Beginning of it All: Thirty Minutes Past Ten O'Clock

Also by hottamale0774

"Hiya! My name's Mikey! I'm a baby Kougra. I want to be just like Jeran when I grow up. See, this is Jeran! Mommy said she would buy me this shirt before she said that she was sending me here so she could get a night's worth of sleep. I don't know what that means, but Mommy loves me so much!" This was the first thing that Cameron heard as she pranced into the plain white room from bustling streets of Neopia Central. Mikey grinned and prodded the popular Lupe knight hero who was on his t-shirt.

      "I can understand that," muttered Cameron irritably as she tore a piece of Super-Sweet-Sugary-Yum gum from its silvery metallic wrapper. She tossed the gum into her mouth and dropped the wrapper carelessly onto the khaki colored carpet. She sunk into the plum velvet bean bag, away from Mikey, who at the moment found another 'friend' to annoy and babble to. Almost immediately after she sank into the bean bag, another Neopet came in.

      As she savored the piece of gum, she thought happily to herself, "As soon as I get my money, I'm buying the Sweet-Sugary-Yum Gum Factory."

     "That's what you're getting, eh?" asked a masculine voice. Cameron nearly spat out her gum onto her bright pink T-shirt

     "That's none of your business, uh," snapped Cameron sharply. The yellow Lenny shrunk back into his ebony black Zen chair.

     "It's Oliver. I'm sorry if I offended you, um, Miss."

     "Whatever." Staring at the white ceiling, Cameron slouched further into her bean bag.

      "It's Brittney. Augh! Get this rodent off of me!" screamed Brittney.

      "But you're a real faerie. I'm supposed to catch you and put you in a bottle, and then when I release you, you have to bless me. That's what Mommy said when I chased the air faerie away from the garden. Then Mommy also called me a scrawny rodent. What does that mean? I bet it means that I'm going to be a super hero, right?" Mikey continued to tackle Brittney. Cameron and Oliver just laughed. Suddenly the door whirled open again, revealing a green Aisha who was wearing a light blue shirt with a navy blue skirt was just standing there.

      "H-h-hi. Is this, is this, the place? For the experiment," nervously stammered the green Aisha as she pushed up her oval emerald green framed glasses. Oliver and Cameron nodded as Mikey continued to struggle with Brittney. "Excuse me, Mister. May I sit here?" shyly asked the green Aisha. Oliver grinned, and raised one of his yellow feathery wing to shake hands.

      "Of course. I'm Oliver, by the way."

      "J-Julia. Thanks," whispered Julia.

      "No problem."

      "Um, a little help here?" cried Brittney who was trying to kick Mikey off of one of her wings.

      "Don't do it! She's a faerie! Mommy said that we have to catch faeries. Do you have a jar?" yelled Mikey.

      "Hate to break it to you, kid, but your Mommy meant faeries as in Earth, Water, Air, Light, Dark, or Fire faeries. Not Neopets like Brittney who are painted faerie. Besides, do I look like I have an extremely large jar on me somewhere?" snickered Cameron. Mikey jumped off Brittney.

      "Owww… he just clawed me! My perfect wing's flawed! Oh mi gosh! I, like, can not show my face in public anymore! It'll never grow back!" exclaimed the vain faerie Gelert.

      "I'm bored! I know! I'll sing you my most famousest song! It goes…" hollered Mikey.

      "It's most famous," quietly interjected Julia.

      "You've heard it before? Wow, I guess Mommy was right when she said that I woke the Snowager up when I was singing at home. I'm the most famousest singer!"

      "No, I mean, there's no such word as famousest. It's most famous, not famousest," corrected the green Aisha.

      "What do you mean? Is it or is it not most famousest song?" questioned the baby Kougra.

      "It's not most famousest; it's most famous," sighed Julia as she pushed up her large emerald green glasses.

      "Sounds the same to me. Okay, here it goes… I love Mommy! She loves meee! Mommy loves me so much she's letting me go and spend time with other people. Mommy says that this is for my own good so she can have peace. I don't know what that means but Mommy must love meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee… Mommy's the greatest Mommy in the world because she let me go here to make more and more and more friends! I love Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! Mommy! I love Mum…" sang Mikey. All the other Neopets in the room had gotten a piece of duct tape onto his mouth to shut him up and then tied him to a chair, in a far corner from everyone else.

      "Mmmmheb…" went Mikey.

      "Peace and quiet! At last!" cried Cameron.

      "No more horrible singing!" cried Brittney.

      "No more horrible grammar!" loudly whispered Julia.

      "I kind of feel bad for that little fella," spoke Oliver.

      "He had it going to that, all along," replied Cameron

      "I know, but still…"

      "What time is it?" wondered Julia.

      "There's a clock on the wall. It's 10:30," responded Oliver. Julia pushed up her glasses again and looked at the wall. The clock was a plain white clock with all the numbers from one through twelve with one long black arrow and one short black arrow with a silver plastic frame outside the clock.

      "Ten thirty? Wasn't the meeting with the guy in charge supposed to be at 10:00? I just hate tardy…" said Brittney as the door swung open. A blue Skeith in a very formal black suit appeared.

      "Greetings. Those of you who have come, were smart enough to do so. There's five hundred thousand Neopoints for you each after you complete this experiment at the end of the week." The blue Skeith paused as everyone drooled at the thought. "But you are not to receive your Neopoints until AFTER the week is over. You are…" There were suddenly high pitched screams outside the door, and a skunk Lupe fell in and slammed the door. He held the door against the deafening screams and knocking.

      "Does this door *pant* have *pant* a lock?" gasped the skunk Lupe. The blue Skeith frowned. The Lupe was wearing very baggy pants, but no shirt. He was so informal and tardy.

      "Turn the knob to the right three times," the Skeith told the skunk Lupe who then swiftly turned the knob. The Lupe flashed a smile that was so bright that it blinded the Skeith to a daze. The Skeith loosened his collared shirt. It was going to be a very long meeting.

      "Sorry, those lovely ladies really love me," said the Lupe as he ran a paw through the silky black fur on his head,

      "Anyways, back to my speech. Five hundred thousand Neopoints for you each at the end of the week. I have name tags for all of you," announced the Skeith. Everyone quickly got up and snatched their name tags from the Skeith's hands.

      "Where's Mr. Mikey? I still have his name tag," pondered the Skeith.

      "He's in the far corner, tied up. He's a chatterbox you see."

      "What? Untie him. He has to get his name tag."

      "I'll do it," volunteered Kyle the skunk Lupe. He dazzled Brittney with a grin before going to Mikey.

      "Anyways, back to my speech. My name's Malcu- *cough* Marti Valenz and I am the founder of this, um, scientific study. The purpose is to see how strangers react to each other in an enclosed environment for a period of time. The time you will be together is a week. In that time you will be in a room that is completely white with no windows, and the door will be completely hidden. The only time the door will be opened is when food is brought in, which will be at 8:00 in the morning, noon, and 6:00 at night. At these times you are to go to the wall and put your face into it with your eyes closed. The people who bring the food will check these things, and if anytime you are not doing this you will lose your money…"

      "Hi Mister Skeith-man! Those other Neopets are such big meanies. They don't want to hear my song. That's why they put me in the corner. I like Jeran. See Jeran is on my shirt because I like Jeran. Do you like Jeran? Jeran is cool. I like Jeran. Jeran is a Lupe. I like Lupes. Do you like Lupes? Mommy says that I am a little varmint. What does that mean? Do you like diapers? I don't like diapers. I'm going to take the diaper off!" Mikey began to unclasp the golden safety pin that held his diaper up. Afraid of what was hidden in that diaper, Marti drew Mikey's hand off the pin.

      "Do you want to see something cool, Mikey?" Mikey nodded so hard that he fell. Marti grabbed the roll of grey duct tape.

      "When I tape this on your mouth, you can't say anything."

      "But then you can't hear me singin-" The piece of duct tape ripped from the roll of duct tape was a perfect fit over the baby Kougra's mouth.

      "Anyways, each morning I will wake you up at 7:30," continued Marti, "and I will tell you what that day's study is. Each day we will be doing a different study, like one day you will have to be tied to someone else for the whole day. The only day we won't be doing a study is the first day, as that will just be a day for you to get to know each other. You will all be writing in a journal, not for us to see but just so you can look at it in fifty years and remember these times. Now, are there any questions?"

     Mikey's hand waved around wildly. Nobody else's hand went up. Marti tried to ignore Mikey, but he had started making sounds behind the tape.

     "Cameron, please take the tape off Mikey's mouth. What is your question?"

     A flood of words flooded out as soon as the tape came off.

     "Is it going to hurt? Can I see Mommy? Do you like cheese? Why don't you like cheese? Do you like candy? I like candy. Candy is yummy but Mommy says it makes me too annoying so she won't let me have any. Don't you think that's mean? I think it's mean. I'm going to tell Mommy I think it's…"

     "Mikey, do you have any questions about the study?"

     "Yeah, can I be tied to Brittany? She's really pretty." Brittany shrieked and everyone else chuckled. Kyle tickled Brittany and she fell out of her chair. Mikey started hopping on his chair and singing at the top of his lungs.

     "Here are your journals and pencils," declared Marti as he gave them to everyone in the room. "Get to know each other, and then tomorrow we will start the experiment." With a sigh of exhaustion, he left the white room with the six Neopets.

The End

A/N: Neomail us comments please!