Sweet Reunions

      "Feepits are better and I can prove it!" Cris shot at her brother, who was shaking his head vigorously.

      "Meepits win and it always has been that way!" Padfoot countered, shaking his Meepits Win T-shirt in Cris's multi-colored face. Meanwhile, along the table, Robo and Clara were arguing over one of their favorite topics.

      "Asparagus is disgusting!" the Lupe declared to his sister, slamming his stalk of the stuff on the table and causing several green particles to scatter around the white linen tablecloth.

      "It's good for you!" Clara insisted, attempting to force-feed Robo his asparagus. Disgusted, the Lupe chucked the vegetable across the table. I felt a heavy thump on the top of my head and knew where the asparagus had landed.

      "Ow..." I gurgled into my soup as my pets stared at me, dumbstruck.

      "Uh... Mum? Are you okay?" Cris, who was closest to me, tapped my shoulder with her rainbow paw.

      "Fine..." I mumbled, pulling my face out of the stew, which I quickly realized was burning hot. I shot over to the sink and splashed water on my face while my extremely polite pets laughed. Well, at least Robo, Padfoot, and Cris did. Clara hurried over to me, looking worried. She helped me back into my seat.

      "Mother, are you okay?" she asked in her most sophisticated voice. I seriously wonder how she turned out that way sometimes. But I certainly wasn't complaining as Clara seemed to be the only mature pet in the family.

      "Yeah, yeah, I'm good," I sighed, although I clearly wasn't fooling anyone. My pets all stared at me, giving me that, "Oh-Don't-Bother-Trying-To-Say-That-Because-Even-You-Know-We-Don't-Believe-You" look. I had to give them credit.

      "Is something up, Mum?" Cris asked casually.

      "No, no, we're fine."

      "Are we broke? Did we suddenly become dirt-poor? NO!" wailed Padfoot, jumping up from his seat and curling himself into his shell, crying hysterically. Where do they get these ideas?

      "No, we're not broke, you can come out, Padfoot." The Bori poked his head out of his shell. "Now, if you want to know what's wrong, listen patiently, although there is nothing wrong at all. But if you want to know why I've been -"

      "Get on with it!" Robo cried, pounding a fresh stalk of asparagus on the table impatiently.

      "Okay, okay!" I snapped, leaning back on the stew-covered table. "Well..." Where to begin? "I got an invitation to visit our old friends... You know, Clara, Keliza, Prongs, and their owner, Muff... It's been years since we've seen them, and she finally invited us to -"

      I knew by the sound of the explosion that none of them were fond at all of Muff's pets. True, I wasn't fond of Muff myself, but perhaps she had changed over the years. And she had sent me an invitation to a reunion. I couldn't exactly tell her that our pets (and possibly ourselves) were mortal nemeses.

      "No way! I'm not going her house! That Clara took my name! But she pronounces hers Clair-a, not Clar-a like me!" the Cybunny cried indignantly, finally dropping her fancy manner and grinding her teeth in anger. "Plus, she thinks she's better than me!"

      "And that Bori's always going on about how he's the leader of our circle!" Padfoot exclaimed, upsetting the sugar bowl in frustration. "That Prongs is something else!"

      "I wanna go!" Robo whined, licking his lips happily. "That Chia Keliza looks so good! Last time I only had a little taste of her..."

      "And Clara thinks her Feepit Snow is better than my Snowy!" Cris huffed, glaring down at the messed up peas on her plate.

      "Quiet! QUIET!" I roared, my long brown hair still dripping soup on to the messy kitchen floor. I have to hire somebody to clean that someday. "Now..." I continued calmly as my pets glared daggers at me. "We will only stay for a little while, just to be polite. You do not have to interact with the other pets, just a friendly hello will do. Now off to bed! Now!"

      Slowly, Clara, Cris, Padfoot, and Robo trooped out of the kitchen and up the stairs, grumbling angrily to each other, their original arguments forgotten completely. I sighed, dreading the next day as much as my pets, though I hid it from my face. As I cleaned the kitchen table of remnants of the almost-food-fight, I thought about how miserable the next day was going to be...

      "Are we there yet?" The typical voice of Robo jolted me and I whipped my head around, glaring at him.

      "Please, Robo, these maps are hard enough to read without you blathering away," I told him acidly. "It's no fun navigating!"

      I flipped the map around several times before I realized Muff's house was right in front of me. "Oh. Well that was easy," I said briskly, forcing my reluctant pets into the house.

     The first thing I felt when I entered the house was a fuzzy, pink bear tackling me. No, wait, that wasn't a bear, that was Muff, hugging me with a rather scratchy, pink sweater covering her plain white shirt. She always knew how to accessorize better than me, that was for sure as I stood there awkwardly in my jeans and T-shirt.

      "Welcome to my home, Jamice!" Muff beamed, flipping her blond hair behind her ears. "Come to the kitchen, I have a nice, little arrangement set up." She giggled and grabbed my arm, pulling me along a finely decorated hall. I quickly beckoned for my pets to follow and they did so, dragging their paws.

      "Er, it's great to see you again, Muff," I said placidly, unsure of what to say. What, should I have said, "Wow, we haven't seen each other in years, how come?" No, not the best thing for this occasion.

      The kitchen was just as frilly and clean as the hallway. A neat, little table sat in the middle of the room and three pets were grouped around it; Prongs, the green Bori, Clara, Cybunny of the same color as Prongs, and Keliza, the Chokato Chia. They all smiled politely as we entered and Muff pushed me into a chair.

      "Have some tea as you tell me what's been going on, Jamice," Muff giggled, pouring me some clear, brown tea and passing me a croissant.

      "Well..." Before I could even start to talk, the destruction started.

      "So, Clara, how's the housework going?" my Clara asked the other in a falsely interested voice, her different colored eyes icy cold, even her fiery orange one which seemed almost impossible.

      "Well, it's not all fun and games around here!" Muff's Clara simpered with a tinkly laugh. And I thought my Cybunny was odd! "You see, every morning, I have to -"

      "Nice Feepit, Clara," Cris interrupted hotly, her own Feepit Snowy flying on to the table, flashing her Faerie wings impressively.

      "Oh, she's just... been training." Clara smiled as she lifted Snow on to the table. Snow, though regularly colored, was just as attractive as Snowy as she walked elegantly across the table towards the showing-off Snowy.

      "We've been training, too!" Cris snapped. "Show her, Snowy!" Snowy landed on the table with a small plop and held out her tiny fists. But Snow was too quick for the little Feepit and had already punched Snowy clean off the table before the faerie Feepit had even had time to resist. Gasping, Cris dove under the table and retrieved her Feepit, tears streaming down both of their faces.

      Muff and I both stared horrorstruck at each other, completely speechless. Apparently, she hadn't seen her pets act like this before either. "I, erm, Cris, put Snowy away!" I tried fruitlessly to stop the battle right then and there, but it continued, all pets ignoring me.

      "So, Prongs, you're the leader, are you?" Padfoot made no effort to stop the battle and was, instead, continuing it without any regret.

      "Of course I am!" Prongs grinned and in a second, Padfoot was on top of him, whipping his mace-like tail and scratching with his three-inch claws. Meanwhile, the three girls were shouting furiously at the other side, Cris and Clara on one team, Muff's Clara on the other.

      Keliza the Chia had been sitting quietly in her seat until now. Of course, her reason for running wildly around the room was perfectly acceptable; Robo had finally made his promised move and was chasing her wildly through the forest of chairs, tipping the table over. Muff and I jumped up, screaming.

      Robo wound his way through the kitchen, gaining on Keliza, his teeth bared. The frightened Chia hopped on to the counter and retreated to the far end while Robo, drooling and snarling, swiped at her, his sharp claws barely missing her face.

     Just as I was thinking nothing else could go wrong, Robo jumped on top of the counter and bit the surprised Chia in the bottom. Then, he grabbed her by the leaves and attempted to run away, like a Cybunny that had just picked a rather large carrot and didn't want to share it. I had had enough and apparently, so had Muff.

     "STOP! STOP! STOP!" she roared, pulling Padfoot off Prongs and separating the two Feepits from fighting. Snowy flew on top of the refrigerator, glaring smugly down at Snow, who couldn't fly.

     "NO!" I dove at Robo just as he was leaving with the whimpering Chia. I tackled him, knocking Keliza out of his mouth. She scampered away and hid in Muff's arms, who looked like she might explode.

     "GET OUT!" she screamed, grabbing Cris and Clara by the scruffs of their necks and throwing them into the hall. Padfoot followed, not wanting to be thrown out either. I still had Robo by the fur on his neck and I quietly backed out.

     "NOW!" Muff screeched, her eyes popping. "I NEVER WANT TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"

     I nodded furiously and dragged Robo out. When I reached the hall, I grabbed my other pets and stumbled towards the door. When we were out in the open air and several feet away from Muff's large house, I turned to my pets.

     "Now we know why we haven't talked in years."

     "Look, Mum, I'm sorry..." Cris started but I held out my hand to silence her.

     "That was awesome!" My pets looked shocked, but smiled. "C'mon, guys, let's go get slushies..."

The End