Fashion Fever - That Horrible Disease

     Akariella the Acara walked merrily down the street, smirking at the clothes of the pesky, young, and not to mention hyper Neopets that ran up and down the line of shops in Neopia Central. Her own Neopoints jingled and jangled loudly in the pocket of her two-week old jacket—it was already out of style and plus it was already two whole weeks old, which was fourteen whole days.

     For what seemed like months she had abstained from eating her daily dessert that she had long ago begged and pestered her owner to buy daily, and in exchange she asked only for a mere 2,000 Neopoints a day. Besides, the desserts she normally asked for were over 2,500 Neopoints. She was being kind and saving her owner about 500 Neopoints every day! Akariella had sacrificed dessert, DESSERT, delicious you-could-die-to-have dessert to go on a shopping spree. Her owner had refused, had put her foot down, on taking her shopping, so Akariella had decided to act on her own. Her owner probably wouldn’t like to know that Akariella was spending hundreds of Neopoints on clothing when her owner had bought Akariella her beautiful and expensive silky fur-lined midnight blue jacket that had stars sprinkled all over so that in the sunlight her jacket sparkled, only two weeks ago, because Akariella had thrown a tiny, tiny little tantrum about how her clothes were getting very old. Her owner could be soooo mean.

     As Akariella rummaged through the shelves and racks of clothes in Unis Clothing shop, she imagined how fabulous she would look. Well, she thought, maybe if I have a few Neopoints left over, I could go over to the grooming parlor and get a nice trim and maybe some glitter. Her eyes looked slightly glazed as she daydreamed and thought of herself walking down a long red carpet, Neopets and owners alike were screaming her name. As she walked down the fluffy red carpet, she came to a mirror positioned at the end of the carpet. Akariella gazed at herself, her fabulous self...

     As any Neopian could see, the blue Acara had never donated a scrap of anything to the Money Tree. Of course, she had been to the Money Tree before—to grab the valuable items before anyone else could. While others pondered at what they would take, she would reach out and snatch up the donated items in a frenzy, codestones, books, omelettes, and even medicines donated out of the goodness of some caring Neopians’ hearts for those who couldn’t afford the cures.

     Akariella walked out of Unis Clothing shop empty-handed. All of the clothes at Unis Clothing Shop had been either sold or were plain icky. The Uni at the register had promised that the shop would restock soon and every eight times an hour, but Akariella was impatient. Stalking past a row of shops, she turned quickly on her heel and suddenly stopped, shocked to find a glamorous shop in front of her eyes. It had seemed to appear right as she had turned on her heel. Glancing quickly left and right to make sure no one was watching her, she slipped into the shop.

     “Hello, there,” a voice said in a strange monotone. “Haven’t seen you around here before.” The voice came from a turquoise-colored Kougra who wasn’t even looking at her as he sifted through a rack of tops. There was a blue and white Mystery Island pull-over, a fuzzy pink sweater, a spotted green-and-white undershirt, and plenty more.

     “Hi, there. I’m Akariella,” she said in a slightly dazed tone as she surveyed the shop. There seemed to be endless racks and rows of clothing to try on. There was a line of dressing rooms to try things on in.

     Without waiting for a response from the strange turquoise Kougra, she walked away to examine a shelf full of hats. She giggled as she pulled on a starry blue and yellow hat that looked extraordinarily like Kauvara’s, the potion mixer.

     When she pulled off her hat, she noticed a black line of spiky hair on her head. She ran her hand through the spikes and laughed, enjoying the strange feeling she suddenly had. Akariella tugged at the hair gently, wondering if it would come off. It didn’t. Shrugging, she strolled over to a shelf filled with all different kinds of shoes: fuzzy pink slippers, black leather boots, and hard-but-comfortable purple boots. Strangely, all of the items she had chosen fit her perfectly, but Akariella took no notice. She figured that perhaps all of the clothes were the same size—Akariella’s size.

     “Attention, all shoppers!” a voice barked from some speakers, “We have the body color changer ready for use! Thank you, and the store and all of its employees hope you all feel better.”

     Feel better? Akariella thought, a tiny bit confused. Just keep putting on clothes, a whiny voice said in her brain. So Akariella shrugged like it was no big deal and continued to sift through the shoes. After another moment, she abandoned the shoes and wandered around.

     HAIR, a sign read; BODY, screamed another. Akariella glanced at the signs, which pointed at a closed booth. Unthinkingly, she grasped the knob on the side of the booth and twisted to find that it was a door. Like a shower stall, it was closed on all four sides when you shut the door, but instead of a knob to turn on water and a showerhead, there were buttons in different colors. There were six square buttons that were six different colors. There was a turquoise button, a green button, a red button, a yellow button, a black button and a split button with yellow and blue on it.

     Without further ado, she pushed the green button. Suddenly, she felt burning hot and freezing all at the same time, then something cold seemed to trickle down her back as if someone had thrown a rotten fruit at her. Instinctively, she looked down and almost fell over in shock. Her blue fur had turned a murky shade of green!

     So quick that she didn’t even have to think about it, her paw punched the split yellow-and-blue button. Instantly, the same feeling spread through her and when she looked at her fur again it had turned a brilliant blue with large yellow stars scattered all over her fur.

     “Amazing,” she breathed, feeling dazed and excited. For the next half an hour she rammed the buttons and watched her fur change colors from black to blue to yellow and back to the blue with yellow stars. She was having so much fun she felt like she would never stop, but somehow she did. After another few fur changes she stumbled out of the booth, her fur a shadowy black.

     As if she were in a dream, Akariella walked around the shop in clothes that weren’t paid for yet, trying on new shirts and discarding shorts and shoes. Abruptly, she felt sick. It was strange, she had been having so much fun... Fun. Akariella choked on the oxygen that was just going through her throat. Fun. Feel better. Clothes. Everything. She wanted to throw up her heart.

     She had heard a rumor about it. Oh, why didn’t she listen or pay attention before she walked into the shop? The clothes, the strange Kougra, the announcement, all of the fun... Out of the blue, it all made terrible sense. She had it. That dreadful Fashion Fever.

The End