The Squeezy Toothbrush

      "What did you get?" I asked in mock curiosity. Like I didn't already know. My mother is a very hygienic person, and being the male Shoyru that I am, I do not take part in the thing she calls 'bathing' very often. And since we had just arrived in Neopia half a week ago, we were slowly settling in, buying the necessities. A necessity to her, however, is something like shampoo and conditioner and... toothpaste.

      "I got you a toothbrush, Hadrian!" she cheered. Mum pulled out a squishy looking, grippy toothbrush with red candy-cane stripes. It was brand new, the bristle perfectly intact and pure white. "Now you can stop rubbing our good toothpaste all over your teeth."

      I grimaced. "Mum, you didn't have to-"

      "I wanted to," she interrupted.

      I forced myself to put on an apologetic smile. "Alright. Thanks."

      She stood there for a few more minutes, and as I continued to play with my Kiko Squeeze toy, I caught her pleading with her eyes: "Try it out. Try it out. TRY IT OUT." This was upsetting me until I tossed my doll onto the floor and groaned. "Can we go out to eat?" I murmured reluctantly.

      It was a cool, crisp evening in Neopia Central. The crowds of people and Neopets were dying down and the horizon turned a dreary sky-blue color. I was not hungry which was rare- while my mum had gone out shopping and playing games for the day, I was rummaging through our cabinets, finding any food that I could eat. I would place myself on the floor in front of our Neovision and watch episode after episode of Better Than You until my brain turned to cotton candy. After being in the house for the afternoon, I snatched a couple hundred Neopoints from under the sink and wandered around the Bazaar, eating lunch at my favorite restaurant: Hubert's Hot Dogs (against my mother's wishes) and browsing; only ending up with a full belly and nausea at the thought of eating dinner.

      Lucky for me, my mum picked on Pizzaroo to eat, so ole' Hubert wouldn't recognize me from earlier that day and rat me out. We sat at a booth near the front, and I was confident I could make it through the dinner eating little to nothing. But when I took one look at that huge, greasy pepperoni and mushroom pizza, I thought I would barf.

      "Hon?" Mum asked, gently touching my arm with her free hand while her other held a slice of pizza oozing with white cheese, a pepperoni slipping off the edge. "You look kind of pale. Do you need to go to the bathroom?"

      I swallowed hard and shook my feelings of sickness away. "No," I choked.

      Her worried expression stayed until I mustered up the courage to peel a serving from the silver platter and bite off the tip timidly.

      Pizza never tasted so horrible.

      As soon as that little chunk of dough and cheese and mushroom hit my stomach acid, my brain reacted at once. I bolted for the bathroom and thankfully got there in time. Mum was soon right behind me, rubbing my back. When I was sure I would be okay for the ten minute walk home, we left Pizzaroo and I explained to Mum my whole day, of how I ate all of the junk food and candy in the house and then consumed many a hot dog at Hubert's. She was sympathetic at first, but I knew that she was angry just by looking at her posture, her idiom.

      When I was safely inside, my stomach revolted again. I'm lucky I have wings, or I would not have made it. I repeated my cycle from Pizzaroo for two more hours until I was able to keep down a small cup of water for a decent amount of time. When we were both sure I was fine, Mum led me down the hallway and into the bathroom again, which smelled of cinnamon and apple air freshener.

      "Mum, I'm fine now." I assured her, not wanting to relive the awful experience I had gone through only hours ago.

      "I know, Hadrian," she said with a devilish glint in her eyes. My mind did cartwheels and bounced off my skull. "What's she gonna make me do?" I asked myself.

      Then I knew.

      Mum began pulling the bath curtains aside and turned on the hot and cold water. She pulled the plug on the faucet up for the shower setting.

      "Oh, Mum!" I whimpered, putting on my best puppy-Lupe face I could. I let my wings droop and my blue tail curled at the tip pathetically.

      She shook her head. "Hadrian, my mother always told me when I was sick that a shower pulls the little bugs out of your body and cleanses you so you can get better. Now hurry and hop in before we waste the water."

      I grunted angrily and stepped into the bathtub. After shampooing and conditioning and scrubbing every inch of me with our azure Peophin soap, I hopped out of the shower, feeling cleansed and refreshed. I rubbed my glossy wings with my new wing sock Mum had bought me and took a sense of pride in my appearance as I polished the fog away in the bathroom mirror. I was no longer scrappy looking and pale-faced like earlier. I was glowing and bright. Maybe her mother was right. Showers did make sick people feel better.

      "Knock, knock," Mum joked as she entered the bathroom. I smiled up at her.

      "The shower felt great," I confessed, massaging the back of my neck in embarrassment. "I'm sorry I disobeyed you and all this happened."

      Her gentle air came back ten-fold, and she wrapped me in a warm hug. Our embracing didn't last very long, though. She pulled away and reached for the toothbrush holder and handed me my new Squeezy toothbrush and the Sparkly toothpaste that was sitting near the sink since we bought it.

      "Okay," I murmured. She didn't even have to say the words. I squirted a fair amount of glistening toothpaste onto the bristle and brushed it along my teeth. I could feel bits of my sickness being pulled out from in between my gums and in the teeny gaps between my teeth. I brushed for ten minutes almost, wanting every trace of food and unpleasant flavor gone from my mouth, only to leave a minty fresh feeling behind.

      Mum was still standing there when I smiled into the mirror, my pearly-white beauties gleaming in the bathroom light.

      "It’s a good thing I bought you that Squeezy toothbrush," Mum commented as she tucked me into my cozy bamboo bed. I hugged my soft Kiko Squeeze toy to my cheek and grinned from ear to ear.

      "Yeah," I whispered before drifting off to sleep, dreaming of a new day tomorrow where I would go right back up to Hubert's Hot Dogs and ask for a chili cheese dog and a Neocola- my favorite.

The End