The day of the contest drew near and all participating contestants had been
phoned that morning to come in and fill out the necessary paperwork in addition
to their participation form. RoseMadder stood patiently in line, feeling like
an utter outcast as she cast a nervous look around at all of the Uni foals surrounding
her. She had been right, she was far too old to participate in things like this.
The babies had their cuteness and innocence on their side... not to mention
owners that likely had many friends who would gladly vote for them.
"I can't believe I took two hours of my sick time for this..." she thought
to herself, looking worriedly over her shoulder as an older Faerie Uni eagerly
fluttered her opalescent wings as she chittered eagerly to her friend about
how she had come in second in species last time but was hoping now for first
place. In front of her, an achingly adorable pair of striped twins both quietly
ate the lollipops their owner had given them. She suddenly felt very old and
very plain.
"Next?" the desk manager called out. The twins eagerly galloped forward and
peeked over the edge of the table at the kindly-looking green Usul behind it.
"Well aren't you two precious??" he grinned at them. "Is your mommy around?"
"Zat da gaming centew," one of them said around her lollipop... translated,
"she's at the gaming centre".
"All right, well, I'll need you two to fill these out as completely as you
can and then probably bring her back later to enter in your legal information."
Saying so, the Usul pushed a small stack of papers and a pen across the counter
at the twins who abruptly began to fight over them and who would get to sign
what. The Usul smiled indulgently at them as they gradually moved out of the
way. "Next?" he asked, looking squarely at Rose. The red Uni swallowed hard.
"I... umm..." she faltered.
"Come on up, I don't bite." The Usul smiled at her, beckoning her closer.
Feeling suddenly sick, Rose timidly approached the desk. "Well, it's nice to
see an older girl take enough pride in herself to enter our contest." The Usul
smiled. Rose felt her heart sink. Old... she was probably old enough to be most
of the contestants' mother.
"I think I'm going to have to forfeit," she told him quietly.
"Nonsense!" the desk manager chuckled. "It's just jitters, my girl." She watched,
fidgeting as he put together a packet of forms for her and handed her a pen
from the cup of them on the desktop. "Just get these filled out and bring them
back when you're done." Rose hesitated only a moment before grudgingly accepting
the forms into her grasp and sidling out of the way so that the people behind
her could get their necessary information as well.
She selected a tree, not far off, to sit beneath and fill out her paperwork,
but try as she might, every time she touched the pen to the paper, all of her
insecurities would flare, preventing her from putting anything down. At length,
she simply gave up, folding the forms and stealing quietly away from the gossiping
throng of potential contestants. They were all so much prettier than she was.
Painted, frilled up, youthful... and what was she? A dull red Uni who had few
charms and even fewer friends.
Her mood, chipper that morning, dulled into a deep gloom as she retreated
back to the adoption centre Dr_Death, immersed in paperwork for the incoming
adoptees he had received in her absence, cast a disinterested look at her as
she trudged in through the front door.
"Get everything in order for your contest, Goldilocks?" he inquired with nonchalant
sarcasm, setting aside a completed adoption profile and going to the next. Rose
sniffled miserably in reply, quietly taking her seat beside him and opening
one of the desk drawers, attempting to slip the beauty contest papers inside
unnoticed. Unfortunately, her Techo co-worker chose that moment to turn his
head. "What's that?" he asked.
"Nothing," she said defensively. "Just... just some papers. That's all."
"You chickened out," he groaned, shaking his head. "I can't believe you left
me here to deal with the hordes of abandon-happy morons by myself for two hours
just to have you duck out at the last minute."
"Well, you would have been intimidated too if you saw what I was up against!"
she shot back, hurt in her voice.
"That's why I don't bother with that dung," he told her. "I've got better
things to waste money on than paint brushes and accessories."
"Like this??" Rose growled, yanking open a desk drawer on his side and holding
up a glossy photograph of Mianna Zephyr, a faerie Zafara actress who had starred
recently in the Neopian blockbuster, "On Whispered Wings". Ms. Zephyr was posed
on a beach and wearing an emerald-coloured bathing suit.
"Give me that!!" he snapped waspishly, grabbing the photo out of her hoof
and stuffing it back into the drawer.
"Hmph... serves you right for bringing it to work," she told him, sticking
out her tongue at him. Getting into a spitting contest with the doc usually
put her in better spirits, but it hadn't done much of anything for her mood
today as she continued to sulk.
"What's the worst that could happen?" Dr_Death asked her after he had closed
the drawer. "You get up on the stage and prance around with all of the other
little egotists and then the one who's weight best matches her IQ gets the trophy.
Its not like they're going to single you out and laugh at you for losing."
"You make it sound so appealing," the Uni grumped, putting her head down on
the desk with a defeated sigh. "There's nothing special about me anyway."
"If you're hoping that this is where I'll give you a lecture about all of
us being special in our own way, I'm afraid you're whinnying up the wrong tree,"
the doctor told her, blowing a strand of silver hair out of his eyes and wishing
he hadn't left his comb back at the house on his nightstand.
"Thanks a lot," Rose told him, pushing away from the desk and storming across
the pound gloomily in the direction of the washroom. Dr_Death watched her go
dispassionately, listening as the door clicked closed and shrugged. It really
wasn't his concern whether she was happy or not. Nobody ever cared if *he* was
in good spirits so he never really did other people the same courtesy. In fact,
most of the time, it seemed like the people abandoning had done it simply to
spite him. And then there were the rumours that had circulated about his mistreatment
of the pets in the pound, saying he starved them or took away their toys.
At first he had tried to defend himself against the false accusations, but
had given up after a time and let people think what they wanted. Because of
it, a lot of activists had harassed him over the years about the "unethical"
way he treated the incoming adoptees... and most had retreated back into the
woodwork after being given a tour of the pound to be shown that, indeed, the
pets were fed and watered and that many of them were still cuddling their plushies
and PetPets. It made him sick, really, the way some people jumped to conclusions.
He waited another few minutes before leaning over and sliding open the drawer
Rose had stuffed the papers into, retrieving them and looking them over. While
they were long-winded, they didn't look terribly complicated. He cast a look
over his shoulder at the closed bathroom door before getting up from his chair
and retreating into the pound's back office a moment. When he returned, he carried
with him Xeroxed copies of the forms he had taken out of the desk and quietly
replaced the originals back where he had found them.
As he folded the copies, tucking them into the inner pocket of his lab coat,
Rose emerged from the washroom, her face flushed and eyes red from crying. He
watched as she returned to her seat, tearing open the drawer she had put the
forms in and grabbing them out, crumpling them between her hooves and throwing
the ruined papers into the wastebasket.
"And I don't want to hear another word about this stupid contest," she told
him sharply, clearing her throat and attempting to gain her composure back.
"If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence you tried," Dr_Death told her. "It's evident SOMEONE lives by that policy."
"Shaddup," she grumbled. He obediently closed his mouth and didn't say anything
else. "I've wanted to be in the contest since I was a little foal," she told
him. "And when I took the job here I never had time to get all prettied up and
enter... and now its too late." She felt her eyes tear up again and angrily
brushed at them with her wrist.
"All right." He shrugged. "So leave the stage to the delicate faeries and
rainbow mannequins who have owners that are willing to blow thousands of Neopoints
on a pretty face. You can't expect to compete with a bunch of pampered brats
when you work for a living."
"Its not fair." She sighed. "Why is the only ones who win are the ones that
get gussied up in the most impressive outfits?"
"Rose, its called the Beauty Contest for a reason. Its not called the 'Its
What's On The Inside That Counts' contest. Its MEANT to be petty. And I don't
care how many movies you've seen, the judge is NOT going to declare you the
winner if you tromp out on stage in plain clothes and inform everybody of all
the good you've done for society."
"I know that," she said icily. "And you can stop rubbing it in anytime now."
"Just telling it like it is." He shrugged. "If you're not painted and you
don't have a big guild to vote for you, you don't stand a snowball's chance
in Tyrannia of placing. Its all a big popularity contest."
"For never entering, you sure know about the contest," Rose told him.
"I never enter, that's not to say I never GO," he retorted. Rose opened
her mouth to argue it further with him when the door swung open and a timid-looking
blonde girl trailed by two red Kacheeks approached the desk.
"Scuse me?" she asked sweetly. "But have you gotten any Kacheeks in lately?
These two want a little sister..." She gestured to her other two pets that peered
over the top of the desk, looking nervously at Dr_Death out of the corner of
their eyes. Rose fixed her expression immediately, forcing a smile.
"I'm sure we have exactly what you're looking for." She told the small family,
getting up out of her seat and escorting them to the back room where the kennels
were kept. When he was sure that they were gone, Dr_Death pulled the copied
forms out of his pocket and began to fill them out in Rose's name.
"You did NOT leave me to run this place by myself for two hours just to weasel
out of this, Rose..." he said quietly, irritated. It was not that he was offering
her encouragement but more so that he considered it a form of revenge. All of
the poking and fun-making she had done to him in her time of employment... all
of the nonchalantly trotting in a half-hour late to work... she was about to
learn that paybacks weren't very much fun and DID come when you least suspected
them.
***
The next morning, Rose awoke to the sound of birds twittering their discordant
melody in the trees outside and sunlight dappling her bedsheets. It occurred
to her that this was the day of the contest and it made her pull the sheets
over her head and cringe as she remembered that she had bowed out the night
before. Maybe she would just stay there for the rest of the day... wait until
it all went away. Or, she supposed she could be big about it and maybe stop
by that evening to watch the judging to see who had won.
Her thoughts were interrupted by the jangling ring of her telephone on her
bedside table. For a moment, she simply stared at it, not wanting to pick it
up as she was almost positive it would be Dr_Death on the other end complaining
that he was swamped with adopters and abandoners and demanding that she come
in if she wasn't going to participate in the contest and had taken a day off
for nothing.
Despite this, however, she found herself reaching for the phone, lifting the
receiver off of its cradle on the tail of the fifth ring. "Hullo?" she asked
sleepily.
"Oh there you are! I was starting to think you were in the tub!" a cheery
female voice chuckled on the other end. "Am I speaking to Ms. RoseMadder?"
"Whatever it is you're selling, I don't want any," the Uni said gloomily.
"Wait wait wait, don't hang up!" the voice implored. "I'm not a solicitor.
This is just a courtesy call to remind you to be at the Bazaar Centre at six
tonight."
"Tonight...? What for?" Rose asked, confused.
"The contest, of course!" the woman on the other end of the line told her.
"This is why we needed to instate a calling tree. Some of our contestants, no
offence, are more fluff than brain, and end up completely missing the contest
if no one reminds them."
"I know when the contest is," Rose replied defensively. "But I didn't enter."
"No? But I'm looking at your application right here." Rose cringed a little
at the faint rustle of papers on the other end of the phone.
"Then there must be a mistake," she said decisively. "Because I promise I
didn't send in any forms."
"Nope, no mistake. Honestly, its funny how some NeoPets can fill out a five
page consent form and then not remember it the next day." She chuckled. Rose
felt, at that moment, she could have strangled the woman on the other line.
"We'll see you at six, Rose," and saying so, the woman hung up. For a long moment,
Rose simply stared at the phone as though it had come to life in her hand before
hanging it up.
She suddenly felt sick as her mind raced. She knew she didn't fill out the
forms... in fact, she remembered throwing them away. And the only person who
had seen her do it was--
"Doc..." she said aloud, venom in her voice. For whatever reason he had dreamed
up in that twisted lizard head of his, HE had done this. It was the only reasonable
explanation. Without bothering to straighten her mane or give any thought whatsoever
to her appearance (a rarity in itself among Unis), Rose stormed out of her bedroom
and out the front door. One of her neighbours, an elderly striped Tonu, looked
up from his gardening and had been about to wish her a good morning until he
saw the look of absolute murder in her eyes as she stormed past.
Having never seen RoseMadder in such a state before, he stood by quietly until
she had passed before looking quizzically in the direction she had gone, wondering
what could possibly have gotten her tail in such a horrible knot. Better to
mind his own business, he supposed.
***
Dr_Death sifted through the mail, tossing the assorted junk flyers from people
who were advertising their shops into the trash. Amid them he found the monthly
electric bill and the pound's bank interest statement which he tossed onto the
break room counter disinterestedly.
"Boring..." he sighed, flipping through the rest of the envelopes in the crook
of his arm. He paused momentarily to read a scribbled postcard that had been
sent from one of the pound's "admirers" that had been written in red crayon
and on the back held the lovely sentiment "RELEASE ALL ANIMULS OR I KILL U!!!!"
He pondered saving it for Rose to see so she could get a laugh out of it as
well, but decided against it and threw it in the trash along with the junk mail.
They received at least one letter like that a week from activists scattered
throughout Neopia who didn't have the courage to come talk to them face-to-face
and hid beyond anonymous threats.
As he tossed away a coupon book, lamenting the fact his Zafara calendar still
hadn't come, he heard footsteps behind him.
"I'm on break," he said disinterestedly, thinking it was one of the pound
customers who had grown impatient waiting for him up front and had come looking
for him. "I'll be back up there in about five minutes."
"You...." Recognising the voice, he turned to see a rather disheveled and
angry Rose standing in the doorway.
"What're you doing here?" he asked, tossing the rest of the mail on the counter.
"Thought you took the day off for the contest." She crossed the break room,
stopping when she stood straight across from the yellow Techo, glaring icily
at him.
"I didn't *enter* the contest," she said through gritted teeth, nearly touching
noses with him. "Apparently someone entered FOR me." For a long moment neither
said anything and dueled silently with their eyes... her blue ones piercingly
accusing and his yellow ones mellow and narrowed.
"Maybe someone did. Maybe that someone got sick of watching you flapping around
like a headless Peadackle and wanted you to get on with it," he replied quietly.
"How dare you!" she cried, seizing the lapels of his lab coat and yanking
him forward. "Do you have any idea how embarrassed I am now? If I show up, I
get to make a fool of myself on the stage in front of half of Neopia, and if
I DON'T show up, everyone will have to listen to them calling my name over the
loudspeaker all night looking for me and I'll have to live down their teasing
that I wussed out tomorrow!!"
"So?" he asked, still uncommonly calm. Before she could stop herself, she
shoved him. The doctor hadn't been expecting it, stumbling backwards and colliding
hard with the refrigerator against the wall with an audible "Whuff!" as the
air left his lungs.
"SO??" she shrieked. "I'm going to be a laughingstock!!"
"Oh please, Rose, you honestly think people don't have better things to talk
about besides you?" he asked in irritation, wincing as he rubbed at a forming
bruise on his lower back where he had collided with the fridge door handle.
"You're worse than those attention hogs that are going to be on the stage tonight
if you think people's worlds are going to centre around whether or not you participate!"
"No I'm not!" she complained, her lip beginning to quiver. "I just....." she
sniffled, trembling a little as the first of her tears began to spill down her
cheeks. "I don't... wanna... be laughed aaaaatttt...." she broke down, sobbing
loudly. The Techo watched his co-worker cry dispassionately for a moment before
rolling his eyes and sighing, approaching her.
"So what if they laugh?" he asked. "Think about who you're trying to impress.
A crowd of squealing kids and their owners."
"I'm not going to go." She whimpered, her ears flattened in humiliation at
both her outburst and the fact that she was expected to make an appearance tonight.
"If I just lay low, this will all blow over someday..." she choked back a sniffle
as she said this. Dr_Death was silent for a long moment, and then, in a rare
show of affection, placed a hand on her shoulder.
"Rose, honestly, what's the worst you think is going to happen?" he asked
her. "You said you've been wanting to do this all your life and if you wait
much longer, you're going to end up working up the nerve to try again when you're
somebody's grandma and then people are REALLY going to laugh at you."
"S-So you submitted the forms to help me live out my dream?" she asked, looking
up at him in astonishment.
"No, I did it to get back at you for making me run this dump by myself just
to have you come running back here with your tail tucked between your legs and
whining that the whole world's against you," he said matter-of-factly. "AND
that you made me spend an hour of my day off sitting on your couch watching
you preen your hair." She scowled, turning roughly away from him.
"I can't believe you'd put me in this kind of situation," she whimpered. "I've
worked with you for almost five years and this is how much you respect me??"
"Hey hey, woah..." Dr_Death interrupted her tirade. "You wanna pull the respect
card, kiddo? Let's talk about the time you dumped habanero sauce in my coffee...
or how about when you got it into your brain to copy the daily reports on flash
paper and "accidentally" let a Scorchio sneeze on them? Or then there was the
time--"
"You made your point." The Uni grumped and then sighed, turning and walking
out of the break room.
"Where are you going?" he asked her.
"Home," she replied flatly. "I'm going to make myself some cocoa, take a long
bubble bath, and forget today ever happened."
"Whatever floats your boat," he shrugged. "Being laughed at isn't the end
of the world, for the record. With a name and reputation like I have, I get
laughed at every blasted day and you don't see me sulking and wailing."
"Whatever, doc...." she sighed, hanging her head as she left. For a brief
moment, he wondered if he should follow after her. No... he was going to let
her sweat this one out on her own and if she wanted to shrivel up and die because
a couple people might talk about her behind her back, that was her problem.
"Hey! Can I get some help up here??" an obnoxious voice yelled from up front.
Dr_Death sighed.
"Coming!" he called back, gathering up his scattered wits and taking a deep
cleansing breath before venturing up front to deal with the customer.
To be continued... | 
