The cool morning breeze was very refreshing. I couldn't remember the last
time I had flown through the air this early. It was so pretty out, and quiet.
Barely anyone was awake. It was almost like a dream...
"Hey you!" a voice shouted from down below.
I halted in mid air, and searched below for the source of the voice. A faerie
Chia flew up to greet me. At first glance I thought it might be Stelth_Bomber,
but then I noticed a pink ribbon on her head.
"Um, hi?" I asked, puzzled at their identity.
"Hi, you're Night_Shadow_Stalker right?" she asked.
"Yah, that's me. Who are you?" I replied.
"Oh you don't remember me? Oh wait, I used to be a red Chia. We used to play
together when we were only a few weeks old," she said.
"Chantelle?" I asked.
"That's me! Unlike you I wasn't painted the day I was born," she said.
"I used the rainbow fountain," I replied, somehow insulted.
Chantelle snickered. "Everyone knows that only poor NeoPets use the rainbow
fountain," she said, coldly. "I used a REAL faerie paint brush."
I suddenly remembered why I stopped playing with Chantelle. She used to be
really nice, then her older brother, a spotted Chia, changed her personality.
Then she became a spoiled brat.
"Well than I guess I'm poor," I said, plainly.
"I admire how you can say that without caring," she said, trying to be
nice.
"We should head to school now," I said, eager to end the conversation.
"Yeah, I guess we should. Hey, I have an idea! Why don't we race!" she said,
excitedly.
"A race? I don't know, it might be dangerous," I said, unsure of how fast
I could fly.
"Oh common, we'll just do it up high, above the buildings, then we won't have
to worry about hitting stuff," she said.
"But what if we fall?" I asked, terrified of the notion of falling from that
high.
"Nah, that'll never happen. I race all the time. The worst that could happen
is a little windburn from flying too fast," she said, flying up high.
I followed, though I was unsure why. For some reason I was now deathly afraid
she'd think lowly of me. It's a feeling I had never felt before in my life.
I took off after her, even though I didn't really want to.
"Oh so you decided to follow? Here I thought you were a chicken," she
said laughing.
I sped up to catch her. I opened my mouth to speak, but the wind whipped my
words away. She was obviously much more used to racing.
"So now you think you can race as fast as me?" she said, increasing her speed
even more.
I couldn't believe how fast she was. I had never seen Stelth_Bomber fly this
fast. Stelth_Bomber always told me speed was useless, and that strength and
strategy were what really mattered. It didn't bother me that much... that is
until I looked down. I freaked. I started to lose my concentration, and I knew
if I did that at speeds like this, I'd nose dive down and hit the ground.
"I'm surprised you haven't crashed yet," Chantelle taunted.
I looked ahead, scanning for signs of the school. I noticed that it was only
a few blocks away.
"The school is right there!" I yelled, my voice barely making it above the
wind.
"I know!" she answered.
I was puzzled. If she knew the school was close, than why didn't she slow
down?
"I dare you to follow me now!" she said, diving recklessly down towards the
ground.
"What are you trying to prove?" I shouted after her. At the speed she was
heading, if she continued down, she's crash right into the ground. I tore down
after her.
"You're going to crash!" I yelled. Either she didn't hear me, or she chose
to ignore my warning.
The ground was approaching fast. I decided that I should pull up, or I would
crash too. Just as I was about to do just that, Chantelle switched directions,
and did a little circle, or a flip. She did a perfect gentle landing on the
ground. This distracted me, and by the time I realised I had forgotten to pull
up, I hit the ground with a sickening thud. Luckily I landed in a mud puddle,
which broke my fall a bit. But in the end, I would have preferred to land in
the grass, as I was now covered in dripping mud. Chantelle, rather than help
me, taunted me.
"Hahahaha, you're so daft. You actually thought I was going to crash on purpose.
Looks like I win this round."
Luckily, the bell rang and she scurried off, leaving me alone in the dripping
cold mud. I turned bright red, and I felt my face get hot. I couldn't understand
how she could be so cruel for no reason. I flared up the flames on my body,
singing the mud, turning it to dirt. I brushed the dirt off, gingerly. Then,
I had to begin the next difficult task, finding my class.
The school seemed so huge, I couldn't understand how everyone else knew where
they were going. I pulled out the torn, slightly singed paper from my pocket.
My first class was math, in room 324. I had no idea where that was. I looked
to either side. The numbers were all in the hundreds. After careful consideration,
I decided to follow the numbers, until I found the 300s. It took me a little
while, as I got lost once when I somehow ended up in the science wing. When
I arrived at my class, I expected to be late.
I was quite the opposite. All the students were waiting outside the door. I
looked at the group of strange NeoPets In them I saw a familiar face. I went
to greet Chantelle.
"Well look who it is, I'm surprised you didn't just go home," she said, purposely
being cruel for no reason.
The group of rich NeoPets around her snickered.
"How come the teacher isn't here?" I asked them, ignoring the insult.
"He's late!" said a hyperactive Usul, who appeared to possess all the Usuki
stuff ever created.
"I hear that if the teacher is 15 minutes late, you get to go home," said
an electric Gelert next to Chantelle.
"Nah, that's just a rumour," a menacing Shadow Skeith in the corner said.
"How do you know? I think it's true," Chantelle said. "After all, they wouldn't
want us to sit around all day would they?"
"I say we leave, I have training to catch up on," the Electric Gelert
said.
"Yah, and there's new Usukis coming out and I want to be first in line,"
said the hyperactive Usul
"If you guys didn't want to learn, then why'd you come? I mean no one is making
you," I said, puzzled once again.
Chantelle's rich little group laughed.
"None of us WANT to be here, we're forced by our owners. They think that we
need intelligence as well as strength," said the Electric Gelert.
"My Mum never forces me to do stuff," I said, almost angry at them.
"Your Mum? You actually think your owner is your mother?" Chantelle said,
laughing at me.
I suddenly realised what my family had been talking about. I quieted down.
I decided to just ignore them all together. They continued carrying on about
the teacher being late, and about how pathetic I was. It was at that moment,
that I realised that Neoschool wasn't going to be all it's cracked up to be.
To be continued... | 
