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Series One Episode Thirty-Three Ah, lunchtime. The time when the eighth grade can relax, sit down with their friends, eat a rejuvinating meal, and have a relaxing chat. At least, that's how it's meant to be. Leslie was sitting at a table with her ever-growing crowd of friends: Kami, Aviva, Tori, Melony, Aikouka, Aurora, Tammy, Tora, Brooke, and Zelda. They were talking happily when Gami walked up and took a seat next to Aurora. At the next table, Gami's friends tittered to each other. "Can I sit here?" she asked. "No," replied Melony. "Why not? You're all my friends, right?" Her tone could not have been more mocking if she'd been Abbie... (flashback) "Hey Leslie," said Abbie, sitting down next to her. "Do you shave your legs?" Leslie raised an eyebrow. "Do you care?" "I guess that means no," Abbie said decisively. Then she turned to
the table behind her and called in a stage whisper, "Hey Gami! Leslie Tuatara
doesn't shave! Eww!"
"Whyyyyyyyyy?" drawled Gami. "Come on, I wanna sit here!" To Tora she said, "Tora's my friend, right Tora?" "Erm...acquaintance," said the stripey-haired girl hesitantly. "There, see?" said Gami to Aikouka as she put her arm around Tora's shoulder. "I have a friend at this table." Aviva, who was sitting on the other side of Tora, bristled and said shortly, "Tora, trust me, you do NOT want to be HER friend." "A friendship has to be a mutual thing," Zelda pointed out. "That means BOTH people have to want to be friends." Causing her friends at the next table to crack up, Gami replied, "But don't you all want to be my friends?" (flashback) "Hey, Lupe-Tail Hair!" called Abbie from across the hall. "Can I have a hug?" "Do you want a hug?" asked Leslie doubtfully. "No thanks," the other replied. "I don't want whatever it is you've got to rub off on me." "Let's move," Tori suggested, half rising from her seat. "If you do, I'll follow you," replied Gami matter-of-factly. Leslie spoke up. "Guys...just ignore her," she said plaintively before turning back to her conversation with Kami about acara care. Leslie swung open the door of the Adopt-a-NeoPet Guild and looked around. The place was bustling with cheerful Neopians and all kinds of pets, but nobody noticed her prescence at first. Then Fleas looked up. "Not - it can't be - it's not Leslie?" she exclaimed, running over to the door. If Leslie was a freak, then Fleas was an outright mutant: she had a tail and usually went around in bare paws. Her canine demeanor was accented by her username, i_gots_flease. Leslie nodded, smiling. "Yep, it's me." "Welcome back!" exclaimed Fleas. By this time the rest of the guild had noticed, and were flocking to greet her. "Can't come and visit your 'parents' once in a while?" Fleas chided. You see, the leader of the Adopt-a-NeoPet Guild had been a friend of our beloved Leslie's mother. Like any of the abandoned NeoPets they took in, this guild had adopted Leslie and raised her as a child of all of them. At twelve Leslie had struck out on her own with the account leslie_83, and from there had been pretty much on her own. She hadn't visited the guild in years. And now she was back. The guild members pelted her with questions: "How's little FirePrinse?"
Leslie answered them as best she could, and eventually the excitement died down and the crowd thinned. She then followed John, the second-in-command of the guild (and husband of the guild leader), who pulled her over to his collection of paint brushes. Leslie gazed admiringly at the collection of hues with which he transformed unwanted pets into the rare and prized ones whom everyone scrabled to adopt. "I've found a wonderful generous user who has lots of paint brushes and is willing to trade," he explained as he handed Fleas a Christmas Paint Brush. She headed off to the Rainbow Pool with a dejected red Nimmo in tow. "She sells them insanely cheaply - including a type that isn't sold anywhere else, it's so rare." Leslie blinked. This sure sounded suspicious to her. "Can I see it?" In answer, John reached into his Safety Deposit Box and tugged an odd-looking brush from the bright pile inside. "Behold," he said triumphantly. "The Bronze Paint Brush." It didn't look bronze to Leslie. It just looked sort of brownish-greyish-green, and sort of slimy, not shiny at all. "Have you tried it yet?" she asked dubiously. "Not yet. I'm going to give," and his voice dropped conspiriatorilly, "one of them to my wife for our anniversary, and I want her to be the first." "Who exactly gave you these brushes?" asked Leslie, starting to get nervous. John was acting much younger - and sillier - than the man she'd known. Had he really changed so much for the worse in just a few years? "Um...I don't actually remember their username." John looked sheepish. Leslie had NEVER seen him look that way before. "But they assured me they were trustworthy," he added quickly. That means nothing, thought Leslie, but didn't say so. What she said was: "I was hoping to see Miss Katie, so I guess I'll come back later." "No!" broke in Susie (hyper_active_susie), jumping in front of Leslie. "Katie'll be back soon! And anyway, I haven't seen you yet! And anyway, you DO want to see Cheryl, right!?" Leslie was strongly reminded of Brooke. "Hey, Fleas is back! Come on!" She grabbed Leslie's hand and dragged her through the crowd. "Look what the Lupe dragged in!" Susie exclaimed in greeting to Fleas. With a start Leslie realized that "Lupe" was a friendly endearment rather than a mocking tease. Then she noticed just WHAT the Lupelike woman had dragged in. "Cheryl!" she exclaimed. Leslie's adoptive mother grinned, and her children - seven-year-old twins - clapped. "Leslie! What are you doing here?" Cheryl asked. "Visiting," replied the delighted Leslie as Cheryl enveloped her in a hug. Why did I ever leave this place? she wondered. "Where's Leslie?" asked Unirus2000 the red Uni. She was doing a puzzle in the living room of Leslie's NeoHome. Since FirePrinse was out at the Games Room, the only person to hear her was his pet Gruslen, who was curled up on the sofa. "Oh yeah. She went to visit her old guild." And Unirus went back to her puzzle, forgetting that her owner had left for her visit the day before. That afternoon, while Unirus did her puzzle, the AAN Guild members were crowded around the Rainbow Pool to see Katie, their illustrious leader, paint her JubJub. Leslie, who was at the front of the crowd with Cheryl and her kids, wondered if she was the only person who noticed that Katie was acting unlike herself. "Mommy," said Cheryl's son Karl, looking up at her, "why is Katie acting silly?" "She's just excited about her anniversary, honey," replied Cheryl absently. "Like when you and Luname get happy about your birthday." The boy nodded, satisfied with this explanation. Leslie sighed; Cheryl seemed a bit odd too. John dipped the "Bronze Paint Brush" into the Rainbow Pool, and the apint spread across its surface, turning the pool brown and slimy. Leslie glanced at Cheryl, whose eyes looked sort of glazed. What is that brush DOING to them?? she wondered. Katie's JubJub stepped nervously into the pool. The blue JubJub vanished under the water...and something very different came up. Kami Neko's communicator beeped at her. She was sitting in her yard with Golden_Acara, brushing her pet's fur, but stopped to answer it. "Hi?...Leslie?" "Yeah," came the hurried reply, "and I'm at the Rainbow Pool - something just turned Katie's JubJub into a Monocerous!" "Who's Katie?" "The leader of the guild I've been in for the past two days." "Oh - so THAT'S why you didn't help me study for the science quiz like you said you would?" With Leslie speechless, Kami went on. "I finally got Aviva to help me, then she had to rush off to archery practice so we didn't finish. Forget it, Leslie," she said, cutting off the other girl's protests. "Have fun with the Monocerous." Kami turned her communicator off. "And staying with this guild was so important that you forgot about Kami, then didn't show up to watch my archery practice like you promised?" asked Aviva. "What about your friends? Sorry - deal with the Monocerous yourself." She cut off the call before Leslie could reply. Leslie had tried to call Brooke, but the only response she got was: "Can't talk jogging bye!" So she tried Zelda. The Zafara-eared brunette was watching Brooke's track practice, but replied anyway. "By the way," she said after Leslie had explained about the Monocerous, "I ran into FirePrinse in the Games Room today. He was trying to play Faerie Caves so he could get enough NP for some food for himself and Unirus. The Omelette's too far away for him to walk on his own." "I...oh..." "I got him some omelettes, never fear. But aren't you glad SOMEBODY was there to look out for your pets?" She switched her communicator off. Leslie gave up on calling friends. She'd been running from the Rainbow Pool as she called them, like most members of the AAN Guild, but now she turned back. "Lupe Neo Power, Make Up!" The Monocerous which had just been a JubJub roared and stamped its feet before running at whoever was closest. "Hey!" The best looked in the direction of the annoying sound, and saw the lone Sailor Lupe waving her arms. "Why don't you pick on someone who can fight back?" she shouted. The only reply she got was a growl. "Okay, you asked for it," she said, trying not to betray her fear with her voice. This thing was HUGE. "Lupe Lunge!" The massive Monocerous was unfazed by the attack. Looking beyond it, Sailor Lupe saw several guild members on the ground, trampled by the charging Monocerous. Katie, John, and - Lupe felt a catch in her throat when she recognized - Cheryl lay in the grass around the Rainbow Pool, among others. Lupe swallowed nervously and repeated her attack. "Lupe Lunge!" The Monocerous charged. Sailor Lupe turned and ran. She didn't get far before she tripped and toppled to the ground; the Monocerous almost immediately closed the distance between them. Feeling utterly helpless, Lupe closed her eyes and braced herself... "Acara Tumble!" "Blumaroo Ball!" The two attacks together knocked the Monocerous over. Looking up, Lupe saw Sailors Acara, Blumaroo, Usul, and Zafara running towards her. "You came!" she cried, feeling a wave of relief wash over her as she stood up. "Of course," laughed Sailor Acara. "We wouldn't really abandon you. Upset as we may be..." "...we've got a planet to save!" finished Sailor Usul. "C'mon, let's go kick some serious Monocotushie! Usul Rage - Usul Bite!" And she knocked over the Monocerous halfway through its attempt to stand up. "We can't kill it, though," protested Sailor Lupe. "It's really Katie's pet JubJub, remember..." "Say no more." Sailor Zafara pulled out the Sakasa Mist and drank deeply. Sailor Blumaroo did likewise with the Khalida Mist. Then Sailor Sakasa Zafara aimed her wand at the Monocerous (which was again getting to its hooves). "Zafara Ice!" While the Monocerous was trapped within the ice, Sailor Khalida Blumaroo stepped forward. "Khalida TimeScape!" she yelled, pointing her halberd at the massive creature. The ice faded; then the Monocerous ran backwards, fell into the pool, and emerged from the other side as a very shaken walking-backwards blue JubJub. Only then did Blumaroo let up her attack. Sailor Lupe turned sheepishly towards the other four. "I...guess I have some apologizing to do." "Ah, don't worry about it," Sailor Usul reassured her. "We still love ya! "It really is my fault," John reassured Leslie from his hospital bed. She'd come to visit the people who were recovering from being trampled. "I never should've trusted that...what was his username?...chia_chaos_ruin. You - and everyone - have my sincerest apologies." "Leslie," called Cheryl from a few beds down. "Can you find someone to take care of Luname? Karl's staying with my brother, but Musume doesn't like that." "I'll do better than that," Leslie replied. "I'LL take care of her myself." She noticed with some trepidation the paleness of Cheryl's cheeks; undoubtedly her foster mother would take the longest to recover. "Thank you," said Cheryl softly, and closed her eyes. Leslie left the ward quietly to pick up Luname and her striped pet Silvacheek, and hoped she wasn't making a big mistake... |