"Yum!" Snu cried. Anah looked at her bowl sceptically.
"This is sort of pinkish. It looks to me like fish ice cream," Anah
said. Anah was allergic to fish ice cream.
"Nope. It's vanilla," Tenley said.
Anah bent down to sniff it. "It smells like fish," she insisted.
"Well it's vanilla," Tenley said shortly, "If you don't want
to eat it I'll throw it out." Anah gave in and took a bite. It tasted sort
of fishy, but she wasn't sure. Poppy took a bite after and gasped.
"Anah! This is fish ice cream!!"
Sure enough, almost as soon as Poppy said that, large red hives broke out all
over Anah's purple body.
"Ah!" Anah cried. They were furiously itchy.
"Maybe it was fish ice cream," Tenley said. She hardly sounded worried.
"Holy Kau, Anah! What're you gonna do?!" Lexi yelled.
Tenley calmly walked out and returned with a huge needle.
"This is an allergy shot. I give it to NeoPets when they have an allergic
reaction to something."
Anah protested, but Tenley grabbed her arm and jabbed the sharp needle into
it. Anah screamed, but the hives disappeared. She gave Tenley an evil look behind
her back and headed to her bag.
They got their sleeping bags, and pretended to set up on the living room floor
as Tenley had told them to. As soon as Tenley had said goodnight, they rolled
their sleeping bags up and trekked outside. Their PetPet's greeted them happily.
They hugged their PetPets (all except Lexi. Lexi reached into the aquarium and
scratched her Bowla gently.) They then curled up in their sleeping bags, close
together for warmth, and fell into a troubled sleep.
The next day, the woke early and crept into the living room before Tenley
awoke. When she did, however she put them right to work. They weren't even aloud
to have breakfast until they were finished cleaning the play room.
"What's the point?" Poppy asked her sisters as they cleaned, "Those
monsters of little kids are just gonna mess it up again anyway."
Poppy's arm was still hurting from the Wocky bite. Her sisters nodded, but
they said no more. They hurriedly cleaned up, and hungrily ate their omlette
breakfast. At least it wasn't filled with sand.
After Tenley had told them to go play with the young NeoPets, she found Snu
sneaking out the back door.
"Excuse me Snu? Where are you going?" she asked, grabbing one of
Snu's Faerie wings.
"Youch!" Snu yelled, "I'm just gonna go feed our PetPets!"
"No. I'll do that. You go and join your sisters," Tenley said. She
pulled Snu's wing and directed her back towards the door, and gave her a little
push. "Get going. You can see your PetPet after dinner."
The day went by very slowly. They had steamed carrots for dinner. Snu enjoyed
it very much, as Cybunnies love carrots. The others didn't much enjoy it, and
Poppy was very disappointed when Tenley wouldn't let her eat any fish ice cream,
as Aishas love fish ice cream.
"What did you feed our PetPets?" Snu asked.
"The same thing as I fed you," Tenley answered.
"Steamed carrots," Snu shot from her chair, spilling her glass of
orange juice.
"I have a Floud!" Snu yelled, "You can't feed Flouds carrots!!"
She raced towards the back door, her sister following her.
Snu yanked open the shed door and screamed in horror at what she saw. Katri
the Angelpuss, and Gribble the Greeble were holding Bellerie the Bowla's aquarium
and huddling in the corner. Memori the Floud who was normally so docile, was
tearing apart the shed with her teeth.
"I didn't even know she had teeth!" Snu cried. She dove in, and
grabbed Memori. With much trouble, the four sisters managed to calm her down
with a splash of water from Bellerie's aquarium on her face. The shed was destroyed,
and when Tenley saw she was very mad.
"But you were the one that fed Memori carrots!" Poppy pointed out.
"You should have told me that Flouds can't have carrots. It is your own
fault. You'll clean up the shed."
"I did tell you Flouds shouldn't eat carrots," Snu said sadly. Memori
was cuddled in Snu's arms. The event had shaken Memori pretty badly and she
was nervous and literally shaking. So were the four sisters after they cleaned
and repaired the shed. It was really hard work, and they were madder than ever.
They returned to the shed that night, but didn't sleep much. They stayed up
talking about how much they hated Tenley. They didn't think they could take
another day of it. But they knew they'd have to. They woke in the morning early,
after a restless sleep. They went back to the living room, before Tenley woke
up. The routine was the same, breakfast, young NeoPets, lunch, young NeoPets,
supper. Finally, they had the chance to do whatever they wanted. Snu sorted
her make-up case, Anah polished her Sword of Domar, and Lexi played with her
plushies. Poppy was digging through her bag to find her brand new book The
Secret Behind the Jewel.
"I was so sure I packed it," she mumbled, "I'll ask Tenley
if she saw it." She walked up to Tenley, who was in the other room. "Tenley,
have you seen my book? It was sort of big, purplish, with a pink Elephante jewel
on it. It was called The Secret Behi..."
Tenley interrupted, "Yes, I saw it. One of the NeoPets I baby-sat was
quite interested in it. I let them borrow it."
"What?! Do they still have it?!" Poppy screamed.
"Oh no, the gave it back to me. Here." She handed it to Poppy. The
jewel was torn right off, and no where to be seen. The book was clawed to shreds.
On the back of the book was teeth marks, that matched exactly the teeth marks
on her arm.
"ARG!" Poppy screamed in frustration, "YOU WILL BUY ME A NEW
ONE, TENLEY! OR I WILL TELL MY MUM!"
"Tell you mum?" Tenley laughed, "Your mom is my friend. Who
will she believe? Some pip-squeak bookworm Aisha, or her true friend?"
"YOU'RE NOT A TRUE FRIEND! YOU'RE A MONSTER! AND SHE'LL BELIEVE ME BECAUSE
I AT LEAST HAVE A HEART!" Tears of anger streaked her face, and she was
angered by Tenley's unwillingness to even care about them. She ran downstairs,
where her sister stood, concerned, at the bottom of the stairs.
"What happened?" Anah asked.
"I'll tell you what happened," Poppy growled, silent tears still
falling down the sides of her face, darkening the fur. "I realised that
Tenley is nothing but a dung chair." She began packing her things into
her bag, casting the ruined copy of her book aside. "And I'm not gonna
take it anymore."
"Either am I!" Snu stamped her foot.
"I'm coming with you Poppy," Anah said.
"Me too," Lexi said, determined to follow the crowd. They packed
quickly and walked out the back door. They got their PetPets from the shed,
and took one last look back at Tenley's house. Tenley was there in the window
watching them. She wasn't even concerned that four young pets where heading
out into the unknown world on their own.
To be continued... | 
