Mona-Elisa and the Missing Fuzzie Bear

     Though she was always determined and logical, it was well known that she sometimes forgot to look before she leaped. But her quick thinking (and temper!) always helped her when she needed it!

      Right now, she was extremely bored. There was just nothing to do! Neoschool was out, all her friends were on vacation, and even her loyal Noil, Nova Sprite, was off at Obedience School! Mona almost wished that some bad guy would come and steal a million NP from the bank, just so that she could have something to do!

      Suddenly, she heard a voice calling for her. "Mona-Elisa!" It was little Calliope, a moderately intellectual baby Kacheek from down the street. Callie was only three, but very smart for her age, not to mention talented. Mona knew that she was a good singer, and also had a very big vocabulary for such a small little Neopet.

     The little purple Neopet tugged at the hem of Mona_Elisa's pretty light pink shirt.

     "Mona-Elisa! I have a mystery for you to solve!"

     Mona jumped to her feet. She was always ready for any puzzle that would fly her way! "So what is it this time? Did someone rob the bank? Stolen Hidden Tower item? Whatever it is, I'm ready!" Mona was so excited! She punched the air and accidentally hit her face in the process. As she rubbed her nose and shrieked with pain, Calliope explained her situation.

     "My fuzzie bear went poof!" the little Kacheek wailed. "I need you to find Mr. Applesauce! Please hurry!" Mona was disappointed-and a bit annoyed-that it wasn't anything big. "A fuzzie bear? Callie, I have better things to do than to look for an old, dirty fuzzie bear! Especially one named Mr. Applesauce," she added.

      "Like what?" Callie inquired. Mona tried desperately to think of something, but nothing popped up in her mind. "The point is," she snapped, "I only have time to solve important mysteries, like if a Faerie Queen Doll was stolen, or something. It might not look it, but I'm very, very, busy, you know!"

      Calliope groaned. "Aw, come on, Mona-Elisa. You looked really bored to me. Please? Pretty please with a cherry on top?"

      "I don't like cherries," Mona snapped again, but then she grinned and patted Callie's head. "Alright, then, I'll help you. Hang on, let me get me mystery solving stuff!" And with that, Mona dashed inside her Neohome to retrieve her notebook, a pencil, and her magnifying glass.

     "A good detective's best friends," Mona-Elisa laughed as she flipped open her sparkly orange notebook. Mona had glued rhinestones on it to make it prettier. She then took out a pencil and started interrogating the baby Kacheek.

      "Okay, do you have any suspects in mind?" she asked Callie. The little Kacheek looked blank, so she groaned and said, "Do you know what a suspect it?" Calliope shook her head, so Mona-Elisa sighed and explained, "Like, can you think of anyone who could have taken your fuzzie bear?"

      Callie gasped and clasped her hands up against her mouth. "Mr. Cuddlykins! I knew he was bad news!"

      "Who's Mr. Cuddlykins...?" Mona asked rather hesitantly.

     "My blue Kacheek plushie," Callie answered. "He must have taken my bear 'cause he's jealous that I didn't invite him to my tea party!"

      "Your blue Kacheek plushie?" Mona groaned. "Calliope, we're being serious here!"

      "Okay, then, how about Ms. Pumpernickel across the street?" Calliope suggested. "You know, that mean Shoyru. She's so old and crabby. And plus, she hates little kids and we didn't invite her, neither!"

      "And she's also a fuzzie bear collector!" Mona-Elisa said slowly. "How obvious!" The striped Aisha quickly scribbled down Ms. Ivy Pumpernickel's name onto her notebook. "Well, can you think of anybody else?"

      "Miss Annie," Callie thought aloud. "She wasn't invited to Mr. Applesauce's tea party, neither! Such a shame, my mommy just got me a new set of plates, too."

      "Calliope! Your little stuffed friends couldn't have done it! Think of someone else, like a real live NEOPET, maybe."

      "Hmmmm," Callie looked thoughtful. "Maybe Cole. Mr. Applesauce didn't invite him, neither."

      "Oh, forget your little plushies already!" Mona felt like yanking out her extra pair of Aisha ears because of her impatient temper, but then she remembered that Calliope was only three, so she took a deep breath and tried to control herself.

      "But Cole's not plushie!" Calliope giggled. "He's my big brother, a shadow Kacheek! And you know, he really hates me. Maybe I should have invited him to one of my tea parties."

      "Ah! Now we're getting somewhere." Mona-Elisa sighed and scribbled Cole's name into her notebook. "Well, let's go take a look at the scene of the crime!"

      Calliope lived only a few houses away from Mona-Elisa, so it was easy for Calliope and Mona-Elisa to walk there. However, when they got there, they discovered some muddy footprints on the ground leading from Callie's house to Ms. Pumpernickel's across the street.

      Mona-Elisa took out her magnifying glass and studied the footprints. She then sketched them into her notebook. "Footprints," she muttered. "It looks like they belong to a Shoyru. Very suspicious, don't you think? Maybe it's crabby old Pumpernickel's. Maybe she came to steal the your fuzzie bear for her collection!"

      Suddenly, a dark Neopet on a bike whizzed passes them, narrowly missing Calliope. "Hey, watch it!" Mona yelled at him, shaking her fist and accidentally hitting her face again. She turned and gasped. "Hey! YOU DESTROYED THE FOOTPRINTS!" she wailed. "YOU WILL PAY!" The Neopet pedaled back and gave her a strange look.

      The Neopet was a Kacheek, shadow with familiar blue eyes. Mona scratched her head. "You look familiar," she said. "Now, what was your name again... ?"

      "Cole!" Calliope gasped. "Your feet matches these footprints!"

      "Eh?" Mona-Elisa turned and saw that Callie had stolen her notebook and was comparing the sketch with the boy's shoe. Mona pointed at the daredevil on the bike.

      "You're Cole?" Mona raised her eyebrows. "And these are your footprints? Kacheek footprints? Very suspicious! You know these footprints lead to Ms. Pumpernickel's, don't you? Of course you do! You made them! What were you doing there? Plotting to steal the poor girl's fuzzie bear, were you?" Mona hugged Calliope and stuck her tongue out at Cole. "Well, mister, I'M ONTO YOU!"

      Cole looked at Mona as if she was crazy (well, she kind of was...). "Nah, I was just selling some cookies. Earning extra money, you know? There's a new skateboard on sale. But anyways, Pumpernickel wasn't there. I'd be slower to jump to conclusions if I were you. See ya, dudettes!" And with that, Cole pedaled away. Mona-Elisa happily waved and called out, "Okay! Bye-bye!"

      Mona jotted down some notes in her notebook and said to Callie, "Let's go check out Pumpernickel's first, then."

      It turned out that Ms. Pumpernickel wasn't there, just like Cole said, so the two went back to their original destination-Calliope's house.

      When they arrived at Callie's house, she led the way up the stairs and into her room. It was pastel pink and filled with plushies and dolls.

      "That's where I left Mr. Applesauce before I took my nap." Calliope pointed to a small pink rocking chair at the corner of the room., surrounded by a pile of sweet-looking dolls. "When I woke up, it was gone."

      Mona took out her magnifying glass from her pocket. Like all of her equipment, it was neatly accessorized, with small pink rhinestones glued to the edges. She peered into it and inspected the chair.

      "Hmmm... very interesting," she muttered. "Very, very interesting."

      "What's interesting mean?" Callie asked. Mona groaned and said, "Well, it means, like, well, funny, or strange, or exciting, or cool. And this chair has very important clues on it. Very interesting, indeed!"

      "Okay, then. What's so interesting?" Callie asked impatiently. Mona shrugged. "I don't know. I just wanted to sound like I'm onto something, which I honestly am not. But don't worry, I-WAIT!" Mona added suddenly. Callie jumped.

      "What?" she said keenly.

      Mona replied, "You don't happen to have a really furry kind of petpet, do you? Like... a pink triffin, maybe?

      "No," Callie said excitedly. "Unless I just got a new one and no one told me. I've been wanting one forever, but my mommy says my babaa is enough!"

      "Oh, so you have a babaa," Mona laughed. "That works too. Is it pink?"

     "Catrina? Yes, she's a pink babaa. And really furry, too! Why do you ask?"

     "See, I found these pink hairs on this chair. Hey, I just rhymed!" Mona pointed to the rocking chair.

     "I don't see anything." Callie squinted.

     "That's because it blends in with the pink rocking chair. But if you look through the magnifying glass, you can see it. See?"

     Callie took the magnifying glass. "Hey, my brother tried to burn some flankins with this thing once, but they were already on fire. I ran away as hard as I could, but it did sound kinda... um, interesting.."

     "Oh, good idea. We should go visit your brother's room, to see if we can catch any more clues." Mona scribbled down Catrina, Calliope's babaa's name, into the orange notebook, along with some more notes on the rocking chair and babaa hairs. Then, the two headed for Calliope's big brother's room.

      Cole's room was a mess! There were clothes and stacks of unimportant papers everywhere. On the desk were two boxes of cookies. "Well, he wasn't lying about those cookies, I guess," Mona said with a puzzled expression on her face. The striped Aisha walked over to inspect the boxes.

     "Hey, what's this pair of scissors doing here?" She picked the scissors up and inspected it with her magnifying glass. "Hey!" she gasped. "There's fuzzy fabric on this thing, and lots of cotton." Mona turned and saw a pile of small shreds of white fabric and a whole lot of fluff on the floor.

      "Mr. Applesauce! Nooo!" Callie started wailing. "Why? Why? He never did anything to Cole! Well, except that one time, but that was an accident."

      "Er, I think we found your fuzzie bear," Mona inspected the bear's remains. "Hmmm... there's babaa hair here, too. That's weird."

      "Well, Catrina is a fluffy babaa," Calliope sniffed. "And she sheds a lot. And she likes to sleep in Cole's room, so there would be a lot of pink hair here, right? I think Cole took Mr. Applesauce."

      "Maybe." Mona-Elisa jotted down some more notes. "Cole hates you, so he has a good reason to steal Mr. Applesauce. And I don't think it was Ms. Pumpernickel. Why would she steal your fuzzie bear and rip it into pieces if she wants it for her collection? But it could still be the babaa, there's a lot of pink hair here!

      "Well, off to look for more clues!" Mona-Elisa said cheerfully as she put her notebook back in her pink bag. She then took out her magnifying glass and started walking back towards Calliope's room and tripped on one of Callie's dolls.

      "Oh, no!" Callie giggled as she picked the raggedy doll. "Don't worry, Miss Magdalena. I'm sure Mona-Elisa didn't mean to hurt you."

      "What do you mean? Your little doll hurt me!" Mona sniffed as she rubbed her nose. "This is the third time my poor nose has been attacked today. My poor nose! Hey!" Mona-Elisa studied the floor with her magnifying glass. "What's this? It's a trail of pink hair, and creamy fuzzie bear hair! Aha, this proves that your babaa stole your fuzzie bear. Come take a look!"

      Calliope, who was brushing Miss Magdalena's bright red orange hair, reluctantly took the magnifying glass. "Hey, do you think there are any flankins around here for me to burn?"

      Mona snatched it back. "Be serious now," she demanded as she scribbled some more notes in her notebook. Suddenly, a sound came from downstairs.

      "Oh, goodie! It's Cole," Callie said somewhat sarcastically.

      "Oh, goodie!" Mona repeated, but in a different tone. "Now we can question him."

      "Why?" Callie frowned.

      "Well," Mona-Elisa said somewhat proudly while reviewing her notes, "I think I've got this all figured out. You were getting ready to take your nap, so you put Mr. Applesauce on the rocking chair. While you were sleeping, Catrina, the pink babaa, sneaked in your room and stole your fuzzie bear. She dropped Mr. Applesauce in Cole's room, and when Cole came back, he discovered your fuzzie bear and with the scissors, ripped it into pieces."

     Mona and Calliope went downstairs to confront Cole. Though reluctant, he soon admitted to destroying the bear.

     "It's because I was angry!" He sniffed. "Calliope didn't invite me to her tea party. And then I saw that Mr. Applesauce was invited, and I wasn't, and I just got really jealous. So, when I found him in my room, I took my scissors and destroyed him! I mean, totally, it tore me to pieces when I found out that I wasn't invited."

     "Ooooookaaaaay." Mona slowly backed away from Cole. "Well, we got that. Let's go find the babaa."

     They found the lazy, pink babaa basking in the sun on the windowsill near the kitchen sink.

     Calliope turned off the lights, and Mona took out a flashlight and shone it at the cat to create a suspenseful scene. "We know you stole Calliope's bear," she said menacingly. "Admit it!" Mona-Elisa shook the flashlight in the air excitedly and accidentally hit her nose again.

     The babaa just yawned and went back to sleep. "I'll take that as a confession!" Mona-Elisa said dramatically while trying to ease the pain in her nose. "Case Closed!"

     In the end, Cole was grounded for two weeks and Catrina was given a good scolding. And Ms. Pumpernickel felt so bad that she gave Calliope a brand-new teddy bear from her collection! Callie affectionately named her new bear 'Mr. Avocado,' and everyone was happy.

     Well, except for Mona-Elisa, the striped Aisha and the best detective in town.. She had a bruise on her nose.

The End