Naomi was jolted awake by her alarm clock: PTERI! IT'S SIX O'CLOCK! PTERI! She sat up, yawned, then realized something: "I'm going to be late!"

Naomi jumped out of bed and pulled on her nicest outfit. She couldn't afford to look sloppy, especially today! She ran into the bedroom of her two oldest pets.

"Woc_ky_88, lu_pe_88, get up! You're going to be late for drama school!" she exclaimed. The two pets got out of bed, stretched, and got themselves cleaned up. While they were doing this, Naomi ran into aca_ra_88's bedroom. Aca_ra is a newborn acara whose horns are growing in, so she can be something of a handful. When Naomi got to the acara's room, she realized her pet was already up.

And ripping her room to shreds.

Naomi sighed remarkably calmly considering the state of the room, and got the acara horn cream out of the medicine box. She returned to the baby's bedroom with the cream. "It's okay, calm down," she intoned as she applied the cream. When the acara had calmed down, Naomi went into the kitchen to cook breakfast.

She looked into the fridge, and noted that there was no Kau Kau Milk. "So much for French toast," Naomi muttered as she pulled out an omelette and divided it between her hungry pets. She added "Go to the food store" to the other million things on her to-do list, and prepared to go to her sister Melony's house.

If she had a choice, Naomi would pick somebody else to baby-sit her newborn pet, but no one else in town would care for her rambunctious Acara. But every time Melony baby-sat, she would forget to apply the cream. So Naomi would come home to Melony watching TV with a bag of potato chips, and Aca_ra under three feet of pillow fluff. But, back to the story.

Naomi was at the house with Melony explaining for the hundred millionth time to put on the cream on the fifth hour. Melony mumbled, "How could I forget?" Naomi just sighed, and took her older pets to the ferry on Mystery Island. She dropped her pets off at their drama class and headed for the headquarters of NeoFashion Magazine.

The next thing she knew, Naomi was sprinting.

She managed to pick up her pets before the instructors got TOO irate, although she was nervous about what she would come home to.

When Naomi entered her house, Melony was reading her schoolbooks. "Did you put on the horn cream?" Naomi demanded (this should have been done two hours beforehand).

"I put her in for a nap three hours ago-" Melony began.

"MELONY!" Naomi ran into the acara's bedroom. The room looked the way it normally did after Melony babysat, with one small difference.

The pillow fluff was six feet deep.

Naomi sighed and swam through the fluff to find Aca_ra. When she found her, she realized that the baby was sleeping elegantly, if that was possible considering the disaster area around her. Naomi pulled out the horn cream and applied it where the horns were growing in. Then she went out and yelled Melony into the ground.

"In case you couldn't tell," Melony said, rather irritated, "those were Styrofoam peanuts, not pillow feathers. I put the cream on before she fell asleep. She wanted to play a game and I didn't want to wake her up by cleaning."

"Oh...I'm sorry," Naomi apologized quickly.

"It's okay. Oh by the way, I'm having all my friends and family come over tomorrow night for dinner. Here's your invitation." Melony handed her sister a pink envelope. She then left to tend to her own pets.

"Hello," Naomi said politely.

"Hi!" exclaimed the girls in a ragged chorus.

"Nice to meet you. I'm Melony's older sister."

As Naomi and Kami got into a discussion about the care of Acaras, Zelda pulled Melony aside. "Here's your communicator," she said in a low voice, handing Melony a blue and orange watch. "I've been meaning to give it to you."

At that point two adults - Melony and Naomi's parents - entered. "Hi, our two sweet cheeks!" exclaimed Cara enthusiastically.

Okay, I understand that all parents have their embarrassing points, but Cara and Mike are the ember in embarrassment. "MOM! DAD!" shrieked Melony.

"She means, Mom, Dad, nice to see you," Naomi put in quickly. "She just got excited." Their parents didn't notice anything strange about this.

"Oh, by the way, on our way here we met a nice young lady who said she was coming to the party too, but her invitation was lost in the mail, so she didn't know where the house was. So we brought her along. Could you introduce us?"

Let it be MY parents who bring the geek to a perfectly fine party! Naomi thought angrily. She didn't notice the other girls giving each other puzzled looks...nor did she catch that they almost fainted when the visitor was revealed.

It was none other than Abira88.

Naomi knew Abbie; she'd been in the art class that Naomi once taught. "We're screwed!" she whispered to her younger sister. Melony nodded fervently.

Abbie took one look at Leslie (who had a "This is my lucky day!" look on her face) and rolled her eyes. "Leslie, you're at the wrong party. This is a party for the popular kids," she snickered.

Leslie reached behind her back and pulled her transformation pen out of her subdimensional pocket. She was ready to transform when something came to mind. She shouldn't really use her powers unless people were in danger. Although it was Abbie, and Neopia could use one less Abbie, she hadn't done anything yet except insult Leslie, and that was nothing new. The other girls with powers were obviously thinking along the same lines. Leslie relaxed, hoping the others would follow her lead. We'll let Abbie make the first move, she thought.

"By the way, I invited some friends. They should be showing up any minute now," Abbie said in her usual snobby manner. "Maybe they'll liven this party up."

Zoe slipped over to the window and looked out. Her eyes widened, and as she returned to the group, she whispered to her twin, "There's an army of red Gelert-type things coming this way!"

Zelda also scurried over and checked. "Devilpups," she confirmed. "Leslie, there's an army of Devilpups coming to liven up our party."

"Melony, get your family out of here," Leslie directed quickly.

"Uh, Mom, Dad, Naomi, come see this great, uh, Moehog Fan Guild poster I got today!" Melony bluffed quickly. Her parents followed innocently. Zoe grabbed the bags and packs that the girls had brought and shoved them under the table, out of the line of fire. As she did, the Sacred Chalice leaned out of Leslie's bag and a yellow and orange pen fell out. Nobody noticed it rolling across the floor - nobody, that is, except Naomi.

"Naomi, come on!" said Melony, sounding nervous as she was slightly stressed.

Naomi held back. "I'll just give this back to Leslie."

Of course, Melony recognized the pen. Does this CURSE run in the family? she wondered. "Sure, stay here," she assured her older sister, and scurried off to get her parents somewhere safe.

Meanwhile, Leslie was being quick and decisive. "Ji, Zelda, Zoe, Kami, take care 
of the crowd outside. Brooke, stay and help me take care of Abbie."

"Sure! It's time to do some butt-kicking!" Brooke exclaimed.

"Why?" asked a puzzled Naomi. Leslie turned, startled. "Why are you still here? Didn't Melony - oh." She'd just noticed the pen. "Stay here, but be careful, okay? Lupe Neo Power, Make Up!"

"Usul Neo Power, Make Up!"

Naomi stared. Her little sister's friends were the famous Sailor NeoPets? And those that had gone outside - they must have been sailors too...

"Chia Chaos Power, Make Up!" Sailor Lupe barely had time to see the strands of black energy around Sailor Chia's pen and register the different transformation phrase before the evil soldier stood before them.

"Let's take this outside," Lupe said evenly.

"And risk not destroying this nice NeoHome?" laughed Chia. "Not a chance. Chia..." She started giggling uncontrollably as orange energy gathered around her gloves. "...Giggle!" The energy launched straight at Naomi.

"Lupe Lunge!" Sailor Chia's attack was diverted, crashing into the Kauvara Sofa.

"That was really expensive, you know!" Naomi exclaimed, turning to see the mangled sofa. In the mirror beyond it she caught a glimpse of her reflection: it was her Wocky's face, not hers. She looked at the pen she'd found, and words flashed in her mind.

"Kitten Neo Power, Make Up!"

Obviously that didn't work. Naomi got a hint at this when she didn't change and the pen bonked her on the head. So she tried again.

"Wocky Neo Power, Make Up!"

Obviously, that did work. Naomi felt some force lifting her arms straight out in front of her as her feet rose from the ground. Semitransparent wocky paws magically appeared on her hands. They slid off and flew around her, transforming her dress into a BEAUTIFUL sailor suit.

Wow! thought Sailor Wocky as her feet landed back on the carpet. Now what?

"Chia Chaos Ruin!"

Dark energy blasted through and around the room, demolishing all of the furniture and tearing the Royal Wallpaper from the walls. Fortunately Sailor Wocky was transformed, because the sailor form offered some protection against the devastating attack. She closed her eyes tightly and shielded them with her arms; she could feel Sailor Usul and Sailor Lupe arrive next to her. When the storm finally cleared, they had ended up right by the door.

"I have an idea," Sailor Wocky whispered to Lupe and Usul. She outlined a quick plan. They agreed, and Wocky stepped across the room to face Sailor Chia. "What do you think you're doing, trashing this nice house?" she demanded. "Wocky Pounce!"

Lunging forward, Sailor Wocky crashed into Sailor Chia, knocking her backwards and through the door that Sailor Usul had just opened. Wocky landed on top of Chia in the grass of the front lawn. "Get OFF of me, you-!" Chia began to shriek.

"Usul Bite!" Teeth scratched Chia's face, and she screamed. Lupe took a quick look at the outside situation. The other soldiers seemed to be doing quite well against the Devilpups; the VirtuaPets kept trying to close in on them, but Sailor Shoyru lifted them safely out of danger, and very few were left now anyway. She turned her attention back to Sailor Chia.

"Scram, Chia," Lupe said as Wocky stood up. "This is a party for the powerful kids."

Chia got to her feet and looked around to see that all the Devilpups were gone and a throng of sailors (in a rainbow of colors) were confronting her. "You may have won the battle," she said calmly, "but you will NEVER! win the war!" She turned and ran for her life.

The girls detransformed and dashed back into the house just as Melony's parents were returning to the living room. "Sweet cheeks, where did your little friend go?" asked Mike, looking puzzled.

"She had some, ah, business to take care of," Naomi said quickly. To Leslie she whispered, "What just happened?"

"Ask your sister," Leslie replied. "She's one of us too."

From then on, believe it or not, the party went smoothly! Cara and Mike were very impressed with Melony's circle of friends, and how polite they were, and how generous, and how sweet, and how etcetera etcetera etcetera. By the time they left, however, everyone was thoroughly tired of being polite and sweet and generous. They left late and fell asleep quickly after getting home.