There's a Monster in my Toaster!

     "Tory! How many times have I told you? Don't play with the kitchen appliances while I'm gone, you could hurt yourself!"

     Tory's owner walked through the door, arms full of grocery bags, a little pink Kacheek trotting along at her heels.

     "Tory thinks there's a monster in the toaster! Isn't that silly? She's such a baby!" the pink Kacheek said.

     "That's not very nice, Telly, apologize to your sister," Ginger (the Kacheeks' owner) told the pink Kacheek from behind a grocery bag.

     "Well she does!" Telly complained. "She really thinks there's a monster in the toaster!"

     "There is!" Tory protested.

     "Telly apologize, and Tory she's right you know, there's no monster inside of that toaster," Ginger said trying to carefully put some eggs in the refrigerator while her other arm was still full with a bag of vegetables.

     "Sorry," Telly told her younger sister, then added in a much lower voice so that Ginger couldn't here, "NOT!"

     "Did you hear that? Did you? Did you?" Tory asked Ginger jabbing her finger at Telly.

     "No, Tory, I didn't hear a- Ah!" a small yellow Kacheek jumped out of the fridge, causing Ginger to scream and drop the eggs all over the floor.

     The yellow Kacheek giggled, "Boy I scared you, huh, Ginger?" the Kacheek asked, flicking her tale happily.

     "Yes you did," Ginger said, "and look what you made me do! Please clean it up now."

     The Kacheek scowled, "Do I have to?" she asked, sticking out her lower lip, her large blue eyes pleading.

     "I guess not," Ginger caved.

     "What?!" Telly and Tory said together, Telly had been sticking her tongue out at her sister but rapidly pulled it back in to protest the treatment of her youngest sister.

     "Tera doesn't have to clean it up because the Grundo maids are coming this afternoon, I wouldn't make either of you clean it up either," Ginger told them, finally having her hands free.

     "Would too!" the Kacheeks said together.

     "Would not!" Ginger told them.

     "Would too!" the sisters said again.

     "Oh! This is stupid," Ginger said, crossing the room to receive her Neomail that had just arrived.

     Tera pranced off down the stairs to the toy-stocked basement with Telly bolting after her at an angry speed.

     Ginger began talking to a friend over Neomail and Tory soon resumed her position at the toaster, squinting at it menacingly. No monster would dare come out of there with her on the watch.

     Soon Telly and Tera came back into the room. Ginger was still talking over Neomail and Telly began to make faces and move her paws as if they were talking mouths. The two younger Kacheeks giggled at this and tried to muffle their laughs with their paws so that Ginger wouldn't here them. It didn't work because every time they did this, Telly would make a face that made them laugh even more and almost choke themselves trying to muffle the giggles. This made a sort of suffocated noise that sounded like a coughing Moehog and made Telly herself giggle with her sisters. Ginger paid absolutely no attention to her pets and continued to talk to her friend.

     After awhile Telly got tired of entertaining her sisters with funny faces and decided that she was hungry (Ginger was still talking). Telly got herself some bread from one of the grocery bags and was reaching toward the toaster to put it in when Tory screamed very loudly.

     "Don't toast bread in there! The monster will get mad at you and eat your arm off!" she wailed.

     "You big baby, there's no monster in the toaster," Telly stated, and then with some superiority. "Us older Neopets know that monsters don't live in toasters."

     "Do too!" Tory told her sister, snatching the bread away from her sister so the pink Kacheek had nothing to toast.

     "Do not!" Telly argued.

     "Do too!" Tory said again.

     "Do NOT!" Telly told her sister, angrily.

     "DO TOO!!!" Tory screamed.

     At this point Ginger had no choice but to pay attention to her pets.

     "Stop, right now, both of you!" she said.

     "She started it!" Telly said immediately.

     "Na-uh!" Tory shrieked.

     "Both of you STOP!" Ginger yelled.

     The two pets shrank against the refrigerator. Tory didn't like to make Ginger mad but still… There was a monster in that toaster and if Telly wasn't going to believe her…

     Ginger sat back down and Telly slowly crept away, back upstairs. Tory positioned herself in front of the toaster once more. There was a monster in there, she just knew it!

     ********************

     Two pairs of eyes peaked over the counter top… there it lay… just as silver, shiny, and menacing as ever. The blue Kacheek ears and green Aisha ears drew back from the offending kitchen appliance to consult their plans of action.

     "How long has it been in there?" the Aisha, Sara, asked her friend.

     Tory shrugged at her friend, "Since Wednesday, I think."

     They both turned back to peer at the toaster. Their faces, twisted by the reflection off the toaster, stared back at them.

     "What does it look like?" Sara asked as they drew back again. They were talking in whispers, and neither knew why.

     "It's got goo all over it," Tory confided confidently.

     "Did you see the slime in your toaster?" Sara asked. "Ew!"

     "No, but I know there's a monster in there and ALL monsters have slime," Tory told the Aisha.

     "Oh," Sara said. They turned back to stare at the toaster.

     Sara had arrived earlier that day and the half hour she had been there had been passed in this manner.

     There was no sound in the kitchen. Ginger and the others were upstairs and everyone in the neighborhood had taken advantage of the weekend to visit Faerieland, as it was baking hot in Neopia. Even the pets that stayed were inside their cool houses and not outside. The only sounds that met the pets' ears were the soft ticks of the clock that hung on the wall…

     "BOO!"

     "AH!" Tory and Sara screamed as loud as they could in unison, twirling around to see who was behind them.

     A yellow Chia rolled on the floor laughing, holding his sides and giggling very loudly.

     "Ham!" Sara said angrily. Ham was not the Chia's real name. His owner claimed that his real name was Norris, but everyone called Ham (or Norris) Ham. There really wasn't an explanation for why.

     The Chia continued to laugh.

     "This is no time for games, Ham!" Tory told him sternly. "We have a serious matter on our paws!"

     "What?" Ham asked, finally getting control over him self and looking up from the ground to see the two pets standing over him.

     "There's a monster in that toaster," Sara said, her voice going back to a whisper.

     Tory and Sara heaved the Chia up and then they all turned to peer at the toaster once more.

     "It doesn't look very threatening to me," Ham said.

     "Shh!" Tory and Sara told him. He had spoken in a normal voice tone.

     Ham wasn't on vacation with everyone else because his owner could never afford even the shortest holiday. His owner hardly ever had Neopoints and spent them all playing luck games. He never won. So when vacation time came Ham stayed with the other two in the neighborhood. Sara's owner despised Faerieland… Tory never knew why, and Tory and Ginger didn't leave because Ginger liked the heat… Tory thought this explained her occasional brain fries, but there really is no explanation to that.

     Now the three friends blinked together at once and stared at the shiny metal.

     Suddenly Ham screamed.

     The two girls screamed also as reflex in the moment, jumping a foot each.

     "What?" Tory asked the Chia.

     "I saw the monster!" Ham said. "It was all green and it had these ugly little sticks sticking from its beastly head!" Ham continued enthusiastically.

     "Ham," Tory said, "that was Sara's reflection…"

     "Oh," Ham said, looking at his feet, blushing a bit. "Oops." Sara glared at the Chia.

     The three turned back and there was silence again. After a few minutes more of staring at the toaster Ham finally broke the silence again.

     "I don't think there's a monster in there, Tory," he said thoughtfully.

     "There is so a monster in there," Tory told him.

     Sara nodded at her side.

     "Did you see it?" Ham asked.

     "No," Tory admitted, "but I heard it."

     "What did it sound like?" Ham asked.

     Before the Kacheek could answer Ginger came back down the stairs to see her visitors.

     "Oh, hi Sara, hello Ham," she said cheerfully as her two other Kacheeks emerged around the corner, coming down after her.

     "Tory says there's a monster in your toaster," Ham told Ginger bluntly.

     "Oh, that's why you're over," Ginger said. "Tory, I really don't think there's a monster in that toaster. Really, I don't - would anyone like something to drink?"

     Tory watched Ginger pull glasses from the cupboard and make her way to the refrigerator.

     "Lemonade please," Sara said politely.

     "I'll have juice, if you have it," Ham told her in equal politeness. That was the one thing that his owner always had. It was Ham's favorite snack and he had tried all different flavors of it.

     "What about you three?" Ginger asked her own pets.

     "Milk," Tera said.

     "Neocola," Telly told Ginger.

     "Wait," Tera said, glancing at the older Kacheek, "Maybe I'll have Neocola too…"

     "No Tera, don't you remember what happened last time I let you have caffeine?" Ginger replied staring towards an ugly scratch mark that appeared to have been made by the Turmaculus himself but in truth was a result of the little Kacheek literally jumping off the walls… "Milk."

     "Okay," Tera grumbled.

     "Tory?" Ginger asked, poring Ham some juice while handing Sara her lemonade.

     "I'll have some… Neocola too I guess," Tory told Ginger. "Can we have some Neodrops?"

     "Yes," Ginger said, taking a couple of Neocolas from the fridge. "Do your guests want any?"

     "Yes please," both pets replied.

     "We want some too," Telly told Tory pointing at herself and her littlest sister.

     Tory grabbed some out of a drawer and began distributing them.

     "Hey," Telly said, an evil glint in her eye, "maybe I'll TOAST mine…"

     "You don't toast Neodrops, Telly, everyone knows that!" Tera said.

     "THERE IS A MONSTER IN THAT TOASTER!!!! You can't toast ANYTHING!" Tory exclaimed. What part of that did her sister not understand?

     "Tory there's no reason to yell. Let's take it apart and I'll show you that there's no monster," Ginger said.

     "But it'll get you!" Tory said.

     "No it won't…" Ginger looked around for something to repel Tory's "monster". Snatching up a pair of gloves she waved them triumphantly. "I'll wear gloves!"

     Satisfied, Tory agreed to let Ginger take the toaster apart. But insisted that there be a bat ready at hand.

     With Tory holding a huge bat over her head, ready to strike, and Sara holding a net right behind her, and then Ginger up to her elbows in thick gardening gloves, they finally attempted to take the toaster apart.

      First the silver sides fell to the counter top… then a couple of wires were carefully removed and… Crumbs spilled out over the counter and Tory braced herself for the monster to leap out but… nothing happened… A very burnt piece of toast sat there, wedged somewhere. Other than that, nothing else was there.

     "That must have been what you heard!" Ginger exclaimed, pulling the burnt toast free and tossing it into the garbage. "It was grinding the toast with its burners. Our toaster has been broken, not monster infested."

     Tory didn't understand. She had been sure there was a monster in there - absolutely and completely positive. But then now it was clear that there wasn't a monster in there.

     Sara finally laid her net down and Tory lowered her bat.

     "See, there's nothing to worry about," Ginger said confidently. The toaster suddenly spurted crumbs at them all and collapsed. "Except we might have to get a new toaster…"

     "See," Telly whispered softly, "I told you."

     Tory couldn't argue. There was obviously not a monster but she had been so sure…

     "Alright, we'll get a new toaster tomorrow," Ginger announced. "Why don't you take your friends up to your room, Tory?"

     The three pets walked up stairs leaving Ginger to scold Telly for being mean to her sister.

     "You even had me convinced!" Ham told the girls once they were in Tory's room.

     "I knew there was a monster in there!" Sara added.

     Tory sighed. She had thought there was a monster in there too.

     "I bet it heard us coming and went somewhere else and is probably still in your kitchen right now!" Ham told them.

     "But we didn't see anything," Sara pointed out.

     "When we were getting our drinks," Ham said, lowering his voice.

     Sara's eyes grew wide; "I think Ham might actually have something… for once."

     ********************

     Tory wasn't quite as sure as her friends but she kept her guard up when she entered the kitchen the next day. It was as hot as ever outside and Ginger had all the windows open, overworking the air conditioner. Telly lay sprawled on the dining table, she said it was cooler in there than the rest of the house, and Tera was trying to shut all the windows when Ginger wasn't looking. It wasn't working. Ginger would find the window and open it again, thinking she had forgotten it earlier.

     Tory got some bananas, strawberries, and other supplies from the fruit cabinet. Her plan of attack for the heat was by way of smoothie.

     The Kacheek reached to take the top off of the blender so she could drop in the fruit and ice.

     A scream echoed through the Neohome. Tera, Telly, and Ginger rushed into the kitchen.

     Smashed fruit and ice had been dropped on the floor and Tory was hiding under the kitchen table. She stared, trembling, at the blender.

     "What happened?" Ginger asked, very unnerved.

     "THERE'S A MONSTER IN MY BLENDER!!!!!!"

The End