Another Story: Part One

"Jackie!" A yellow Xweetok screamed at the top of his lungs to a blue Xweetok sitting next to Kiko Lake. The body of water in the town, that is, not the actual town. As someone suddenly appearing whilst one was spacing out, staring into a lake might startle one, the blue Xweetok jumped to her feet, stumbled, and fell into the previously mentioned lake.

     Jackie let out a groan. "It's so extremely wonderful to be wet, isn't it, Milo?"

     Milo ignored her. "Guess what?" he said, panting.

     The Blue Xweetok sighed. "What?"

     "I'll just ignore the fact you didn't guess anything. I finally saved up enough Neopoints for my ticket!"

     His friend's mood immediately brightened. "Woo hoo! Virtupets, here we come!"

     "Now..." Jackie walked to her backpack, which she had set several feet away from the water, and pulled out a towel (She had a tendency to fall into lakes), a notepad and pencil. "Get three tickets to the Spaces Station, check. So all we have to do now is inform our parents that we're giving them a vacation from child care, get Fredrick, pack, get on the rocket thing, and enjoy two weeks at the awesomest place outside Neopia!"

     "I have a feeling there's something we're forgetting..." Milo said, snatching the notepad and flipping through it.

     Just then, a blue Kougra, munching on an apple, walked up to them.

     "Hey," he said, mid chew.

     "Now that we've remembered, can I have my notepad back?"

     "Dude!" Milo yelled to his Kougra friend, "I got the money! I bought the ticket!"

     The one called "dude" threw his apple up in the air and began to sing his favorite 2 Gallon Hatz song, "Here at Last".

     Ever since the three had done a group project on the Space Station, they were convinced that it was the best place in the universe. Therefore, they had spent a night filled with apples and Chomby and The Fungus Balls plotting how to get there. They also read many travel brochures.

     "Cam, stop. Please. Just stop," pleaded Jackie, clutching her ears.

      ~*~

     An old red Lupe sat in his old green armchair. He wasn't reading, writing a neomail, or eating.

     He simply sat. And pondered the mysteries of life. And why pondering the mysteries of life could be so boring sometimes.

     Just as he was beginning to ponder whether or not he should switch to reading the comics in The Kiko Enquire, he heard a knock at his old front door. The Lupe smiled, knowing it could only be one group of people. Or the pizza delivery guy. Either way, he would be happy.

     And, much to his delight, it was three children at his door, Jackie, Cameron, and Milo.

     Holding a large cheese pizza.

     "Hi, Fredrick. We came to tell you we got all the tickets, and to start packing." A broad grin was on Milo's face.

     "And," added Cameron, "we saw the pizza guy on the way over and brought your order with us."

     Fredrick took the pizza and set it on his old, worn table. "Well, as a celebration of this fine event, why don't we all have some pizza?"

     The kids had put their old friend in their plan for a few reasons: A, he was fun to be around. B, brochure #7 said all children must have a chaperone staying with them on vacations. And C, they did community service for extra credit, so they had to visit Fredrick at least every Wednesday.

     While Jackie and Cameron fought over an abnormally large slice of cheesey goodness, Milo and Fredrick went into the kitchen to get neocola for everyone.

     "I just hope my back doesn't go out in all the excitement of the arrival." Fredrick got out some glasses.

     "If it does, there's a disability shop, where we can rent a wheelchair," Milo replied, looking through the refrigerator.

     The old Lupe looked surprised. "My, they think of everything at that fancy place, don't they?"

     "Well," Milo closed the cold door, neocola in hand, "it is the land of the future."

      ~*~

     It was the last night before they set off for said "Land of the Future", and the Xweetoks and Kougra were sitting in Jackie's room, making sure everything was packed, ready, and planned.

     "Okay, Cam, you remembered clothes this time, right?"

     The blue Kougra looked inside his backpack, and nodded. "And I have a 2 Gallon Hatz CD."

     Jackie, scribbling in her notepad, cringed. "I'm glad I've got my own room; I can't stand the Hatz. Which is why I'm also bringing earplugs and a Twisted Roses CD, to drown it out, because no doubt you'll be playing it so loud it'll go through the wall. I just wish Rocky could come." She hugged her pet rock.

     "The sad thing is, Cam, she loves a rock more than us."

     Cameron put on a dramatically sad face. "But still, Jackie, do you really think they'd consider a rock a pet?"

     The blue Xweetok stuck her tongue out at her friends sitting on the fluffy green rug from her spot on the bed. "He is a pet, and anyway, in brochure #13 it said no petpets were permitted, stone or otherwise."

     Milo sighed. "You're very stubborn about this pet versus inanimate object business, aren't you? If you want, my little sister can take care of Rocky, like she's taking care of my Doglefox. I don't think she'll mind much," he said with a mischievous grin.

     Jackie was just about to reply with a snarky comeback when Cameron shouted.

     "Shoot!"

     "What?!" the Xweetoks yelled back simultaneously.

     "I left my coupon for a free Cherries Jubalee at my Grandma's house!"

      ~*~

     "Why did we take our bikes again? My legs are getting sore, and we could have been on the nice, comfy bus to Neopia Central," Cameron complained.

     Milo glared at him. "Because we wanted to save money for the arcade, and anyway, it was your idea, genius."

     "Okay, no fighting on the road, or you'll crash into the rose bush like last time. Besides, this is more fun, less smelly, and we're gonna need exercise if we ever want to see the entire Space Station in two weeks," said Jackie.

     The boys' ears turned red.

     "We were, like, nine when we crashed into Mrs. Wright's roses!"

     Cameron resisted the urge to rub his nose, which would cause him to lose control of his bike. "My nose hurts just thinking about it."

     ~*~

     "Whoa."

     "Goodness."

     "Man."

     "Wow."

     The four stared in awe at the spaceship that sat before them. Their ship had arrived just now, and if they wanted to make it to the Station they'd have to board within the next ten seconds. So they stared at the magnificent thing for eight.

     None of them had ever seen anything like it, outside of books and brochure #32.

     They sat in their seats twenty minutes later, gaping at the stars surrounding them.

     "Wow," Cameron said, "This is amazing," the blue Kougra was obviously humbled by the vast beauty of space. "It's like a thousa- Blaah!!"

     An evil fuzzle smashed against his window, before floating back off into the universe.

     "I told you to read the warnings on brochure #32. That's why nobody fought with you for the window seat," Milo scolded.

     Fredrick tried unsuccessfully to hold back a laugh.

     Jackie didn't even do that.

      ~*~

     Wow, Milo thought, it's so... big... and... metallic... and... window-y... and I think I'm spending a little too much time with Cam...

     He and the others had arrived a few hours ago, and after unpacking and looking at some of the places they had read about in brochures #50, #3, #72 and #12, they headed to Grundo's for lunch and came back to one of the main halls to walk around aimlessly and stare at the people and little rocket things that the people drove around in.

     Needless to say, these pets didn't venture outside of Kiko Lake much.

     Fredrick was with Milo, listening to an alien Aisha tour guide, Jackie was looking at people work outside one of the humungus windows, probably wondering who the poor soul who cleaned those things was, and Cameron had been riding the moving stairs the Station residents called "escalators" for the past fifteen minutes, much to the annoyance of everyone else.

     He was already a spectacle, wearing an "I Heart Apples" T-shirt and jeans, while everyone else was wearing suit-like outfits made out of a peculiar fabric Milo didn't recognise.

     And he was singing "Here at Last". Milo walked up to the escalator and threw a wad of paper at him so he'd shut up, before returning to being educated on those little rocket-like things.

     He only had a few moments before the day took a turn for the worse.

To be continued...