Shock-A-Lots

      Adelaide was a tall, slim girl. She had luxurious hazel hair and bronze copper eyes. I was on one of her side accounts, her main one being Grapesourhorse. She was leading me to the Rainbow Pool, where I was just about to be painted Electric! My dream color! I felt like I was floating in Cloud 9.

      We reached the Rainbow Pool in a few minutes, which was just around our little Neohome in Neopia. While she was filling out the necessary information (what pet she wanted to paint, which color, etc), I thought gleefully of my sister's reaction.

      I had one sister and her name was Arèyannya. She was only a Christmas Peophin, while I, Opelia, your ordinary Buzz, was about to be painted ELECTRIC! I was so ecstatic!

      "All right, come on through the fountain," my owner said with a broad grin. She was almost as excited as I was!

      I felt a cool dampness surround me as I was painted electric, followed by a wonderful prickling sensation all over my body. I closed my eyes to get a full feeling of the feeling, and when I opened them, I gasped in astonishment! Neopia was…COLORFUL! Of course I had noticed the reds and blues and greens before, but now the reds sang out as a scarlet inferno of fire, the blues were a calming and vibrant shade of sapphire, and the greens were an exotic jade emerald. It was wonderful!

      I squealed and hugged my owner, unaware whether the paint was still wet. Apparently, it wasn't, because she hugged back and murmured: "Oh Opelia, you are beautiful."

      I broke from the grasp and gave a joyful flip in the sky, followed by a cartwheel. I was far from ordinary now!

      But that was before our problems began.

      ~*~

     I had been painted Electric for two weeks now. Arèyannya was just as pleased as I was to have a painted sister. Apparently, her friends had been teasing our owner for looking poor, until now.

      That day was a 'dirt day', as Adelaide would say. It was a day when Arèyannya forgot about her pretty red bow and pure white mane and romped around in the mud, trampled in the dirt, and rolled over and over in fields of flowers, getting them tangled in her mane. I usually hovered above her before skydiving down into a large pool of mud, rolling over in dusky red dirt, and breathing in the fresh scent of flowers. Aaah. It was the life.

      We both came home very late that night, seven o' clock, when it was starting to get hard to notice whether the pile of dirt was really dirt or an Ogrin's poo.

      Adelaide fussed as usual. "Look at you both!" she scolded, already turning on the faucets for the bath. "All right Arèyannya, you first!"

      I watched as Arèyannya was bathed in scalding hot water, enjoying her occasional yelps. Soon, she was the sparkly green Peophin she had always been, with mane as soft as a Poogle Plushie.

      "All right Opelia, hop in there," Adelaide instructed.

      I groaned, moaned, protested, pleaded, even bribed, but my owner wasn't swayed, and eventually grabbed hold of my wings and tossed me into the tub, a very undignified way to take a bath.

      "AIEEE!!" I screeched, leaping out of the water and rolling on the carpeted floor in panic. The water was warm after Arèyannya, but that wasn't what I had shrieked about. One wing in the water, and it felt like I was being shocked by a hundred watt light bulb!

      "Opelia! What's wrong?" exclaimed Adelaide, rushing forward and helping me up. Well, she tried. But one finger on me, and we were BOTH shocked with a thousand watt light bulb.

      "AIIIEEAA!" I screamed, yelping. "AHHWW!" Adelaide shrieked, falling over backward, clutching her left hand with a grimace of agony.

      "What's happening?" I cried, hovering into the air. My wings felt like static and my head was throbbing painfully. My vision swam before my eyes.

      "It must be the water," Adelaide answered, pushing her copper colored hair out of her eyes. Suddenly, she smacked her head with a groan. "Ohhh that's right! You're Electric, remember? Electricity can't go near water! You'll get an electric shock!"

      I groaned and looked down at myself. Any Neopian who didn't know me would think that I had been painted Clay; I was such a reddish-brown dirt color! "What will we do?" I groaned to Adelaide. "I feel like I'm about to die!"

      Adelaide frowned. "I don't know. But bathing doesn't work, that's for sure."

      Arèyannya immediately dashed into the room, spooked by the noise. Her eyes, I was surprised to see, was a mask of guarded concern.

      Adelaide looked upset. "I don't know how you are going to get clean. And even if you do get clean, how would you stay clean for the rest of your life?"

      I moaned and almost took my head in my hands. Close save! I would've gotten another static shock. How was I going to live with my Electric color?

      ~*~

     "Uuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhh."

     "I told you not to eat so much at that dinner party over on Fran's."

     "Uuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhh."

     I listened to my sister's moans, over on a couch reading "Know Your Motes".

     Arèyannya had recently been invited to one of her friend's Neohome, and she and her friend Bori_Bori the Cloud Quiggle had gone shopping for a game of "winter hibernation". The two had spent half of the day gaming, and the other half of day spending it on food for 'winter hibernation'. It was January!

     Having bought at least three quarters of the Bakery, Arèyannya and Bori_Bori sauntered on to our house and stuffed their faces. Literally. And now, she and her dear bloated friend was stuck with a severe case of Bloaty Belly.

     "Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuggghh," moaned Arèyannya, snuggling deeper in her bed. Well, what did she expect, after eating around twenty-five pizzas in under an hour?

     "Opelia and I'll hop on over to the pharmacy; we'll get some tablets. I just hope you've learned your lesson!"

     "Uuuuuuuuuuuuggghhhh."

     I sighed, closing "Know Your Motes". It was actually a pretty interesting book, once you got over the fact that it was full of complicated words.

     My owner and I went over to the Pharmacy and read the inscriptions on the cures: "Hmmm…maybe this is it," my owner suggested. "Flat-U-Less tablets! Yes, it's the only thing that does with bloaty belly."

     "Oh my Fyora!! Addie, look at this!" I screeched, pointing at the fifth cure displayed.

     "Shock-A-Lots: Your pet's fur will be full of static and anything it touches will give off electric sparks. Cure: Wearing Ultra Rubber Gloves." She read aloud, eyes growing wider with each line she read.

     "Quick, quick, check the Quick Reference page!" I shouted.

     The both of us sprinted (or in my case, flew) to the Quick References page. I was the active pet, and the status read:

      Species: Buzz

     Colour : Electric

     Gender : Female

     Age : 186 days

     Level : 2

     Health : (Suffering from Shock-A-Lots)

     We both squealed, and Adelaide was jumping up and down. "Oh Opelia!" she kept shouting. "It wasn't the color of the paint on you after all! You had Shock-A-Lots, and the both of us didn't know!"

      We jumped up and down squealing with joy for a few more minutes. My troubles were over!! Hurrah!! We rushed to the Shop Wizard and asked him for some Ultra Rubber Gloves. Being incredibly cheap, I was cured in no time at all.

      The first thing I did when we went home was blast on the garden hose and let out a jet of water at me! Ahh!! Today was the best day of my life! I almost didn't even hear my sister screech: "Addie!! You never got my Flat-U-Less tablets!!"

The End

Thanks to gellingirl_713!!