Of Gourmet Club Trophies and Staying in Shape

      As soon as she did, a number of Neopets who were placed a long table snatched their forks up and dug into the food before them. One Neopet in particular, a fat Brown Draik named Gail, gobbled the food down faster than any another Neopet out there.

      The Neopets were at a contest sponsored by the Gourmet Club. Every three months, Neopets from all around Neopia gathered together at the Gourmet Club to determine who could eat the most food and who could do it the fastest. Gail was an eighteen times champion. And the way her stomach stuck out pretty much showed that.

      After a mere five minutes had gone by, Gail had eaten all ten plates of gourmet food. The Green Gelert who had announced the beginning of the contest stood up on cardboard box and blew her whistle.

      "We have a winner!" the Gelert shouted, jumping down from the box and making her way towards Gail.

      The Gelert grabbed Gail's right arm with her left arm and raised it into the air.

      "Congratulations, Gail!" the Gelert exclaimed. "You are now our nineteen times champion!!"

      Gail couldn't help but smile as the plentiful amount of Neopets and their owners clapped, applauded, and cheered for her.

      "Thank you! Thank you so much!" Gail said, gladly accepting her nineteenth Gourmet Club Champion trophy.

     ***

      Gail skipped all the way back home, her trophy tucked proudly under her left arm. When she reached her NeoHome, she literally kicked open the gate in the front yard and zipped inside her home.

      "Mum! Vivi! I'm home!" Gail joyfully exclaimed.

      A girl holding a Baby Shoyru with a bottle full of milk stuck into its mouth ran into the room. Gail held the shimmering trophy above her head and smiled.

      "Oh!" the girl exclaimed out of shock, "Congratulations, Gail!"

      "Hehe," Gail said, "this one wasn't easy. One of the of the food items I had to eat was a nasty old Snorkle Pudding." She shuddered as she spoke those words.

      Gail's mother placed the Baby Shoyru on the ground and grabbed Gail's trophy, "Oh, Gail, this trophy is beautiful! I'm guessing it's going up on the trophy shelf in your room, eh?"

      The Baby Shoyru stared at the trophy with big wide eyes. Gail's mother bent down to wear the Shoyru didn't have to look up at her and said, "Look, Vivi! Your sister won this ultra spiffy trophy!"

      Vivi reached her stubby little arm out and poked the trophy, "Shiny!"

      Gail's mother stood up and handed the trophy back to Gail, "Put this in a place where your sister can't reach it." She winked at Gail.

      Vivi suddenly became wide-eyed again. She crawled over to the center of to the room and snatched a piece of paper off of a glass coffee table. She managed to make her way back to where Gail and her mom stood. Vivi handed the paper to Gail.

      "What's this?" Gail asked, eyeing the paper.

      "Oh!" Gail's mother exclaimed. "Vivi drew a picture of you and she has been very eager to show it to you all day!"

      Gail giggled as she scanned the paper with her eyes. It was poorly drawn, but what did you expect from a Baby Shoyru? On the drawing, Gail's head was a simple circle drawn with a brown crayon. The eyes were simple dots done with a black crayon, and her smile was a mere black arc.

      But, something on the drawing caused Gail discomfort. The rest of her body (from the neck down to her stomach) was just a large, wide circle. A circle about the size of a baseball.

      Gail gasped when she saw this, and then rushed to the bathroom. She flipped on the lights and stared into the bathroom mirror.

      "I'm… fat…" she said.

      "What was that?" Gail's mother asked, entering the bathroom.

      Gail turned to look at her mother, "Mum?"

      "Yes?" she replied.

      "Please, answer this truthfully,"

      "Mm hmm?"

      "A---am I fat?"

      There was an awkward moment of silence. Gail's mother eyed her for a moment. She looked around the room, and that's when Vivi crawled into the bathroom. Gail's mother kneeled down and picked her up.

      "Vivi? Do you think your sister is fat?" she asked the Shoyru.

      Vivi stared at Gail for a moment. Gail simply smiled, feeling embarrassed.

      "Yes!" the Shoyru said quite suddenly, clapping its hands.

      "WHAT?!" Gail exclaimed, tears forming in her eyes.

      "Oh, now Gail! Vivi doesn't know what she's talking about! She's just a baby!" Gail's mother tried to explain.

      Gail didn't listen, she didn't even care. She covered her eyes with her hands as she burst into tears and bolted out of the bathroom.

      Gail's mother sighed. She picked Vivi up and took her into the living room. She placed her in a yellow play pen and said, "I'll be right back,"

      She turned away from the Baby Shoyru and made her way down the hall and into Gail's room. Gail was placed atop her bed, lying on her stomach. She was staring out the window, watching the grass grow, obviously.

      Gail's mother sat on the bed beside her. Gail simply sighed, "I quit the Gourmet club…"

      Gail's mother stared in awe, "Gail! No! I won't let you go that far!"

      "How about until I get back in shape?"

      "Gail, people don't tease you about being a little plump, now, do they?"

      "Well, no, but look at me!"

      Gail hopped off of her bed and stood up. She faced her mother, holding back tears.

      "Let's see," Gail's mother started, "I see… a Brown Draik, who has beautiful eyes, a gorgeous look, and a very precious smile."

      She stood up and put her hand under Gail's chin.

      "Try smiling," she simply said, "I couldn't possibly live without seeing your smile."

      Gail looked up at her mother with sad, tearful eyes. She smiled for a while, but that quickly turned into a frown when she sat down on her bed.

      Vivi crawled into the room, smiling with big, bright eyes. Gail's mother hopped up in shock, "Vivi! How did you get out of your play pen?!"

      She picked up Vivi and brought her over to Gail's bed.

      "Vivi," Gail said to her baby sister, "knock some sense into Mum. Tell her I need to quit the Gourmet Club until I get back into shape!"

      Vivi frowned, "No. 'Cause, if you dun go do what you luff to do, you wun be happy. And if you're not happy, you'll be sad. And when you're sad, I'm sad."

      Those words pretty inspirational, especially when coming from a Baby Shoyru who can barely even speak (nonetheless learn to eat food with a spoon).

      Gail looked down at her lap and sighed. She turned her head to look out the window. She then witnessed the beautiful sighted of a Scented Hearts Flower bud bloom into a gorgeous Scented Hearts Flower.

      She smiled and turned to look at her mother, "You know, I don't care how I look right now. I'll just concentrate on what I love doing."

      Gail's mother smiled, and Vivi clapped twice and laughed. Gail got up and ran into the living room. She returned about thirty seconds later with the gorgeous golden trophy she had received at the Gourmet Club earlier that day.

      "And I have proof of that," she said, placing the trophy in her window, where all could see it.

The End

A/N: Hehe… wrote this after I failed a Geometry test; so, I'm acting pretty much the same as Gail is when she's sad. xD