Wet Paint

"That's a dingy looking Neohome, isn't it?" a blue Poogle commented to his companion, a purple Kyrii. The Neopets were strolling through the neighborhoods of Neopia and happened to be passing a small wooden Neohome. In the front yard an array of plants were overgrown and gave the place a forestry feeling. The white coat of paint on the Neohome was old and cracked-it was obviously in need of a paint job. The hardware on the door was rusty. Though the Neohome was well-loved, it was also well-worn.

      "Eh, it's kind of cute," the Kyrii replied.

      The Neopets wandered off, but inside the Neohome in question a very similar conversation was underway.

      "Okay, I've been thinking," SeaZ0ne said. The girl was talking to her baby Gelert, Puppy_Trix, and rainbow Tonu, Ramoose_. Also in the audience was the family's Faellie, Trini.

      "I've been thinking too!" Ramoose exclaimed giddily. "What if an earthquake hit Neopia and the ground split open and all the Neohomes fell in?"

      "I don't think that we need to worry about that right now," Puppy cut in.

      In answer to the Tou's question Trini made a slicing motion across her neck.

      Ramoose grimaced and was about to speak up again when SeaZ0ne said, "Back to what I was saying. Our Neohome's looking a little ragged."

      Trini was immediately defensive and opened her mouth to retort, but Puppy beat her to it. "Ragged? We just cleaned up two days ago!"

      "Not on the inside," SeaZ0ne was shaking her head. "On the outside."

      "We hardly ever see the outside," Ramoose said.

      "That's not the point," SeaZ0ne tried to explain.

      "Then what is?" Ramoose asked.

      "The point is that Neopets passing by our Neohome will think we're messy."

      "We are messy," Ramoose declared.

      "We are not," Puppy retorted smartly. The Gelert was very proud of her organized third of the room she shared with Ramoose and Trini.

      "Whether we are or aren't, it's about time we did some cleaning." Before anyone could argue with her, SeaZ0ne announced, "Because I said so. And that's final."

      This ought to be fun, Trini thought outloud to herself.

      "Of course it will be. First thing's first. We're all going to divide into teams and work on separate segments of the Neohome." She paused.

      "Teams? There are only four of us," Puppy pointed out.

      "Right, so I'm going to do the yard work and Puppy and Ramoose, you guys can repaint the right half of the Neohouse. Boy, does it need a new coat of paint."

      Trini was about to ask what she was going to do when SeaZ0ne said, "And Trini, I hope you don't mind, I invited Dart to help you with the left side."

      Even if Trini had minded, it was too late because just then Trini's best friend, a rather absent minded Warf, knocked on the door and walked inside. "Hello?" he barked.

      "Okay, teams, get to work!" SeaZ0ne exclaimed.

      Rather begrudgingly Ramoose and Puppy slumped off and Trini made her way over to Dart.

      "Well?" she asked.

      "Well what?" Dart whimpered.

      "Are you ready to get to work?"

      Dart nodded and followed Trini out of the Neohome. The Faellie strode directly over to the left side of the Neohome where SeaZ0ne had laid out a rainbow of paint options and a variety of brushes and rollers.

      "What do we do now?" Dart asked.

      "We paint," Trini replied, her tone implying that the Warf should have known that.

      "What color?"

      "Any color."

      "It doesn't matter?"

      "Why would it?"

      "Well, what color are Puppy and Ramoose painting their side?" Dart asked. Despite his shy personality, he was a smart petpet.

      "It doesn't matter," Trini said in exasperation. "SeaZ0ne's letting us each do our own side. She can't expect us to paint them the same color can she? This is an expression of our artistic mindsets."

      "Whatever you say," Dart still didn't seem to get it, but he decided to keep his mouth shut rather than argue with the feisty Faellie.

      "So, what color should we paint it?" Trini asked.

      Scared to answer in case Trini didn't agree, Dart kept his mouth clamped shut.

      "Don't you have an opinion?" the Faellie prodded.

      "White?" Dart barely whispered his suggestion.

      "White?" Trini repeated. "Plain old white? How boring is that? We need color!"

      Though Trini had not meant to insult Dart's taste or upset him in any way, her strong personality was often the cause of hurt feelings. Now Dart began to shake, afraid of saying anything else.

      "Relax," Trini ordered. "I just think it's too bland. Let's paint the Neohome a rainbow of colors! What do you think of that idea?"

      Trini was so preoccupied with preparing the paints that she failed to notice the Warf shaking his head. "Great! I knew you'd love it!" she exclaimed.

      While Trini and Dart dealt with their issues, Puppy and Ramoose were having difficulties of their own. It seemed they too were considering what color they were supposed to paint the Neohome.

      "SeaZ0ne didn't tell us what color to paint it," Ramoose was saying.

      "Are you sure?" Puppy_Trix always wanted things just so. "She must have said something about it."

      "If you don't believe me, ask SeaZ0ne what color."

      "Fine. I will," Puppy said before walking off to find her owner. As it happened, SeaZ0ne was gardening at the edge of their yard, with her back to the goings on behind her. Had she seen what was happening she may have thought twice about her bright idea.

      "SeaZ0ne?" Puppy asked, placing a paw on her back.

      "Yes, Puppy?" SeaZ0ne replied.

      "What color did you want us to paint the Neohome?"

      "Oh, I don't know. Something pretty."

      "Something pretty?" Puppy seemed skeptical.

      "Yeah, tell me when you guys are done, alright?" SeaZ0ne was obviously caught up in her gardening.

      "Sure thing," Puppy agreed.

      When she returned to Ramoose, the Gelert told him what SeaZ0ne had said.

      "Awesome," Ramoose exclaimed. "Let's paint in rainbow!" Being a rainbow Tonu, Ramoose was a little biased.

      "Neohomes aren't supposed to be rainbow," Puppy said. "They're supposed to be neutral colors."

      "But neutral's boring," Ramoose whined.

      "Brown's not boring," Puppy countered. "It's the color of chocolate. Do you think chocolate's boring?"

      "No." Ramoose's mouth began to water.

      "Exactly, so we should paint the Neohome brown," Puppy said decisively.

      At the opposite end of the Neohome, Trini and Dart were busily painting their half rainbow. Now, you may wonder why neither team could see what the other was doing and the reason behind all this was that a tall hedge lined either side of the walkway, blocking their view of one another.

      "Brown may be the color of chocolate," Ramoose said as he and Puppy began to apply their first coat of paint, "But I wouldn't want to eat this chocolate." He wrinkled his nose. "It looks like dirt."

      "Don't be ridiculous," Puppy retorted. "You'd eat any chocolate within a ten mile range.

      "Not if it looked like dirt," Ramoose argued.

      "Just paint, will you?" Puppy ordered.

      The rainbow Tonu did as he was asked, dipping a roller into the paint bucket and rolling it onto the wall. "It's like we're frosting the Neohome," he commented.

      "I thought you said it looked like dirt," Puppy reminded him.

      "I've changed my mind," Ramoose said. "It looks like frosting. "Can we add sprinkles?"

      Puppy shook her head in that way that suggests someone is trying to rid themselves of a headache. "Sprinkles?"

      "Yeah, on the frosting."

      As Puppy and Ramoose discussed why sprinkles weren't appropriate for the Neohome, Trini and Dart continued painting their own side.

      "You don't think the rainbow looks a little bright?" Dart said, eying the bold stripes of color.

      "Bright?" Trini repeated. "We're making a statement, here."

      "If you say so."

      The petpets worked diligently on their task, Ramoose and Puppy busy doing the same. By dusk both sides had been completed and each team sent a representative to tell SeaZ0ne they were done.

      "Perfect timing," SeaZ0ne said, standing up to brush off her jeans. "I've just finished the gardening.

      "So, should we all stand back and take a look?" she asked. "Ramoose! Dart! Come on guys, let's see how it looks!"

      When everyone had gathered around SeaZ0ne, she led the pack of pets to the bottom of the path leading up to their Neohome. From there the five had an excellent view of what they had done.

      Both halves of the Neohome were now easily visible. On the left Trini and Dart had painted a rainbow of uneven stripes, whereas on the right the color took a drastic change to a deep brown. As may be expected this wasn't what SeaZ0ne had been envisioning and so now, faced with something out of a nightmare she wasn't sure what to say.

      "It's…it's…" SeaZ0ne scrambled for the right words.

      "Unique," Puppy finished for her.

      "That's not quite what I was thinking…"

      "I told you we should have painted our side rainbow!" Ramoose exclaimed. "It would have looked much better than that dirt."

      "I thought you said it looked like frosting," Puppy said.

      "Well, compared to the rainbow side it looks like dirt."

      "Oh, boy," SeaZ0ne shook her head. "Why did I have to split the chore up? We should have done it as a family."

      "You know," Ramoose pointed out, "we didn't paint the back of the Neohome yet. We could do that tomorrow!"

      SeaZ0ne began to rock in place, the thought of such a proposition driving her to shake.

      Meanwhile, Trini hovered in the air staring with amazement at the masterpiece they had created. What a work of genius!

THE END

Author's Note: I hope you have all enjoyed this story about Trini and her family. They're certainly a special bunch. Trini was limited to talking mostly with her fellow petpet, but I think she was still able to express her personality pretty well still. I'm not sure if you'll be reading much more about these guys, but I hope you've enjoyed what's been published. I certainly love writing about them and hearing from you all. Feel free to drop me a Neomail any time.