Today Is the Day!

“Today's the day!” I squealed, falling onto the hard floor of my bedroom. I pranced around the room while cheering “Today's the day!” I hopped out into the kitchen gleefully, where Treeko, my ever so dedicated owner, smiled at me.

      “Up so early on a Saturday, Spiffy? And to what do I owe this pleasure?” she asked me deviously.

      “You know perfectly well why!” I noted, and started chanting “Today's the day!” under my breath.

      Treeko grinned at me. “I can see you're excited. You could be the prettiest little Wocky in all of Neopia!”

      Perhaps I should introduce myself. I'm Spiffy, a plain ol' Wocky with my plain ol' red coat. No special paint, no extreme Battledome advantages. Just me and my plain ol' self.

      But today... Today was, as you may have noticed, the day! I suppose by now you're about ready to strangle plain ol' me. Well, so be it. But just wait.

      My sibling stumbled down the stairs. “Is the house on fire? What's with all the screaming?” mumbled Daisy.

      “You guys SO should have stayed up for that party last night!” I exclaimed. “Treeko... you can do the honors,” I said, giving my rights to her though I was dying to tell them.

      “Well guys, you must know... For quite some time now, I've been working on the Secret Laboratory Map Pieces. I believe...” (She let out an exaggerated pause.) “I have fin-” she started, but I rudely cut her off.

      “Shegotthelastlabmappiecelastnight!” I slurred all my words together in my excitement. Cvggave me a strange, confused look and Scorch just scratched his head trying to piece it all together. Notice they're just plain ol' intelligence: average.

      Treeko sighed, and said flatly, “I got two more pieces last night. We now have access to the Secret Laboratory.”

      At this instant, I jumped up into the air squealing. “Isn't that great?!” I asked them rather threateningly.

      “Sweet.”

      “Cool.”

      “That's nice. Can we go back to bed?”

      I stood with my jaw open. How could they not worship the very air Treeko was breathing for providing them with this amazing opportunity? So be it. More zapping days for me!

      “When can we go?” I asked Treeko, shoving an entire jelly in my mouth.

      She pondered this. “Perhaps later; I have things to do. Besides, don't you want your siblings to see you on your first 'zap'?” She eyed me, hoping to get out of this.

      “Yeah, you're right,” I said. Upon saying this, I ran upstairs with a few ice cubes and shoved them in my siblings' beds. “Get up! We're gonna go!” I yelled, while they jumped out of their beds howling.

      Treeko sighed.

     * * *

      I bounced ahead of the sluggish pack I call my family. “Hurry up now!” I called to them. “We don't want to be late to our secret meeting!” I giggled. Of course, no one in Neopia Central knew how to get there! We would be popular, the most happenin' people in town, 'cuz WE knew the secret! But shall we share it? Goodness no!

      I daydreamed as we walked along. Before I realized it, we were there.

      A slightly frantic Scorchio greeted us at the door. “H-hello, w-welcome!” he stuttered. “B-back of the line!” Line? Hundreds of Neopians piled up in line, waiting patiently for their turn. Of course tons of people knew about the laboratory. How could I have overlooked this in my plan? No matter.

      The minutes ticked by. They slowly evolved into hours. I groaned.

      * * *

      At last! Our turn! My turn! We had arrived in the front. The Scorchio gestured to the small target. Suddenly, I felt a wave of fear crash over me. Wait one second... this is what I had wanted? To have a giant laser fired at me for possibly no results? This is unbelievable! “C-come along, little Wocky. Don't want to b-block the line, now do we?” said the Scorchio in charge. “C-come on!” His left eye twitched slightly.

      I shakily stepped onto the target. C'mon.. Gimme an exotic color! Like... Like purple! Or maybe orange! Or fire! Yeah, that would be great. I braced myself for whatever was coming and ignoring the cries of agony coming from unwilling Neopians. The ray glowed faintly for a second.

      A strange sensation overwhelmed me. What was less than a second felt like decades. I was suddenly aware of my surroundings. The ray was half an inch from my face, creeping closer... I shut my eyes tight.

      Feeling nothing, I opened my eyes. I felt... I felt... wet. Wet? Was I Maraquan? I thought you couldn't get results like that from the ray! Perhaps I'm one in a million.

      My family stared at me with gaping mouths. I am a sight to see.

      “Let's go, guys!” I said, and I strutted out of the room.

      Without even seeing myself, I felt like a star. On the street, people were pointing. “Look! Look at that color!” Gosh! I was popular already!

      Treeko acted as if she was going to touch my arm, but coughed to get my attention instead. I slowly turned around. “You might want to know, Spiffy... you turned into-” but I sneezed so violently she stopped. “Bless you...” she murmured. I noticed a tad bit of phlegm on her T-shirt. “Oh!” I exclaimed. “Sorry bout that!”

      I continued onward without letting her finish.

      “Gosh, I think I caught a cold or something in there!” I told Cvg80. “And you would think that we as Wockies would be a bit more immune! We barely ever get ill!” C.v.g. gave me a funny look. “I gotta tell you,” she said, “The lab ray did change some... things about you. You're not a red Wocky, Spiffy! You're an Aisha! A s-”

      I cut her off. “An AISHA?! How cool is that? I love Aishas! Guess you're the only Wocky now, C.v.g.!” I giggled girlishly and pranced away, leaving my sister with a look of disgust. She muttered something, but my high spirits prevented me from hearing it.

      My friend walked out of her house as if to say hello to me, but burst into a state of hysteria instead. “You- went (gasp) to the... lab... ray?” she managed to say, desperately trying to take in some air between each word as she was laughing so hard.

      I nodded. “Yes I did!” I said proudly, and I noticed a glob of snot on her face. Coincidentally, she had stopped laughing. “You should go get a tissue; that's gross,” I told her. Hey, the truth hurts, but at least she knew!

      I walked into our house and into the kitchen, grabbing the fridge handle. I pulled out a sandwich and closed the fridge, yawning slightly. “Eww...” I noticed some sort of greenish goop bubbling on the handle. It was a sickening color, sort of yellowish green. Just like... no, that couldn't be it. “Did I just... touch that? Gross!” I exclaimed, chucking the sandwich in the nearest garbage, for it too had been plagued by that awful substance. Something was wrong with our fridge. Had we gotten a mold infestation? With a heavy heart, I looked at my paw.

      True, my paw was covered in the green goop. And so was my entire arm. I gasped. I hadn't rubbed my arm on the door, had I? My heart dropped to the bottom of my stomach. I raced to the nearest mirror, gasping for air when I arrived. And yes. My worst nightmare had come true. I looked in the mirror at my new painted self. Fantastic. So that's what all those people had been talking about. So that's what the green goop was.

      I stared down the Aisha in the mirror, analyzing every detail.

      Yes, my dear friends, my new fantastic color was snot.

The End