The Move

      I was excited for this kind of day. I loved visiting all of my cousins, but my favourite cousins were on Roo Island. Ever since Roo Island went through a huge reconstruction to attract more tourists, it’s been a lot more fun to visit and my cousins who live there are as exciting as the island itself. I would’ve been fine with any family of cousins to visit but I’m so happy it was these guys! They reminded me of how excited Spike can get, which has previously lead to some of the most fun in my life. Slim, my little Christmas Slorg, was as excited as I was to see the cousins’ petpets, since they were fun too.

      The carriage ride was short but when I got off of the carriage, I was excited to see all the hustle and bustle of Roo Island. Pets, petpets, and owners were moving around to do everything that the island could offer. The carriage dropped me off in front of a giant apartment complex. My cousins didn’t live in a house since they wanted to live close to the beach and didn’t mind the smaller space.

      I went up to their floor and knocked on their door. The door opened to a red Lenny, smiling the biggest smile you could see on a Lenny. “Joey, Aren, Kon is here!” she yelled into the apartment.

      The Lenny picked me up and gave me a hug that squeezed all the air out of my small, round body. “Hi Bonzi,” I replied weakly.

      Behind Bonzi, I saw a blue Quiggle run over to give both of us a hug. “Kon, it’s so good to see you! I can’t wait to live with you in Shenkuu!” Joey shouted with joy.

      Joey put Bonzi and I down and Bonzi put me down. “So, I assume you guys are all packed up?” I asked.

      Bonzi and Joey both nodded very quickly, as if proud of their accomplishment. I noticed that Arenesia had not shown up yet. “Where is Aren?” I asked.

      Both of them looked back into the apartment and Bonzi said, “She’s probably moping that we’re leaving Roo Island for Shenkuu. We know how much she loves this place.”

      Joey turned back to me, still smiling, and led me inside with Slim. “Can I hold Slim?” Joey asked anxiously.

      I sighed and said, “Sure, but please be careful”

      Joey ran to his room and ran back with his Slorg gloves on. Joey loved Slorgs with all of his heart but has a huge phobia of holding them. That’s why his petpet is a Tapira named Andrew and not a Slorg. “He looks so cute. Man, I wish I could like Slorgs more,” Joey said, slightly upset with himself.

      “Kon, tell us what Shenkuu’s like!” Bonzi asked, signalling me to change the subject.

      I took the hint and started to explain my daily life, “Well, waking up in the morning is fun. We live on one of the tallest hills in Shenkuu so we can see the mist covering the main city. We can see the flying ships take off and come back so transportation is easy and it snows a lot.”

      “A lot? Ugh, that’s going to be awful,” said a familiar voice in a thick, Lost Desert accent. I turned around and saw a red Elephante walk over as if she was posing on some sort of runway.

      “Hi Aren, Kon’s here! How are you?” Joey asked.

      “Whatever. Kon, my stuff is packed so can you please take it out to the carriage? Chop chop!” She was more spoiled than Ursula. Now I remember why I never visited: Arenesia was a bigger spoiled princess than Ursula. She was originally from the Lost Desert and acted as if that made her royalty. I felt bad for Bonzi and Joey because they loved Arenesia with all of their heart but were too naive to realize how rude she actually was.

      “The carriages aren’t coming for a couple of hours because it was expected that you wouldn’t be packed right away so we have time and I have some Neopoints on hand to go shopping.” As I said that, Arenesia’s eyes lit up.

      “Why didn’t you say so? We should head out right away!” Arenesia said, thinking she could just go clothes shopping.

      “Not so fast; this money is for food and drinks only. I was thinking we could all go to the coffee shop,” I suggested.

      Bonzi and Joey looked excited while Arenesia just looked sadder. Bonzi and Joey grabbed their petpets and rushed out the door while I put Slim on my head. “Arenesia, are you coming with us?” I asked.

      She scoffed and said, “I think my time would be best spent making sure I have packed all of my amazing valuables. I hope you would agree.”

      I rolled my eyes and closed the door behind me. I went downstairs and saw Bonzi and Joey, jumping up and down in excitement. Maybe I shouldn’t let them have too much to drink at the coffee shop, I thought.

      They both pulled me forward, down the boardwalk and past the beach. While we were walking through Roo Island, I asked, “Why is Arenesia so grumpy?”

      “She’s upset because we have petpets and she doesn’t,” Bonzi explained as we passed by the Roo Island game arcade.

      “Why can’t she get one? Hannah has hundreds of available petpets and she would probably be happy to give her one if it’ll shut her up.” I shouldn’t have asked that because the answer should’ve seemed obvious.

      “Well, Aren doesn’t want just ANY petpet; she wants a Candychan,” Joey said as he let go of my hand.

      “Specifically, a royal Candychan,” Bonzi said as she let go of my hand. I started to do the mental math in my head to calculate how much that would be for Arenesia.

      “She wants a petpet that’s worth over eleven million Neopoints?! That’s almost Hannah’s entire fortune!” I almost shouted.

      “Well, yeah, but she deserves it!” Bonzi was extremely wrong because someone like Arenesia did not deserve a petpet worth that much. I didn’t even think anyone in my immediate family deserved a pet that expensive, even me. Slim was worth maybe a couple thousand and I was completely fine with it.

      “Why does she deserve a petpet worth so much when you both have unpainted petpets?” I asked.

      Bonzi shrugged and said, “I like Mustard the way she is but some pets want more and I think that’s ok!”

      I didn’t want to argue why she should be upset that Arenesia thinks she is worth enough to have a royal Candychan but Bonzi thinks she’s only worth an unpainted Intesteen. I wish Bonzi thought better of herself instead of thinking her older sister was worth the world and a half because she was from the Lost Desert.

      I stopped thinking about that when we came onto the creative section of Roo Island. Everything from poetry to storytelling to art was here. “You think Hannah’s work is here?” Joey asked as we passed by the art being shown outside.

      “She definitely has some poetry here and whenever something interesting happens, she sends it into the Neopian Times and gets in,” I explained.

      Joey and Bonzi stopped to admire the sights and Bonzi interrupted by asking, “Is this how Hannah makes her income?”

      “Definitely. She had to have made her fortune one way or another.” I got Joey and Bonzi to start moving again and we were finally able to make it to the coffee shop. The smell of coffee wafted through the air with snacks inside a glass display in front of the counter.

      “Welcome to the Coffee Cave! Creative owners and their pets get a discount upon purchase,” said the yellow Shoyru shopkeeper.

      Bonzi and Joey ran up to the front counter and started to list off foods they might want. I came up to the front counter and said, “Hi, can we take two Tigersquash Ice Creams, two Tigersquash Squishy Cakes, two Lemon Iced Teas, and a Thornberry Java with Cream.”

      The Shoyru chuckled and asked, “Long day, huh?”

      I paid for the snacks and sat down at a booth while Bonzi and Joey munched down on their food. “Is the food this good in Shenkuu?” Bonzi asked with her beak full of cake.

      I sipped on my coffee so I could keep up with their energy and explained, “We usually only eat when we go out. Hannah has so much food stockpiled that if every shop suddenly stopped selling food, we would probably be able to survive for the next twenty years.”

      “Is the food she has not that good?” Bonzi asked as she slowed down her chewing.

      “It’s fine, it’s whatever. We get jellies and omelettes, the main stuff. We also get energy drinks and sodas,” I answered.

      Bonzi and Joey’s eyes lit up with excitement. “We’ve never had any energy drinks before,” Joey said before drinking his iced tea.

      I realized the mistake of mentioning something with caffeine to two of the more hyper cousins.

     To be continued…