Lucky Me: Part Two

      Aura didn’t care if Amanda didn’t want her anymore. She was a Faerie Kougra, so she wouldn’t be in the pound for long, but the one thing that was tearing her apart was Sage.

      She never got to say good bye to Sage because Amanda had sent her over to the neighbor’s house, a crazy (insane) female Shadow Xweetok and a sane male Blue Gelert, to stay for the day. I wonder if she told him yet that she was getting rid of me today, Aura wondered as they walked through the two large wooden doors of the Neopian Pound.

      The doors led out into a small, but cozy looking welcoming room. It had Luxury sofas on both sides of the walls which were filled with neopets, some sad and others happy, and their owners, who all really just looked the same. Altador rugs made a pathway to a small desk at the center of the room at which a White Usul was sitting behind. Amanda started walking toward the desk, and Aura had no choice but to follow.

      “May I help you?” the White Usul asked in a bored tone without looking up from the notepad she was writing in.

      “Umm, yes,” Amanda replied and pulled out a white envelope from her back jean pocket, “I’m here with Aura. I set up an appointment last night so there should be no problem.” The White Usul was now flipping rapidly through some papers she had taken out from what appeared like nowhere and then she took out one and set the rest down on the desk.

      “Ah, yes,” she said, her nose in the paper, “Miss Aura. Possibly previous owner Amanda Cyan. Possibly previous brother Sage, a Baby Lupe. Species Kougra. Color Faerie. Height 3 feet 10 inches. Weight 53 pounds. Criminal record none.” Why on Neopia would I have a criminal record! “Attending Neoschool with an A- average.” What! They said that it was an A average! “Battledome record 10:6.” It should be 16:0. “Fishing skill 23. Intelligence master genius with 30 books read. No site trophies. Never has been in the pound before. Is this same Aura that I have just described?” she asked finally looking up and pointing at Aura.

      “Why, yes,” Amanda said, “and I have the abandoned application right here,” she tapped the envelope and set it on top of the Usul’s desk, “and it’s all filled out as well.”

      She took the envelope, scanned over it for a brief moment, then she gave a sigh and said, “Alright, follow me,” and with that she got out of her chair and headed for the purple camouflage door to her left.

      Both of them followed the Usul through the door into a small office. It had two wooden chairs sitting right next to each other, a desk in the center, and a cream rug on the floor. It was nothing special to look at, but it seemed to be like a very important room.

      “Someone will be here soon to complete the abandonment paper work. In the meantime, you two make yourselves at home,” then she left the room without another word and left Amanda and Aura alone.

      Great, she thought as she took the only other seat beside Amanda, here comes the ever so common awkward moment of silence. And it was true. Neither of them talked to one another at all for ten minutes because there was nothing to say. Then the door opened, to Aura’s relief, and a Pink Lenny came in carrying with him a cream folder.

      “Is this Aura and Amanda?” he asked after looking down at the front of the folder’s cover.

      “Yes,” Amanda said as he nodded and walked over to the desk.

      “Alright then,” he said and sat down. He looked at the both of them, then continued, “You have the paperwork, I take it, Miss Amanda?”

      “Well, I did, but I gave it to the White Usul.”

      “Fine, very fine. Now are you sure that you wish to leave Miss Aura here? If you say yes, then you will most likely never see each other ever again.”

      “Yes, this is what I want to do.” It was as though someone had just stabbed Aura through her heart. Here was her owner, the one that she had loved ever since she created her, and now she was getting rid of her just like that. Aura fought back her tears and faced the facts. She wasn’t dreaming, it was real, and in reality Amanda had just chosen to get rid of her.

      “Very well,” he sighed, “say your good-byes.”

      Amanda got up out of her seat and turned to look at Aura, but she didn’t return her gaze. “Good bye, Aura,” she finally said. Then she thanked the Lenny and walked out of the room. The door clicked shut behind her and Aura broke out into tears.

      How could she do this to me! she wondered as the Lenny got up and hugged her. It was all an accident caused by that stupid necklace!

      “It’s alright, Aura,” he said, “You’ll get adopted soon. As a matter of fact, I think that someone has been looking for a painted Kougra. You’ll be out of here in no time!”

      “Thank you,” she said between her sobs.

      “Just don’t worry too much about it. You’ll get adopted by the end of the week, I guarantee it! The longest time a painted pet has been in the pound was three days!”

      Aura withdrew herself from his arms and nodded. “You’re right! There’s no way a Faerie Kougra will be in the pound for more than a day then!”

      “That’s the spirit!” he shouted and walked back behind the desk. He pressed a red button, and then a Shadow Xweetok came in.

      “You called me, Lesey?”

      “Don’t call me that for the last time!” he screamed, obviously annoyed.

      “Whatever.” She shrugged and turned her attention to Aura. “Let me guess. I need to help her get to her new room?”

      “Yes, that is your job, remember?”

      “Yeah, yeah. Where’s her key? Or does she get a normal one?”

      “No, she gets a key.” Then she produced a blue key from the folder. “She’ll be rooming with Sasha, the one who came here just a little while ago, remember?”

      “Alright already!” she said and got the key from the Lenny. Then she grabbed Aura’s bag and walked through a yellow doorway that Aura hadn’t noticed before. “Come on, Aura!” she called over her shoulder.

      Aura followed her through the doorway and found herself walking into a narrow brick hallway only big enough to fit maybe six neopets from one wall to the other. Old wooden doors lined the torchlit walls, but they didn’t stop at any of them. Instead they kept going through the hallway and found themselves in a much bigger hallway.

      It was silver, and wasn’t at all like the last one. It had chandeliers for lights, and you could easily fit twenty or more neopets from wall to wall, which were also lined with wooden doors that didn’t seem to match the silver wall at all.

      “So where did you come from?” the Shadow Xweetok asked as they continued down the hallway.

      “Oh, I lived at 35549 Market Street in Neopia Central. My owner was-” Aura stopped talking. The Shadow Xweetok had abruptly stopped and was now staring at her with big Buzz eyes.

      “No,” she said her jaw hanging open, “How could Amanda get rid of you! You were her first pet too! How could, and why, did she get rid of you, Aura?”

      At first Aura was totally confused because she didn’t think that she had ever seen her in her life. Then it hit her; this was her next door neighbor! “Oh Jemina! It was horrible! I was trying to bake something, but then it exploded and created a huge mess! As soon as Amanda saw it, she must have decided to get rid of me, and it’s all that stupid necklace’s fault!”

      “Necklace?” she asked, sounding more curious. “What necklace, Aura?”

      “That gold necklace with the purple gem in it that I got for last Christmas, and that’s what has been causing all of this to happen to me!”

      She seemed to be lost in her own thoughts, but then she snapped back to the present and said, “I’m really sorry that Amanda got rid of you, but I promise that you’ll have a great time here, and where is the necklace anyway?”

      “It’s gone.”

      “Gone?”

      “Yeah, gone. I got rid of it yesterday after it caused me to make that horrible mess that put me in the pound in the first place.”

      “Oh, all right.” Then they started down the hallway again without another word.

      They continued walking down the hallway until Jemina stopped in front of a wooden door that had ‘Blue Room’ written above it. “This will be your room,” she said and handed the key to Aura. “Sasha might be in there, but I’m not sure. Someone will be here later to give you two lunch, but don’t expect anything fancy. I’ll try to stop in later, but right now I have something else that I must see to immediately. So until we meet again, Aura, bye.” Then she left Aura in front of her new room alone.

     At first Aura wasn’t sure what to do. Then she put the key into the door and turned it. The door clicked open and then she went inside with her bag. The room was fairly large, and well furnished. It had two Regal Oak Wood Beds on opposite sides of the wall, two Wooden Desks with a Functional Grey Chair behind each one next to the beds, one Full Length Mirror in between the two beds, a Cream Rug at the center with a Tree Stump Table on top of it, and two White Arched Windows, one above each bed.

     All in all, the room was very cozy looking, but the furniture wasn’t what had caught her eye. A Christmas Kougra was sitting on the bed to her left, reading a book. She looked up and met Aura in the eyes, and then she put the book down and walked over. “Hi, I’m Sasha,” she said. Aura couldn’t respond, for something had caught her eye the moment the Christmas Kougra had gotten up.

     Around her neck was a golden necklace with a green gem.

To be continued...