on Nanny,
her little sister's Cirrus. "Whoops, sorry Nanny. Didn't see ya there." Sugar
was one of the few pets she knew with two petpets. Of course, the Cirrus was
more Sugar's caretaker than pet.
"Oh that's quite alright dear. Quite alright."
Nanny was also one of the few petpets she knew that could talk like a normal
pet.
Like all of the rooms in the house, Sugar's
room had a central theme: clouds. It was a cloud room with a cloud playpen,
cloud crib, cloud speakers, a cloud rug, cloud plushies, and books on clouds
and air faeries. It was cute for her sister, but Spice preferred her Kauvara-themed
room.
"Just put her in her crib, dear," Nanny said
while she floated over to grab Sugar's favorite plushie, a cloud fuzzle.
"Got it," Spice said as she carefully laid her
sister in her crib. Spice loved her sister, but she couldn't help but remember
her sister as a regular blue Zafara-who didn't sleep constantly. Oh well. Spice
thought. We do have some fun times together.
Spice shook her thoughts out of her head. "You
got it from here, Nanny?"
"Yes, go on dear," Nanny replied.
Spice walked out of the room and went down the
hallway, spotting Sweet outside Tart's bedroom door. "Hey Sweet. Any luck?"
"No. She's ignoring me. I thought she would
be happy. I mean, I've always felt like she's been resentful because she wasn't
painted like you and Sugar, but... I just don't know anymore."
"It'll be okay. She'll get over it. I think."
"Well that helps a lot." She looked through
Tart's bedroom wall-Tart's room was made of jelly, and made out Tart laying
on her bed, looking out the window.
"Well, unless she decides to eat her furniture,
she'll come out soon for food," Spice said comfortingly.
Sweet chuckled. "She does like to eat." She
smiled and then turned away.
* * *
The next morning at breakfast, Tart appeared. She grabbed a plate of Fluffy
Faerie Pancakes and began to eat. It was a Saturday, so the pets didn't have
to go to Neoschool.
Sweet cleared her throat. "Good morning Tart."
"Good morning." Tart continued to eat.
Twenty minutes later, Sweet glanced at the clock.
It was 9:00, the time that the family left to do their daily things on the weekends.
"C'mon you guys. Time for dailies." Nobody said
anything about the lab ray. They first visited Tombola. Nothing big, just a
booby prize. Then onto Coltzan's Shrine and the Fruit Machine. They headed to
Faerieland for Wheel of Excitement and Healing Springs. They bet on the Poogle
Races, but lost. That was the end of their list, except...
"Tart?" Sweet asked.
"What?"
"That's everything. Except for the..."
"The lab ray." Sweet nodded. Tart didn't say
anything, but got into the boat as they followed the map to find the Secret
Laboratory.
The family found the lab easily. They all looked
at Tart, who stared up at the building, not moving an inch.
"Tart? Are you ready to do this?"
"No, I'm not. I don't want to do this. Why don't
you make Spice do it or something?"
"Hun, why don't you want to be the lab pet?"
"I don't want to be the lab rat. I just... I
just don't."
"That's not a reason why you don't want to,"
Sweet said.
"I don't know. I guess I just don't want to
come home every day a different species. And I don't like it that you made me,
intending me to be the lab rat."
"Hun, I didn't. It just worked out that way.
And eventually you won't be a lab rat anymore. I'm going to buy you a paintbrush
someday, and you'll be just like your sisters, except you'll be an awesome battledome
fighter," Sweet smiled as she talked.
"You mean you didn't create me just to be a
lab rat?"
"No. Now go on in there."
Tart walked through the large metal doors, and
they all heard a loud zap.
Tart walked out and said, "I don't stink, do
I?"
The family laughed at Tart's new skunk look,
and Frenzy said, "Wow, Tart, a color on your first day!! Cool!"
Tart smiled and laughed along with them.
The End
Author's Note: This is my first story in the Neopian Times, and I hope
it won't be my last with these characters. This was kind of an introductory
story for them, too. Thanx for reading!!
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