Her Spirit's Eyes: Part Five

      Each of the orphans was given a blue tray, each with a nice plate of waffles and a small pack of syrup on them. They also had some butter, if they wanted it, and a glass of orange juice.

      The red Wocky licked his lips as he looked at the waffles on his tray, sniffing it and taking in its pleasant aroma. He couldn't wait to start eating them, but then he looked around in confusion as he took a seat next to his friends, the green Kacheek and the red Shoyru.

      "Hey, wait a minute..." he wondered. "Where's Wanda?"

      "I dunno, Tom," said the green Kacheek to the red Wocky. "I haven't seen her since last night."

      "Hee hee," the Shoyru giggled, "maybe she's still dusting!"

      "Ha!" Tom the red Wocky laughed. "Good one, Harry!"

      "I still can't believe that Mr. Ardon believed us when we said Wanda broke that lamp!" said the Kacheek with a giggle.

      "Yeah, I know, Rorri!" said Harry the Shoyru with a chuckle. "She is so easy to use as a scapegoat!"

      "Shh, keep your voices down," said Tom, "or Mr. Ardon will overhear us!"

      "Oh, yes." Rorri the green Kacheek put her hand to her mouth. "Anyways, I wonder where Wanda really is?"

      "Maybe her nose is so stuffed up from dusting last night that she can't smell breakfast!" said Harry with a chuckle.

      "Maybe she's all sad, and she cried so much, she floated out the window!" Tom said with sarcastic drama.

      "Hey, there she is, now!" said Rorri, pointing to the groggy Bori that just entered the room.

      "Yo, Wanda!" Tom called out. "What took you so long? Did you glue yourself to bed? Ha ha ha!"

      Wanda didn't answer; she just glared at Tom and his friends, annoyed, but still sleepy.

      "Yeah, we were worried about you!" Harry said sarcastically. "We thought you died from choking on dust! Hah! Hah! Hah!"

      Rolling her tired eyes, she grabbed her tray of waffles and started to walk to her usual table, where no one else was sitting.

      "Did you have a nightmare about dust?" Rorri giggled so much she could hardly say that.

      "NO." Wanda gave Rorri a glare.

      "Hah! I'll bet you had at least ONE stupid dream about dust, loser!" Harry called to the angry and annoyed Wanda, who was walking away from the three pets, trying to ignore them. Ardon just happened walking by the table at that time, and overheard Harry.

      "Hey, hey!" Ardon walked over to Harry with a scowl. "Name-calling is not allowed here, and can't you try to cut Wanda some slack? She was up at five o' clock and couldn't get back to sleep until seven. She's only late because she was sleepy!"

      Wanda couldn't help but manage a small smile, the only one in the whole orphanage who even cared about her at all was Ardon. She stifled a chuckle to herself, hearing the guilty silence of Tom and his friends. Ardon continued lecturing the three, as she went to sit down at the empty table she sat at every day... she was the only one who ever sat at that table. She could never figure out why, but the other orphans seemed to think she was some kind of weirdo or something, as far back as she could remember, which was almost as far back as when she first came to the orphanage, but not quite...

      She sighed as she poured some syrup onto her waffles, and spread a little butter on them. Then she cut a bite-size piece out of the waffle with her fork, and stuck it in her mouth. She also took a small sip of her orange juice, and sighed, resting her cheek on her left paw.

     * * * * *

      "Gah gah gah!" Dina said, spiting a glob of baby food onto her bib.

      "No, no, Dina," Laura said in a high-pitched, baby-talk voice, "you have to swallow it, not spit it out!"

      Laura was sitting in a chair in front of Dina's high-chair. She was feeding Dina baby food, which the baby Xweetok seemed to refuse to eat.

      "Come on, Dina, you must eat something!" Laura said, trying to get the spoon of baby food into Dina's mouth. Laura was suddenly interrupted by a knock at the door. Setting down the spoon, she sighed, "I'll get it."

      Laura ambled over to the door, and opened the door to see who was at it: it was the mailman.

      "Some Neomail for Laura Songdream," the mailman said, handing Laura a bunch of envelopes.

      "Thank you," Laura said with a nod as she grabbed the mail.

      The mailman tipped his hat as he walked away from the door. Laura closed the door, and opened the first envelope in her hand.

      *Smash!* Laura looked up from the mail and saw Dina sitting in her highchair, giggling, and the baby food jar lying in pieces on the floor. She groaned, then grabbed a dust pan and broom to sweep up the glass shards, reading the letter in front of her as she did so.

      "Hmm... let's see..." Laura said as she looked across the letter. "Oh wow... ooh... how exciting, indeed!"

      "Boh-wa?" Dina said in a curious tone.

      "Yeah, it's from Zora," Laura said with a nod. "She won the jackpot on the Wheel of Excitement, and you can bet she's excited." She sighed. "I wonder if we got any other interesting letters..."

      Laura set Zora's letter on the table and began flipping through the rest of the mail to see if she could find anything important or special.

      "Let's see here... ad... ad... ad... more ads..." Laura said with a sigh. "...Hey, here's a postcard from Kiro, on Mystery Island!" She looked at the picture of the Mynci on the postcard, then she flipped it over and started to read the words on the back:

     Dear Laura,

      It's been nice here on Mystery Island, the weather is nice and always warm. I met a nice Kougra mother named Yollinda; she has three children. I told her about you, and she tells me she says "Hi."

      Well, anyways, I've been hanging around for a while, and been watching Yollinda's kids play a game of tag. And I'm running out of room here, so bye!

     --Kiro

      "That's nice," Laura said with a smile. "Maybe we can meet this Yollinda, sometime. And maybe when you're a little older, Dina, you could go be with those other kids, and play with them in their game of..."

     * * * * *

      "TAG!" shouted Tom, as he shoved Rorri in the back.

      "Oh, I'm so gonna get you!" Rorri turned around and started to chase Tom.

      Most of the orphans were running down the halls, laughing and having fun, but Wanda wasn't playing with them. She was just sitting in the library, reading some more of "The Prophecy of the Indera." She was so captivated by it, she couldn't stop.

      "Hey, Wanda," said Harry, who apparently snuck up on Wanda, "what'cha reading?"

      Wanda jumped at the sound of Harry's voice, but then replied, "None of your business."

      "Oooooh, it's something secret, is it?" Harry teased, leaning over Wanda's shoulder.

      "If you're thinking it's a diary, it's not," Wanda said, rolling her eyes. "And I don't care if you read over my shoulder."

      Harry's eyes widened, "Read THIS?? That's such a long, boring book!" He turned his head in disgust.

      "It's not boring, it's very interesting." Wanda rolled her eyes, again. "And if you don't want to read over my shoulder, then just leave."

      "You'd actually rather READ that than play tag??" Harry said with slight disgust. "Man, you must be a total bookworm!"

      Wanda glared at Harry. "Why don't you shut up and go play tag?"

      Harry turned to the other orphans and cupped his hands over his mouth. "WANDA'S A BOOKWORM, EVERYBODY!"

      "Oh, please." Wanda rolled her eyes.

      "Is that so?" Tom said, walking over to Wanda. "You're too bookworm-y to play tag?"

      Rorri followed after Tom. "I figured you weren't playing because you were too ma-ad," Tom and Harry giggled, and Rorri went on to say, "but I guess I was wrong!"

      "I don't like tag," Wanda explained with a groan. "And would you move? You're getting in my light."

      "Oh, you don't like it when we do THIS?" Tom threw himself in the way of the light that was shining on Wanda's book.

      "Hey!" Wanda glared at Tom, then she shifted positions and got a better light.

      Harry started poking Wanda on the shoulder. "Hey, am I getting in your light now?" he said, trying to be obnoxious. "Huh? Huh? Am I?"

      "Cut it out!" Wanda thrust a claw at Harry, trying to shoo him off.

      Rorri leaned on the book that was on Wanda's lap. "You don't like annoying people, do you?"

      "NO, I DON'T!!" Wanda said, standing up and knocking Rorri away. "And since you won't quit pestering me, I'm gonna read outside!"

      And with that, Wanda stormed out of the library and out the orphanage door with "The Prophecy of the Indera" in her arms. She exhaled with exasperation as she sat on the front step and continued reading. Glancing up briefly, she caught sight of a jewel-adorned, Uni-drawn carriage making its way down the street...

      Princess Rose.

      "I thought the inspections were yesterday..." Wanda thought aloud, as she watched the carriage drive by. This wasn't right. She knew something was up.

      She looked behind her at the orphanage door, and the window, and then she slowly stood up from the step holding "The Prophecy of the Indera" in her arms, and then she quietly and stealthily followed the Princess' carriage.

     * * * * *

      "WAAAAA!!!"

      "Calm down, Dina." Laura groaned, as she tried to change the thrashing little Dina into a new diaper. "Stop squirming!"

      "Nuh!" Dina rejected, and she rolled around and grabbed onto the nearest curtain.

      Laura tried to pull Dina away from the curtain, while doing so, making the curtain become misaligned and a little ripped. After getting Dina away from the curtains, Dina was crying at the top of her little lungs, and Laura was struggling to keep Dina still while reaching for the baby powder.

      "Stay still, Dina!" Laura said in an annoyed tone. "If you'd have stopped flailing around, this would've been over with by now!" Laura kept her right paw over Dina's chest as her other paw was reaching for the jar of baby powder. Her fingers could barely reach the jar, and while trying to grab it, she accidently tipped it off the table and onto the rug.

      "Aah!" Laura yelped. She bent over to reach the jar, while still trying to hold Dina. She realized that there was no way to reach the floor with her paw on the baby Xweetok, so she quickly lifted her paw from the baby, grabbed the jar, stood back up to see Dina crawling off as fast as her tiny legs could carry her.

      With a roll of her eyes, Laura ran after Dina, who was really pretty fast for a baby. The chase ended up going through almost the whole house, and Laura was slowed down by the legions of alphabet blocks that were scattered across the floor, causing Laura to trip. She finally caught up with Dina on the stairs, and managed to drag her over to the table.

      "Okay Dina..." Laura panted heavily, beads of sweat adorning her messy fur, "it's time to settle down."

      Laura finally managed to pin a diaper to the squirming, energetic little Dina, and she picked her up and took her to her playpen. With a sigh, Laura set Dina down in the playpen and dropped a yellow Lupe plushie into the playpen, for Dina to play with peacefully. Laura wiped her forehead, she had finally calmed down.

      "BWEH!"

      ...until Dina spit up on the yellow Lupe Plushie.

      "Uhhhh... Di-naaa!" Laura moaned. But nonetheless, she headed to the kitchen to grab a paper towel that she'd use to hopefully clean up the plushie.

      Laura managed to clean up most of the spit-up off of the Lupe Plushie, when she heard a knock at the door. She dropped the plushie back into Dina's playpen and walked towards the door. She attempted to throw the paper towel into the trash can nearest to the door, but the towel didn't quite make it to the trash. Laura just ignored it for now and opened the door...

      "Hello, Laura," said the person at the door just as Laura opened it; it was Princess Rose.

      "Oh, hi!" Laura almost had a heart attack when she heard Rose's voice. She stroked her paw across the fur on her forehead, trying to make it look a little more neat. "Uh, wh-what a pleasant surprise! Um, what are you doing here?"

      "Well, since I couldn't complete the inspections yesterday, I was told to get them finished today."

      Oh, piles of dung! Laura thought to herself. The last thing she wanted to do at that time was to go through the inspection, especially since her house currently looked as if it had been hit by a tornado. But refusing the inspections was not allowed, and anyone who tried would get sent to the castle dungeon, or something even worse.

      "Uh, s-sure, come in." Laura reluctantly stepped out of the way, letting Rose enter her horrific home.

      Laura thought she was going to die. Just her messy fur alone could cost 100 NP in fees! She bit her lip as Rose walked passed the trash can.

      "Hmm, good, good..." Rose said with a nod, and she stepped into the living room. She saw Dina sitting in the playpen with the soiled yellow Lupe plushie in her hand. "Yes, very good..." Rose's eyes twinkled as she looked at Dina, and she kept looking at her for a few seconds even as she was walking away.

      Laura felt her face warm up as they walked towards the baby-powder-stained carpet, but the Princess just simply nodded and said, "Good..." They even stepped on a few blocks as they went through the house, but Princess Rose hardly seemed to notice.

      After they had been through the whole house, they went back to the front step. Laura braced herself for what Rose might say...

      "Well, your house seems to be in good condition."

      Unfortunately, Laura didn't brace herself for that.

      "It's really good, today," the Princess continued, simply nodding her head. "No charge today. You did a good job!"

      Laura just stood speechless, with her jaw dropped, as Rose patted her on the back. The Princess practically walked through a garbage dump and didn't even notice anything wrong! This simply was not right. Something was up.

      "Um... n-n-no charge?" Laura finally managed to stutter. "B-b-but what about--"

      "Yes, I'm not going to charge you anything, today," Rose said with a nod. "Oh! And before I forget..." She reached into a purse and pulled out a card. She handed the card to Laura. "I'm inviting you over to the castle for a special dinner with me."

      Laura looked at the card Rose gave her. She saw that it was written on fairly simple paper, in Rose's own handwriting. Then she looked back up at the Princess, eyes wide. "Th-th-the castle??? A special dinner??? Me???"

      "Yes, it will be on Saturday, six o' clock P.M. NST," Rose explained. "Bring Dina, maybe a friend or two, and of course Dina... erm, yourself. I expect you to be there."

      "Um, y-yeah," Laura stuttered. "I mean, it's nice and all, but... wh-why in Neopia would you invite a random Neopian like me to a fancy dinner at the castle??"

      "Well..." Rose paused, looking to the side. "I'd like to... commend you. For... having a child... Dina."

      Laura stood there in confusion and suspicion. What was Princess Rose up to? This was very, very strange.

      "Umm... o... kay," Laura finally said, looking to one side. "I guess... I'll... see you then?"

      "Yes... yes, then." The Princess nodded. "Well, then, I must be off. I've got more inspections to do. Ta-ta!"

      Princess Rose walked away from Laura, with a smug look on her face. My plan is going perfectly... she thought. She continued on to the next house, as Laura just stood there, completely unsure of what was going on.

To be continued...

Author's note: Yeah, I know... -_- Dina's kind of a brat in this part. But she IS a baby, after all, I guess... oh, who cares. I hope you've enjoyed so far, and keep reading! : )