Christmas at Home

     Rainie had been in the Pound for over two years now. Most pets eventually got adopted, whether because of their attractive names, colour, species or just pure luck. The few that were at the back were lucky to be adopted within six months. She'd heard the few visitors that she'd gotten mutter things about her name being 'sticky' and how it was such a pity, really it was.

     She didn't blame anyone for not adopting her. She had a terrible name, as the yellowing sticker at the front of her cage proclaimed in would-be elegant letters, '__rainiee____98761542_2.' She was a Yellow Xweetok. And, most importantly, she was unwanted.

     Suddenly, the door of her cage clanged open. She looked up wearily, expecting Dr. Death's leering face, his slimy green fingers clutching a rusty food bowl that would be decorated with tacky 'Chrismassy' stickers. Instead, it was the kind pink Uni that had looked at her so sadly before Dr. Death dragged her kicking and screaming into her cage. It had happened so long ago she barely remembered, but whatever.

     "This is Rainie," the Pink Uni said to the human girl standing next to her. The girl stared with unabashed curiosity at Rainie. Quickly, Rainie looked her over – she didn't look like an overeager Newbie whose faces tended to fall when they saw she wasn't a rare colour, or one of those 'pound surfers' who scoured the Pound for pets with pretty names, hoping to make them into a Lab Rat. Instead, this girl looked almost... normal, like any ordinary visitor. Except she was looking at the pets at the back of the Pound.

     Which was definitely not normal.

     "Who are you?" Rainie asked, her voice tinged with suspicion. It was cracked and harsh from disuse, but Rainie didn't care. The girl smiled, making the corners of her brown eyes crinkle up. She didn't look very suspicious.

     "I'm Annabel," she said. "And I'm your new owner."

***

     Annabel's Neohome was lovely, pleasant and airy. Large glass windows covered the walls, and light, fluffy snow covered the wooden panes. It had a nice view of the park, which looked like a winter wonderland with its frozen-over lake and icicles hanging from the snow-covered branches. Her home was decorated lavishly for Christmas, complete with a Christmas tree in the middle of the hall, covered with sparkly, tacky and yet homely decorations.

     "Okay," she began, "so, you might be asking why I found you." She paused. "You remember your previous owner?"

     An image of a blonde, green-haired girl flashed into Rainie's mind. "Yeah," she said cautiously, "what about her?"

     "You probably know that she left Neopia very soon after she Pounded you, right?" Annabel questioned. Slowly, Rainie nodded.

     "Yeah," she said, "she quit Neopets. That was why she dumped me in that Pound, wasn't it?"

     Annabel nodded. "Thing is," she continued, "I always rather liked Xweetoks. So when I joined Neopets, she told me about you. She's my sister," she added offhandedly. Rainie nodded again.

     "I didn't adopt you right away," she admitted. "As you can probably tell, I'm no newbie. I have other pets – Caylie and Trist; you'll meet them later." Rainie frowned for a second. She hadn't considered the thought of having siblings. "All right," she said anyway, figuring she'd deal with this later.

     "I search for stuck pets," Annabel explained. "And those with nice colours or names, I post them on the Neopian Pound board – we call it the PC – so we can let people who might love those pets adopt them." She paused again. "And you can imagine my shock when I came across you."

     "Wait," Rainie interrupted. Her mind was in a whirl. "What do you mean, stuck pets?"

     Annabel frowned. "You don't know?" Rainie shook her head in response. "Well, all right. Your position in the Pound depends on your name. Some pets with a special name combination get placed in the back, where no-one ever goes. People don't see them when they're in the Pound unless they specially request it. These pets are known to be 'stuck'." Annabel looked at Rainie's face for signs of horror, dismay, anything. Nothing. So she continued, "And when I discovered you were still in the Pound, after all these years, I had to adopt you. And so here we are," she finished lamely.

     "Oh-kayy," Rainie said. "So, it's Christmas Eve, right?" she asked, fumbling for a conversation starter. Annabel's story had left her mind whirling, and she wasn't quite sure what to do. Annabel's eyes brightened at that.

     "Oh, yeah, I forgot." She raced up the stairs and came back down, beaming. "Merry Christmas," she said, pushing a neatly wrapped present into Rainie's arms. Rainie looked down at the package skeptically.

     "You got me a gift? But I was just adopted half an hour ago! And it's not Christmas yet!" she exclaimed. Annabel blushed.

     "Well, yeah, I was planning to adopt you for a while. But I had to make sure the date was right. I wanted it to be a Christmas surprise," she muttered, turning bright red. Rainie hugged her, although wondering vaguely how it was going to be a Christmas surprise if it was still Christmas Eve.

     "Thank you," she said sincerely, and then tore at the wrapping. She caught a glimpse of colour, so bright it almost looked like – like -

     "It's a paint brush!" Annabel announced triumphantly. "A Faerie Paint Brush, to be exact." She grinned at Rainie. "We're gonna paint you Faerie!"

     Rainie looked at her, and at the ridiculously expensive item in her hands, and then back at Annabel. Her mouth dropped open. Edges of black started to cloud her vision.

     "Rainie? Rainie!" she heard Annabel call out. Merry Christmas to me, she thought dazedly to herself before dropping to the floor, dead faint.

     The next day...

     "Helloooooo," an irritatingly familiar, eternally happy voice cut into her drowsy mind. "Wake uuuuupppp," another familiar voice sing-songed. Rainie groaned and rolled over.

     "RAINIE RAINIE RAINIE WAKE UP WAKE UP WAKE UP IT'S CHRISTMAS WE'RE GOING TO THE RAINBOW POOL TODAY WE NEED TO GET DRESSED PINK OR PURPLE WHO CARES CAYLIE SHUT UP TRIST RAINIEEEEE!"

     "OKAY!" Rainie bellowed. Her two siblings continued jumping on her bed, screaming and squabbling for all that was worth, paying her no attention at all. "Guys?" she said, "get off my bed."

     Caylie cut off mid-insult. "BOYS DON'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT CLOTHES – Oh, hi, Rainie, you're awake at last!" She smiled, showing her two missing front teeth.

     Tristan, a.k.a Trist, stopped taunting his twin for a second to launch himself at Rainie. "RAINIE, WE'RE GOING TO THE RAINBOW POOL! THE RAINBOW POOL!"

     Rainie laughed. Her two new siblings were only a few months old, but they had lungs that were much more developed than they should be and an attitude that belonged to someone who consumed only caffeine. Tristan, a hyperactive Baby Lupe, loved launching himself at whoever was nearest available and irritating his sister, who was older than him by two minutes. Caylie was a Pink Poogle, and slightly less hyperactive, although she made up for it in bossiness.

     "What's going on up here?" a sleepy voice asked Annabel walked in the room, still in her pajamas. Annabel was about as much of a morning person as Rainie was, Rainie had discovered over the previous few days. Running her hand through her dishevelled brown hair and yawning, she mumbled something about getting dressed and how it was Rainie's big day and how Gummy Kyrii Candies, the twins' favourite sweets, should be made illegal.

     As soon as Annabel had wandered out, the twins resumed their squabbling. "Um... whoever doesn't get dressed before I do doesn't get to go to the Rainbow Pool!" Rainie announced, proud at her disciplinarianship. The pair looked up at her with wide eyes.

     "You don't mean that, do you, Rainie?" Caylie said, opening her eyes extra wide and clutching her paws together. Rainie sighed.

     "No, I don't," she muttered. Tristan grinned.

     "FIRST ONE TO RAINIE'S BATHROOM GETS TO BE THE RULER OF NEOPIA," he shrieked, and the pair raced off to her bathroom. Rainie glanced after them in despair, then grabbed her clothes and knocked on Annabel's bathroom door.

     "Annabel?" she asked glumly, "I kind of need to use your bathroom again." The door swung open.

     "When you get painted Faerie and become able to fly," Annabel told her, "you owe me a lot of babysitting."

     "Why can't I do that now?" Rainie asked her. Annabel laughed.

     "You can't babysit them without the ability to fly," she said matter-of-factly. "Now get dressed, it's your big day, remember?"

     As Rainie entered the bathroom, she wondered exactly what Annabel had been talking about. Well, I'll find out, she thought to herself, feeling for the first time in ages, a surge of belonging and happiness.

     Finally, she was at home. And that was the best Christmas gift anyone could ever ask for.

The End