Adventures in Petpetsitting

I'll never forget the first time I laid eyes on a Mazzew. And to think, I once thought Noils were cute! They weren't. Well, at least they weren't compared to those adorable Mazzews. I had to get a Mazzew... but, alas, my owner Cocoa (I call her Momma though) said that they were too expensive. "We're on a budget," she told me. "If you really want a Mazzew you have to save up your Neopoints and buy it yourself."

      I, a blue Xweetok named AvaGirl101 (or Ava for short), groaned. "How am I supposed to get Neopoints?" I asked.

      "There are ways, Ava. There are ways."

      "Oh... " I said, sitting down in my bean bag chair. I thought for a moment, but I couldn't think of any way for a Xweetok like myself to make Neopoints.

      About a week passed. I found out that my Momma's friend Viv was going to vacation in Mystery Island with her pets for a few days. Momma told me that Viv was worried because she didn't know who would take care of her petpets. That's when I had my brilliant idea. "Momma, can't I take care of Viv's petpets?" I asked. "And maybe... Viv would pay me!"

      Momma smiled. "Well... I guess," she said. "That's not a bad idea, Ava. You might get that Mazzew after all." I was sure I would.

      And so Viv decided to let me take care of the petpets. Viv had three pets- Applebuddy, Flangy, and Kip- and each one of them had a petpet. The petpets' names were Mype, Lunch, and... well, there was one other petpet but I could never remember his name. Lunch, a lab petpet, was a pile of soot, Mype was a chocolate Mazzew- yes, a MAZZEW (I really looked forward to taking care of him!), and that other petpet whose name I can't remember was a chocolate Kookith. I got sort of tempted to nibble on the chocolate Kookith.

      One sunny morning Viv dropped the three petpets off at my Neohome. "You're going to take care of them, right?" Viv asked me.

      "Of course," I said. Viv patted my head and walked out the door. I was alone with the petpets. I was a real petpetsitter! This was going to be fun.

      But soon the fun wore off. The petpets didn't really do anything... they just sat there. "Jefsy!" I screamed. "Where are you?" My adopted older sister ILoveJeffAlot (or Jefsy for short) came bouncing out of her room.

      "I'm right here," she said. "What do you need, Ava?"

      I nodded at the petpets. "Are petpets usually this boring?" I asked.

      Jefsy, who had a Wuzzer named Bumble, shook her head. "No," she said. "Well, at least Bumble isn't."

      "Do you wanna watch these petpets?" I asked. "I'm kinda bored."

      "I was playing with Lealonde and Little," Jefsy replied. Lealonde, a blue Blumaroo, was my little sister and SweetLittleLion (or Little for short), a red Yurble, was my younger brother.

      "Oh," I said. "Well, never mind." I looked at the petpets again. "You know, I don't think these little guys will cause any trouble if I go off and play with you and Lealonde and Little. But... I might take that chocolate Kookith back there with me, in case I get hungry."

      Jefsy shook her head at me. "No way, Ava," she said. "You are not eating that petpet. But you can come back and play with us if you want."

      I grinned. "Oh, I want."

     So I left the three petpets by themselves in the living room. Little did I know that they would be more trouble then I thought could possibly be. And so while I was playing with my siblings, I heard a loud crash. "What was that?" asked Little, jumping to his feet.

      "I don't know... " I said. "Wait... THE PETPETS!"

      I rushed into the kitchen with Jefsy, Little, and Lealonde following in my wake. To my horror, I found that Mype and that chocolate Kookith had somehow gotten into the cookie jar.

      "Oh no!" cried Jefsy. "I made those cookies yesterday, and those two petpets have eaten them all. You guys didn't even get to try one." Well, at least the petpets had saved me from tasting Jefsy's cookies. Everyone knew Jefsy was a terrible cook.

      "Oh... that's too bad... " I lied, picking up Mype and the Kookith. Then I remembered something. "Hey... where's Lunch?"

      "Don't you remember, Ava?" Lealonde said. "We already ate lunch."

      I was horrified. "WHAT?" I screamed. "You ATE Lunch?!"

      "Yeah," Lealonde said, smiling. "Remember? Momma us bought pizza."

      I heaved a sigh of relief. "Oh... that kind of lunch. I'm talking about Applebuddy's petpet. His name is Lunch."

      "Oh, that little pile of soot?" asked Little.

      "Yeah, that," I replied. "Wait a minute... Little, you're STANDING on Lunch!"

      Little looked at his feet. Sure enough, they were covered in soot. "Oh no... I think I broke him."

      I rushed over to Little and dusted off his feet. "No... he can't be broken... petpets don't break... hey Jefsy, do you have a bowl? I could put Lunch... or at least what's left of him... in it."

      "Good idea," said Jefsy.

      From that moment on I knew that I couldn't let these petpets out of my sight. They were pretty rambunctious, unlike my siblings' petpets. It would be a real chore to look after them. "Hey... do you guys want to take the petpets on a walk?" I suggested. "You can bring yours."

      Jefsy smiled. "I'll go get Bumble," she said.

      "And I'm going to get Ona!" cried Little. Ona was his Snarhook.

      "Can Kristin come too?" Lealonde asked, talking about her Feepit.

      "Of course," said Jefsy.

      "Then it's decided," I said. "We go take the petpets on a walk."

      A few minutes later we found ourselves outside with our petpets. Sadly, I had to leave Lunch behind. I mean, how exactly do you take a pile of soot on a walk? But I could take Mype and that Kookith. They'd be easy to walk... or so I thought. Once we had been outside for about five minutes, I noticed that something was leaving a sticky brown trail behind us. "Umm... Ava..." Little said softly. "I think Mype and the Kookith are melting."

      Ava laughed. "That's ridiculous. It's not like they're made of ice or chocolate... oh no. They're made of chocolate."

      Lealonde screamed. "THE PETPETS ARE MELTING!" she wailed. "What should we do, Ava?"

      I picked up Mype and the Kookith. They got me all sticky, but I didn't care. All I cared about was getting them home. "You guys can go on," I said. "I'm going to take these two guys home."

      "Bye, Ava!" cried Lealonde, waving at me.

      As I ran home with the two sticky critters, I began wishing that I hadn't taken this job. I didn't want a Mazzew anymore... I didn't even want a petpet! They were way too much trouble to look after. The fact that I'd have to watch Mype, Lunch, and that Kookith whose name I really wished I could remember for two more days gave me chills. Two days! Two terribly slow days... two days of pure torture!

      That night at about one am NST I heard a strange noise. I listened to it, wondering what it could be. Then I remembered the petpets. Uh-oh...

      "Mype! Little Kookith guy! Lunch!" I cried, hopping out of bed. "WHAT are you doing?"

      Apparently the Kookith was hungry. He had once again tried to get in the cookie jar. I wagged my finger at him disapprovingly. "Why can't you be like Lunch?" I said, picking the Kookith up. "He doesn't do anything bad. And where's Mype?" The Kookith looked at me pathetically. "Oh yeah... petpets can't talk."

      Thankfully, Mype was still sleeping beside Lunch and my siblings' petpets in their little bed. I sighed, incredibly relieved. "You're being so good, Mype," I said, picking him up. Mype bit my finger- hard. "OWWW!"

      The second day with the petpets wasn't too terrible. They didn't cause too much trouble. But then again, there was that time that Mype tried to chew up Lealonde's I Love Fyora shirt. And the time that the Kookith got chocolate all over Lealonde's white snowball bean bag chair (well, at least it used to be white until the Kookith messed it up). Lunch wasn't any trouble at all... although Little did have a tendency to step in him. But all in all, the day went well. I even thought I might sort of miss those little petpets once they were gone. And when Viv and her pets came to pick them up, I felt sort of sad, although I did feel much better when Viv handed me a sack full of Neopoints. "Did those petpets behave?" she asked me.

      I put on a fake smile. "Uh... yeah," I lied. "They were... great!"

      After she said goodbye to Viv, Momma walked up to me. "I guess you don't want a Mazzew now," she said.

      I watched as Mype walked out the door behind his owner Flangy. "Hmmm... even though they're hard to take care of, I still might want one. I still might."

The End