Illusen's Bad Hair Day: Part Three

     Now, all she had to do was find Trevor, escape Jhudora’s lair before the jelly consumed them all, buy Herbal Shampoo, and attend her public event in less than 3 hours. As far as she knew, she needed all the luck in world.

     She could hear Jhudora fighting off the jelly behind her, so she knew she would not have to worry about her. With haste, she flew to the front room where she saw Trevor on the ground.

     “Trevor!” she exclaimed, “Are you all right?”

     Amazingly, he sprang to his feet in seconds. “As long I don’t make Jhudora angry again.”

     “Then let’s go!” Illusen started to float, but stopped when she heard the sound of the oozing jelly again.

     The Jelly was now inching toward them. Through its transparent body, they saw Jhudora still fighting off the jelly with her magic from the other side. Illusen handed a red potion from her sack to Trevor.

     “I need to help Jhudora,” Illusen said, “I can’t let the jelly keep growing out of control. Drink the potion and you’ll be able to fly very fast. Go back to Neopia Central, buy the shampoo, and wait for me behind the trees at the Defenders of Neopia Headquarters.”

     “You can count on me!” He beamed.

     Trevor drank the potion hastily. To him, it tasted like cherries after they’ve been stepped on a few hundred times. With his new floating ability, he waved goodbye and soared through the entrance out into the sky.

     * * * * *

     Trevor halted in front of the shop he'd passed for the fifth time in ten minutes. He didn’t have the slightest clue where Neopian Bazaar was, so he finally forced himself to ask for directions.

     He trembled over to a small yellow building with a sign that read ‘shop.’ When he opened the door, he saw no one inside, but heard sounds coming from another room in the back. There was no time to waste by going to another shop, so he walked over to the door across from him and opened it. What he saw definitely took him by surprise.

     A Xweetok, dressed exactly as Illusen, gave a puzzled look to Trevor. “Why are you here?”

     Another pet dressed as the faerie, except wearing cardboard wings and cheap green fabric, shouted at everyone else in the room. “It’s an outsider! He must be a Jhudora fan!”

     “I’m not a Jhudora fan!” he yelled at the angry faces. “I’m Illusen’s number one fan!”

     “Really,” a purple Chia said, pointing out, “I don’t see you dressed like one, like everyone else in the room!”

     Every one of the Illusen-dressed pets clapped in agreement.

     “Oh yeah.” Trevor toughened up his voice and looked at the Xweetok. “I bet I could beat all of you at being an Illusen fan!”

     Gasps echoed the room.

     “Is that a challenge?” The Xweetok grinned evilly.

     “You bet! And if I lose, you can make fun of me in public all day.”

     “Only one day? How about you make that a month?”

     “Fine, one month. And if you lose, you have to give me a new, unused bottle of Herbal Shampoo immediately,” Trevor declared confidently.

     “Deal,” the Xweetok said. “Let’s start the super mega extreme questions of doom!”

     “...of doom?” Trevor gulped nervously.

     * * * * *

     It had taken them almost all of their strength to defeat the jelly, and neither of them seemed happy about it.

     “Now, it’s time that you paid for what you did to my home!” Jhudora rudely panted in Illusen’s face.

     “You deserved it!” Illusen spat back.

     A large, green glowing sphere appeared in Jhudora’s shaky hands. Jhudora’s face was full of rage, signaling that Illusen only had one thing left to do to escape safely. With her eyes closed, she pulled off the blanket that covered her hair. Jhudora suddenly paused and broke into a fit of laughter.

     “It’s better than I could ever picture it!” she hysterically yelled as she began to roll on the jelly covered floor.

     Moments later, while Jhudora was still laughing, Illusen slipped out of her cloud and into the sky.

     * * * * *

     “How many people have failed on their 50th quest?”

     “Five thousand and twenty-one.”

     “How many rooms are in Illusen’s glade?”

     “Six.”

     “What was the name of the pet that was on level 19 around 1 P.M. last week?”

     “What kind of question is that?”

     “Fine, last question.” The Xweetok grinned darkly.

     “Tell me, I will answer it correctly!” Trevor looked eager, but inside he felt more nervous than someone about to sing in front of an audience of millions.

     “What does Illusen’s new purple and orange potion do?”

     Trevor wanted to bounce around in joy, but he was worried that his answer could be wrong. The jelly that he saw back at Jhudora’s place was purple with some pieces of orange. He had no other answer other than what he was about to say.

     “It creates a growing jelly,” he said while he took deep breaths.

     “He’s right!” someone in the audience screamed.

     In moments, the entire audience burst into conversations of shock. The Xweetok walked through the crowd and to a small closet. Inside the closet was a cabinet that was completely filled with Illusen-related items. Carefully, he pulled out what he had been waiting to see the entire day: Herbal Shampoo.

     The Xweetok then walked over to him and handed him the bottle with a look of disappointment, but his expression quickly turned into a wide, menacing smirk.

      “Stop him!” he demanded. “I personally got that shampoo from Illusen’s glade a few weeks ago!”

     A battle commenced in just mere seconds. Some of the club members blocked the doors while others headed straight for Trevor. Unlike him, the club members were slow. Trevor bounced around the room as they chased after him. Their toy weapons from an Illusen Bow and Arrow Set missed him miserably as well. As he tried to get closer to the exit, he accidentally ran into a table covered with Illusen-themed foods. To fight off others that were heading for him, he tossed the squished foods in every direction. Many of the pets that he hit stopped to remove chucks of food off of their poorly made Illusen costumes. After a few more minutes of food throwing, only five were left standing.

     They faced him in a straight line, guarding the door.

     “Give us back the shampoo and you won’t get hurt,” the Xweetok said.

     Trevor panted, “No way. You do not have any idea what I had to go through to get this shampoo. If you truly are Illusen fans, you would know that Illusen needs this much more than you keeping it inside a closet to collect dust. Believe me; Illusen would not like to see you fighting against her. If you want to know how it feels to be a great fan, please let me give this to Illusen.”

     Four of the guards stepped away from the door and lowered their plastic archery sets, except one.

     “You’re not leaving with that shampoo and that’s final!” The furious Xweetok rushed at Trevor at full speed.

     The Xweetok quickly placed a strong grip on the shampoo and if it was any tighter, the top might have shot up through the roof. He shook Trevor wildly as they spun around, but Trevor did not give up. His paws felt like they were burning as he continued to try to be thrown off.

     I promised you I wouldn’t give up, he said mentally. I promise that I will get this shampoo to you, whatever it takes.

     Trevor moved one of his paws up to the cap of the bottle and broke off the part of the cap that can be pressed down. The opening was facing the Xweetok’s direction, so by accident, some of the shampoo was squirted onto him. In an instant, he released the bottle and took a few steps backward, confused as to what had just happened. Trevor took advantage of the club leader’s distraction and rushed out of the shop as fast as his tired legs let him run.

     * * * * *

     Illusen sighed. Trevor was late and there wasn’t anything she could do about it. Even in her disguise, the Defenders of Neopia could tell who she was, and she didn’t want to be noticed with a huge amount of hair above her head. What if it was an unavoidable fate for her to be the front-page laughingstock of the next issue of the Neopian Times? Whatever was left to face her, she couldn’t do anything to change it.

     “Illusen, Illusen!” a familiar voice chanted. “I got it! I got it!”

     Trevor’s fur was ruffled like as if he’d been attacked by a pack of hungry Lupes. There was also some dirt that was smeared all around his pelt, but he had done it. He had completed his quest to get her Herbal Shampoo and even risked his own life to do it. Even though she would try to forget this day in the future, she was glad to realize that there was something worth remembering. That something was none other than Trevor, a small, but true friend.

     “Illusen should be here in one minute!” A voice boomed from in front of the headquarters.

     “Go find some water!” she told Trevor and he took off without wasting a second.

     Illusen threw the green blanket into the grass and dumped all of the shampoo onto her stiff hair. She rubbed the shampoo throughout her hair as fast as her fingers could move. She heard a large audience counting down from 30 seconds. Illusen tossed the blanket onto her head again. She began to panic as she tiptoed closer to a large stage.

     When they were down to ten seconds, she knew it was time to face the worst. She walked closer to the stage, each step felt at least ten times more embarrassing than the last. Finally, she stumbled onto the stage. She kept her face hidden by the blanket and heard mumbling in the background. They were now down to three seconds. This was the end.

     At one second, she felt suddenly sticky, cold, and most importantly, wet. Four loads of water were poured onto her head. She had never felt such relief in her entire life. Proudly, she tossed the blanket aside and stood at the center of the stage. She gave an indebted look to Trevor, who was standing beside her, and looked at her audience with astonishment. Pets from all around the world—from the Space Station to Shenkuu—were looking right at her, smiling. They all came to honor her as a great hero to Neopia. She couldn’t ask for anything more, although she thought a towel would be nice.

     “What a great way to start something, don’t you think?” Illusen laughed as she looked at her soaked clothes.

     The audience cheered in response.

     Over the roar of the crowd, Illusen whispered to the red Kacheek. She decided she would thank him extremely well later since she had a question on her mind. “How’d you manage to get the water?”

     “Let’s say I made a great deal with some feeders at the Kadoatery,” he whispered back, “And just so you know, it’s not water, it’s Achyfi; a lot of it.”

     * * * * *

     “Wait for it, wait for it,” Trevor said to Illusen as they peeked through a window of Jhudora’s cloud.

     Jhudora was sitting on her throne with a smug face.

     “You didn’t,” Illusen said, shocked.

     “I did,” Trevor replied.

     Suddenly, Jhudora’s hair puffed up like a huge JubJub in a rough sandstorm. She then brought up a mirror with her magic and screamed. The mirror broke.

     “You gave her the fake shampoo I made?” Illusen smirked and broke out into hysterical laughter. “It’s better than I could ever picture it!”

     They watched in amusement as Jhudora continued to panic until Trevor said something.

     “That was the best Illusen Day I have ever had! Let’s do it again next year!”

     Illusen was not paying attention. Instead, she was laughing at everything that had happened on Illusen Day, from how a bad day had turned into a great day, one that she would remember forever.

      “So,” Trevor said eagerly, “what are we going to do on Jhudora Day next year?”

The End