Popular for the First Time: Part One

When you are a plain blue Uni, you don't feel special.

     Like me.

     When your owner blows her wallet on a big Neohome so we rarely have to leave it (since it's really cold in Terror Mountain) and PROMISES that you'll get painted eventually, you get false hope.

     Like me.

     When your owner then blows her wallet to paint your only little brother PURPLE, (he's a boy), you get angry.

     Like me.

     My name is Maybelle, and NOBODY calls me May, or I use my Unicorn Gem on them. I hate the name May. That's why I stick with Maybelle. Anyway, my owner (ST), my older brother (Butterscotch, a yellow Gelert), and my two younger siblings (Lem, a yellow Aisha and Cinn, a purple Wocky) live in a large Neohome on Summit Strip.

     This all started early one morning in the month of Hunting. I never know which season it is, because it is always snowing in Terror Mountain. When I came down into our fancy dining room for breakfast – hot cakes, strawberries, vanilla borovan, and two strips of bacon – my owner ST had a pleased look on her face.

     "Maybelle," she said, "you're going to school today!"

     I looked at her in horror – I wasn't the slightest bit willing to go to school. Butterscotch had told me about it lots of times before, but he said that it wasn't really fun.

     "C'mon, May, you're going to have a great time." She looked at me and messed up my mane.

     "Don't call me May," I growled.

     "I have your things right here." ST handed me a blue Cybunny backpack and lunchbox. "Butterscotch will walk with you so that you don't get lost. Now hurry up and get dressed."

     I never got dressed at eight AM, but school began at nine according to Butterscotch, so I figured I should follow ST's instructions.

     Supposedly, ST had bought me some nice clothes from the NC Mall and spiced them up a little bit. Sure enough, there was a Prissy Miss Snowflake gown on my bed. It had been altered so that the top part formed a "V" shape and the sleeves had been cut off. The holes for my arms had been lined with fur, however. I pulled that on with my Taelia coat. Then, I slipped a pair of blue fur boots on.

     As for my makeup, I wore blue lipstick, midnight eye shadow, and blue nail varnish. I tied my mane up with a pretty ice blue bow and waited for my brother.

     "Cinn, get off of me!" I heard him say from upstairs.

     "Never, ye silly lad!" the Wocky yelled.

     I could see him fooling around with a toy sword. He was obsessed with the Battle for Meridell.

     "YAAAAAH!" Butterscotch yelped as Cinn's brilliant swordplay knocked him down the country staircase.

     "Let's go," Butterscotch said as he pulled on his ice caves jacket and Wellington boots.

     Soon, we'd reached the edge of the mountain where a bunch of Eyries had gathered.

     "Where are we going?" I asked. "Aren't we going to Frozen Waters Neoschool?"

     "No, that's where locals go when they have no excitement in their lives." Butterscotch rolled his eyes. "We're going to Maraqua."

     "WHAT?" I gasped.

     "You won't need your jacket until we get back," Butterscotch explained, "so just give it to me and I'll put it in the coat closet."

     I obediently handed the yellow Gelert my coat.

     After about forty-five minutes, we docked at the surface of Maraqua.

     "You'd better put these on," Butterscotch pulled out a bag with some weird-looking eye shaped things and something labeled 'breathe underwater patch – attach to back of neck for breath in and out of water'.

     "Okay..." I put the unknown objects in my eyes and stuck the patch to the back of my neck.

     "Here we go," Butterscotch said as he grabbed my hoof.

     Once Butterscotch had led me to the front door of Isca Pride Neoschool, I excitedly ran up the marble steps and pushed open the revolving glass door until I had set foot on the white tile inside. From exactly where I stood, I could see a beautiful Christmas Uni with her white pelt swirling around her as she grabbed a textbook with a Tooth Faerie protective cover on it, then slammed the ice blue metal shut and re-hooked her lock. She had a ruby heart necklace around her neck and wore a Mipsy's charm bracelet on her left wrist.

     "C'mon, sis, I'll show you where you get your information and stuff." Butterscotch dragged me to the office.

     I could see an elderly yellow Cybunny click-clacking away at her typewriter as she adjusted her circular gold-rimmed spectacles.

     "Yezzzz," she said in her exotic accent as she looked up at me.

     "Hi, um, my name is Maybellene_Uni, and I'm here to pick up my information and stuff..." I said nervously.

     "Hoold oon oooone minuuuute," she told me as she looked through some manila file folders, "Em, emmmm... aaaah, heeere it iiiis."

     She handed me a white sheet of paper as I left the office.

     "Locker number 8..." I looked around at the gold plated numbers on each locker.

     "It's over here," the Uni I saw before pointed out.

     "Huh?" I asked.

     "Locker eight is right next to mine," she said again as she banged on the door for me.

     "Thanks," I replied, turning the combination on my sheet of paper.

     "You're new here, aren't you?" she asked.

     "Yeah, it's my first day," I replied as I pulled on the handle.

     "Well, I'm Bliss," she said. "You can always find me if you need something."

     "Okay," I replied.

     "My sisters – Paint, Roxxi, and Puddles – go here as well," Bliss told me. "Paint is a red Ogrin, Roxxi is a brown Moehog, and Puddles is a cloud Flotsam."

     "Almost your whole family is painted," I said, shocked.

     "Well, I got a paintbrush from the advent calendar; Puddles's was given away in something my owner Hailey calls Toolbar Treasures, and Roxxi used to be a red Ixi; we painted her Sketch from the Toolbar Treasures, but she hated it, so we used Hailey's starter red paintbrush, and then we got a morphing potion from Toolbar Treasures."

     "Do you have any petpets?" I asked, trying to contemplate everything said.

     "I have an Alabriss named Breeze, Paint has a Yullie named Pancake, Puddles has a Surzard named Pate, and Roxxi has a Gobbler named Lisha," Bliss replied.

     "We used to have petpets, but ST said it was getting out of control," I explained.

     "Aw," Bliss sighed, "who do you have for first period?"

     "Um... Ms. Scale's Neohome Economics." I looked at my paper.

     "Me, too," Bliss replied. "I'll walk with you."

     On our way, we bumped into an island Koi and knocked her books out of her fins.

     "AAH!" she screamed as she fell to the ground.

     "Sorry!" I cried. "Let me help!"

     "Get away, loser!" she screamed, picking up her books and swimming away.

     "That's Kiley," Bliss explained. "Paint's best friend. I'm not too fond of her."

     "Me either." I shook my head. "So far."

     *

     Lunchtime – time to find a place to sit. The blue and white lunch tables were all jam packed with students. I gripped my lunchbox and looked around.

     I saw Bliss, waving at me like mad, and as I was about to walk over to her, a bright red paw snatched me away.

     "Come sit with us!" said the owner of the paw, a red Ogrin.

     Once I saw who 'us' was, I knew immediately that it was Bliss's older sister Paint. There was Kiley, a shadow Lupe, and a Maraquan Uni.

     "I'm Ray," the Lupe said.

     "Stripe," the Uni said.

     "Paint," the Ogrin said.

     "Hey, didn't I see you earlier?" the Koi asked.

     "Um... I think I bumped into you before first period," I replied.

     "Ohh, well, just so you know, I wasn't calling YOU a loser, it was the Uni NEXT to you," she explained. "I'm Kiley."

     I looked back over at Bliss. A brown Moehog and cloud Flotsam (which I presumed were Puddles and Roxxi) took their seats next to her.

     "What do you have in your lunchbox, Maybelle?" Paint asked.

     "How do you know my name?" I asked.

     "Bliss told me second period," Paint replied, "she said that you were her new best friend – as if! You're too cool for her, right, guys?"

     "If she weren't cool, would she be here?" Stripe asked.

     "No!" Ray laughed.

     "Oh, well, anyway, I have a pastrami sandwich, a peach, some orange juice, and some crispies," I replied.

     "Don't bother, Peach is gonna be here any minute with pizza," Paint said.

     Sure enough, a faerie Wocky flew in with a large box. A cloth had been draped over it labeled 'science project – not pizza'.

     "Hey, Peach," Paint waved, "this is Maybelle."

     "Hi." I waved.

     "Do you want cheese or pepperoni power?" Peach asked.

     "Pepperoni power." Paint and Kiley each grabbed a slice.

     "Cheese," Ray said.

     "Pepperoni." Stripe grabbed her slice.

     "Maybelle, you choose before me," Peach said.

     "Um..." I looked in the box – one pepperoni power left.

     "You can have the pepperoni power if you want," Peach said. "I'm vegetarian."

     "Okay." I grabbed the pizza.

     It seemed to be the most popular at the table.

     "Paint, you got lipstick on your pizza!" Stripe laughed.

     Paint looked down at her pizza, seeing the dark red mark around where she'd bitten into the pizza, and blushed (although that might have been makeup, too).

     "Maybelle, do you wear makeup?" Ray asked.

     Ray's only accessory appeared to be a Koi shell lei (probably from Kiley). It looked cool on him, though.

     "Sometimes," I replied.

     "Do you want us to give you a makeover?" Kiley asked.

     "Um... when?" I asked.

     "You can sleep over with us Saturday night," Paint replied, "we go to Kiley's house, since she has the biggest and is an only pet. Ray won't be there, though, because he's a boy."

     "Oh, sure, be that way," Ray snapped. "I was REALLY looking forward to curling my fur, getting a makeover, and reading magazines all night."

     Everybody cracked up.

     "Here's some soda." Peach reached into her 'lunchbox' and pulled out a round of cherry Neocola.

     "There's not enough." Paint looked into the box.

     "Sorry, I didn't know Maybelle would be here." Peach shrugged.

     "Where do you live?" Ray asked. "I don't see you around here."

     "I live in Terror Mountain," I replied, "with my siblings."

     "Here, you can have this." Peach tossed me a regular Neocola.

     "Thanks," I replied.

     After the lunch bell rang, I began walking to art class.

     "Where were you?" Bliss asked. "I was waving for you, but you never came."

     "Oh, um, I forgot my jacket in the classroom and the teacher wanted to get to know me better," I lied, not sure of how she'd like what really happened.

     "Well, see you later." Bliss waved.

     *

     "AAARGH!" I sighed as I plopped down on my beauty bed.

     I had no clue what to do first. Ask ST about the sleepover? Find a way to shake Bliss off my tail? Practice doing makeup so that I wouldn't look stupid?

     "DINNER!" ST called.

     My family eats dinner earlier than most. Today's meal was meat lasagna, lemint green salad, bean and cheese jacket potato, potato and sweetcorn soup, cinnamon borovan, and a dessert of Aisha chocolate cheesecake.

     "How was school?" Lem asked, sitting in a functional purple chair at the pretty covered table.

     "It was fine," I said, taking a sip of the steaming hot soup.

     "Fine? FINE?" Butterscotch asked. "Maybelle got to sit with the most popular kids in school!"

     "Really?" Cinn asked. "I'll bet I'd be a shoo-in at that table."

     "Um, no offense, Cinn, but I don't really think they're looking for a boy that plays with swords," I sighed.

     "I'd be a better match," Lem said. "What kinds of music do they like?"

     "Twisted Roses," I said.

     "Well, that is the most popular band," the yellow Aisha replied, "so it was obvious."

     "Speaking of which," I began, "they want me to sleep over on Saturday, and I need your permission."

     "That's fine," ST replied, "as long as you know the rules."

     "Yeah, yeah." I rolled my eyes.

     After dinner, I ran upstairs and pulled my fuzzy notebook out of the drawer in my Fyora inspired bedroom desk. Then, I grabbed my fancy pen and began scribbling:

     Ways to get rid of Bliss

     1 – Just tell her the truth

     2 – Go back in time and never meet her

     3 – Say you're moving

     I figured that my best bet was just telling her the truth. I sat my Christmas Uni plushie on a Fyora print beanbag chair.

     "Bliss," I said, "I know we just met, but I don't think you're the kind of friend I'm looking for."

     I looked down at the plushie.

     "Perfect, now to practice my makeup." I strode into my private bathroom (thanks again to ST's large Neohome) and pulled into the lavender faerie chair at the pink vanity table.

     My reflection stared blankly back at me. A few strands of my white mane had come out of the ponytail, and I liked the way that looked. I tried to remember the types of makeup I saw at the table. I remember Paint's dark red lipstick coming off on her pizza, I saw a tube of gold gloss fall out of Kiley's backpack that morning, and on the way home from school, and Stripe was applying some tye-dye lipstick.

     Out of the drawer, I grabbed all my tubes of lipstick – red, blue, and pink. I had worn the blue one this morning, which didn't turn out so bad, so I decided to wear that tomorrow.

     I brushed my teeth with my squeezy toothbrush and sparkly tooth paste. Then, I sank deep into my bed and went to sleep.

     *

     "Bliss, I know we just met, but I don't think you're the kind of friend I'm looking for."

     "Bliss, I know we just met, but I don't think you're the kind of friend I'm looking for."

     I had been repeating that to myself all the way to my locker, which Bliss had been waiting by.

     "Bliss..." I began nervously.

     This was a lot easier when Bliss was a Christmas Uni plushie.

     "Yeah?" she asked.

     "Well... I know we just met... but..."

     "You don't think I'm the kind of friend you're looking for?" Bliss asked.

     "Yeah, how did you know?" I asked.

     "I heard you saying that all the way here! Oh, and apparently, Paint and her friends seemed to think you were at their table yesterday, because Paint bragged about her new friend all last night at dinner!" Bliss screamed.

     "Bliss – " I began.

     "Forget it!" The Christmas Uni stormed off.

To be continued...