One Halloween Night

     It was the Month of Collecting, the day before Halloween, when Kahunamon’s owner got an invitation for a Party in her neighborhood.

     Dear Kanabi,

     During the month of Collecting, on the 31st, we will be having a Neopets Halloween Party. We hope your Neopets can come; the party will be a blast for them. Also it’ll give you the night off, too! We hope your pets can make it! See you soon!

     ~~Neighborhood committee

     Kanabi was thrilled to have a night off from taking care of her pets. She immediately sent them to the Neomall to pick out costumes for it.

     Kahunamon and her little sisters, Lanaimon the purple Mynci and Mauimon the red Acara faced the costume aisle of the mall. Kahunamon eyed the assortment of dresses, wings, and other nick-knacks in the aisle. Mauimon then spoke up. “So, uh, what’s Halloween?” She was only created little over a month ago, so she didn’t know that much of the Neopets world yet.

      “Well,” Lanaimon started, “we haven’t been here long enough to know exactly what Halloween is either, but I heard it is a spooky night where the evildoers of Neopia come out and haunt you!” The Mynci then tried to make spooky noises, but Mauimon only chuckled as they proceeded to find cool costumes for the party.

      They had been at the Neomall for who knows how long when Lanaimon spoke up. “Hey! What do you guys think of this?”

      Kahunamon turned around to see Lanaimon dressed up in a Ceremonial Shenkuu Warrior Amour. “Cool!” Kahunamon exclaimed.

      Mauimon then walked over wearing the Gypsy Girl super pack clothes. “Kahunamon, what are you going to wear?”

      Kahunamon then looked at the costumes. None of the costumes looked cool on her, like they did on her two little sisters. Then she looked out of the window and saw it was getting late — it was around dinner time, most likely, at least. She sighed. “I just couldn’t find a good costume; let’s just pay for yours and go home...” Her sisters then ran over to cash register, seemingly not noticing Kahunamon’s sadness. The Ghost Bori then headed towards the door to wait for her sisters to pay for their clothes.

     The next day, Kahunamon and her friend Kimarim were playing in the park. “Why are you looking so down?” the blue Xweetok asked Kahunamon, while swinging as high as she could toward the clear blue sky. “Well... Kanabi got an invite for a Halloween party tonight, and I—”

      “Oh! I’m invited too!” Kimarim cut in. “I’m going as a Faerie! My costume is going to be blue, with Cumulus wings, and—”

      Kahunamon stopped listening to her friend. She sighed as she looked toward the sky; it was turning orange as if preparing for Halloween.

      The sun was starting to set and Kahunamon guessed that it was close to six o’clock. She wished she didn’t have to go to the party. “What would they think of a Bori showing up with no costume?” she wondered, jumping off the swing as Kanabi called her over to go back home...

     Kahunamon and Kanabi stepped through the orange-and-black decorations hanging from the door. Once inside, she saw that Mauimon and Lanaimon were already dressed up in their costumes. Mauimon was adjusting her headband on the Gypsy suit while Lanaimon was filling up the candy bucket for the Neopets who were trick-or-treating that night. Kahunamon just sat down, wondering what to do now. She had no costume to change into, and everything was prepared for that night. She looked over at the clock on the wall in the Kitchen. “We have 15 minutes left before the party...” she said, half to herself, and half to her family.

      Kanabi must have noticed her sad mood, since she sent Mauimon and Lanaimon upstairs. Then again, maybe she checked in that “Quick Reference” paper she had that was ALWAYS somehow updated to the current moods, hunger, and health of her Neopets. Kanabi took a while to pull her hair up in a Unitail before she signaled Kahunamon to come over to the living room. They sat down on the couch in front of the fireplace. Kahunamon looked up at Kanabi as she began to speak. “Kahunamon, I noticed that you didn’t buy a costume at the Neomall yesterday; how come?”

     Kahunamon thought about her question for a little, thinking about how to answer. After a while, she said “I... I just couldn’t find a good costume; everything there just looked plain weird with my ghost color!”

     Kanabi just smiled. “Who said you needed a costume?” She paused as her Bori looked up, with a confused look on her face.

     “But, isn’t that the point of the party? To dress up in costumes...” Kahunamon stopped. The invitation didn’t actually say to wear costumes. “But, wouldn’t it be weird if you didn’t?” Some of her older friends been to the neighborhood party before; they all dressed up in costumes, just like her sisters had.

     “Well, Kahunamon, I think you’re just perfect the way you are. I mean, you are a Ghost Bori. Your painted color could be counted as a costume!”

     Not having been fully convinced by this, Kahunamon then stated, “But Ghost isn’t a costume, and everyone I know has a nifty one... I just have a color, is all. I can’t just—”

     Lanaimon and Mauimon both happily ran down the stairs into the living room.

     “Time to go! Time to go!” Lanaimon hurriedly ran up to the door. Mauimon slowed down after she almost fell into the candy bowl. Kanabi rushed over to help her as Kahunamon slowly walked up to the door. Lanaimon eyed her curiously, seeing that she had no costume. But, she shrugged it off and opened the door.

     “See you guys later!” Kanabi shouted to her pets as they walked off the porch into the small crowed of Neopets who were walking toward the clubhouse for the party.

     Kahunamon looked at some of them; she saw that most of the pets were in Sparkly Faerie-like costumes, like what her friend Kimarim said she’d wear. Others were in Shenkuu and Gypsy costumes like what Lanaimon and Mauimon had on.

     Once they walked inside the clubhouse, Kahunamon gasped at the amount of decorations the clubhouse had. It was all orange and black, with plastic Spyders here and there. Spooky music was on as she saw pets standing near the snacks stand. There were also tons of Neopets there, dressed in costumes. She was the only costume-less pet there.

     Her sisters eagerly left Kahunamon to join their friends. “Hey there, Kahunamon!” She turned around to see Kimarim in her sparkly blue faerie dress and pillow-soft wings. Kahunamon’s eyes then grew wide, not with admiration, but she had realized something.

     “All of the Neopets here have almost the exact same costume!” she thought, looking around. She saw tons of pets in Gypsy costumes and sparkly blue dresses, with a different assortment of wings.

     Kimarim then looked at her in question. “Why aren’t you in a costume?” she asked.

     Kahunamon hesitated, but then remembered what Kanabi had said about her. “I didn’t want to dress up in the same plain old costume like everyone else... I wanted to be different! My color is a costume of its own!” she answered.

     Although Kimarim didn’t really quite get it, she eventually nodded. “Heh, Kahunamon, you are sure weird, but hey... that’s why you're neat!”

     The rest of the night was fun. Kahunamon ignored the comments she got from Neopets about her not having a costume. She took pride when other Neopets told her how it was cool that she actually used her Ghost color as its own costume.

     It was around 11 when they went back home. A few young Neopets were still trick-or-treating, but Kanabi turned off the porch lights, signaling to them to not come to their home.

     “So, how was your party tonight?” she asked her pets, mostly eyeing the now happy Kahunamon. Mauimon flashed a happy smile as she proceeded to take off her costume, and Lanaimon said something that sounded like Tyrannian since she was already stuffing her mouth full of left-over candy.

     “It was great!” Kahunamon answered, being the only one to actually give a complete answer to their owner. She jumped onto the couch, “That was the best Halloween ever!” She thought, although it was the only Halloween she had, this didn’t matter. She now knew that she didn’t have to worry about other Neopets' opinions about her.

      “A Ghost Bori,” she thought. “Yes, that’s me. I’m Kahunamon, a Ghost Bori. I don’t need fancy sparkly blue costumes like the other Neopets for Halloween. I’m perfect the way I am. Ghost is the best Halloween costume... Thanks Kanabi, I can’t ever think of a better owner than you...”

     Kahunamon then looked over to where her sisters were. Lanaimon was finishing off her candy while Kanabi was telling her to take off the costume before she stained it. Mauimon already had her costume off and was seemingly eyeing something from the window. “Today’s been a great day,” Kahunamon thought, as she headed upstairs for bed. Kahunamon yawned and walked into her room. She carefully stepped over her lazy sleeping Gobbler named Keiko as she climbed into bed. The Ghost Bori slowly fell asleep, wondering what wondrous thing might happen soon; another neighborhood party? Or maybe a new sister? Or maybe it’d be an unforgettable adventure to somewhere like Kreludor! "Well, I'll know soon enough...." she thought.

     “Good night...”

     “...and Happy Halloween...”

The End

HI! If you're reading this, then drop me a neomail about this story! Based on a DAYDREAM! Kimarim is on my side account! =D