A Tale of a Bori

     His closed eyes wriggled open bit by bit as if there were iron weights at the end of each of his eyes; these weights were trying to close his eyes so that he may fall back into the drifting dream he had. But a gentle shaking forced those weights to fall off, so that young pet had a chance to fully awaken.

     "Get up, Kirk," a honey sweet voice spoke gently as the pet's arm was shaken again. "You're going to be late for your first day of school! You don't want that, do you?"

     Now with eyes fully open, the Kirk stretched, yawned and sat upright in his bed. "Of course not, mother!" He smiled at his purple Eyrie mother. "I was having a good dream, that's all."

     The Eyrie nodded her head. "Well now that you're awake, hurry and get ready for school; your breakfast is waiting downstairs." She patted her son's arm and walked calmly across the bedroom and towards the door, her long skirt sweeping gently against the wooden flooring.

     The yellow-furred pet watched his mother leave the room, smiled, and prepared himself to get out from the safety of his bed sheets. But in his excitement and apprehension, his legs could not do the task of simply getting out of the bed. It was as if there was some outside force, cold and bitter, just waiting to nip at him at the first moment he escaped the warmth and security of the green sheets. Hesitant, he looked over the side of the bed to make sure that his Cybunny slippers were there, ready to protect him from the cold he feared.

     Taking in one long breath, he pulled off the Snorkle sheets and leapt into the white Cybunny slippers. Everything was a little chilly at first, but soon became warmer. It was not as bad as he had anticipated; he became adjusted to the temperature almost at once.

     After eating the breakfast happily his mother set out for him in the kitchen, he raced on to his bathroom, brushed his teeth and hair, slipped on his uniform, and raced out again to meet his mother, who held a blue jacket in one paw and her son's schoolbag in the other. She smiled as she spoke, "Let me walk you to school today." Her son returned the smile as he slipped on his hooded-jacket then his green backpack and waltzed cheerfully out of the front door, purple Eyrie at his heels.

     With hood over his head and jacket zipped up tight, because of the nippy winter weather outside, the enthusiastic young pet and his kind mother arrived at the school. Mother and son exchanged good-bye waves. After the boy watched his mother go while wondering if his new classmates would accept him, for he was new and fairly different to them. He turned to face the school building, heaved a sigh, and walked in the new building.

     New scents of colouring pencils, ink pens, and musty old lockers mingled all together and hit the roof of the newcomer's mouth like a dozen heavy boulders. His eyes were wide with wonder as he peered down every which way, glancing and reading every sign and poster stuck upon the walls, and making notes of where everything was; the toilets, principal's office, and the lost and found.

     Now realizing that he had to be on the look-out for his new classroom, he glanced down at the small piece of paper that he had written the room number down on. "23 E" It refreshed Kirk's memory and he glanced up at the doors he was passing. 21 E, 22 E, Ah! Kirk almost exclaimed in his nervous excitement; 23 E.

     With a trembling yellow paw, Kirk grasped the brass handle of the door, gulped and opened it slightly as he peered around the corner, as if he was expecting for Dr. Sloth to jump out in his underwear right in front of him. Instead, he only perceived a small classroom of students, all of them sitting still and completely hushed. Kirk was a little hesitant if these students might be robots, for at his old school, all the students were talking loudly amongst themselves. Only when someone from the front row yelled out, "Oh, it's only some kid!" and everyone began talking, broke his suspicions.

     Kirk entered the room, unsure of how to act and where to sit or what to do. Relief washed over him when he saw his teacher, a female rainbow Kau, walked in the door and the students were hushed up. Kirk told her something in a quiet whisper, and it seemed as if all of the students were leaning forward in the desks, trying to listen in to what young Kirk was trying to say. The teacher gave a brief nod and pointed to a seat in the few rows of desks, Kirk scrambling over there to sit down.

     Some students peered at Kirk through the corner of their eye, but their attention was drawn back to their teacher once she began to speak. "Attention class! We have a new student who just moved here from Happy Valley!" All eyes shifted to Kirk then back to their teacher. "Kirk, will you please come up here and tell the class a little bit about yourself? Oh, and please take off your jacket, especially your hood as it is disrespectful."

     Silently and quickly, Kirk unzipped his jacket, a dozen pairs of eyes staring at him, and a few shocked gasps when he removed the jacket, so that everyone could see what species he was. Kirk hurried up to the front, shuffled his feet, and was about to speak when someone from the school's staff walked into the classroom.

     "Mrs. Brown? You have a very important Neomail waiting for you in the office." Immediately, the Kau rushed out of the room, leaving Kirk alone in the room with the staring spectators. As soon as everyone was sure their teacher was out of hearing range, one student from the back shouted, "So? Aren't you going to tell us about yourself, new kid?!"

     Kirk gulped and felt extremely hot, as if he was about to faint in front of the entire class. Instead, he sighed and began to tell everyone about himself. "Well…Um, my name is Kirk and um, I just moved here from Happy Valley…And, uh, my favourite petpet is a Snorkle I actually have one named Pork Chop. And…"

     Spontaneously, a student from the audience in the classroom yelled at the top of his lungs in a very confused yet harsh tone, "Yeah, we don't really care!! All we want to know is…What in the name of Coltzan ARE you?!"

     Kirk looked confused as he cocked his head to one side and stared blankly at the classroom full of students, who were now asking each other and Kirk the same question. "Why, I'm a Bori of course! Duh!"

     The chit chat went into an immediate hush and now the students returned Kirk's confused stare with one of their own. "…A…Bori?!"

     "Well, yes. I'm a Bori from Happy Valley. There's many Bori there." Then it struck Kirk like how a hammer hits a nail straight on the head. There were no Bori in Neopia.

     "You're crazy!!" Some of the students yelled. Others giggled and laughed as they gossiped and pointed to Kirk, who was now burning up in sheer embarrassment, and Kirk swore that he could FEEL himself getting red.

     "There's no such thing as a Bori!" Others yelled. "I bet that he went to the lab ray and he got zapped too long!! Ha, ha, ha!!" More laughs erupted from the classroom.

     Kirk felt as if he were going to faint once more from the embarrassment. He couldn't escape it and froze like a stray animal in the midst of a bright light. But when his mind was about to collapse, in walked Mrs. Brown, looking happily and calm.

     "Alright, thank you Kirk. I hope you have a good time here at Neoschool. Now, please sit down you, uh…Uh…Whatever you are." (From this she was referring to a type of species of pet) A few more giggles could be heard from the students.

     Kirk sat down dejectedly in his new seat, as he mumbled silently under his breath, "I'm a Bori."

     A few weeks past and nothing ever changed the students' minds about Kirk. They all thought he was a nut case and even said that he "Should stop using the lab ray because it rattles up your brain." Kirk sat alone under the shade of a giant tree, and he slowly munched on his lunch while reading an issue of Neopian Petpets. This issue was favourable to Kirk for it featured Snorkles. After he swallowed the last bite of his sandwich and was ready to turn the next page in his magazine, a long shadow cast over him.

     Thinking that it was another student coming to jeer and tease him. He set down his magazine and looked at his feet while saying, "If you're here to poke fun at me and call me a nut, then go ahead. I'm used to it."

     But instead of hearing 'Yeah, you're crazy!' or 'There isn't a 49th Neopet! Ha, ha, ha!', he heard a sweet angelic girl's voice and she seemed to sing out the words, "Poke fun? Why would I want to do that?!"

     Kirk shot his head up and smiled unbelievingly at the sight that he perceived. For there, standing in front of the yellow Bori was another Bori, only this one was red. Hardly getting out a word, Kirk managed to breath out a "Hi!"

     The Bori girl smiled back at him and noticed the magazine sitting next to him on the soft grass. "Hey! You read Neopian Petpets, too? Wow! I didn't think there was any one here that liked that magazine but me!" She laughed a little and sat down next to Kirk.

     "Did you just move here?" Kirk inquired, fascinated by the girl and her passion for Snorkles as well as he.

     "Um, why yes, from Happy Valley, of course."

     "I didn't think there were any other Bori in the city! It's nice to know there's someone like me to stick together with. All the others have been calling me names from the moment I arrived here." Kirk sighed and looked back at the red Bori. "By the way, my name's Kirk."

     "Mine's Lilly, and it's nice to meet you Kirk! I'm sure that if we stick together, the others won't call us any names, because I have just proved them wrong that there ARE Bori, and they are not some imaginary or scientific experiment gone wrong."

     Kirk nodded and smiled and realized that this meeting was now similar to his first day of school, and what happened in the morning. When he had leapt out of bed, the room had been cold and icy compared to his warm bed and bed sheets. But once he had slipped the slippers on and got acquainted to the temperature, he was fine. Just like that, when he moved to Neopia, everything seemed cold, icy, or unfamiliar, and harsh. But once he had gotten used to the schools and the way people ran their lives around here compared to Happy Valley, it didn't seem so bad. It was especially better now that he had put on his Cybunny slippers, or found another Bori to be friends with.

     And no one ever made fun of Kirk and Lilly because they were Bori.

The End.