Jelly Welly, My Bestest Friend Ever!

      She walked into the living room with a bright, vibrant smile that threw happiness and sunshine all across the room. A green Lupe, Parlat’s daddy, followed. His smile was not as big as the energetic mother, but it still added to the room’s happy, carefree air.

      “Ooh, what, what?” Little Parlat ran into the room still in his pajamas, his innocent childishness adding rainbows and butterflies to the room’s atmosphere. The Blue Usul looked up to his parents, wondering what the surprise gift was.

      “Well... drum roll please...” said Mommy suspensefully.

      Daddy banged his hands on the coffee table.

      “Ooh, what is it, what is it? Tell me!” Little Parlat was so excited; he was jumping up and down with glee.

      “It’s... a super, duper... Illusen doll!” said Mommy, delightfully, in that tone that adults tend to use when talking to little children.

      “Ooooooh!” said Parlat, awed. Mommy started to hand the new doll to Parlat, and the little Blue Usul immediately snatched it away from her and started examining it.

      “Hi, what’s your name?” asked the Illusen doll.

      “Hi pretty dolly, my name is Parlat,” he responded. His parents, who didn’t hear the doll, looked at their child as if a child playing make-believe was the cutest thing ever.

      “Hi Parlat, my name is Jelly Welly,” said Jelly Welly.

      “Mommy, Daddy! Her name is Jelly Welly!” said Parlat in delight.

      “Umm, no, Parliepoo, her name is Illusen,” corrected Mommy.

      “Yes, she’s Illusen, a very famous Faerie!” added Daddy.

      “No! Her name is Jelly Welly!” Parlat frowned.

      “Actually, Illusen is her na–”

      “NO! JELLY WELLY!”

      The parents gave each other that look that adults give each other when they decide to just simply let the child go into their own little world and be oblivious to the world’s facts just so the child can be happy and life can be easier.

      “Oh right, her name is Jelly Welly!”

      “Yeah, I remember now!”

      “Good,” said Parlat. He lay on the couch and started having a conversation with Jelly Welly.

      The parents looked at each other and smiled, happy because their child was happy. They went off, Mommy to make breakfast, and Daddy to read the Neopian Times.

      From that moment on, Jelly Welly was who little Parlat hung out with, who he asked for advice, and who he talked to just because. Jelly Welly was his life.

      “Look what Jelly Welly taught me how to do!” exclaimed Parlat one day to Daddy while he was reading the Neopian Times, right before he had to leave for work. He grabbed a nearby pen and took the newspaper out of Daddy’s hands, laying it flat on the table. Then, he wrote out, on the margin “I love you mom and dad”.

      “I love you, Mom and Dad,” read Daddy. He smiled. “I’ll go show this to Mommy, okay? Where did you learn how to write this?”

      “Jelly Welly told me! And she was right! You can understand it!” Little Parlat flew off to his bedroom, where he had left Jelly Welly.

      Another day, Mommy was cutting paper to create a pretty flower to decorate the wall.

      “Oh, be careful, Mommy, don’t hurt yourself!” said Parlat, who was playing with Jelly Welly nearby.

      “Why thank you, Parliepoo!” said Mommy.

      “Don’t thank me, thank Jelly Welly! She told me to tell you because you can’t hear her,” said Parlat.

      “Okay then!” With her maternal enthusiasm, Mommy faced Jelly Welly, and she said, “Thank you, Jelly Welly!”

      Wherever Parlat was, there was sure to be Jelly Welly. The two couldn’t be separated; they were as compatible as velvety oil and sweet vinegar. At first glance, the image of a young boy playing with an Illusen doll would be strange. However, the two friends were very close; they completed each other, and together, they blended to create a delicious vinaigrette that would make any salad a showstopper.

      “Jelly Welly?” said Parlat one night, as they were gazing at bright Kreludor from his bedroom window.

      “Yes?” replied Jelly Welly.

      “Do you see that big pretty ball up there?”

      “Yup, that’s Kreludor, our moon. It’s really big, and there's a lot of Grundos up there.”

      “Wow! I wish I could be up there. It looks so cool! Those Grundos are so lucky!” said Parlat.

      “But you shouldn’t leave your parents. They would be so worried! And I think you’re much too young to go to Kreludor all by yourself.”

      “You can go with me, Jelly Welly!”

      She chuckled. “Parlat, you know big Neopets can’t hear me! It would be like you going with only a doll.”

      “Well, I’m always going to hear you, no matter how big I become!” said Parlat, smiling. “And when I’m big enough, we can go to Kreludor! Together!”

      Jelly Welly smiled too. “Yeah! It’ll be really fun. There’s so much to do on Kreludor! There are a lot of caves we can explore!”

      “Ooh, caves!” said Parlat. “Big, scary caves! I wanna go there really bad!”

      “But don’t forget, you have to grow big and tall first! And the most important thing is to get your sleep.” Jelly Welly jumped onto her mini-bed and snuggled into the soft sheets.

      “Okay!” With a laugh, Parlat jumped into the large bed, and set his head on his fluffy pillow.

      With a yawn, Parlat said, “Jelly Welly, you’re my bestest friend ever! I’m always going to hear you, forever and ever. No matter how big I grow! And then we can go to Kreludor! It’s a promise!”

      “Yes, it’s a promise!” said Jelly Welly from her smaller bed.

     * * *

      “But Mom, I’m scared! I don’t wanna go to Neoschool! I wanna stay home with Jelly Welly!” complained Parlat. It was the first day of Neoschool. This, Parlat found out, was something that would take up most of the day. And that wasn’t acceptable.

      “No, Parliepoo, you need to go to school. It’s everyone else’s first day of school too, so there’s really no reason to freak out.”

      “But Mom! I want to be with Jelly Welly!”

      “Well, why don’t you just take her with you, Parliepoo?” said the frustrated mother. The Aisha’s hair was messily pulled back into a ponytail, and she had put on a rather ugly outfit of grey and brown.

      “I can take her with me?” asked Parlat, surprised.

      “Of course! Well, go get her, quickly, or we’ll be late.”

      Parlat rushed to his room, as if he was on fire. The blue Usul opened the door, and found Jelly Welly sitting miserably on her bed. “Jelly Welly!” he said with excitement. “You can come with me to Neoschool!”

      “I can?” asked Jelly Welly in wonder.

      “Yup! Mom even said so!” said Parlat, a very large smile on his face.

      Jelly Welly jumped up onto Parlat’s large tail, grabbed a tuft of fur, and yelled, “Go!” They laughed as Parlat ran through the house with Jelly Welly holding onto the Usul’s tail.

      “I’m ready!” said Parlat as he planted his feet in front of his mother.

      “Okay, hurry, put this on,” she handed Parlat his backpack, “and we need to go to Neoschool very quickly, I’m going to be late to my new job...” She had gotten a new job. Father’s job wasn’t going to be enough to pay for living expenses, Neoschool tuition, and the obvious luxuries that Parlat would want when he started to attend Neoschool.

      “Okay, come on, Jelly Welly!” exclaimed Parlat as he raced out of the house to his Neoschool. His mother quickly locked the door and chased Parlat down the road, making sure that they held hands the entire way to the Neoschool.

     * * *

      “Jelly Welly, sorry, but I can’t bring you to school anymore.” After quite a few months attending Neoschool, things had changed.

      “Why?” asked the Illusen doll. He had been getting ready to attend another day of fun Neoschool again with Parlat.

      “Just cuz. I’m sorry, but I just can’t!” Tears were starting to well up in his eyes. “I’ll be back after school, and then we can play.”

      He ran out of his room, without Jelly Welly on his tail.

      “I’m ready...” he sighed, and put his backpack on.

      “You’re not bringing Jelly Welly to school today, Parliepoo?” asked Mother.

      “Nope...”

      “Why?”

      Parlat sighed. “Jake at school says it’s weird for a boy to play with a doll. And everyone else laughs at me too.”

      “Well, okay then...” said Mother. They walked to Neoschool.

     * * *

      “Parlat, you’re home!” exclaimed Jelly Welly one day after school. Another few months had passed after Parlat stopped bringing Jelly Welly to school. “Come on; let’s finish that jigsaw puzzle we’ve been trying to finish from yesterday!”

      Parlat sighed. Before, he would cherish the times he got to spend with Jelly Welly, but those times had gotten dull. “Jelly Welly...”

      He stopped. He didn’t want to say it, but he had already made the plans. “Jelly Welly, I’m going to go play at the playground with some of my friends at Neoschool. Sorry... but I already told them I would go.”

      “Oh.” Jelly Welly turned around. “I see...”

      “I’m sorry... really, I am,” said Parlat. Seeing that Jelly Welly wouldn’t speak to him, the Usul turned around and out the house, headed for the playground.

     * * *

      “Happy Birthday!” screamed Parlat’s parents to Parlat, who was still asleep. Fortunately, his birthday was on a weekend, so there was plenty of time to prepare the birthday party he was going to throw for his friends.

      “We’re going to make you a nice, big breakfast!” said his parents. They ran out to prepare quite some food.

      When Parlat came down to eat, the table was loaded with all sorts of foods. “Enjoy, Parliepoo!” said Mother, with a smile on her face, the first in a long time.

      “Umm... Mom?” he gulped.

      “Yes, Parliepoo?”

      “Can you not call me that? All of my friends are going to be here! Jake’s gonna be here too! It’s really embarrassing...”

      “Umm... okay then...” Mother stopped calling him that.

      Parlat didn’t enjoy the very large breakfast, for he knew what he had to do next.

      “... Mom?” he asked.

      “Yes, Parli– err, Parlat?,”

      “We need to put Jelly Welly and her little bed in a box, so none of my friends see... do you have a box somewhere? Bring it to my room, I’ll be in there telling Jelly Welly what’s going on...”

      “Umm... okay then,” she replied. She asked Father where she might find an appropriately sized box, then she headed to get it.

      Meanwhile, Parlat was preparing himself to do the thing that he would never have done had he been younger. But he had, inevitably, changed.

      “Jelly Welly?”

      “Hmm?”

      “Well... I’m having my birthday party today, and I don’t want my friends to see you... so... err...”

      “You’re going to lock me up?”

     Mother came in with the box, and seeing that they were in deep conversation, just left the box in the room and left.

      “I’m sorry, but my friends don’t like you. And... and, we can still go to Kreludor, I promise! It’s just for today, okay?” asked Parlat.

      “I knew this would happen. This happens to all little children. They just grow up, and then they don’t care about their very first friend, the friend that spent all of their time with them. They just don’t care anymore, for some reason, and I thought you might be different, but I guess not.”

      “But I am different. You’re going to be my best friend, forever, and nothing’s going to change. Just for today, okay?”

      The Illusen doll looked up, and said. “Okay, whatever.”

      Parlat sighed, and he set Jelly Welly’s bed first, down into the box. Then, he set Jelly Welly, the Illusen doll, snug in the soft sheets. “It’s only for today. When my friends leave, I’ll take you out again, okay?”

      There was no answer.

      Parlat closed the box and stuffed it into his closet. With a final regretful look back at the box, he walked back to the kitchen to prepare for his party.

      The box was never opened.

The End