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Series One Episode Fifty-Nine Kaida Welsh was MAD. She didn't understand at all how Tim Dickinson could have dumped her. Was she not pretty enough? Not THIN enough? Not smart enough? No, she said to herself, I know I am smart enough, because I'm too smart for a LOSER LIKE HIM! She kicked a door. "Kaida, what are you doing?! You know doors are expensive - if you ruin my doors, you are grounded, young lady!" Kaida sighed. It seemed like her mom never understood what was going on inside her head. So, naturally, she wrote poetry. When she was writing poems it felt like she was in a world of her own, where everything was nice and beautiful. Kaida clipped back her short red hair and stared at a page of poetry with wide pale blue eyes. Tom had called those her "moon eyes." WHY, oh why could have have dumped her?! They'd been so happy together, Neomailing each other all the time, her writing poetry for him, him taking her on dates and them sharing a milkshake . . . It was another girl. It had to be. "Kaida!" her mom called. "Hurry up, you're going to be late for school!" SCHOOL! Suddenly Kaida knew who the other girl had to be . . . That day at lunch Kaida sat at her usual table with some of her friends, like Hana, Gail and Breyann from Art and English class, eating her sprouts on rye (her mom liked health food) and watching Gami Tenbo. The pretty blond girl had every boy wrapped around her little finger, but had only wanted one ever since Kaida had started dating him: Tim Dickinson. Of course any girl would want Tom - he was rich and handsome and had those deep brown eyes - but for Gami there was the added bonus of stealing him from another girl. Every popular girl at NCH made a sport of stealing boyfriends. Kaida thought they awarded each other fifty points for eachboy they stole, and once one of them got three hundred points they went out for ice cream. "Hey!" Gami suddenly said from the next table over. "Who's that fat freak staring at me?" Kaida's blue eyes turned dark red. "FAT?" "Kaida," warned Hana, one of her friends from the art table. "Kaida, no, it's not worth it, do you remember what happened the last time you--" "Yeah, that's right!" continued Gami. "Fat, and a lesbian if you can't get enough of staring at my face!" "The only reason I was staring at your sorry excuse for a FACE," Kaida shot back, "is because of that huge zit right in the middle of your forhead!" Gami's eyes widened and she ran off to the bathroom, hands on her forehead, Kaida's friends all laughing at her - as well as some of Gami's own "friends." For the rest of the day Kaida watched to see if she could get in touch with Tim. Little did she know that she was being watched too. "I've confirmed it," Abira Anion announced smugly: "I know another Sailor Neopet." "Go on," said Dr. Sloth wearily. "Well, you know we're all descendants of the original Sailor Neopets. Like, my grandmother was the first Sailor Chia. If we knew who the originals were, we could track down their grandkids. But they're mostly dead, and we don't know who they are anyway." Sloth sighed. "Do you have a point?" "Of course. All the Sailor Neopets today have other things in common. For one thing, they all seem to like their type of pet, and they all own at least one. Like me and EvilChia. So, say I wanted to find Sailor Skeith - that would leave all the skeith owners in Neopia." Sloth was starting to get annoyed. "That must be two million users!" "But wait, there's more," laughed Abbie. "Lots of them seem to be practicallu turning into their type of pet. Ever notice Lupe-tail Hair or Acara Face? Sailor Lupe and Sailor Acara! So I did a little research." Sloth was secretly impressed with Abbie's method as she continued. "I worked out a formula and applied it to about forty skeiths and came up with a pattern for the appearance of a user with skeith powers. Then I started applying it to teenage girls who frequent assorted places that Skeiths tend to like . . ." "Abbie!" snapped Sloth, refusing to let scientific curiosity get in the way of being irritated at his subordinate. "Who's this Sailor Skeith?!" "A girl I went to school with named Kaida Welsh," Abbie smirked. "Don't worry, she'll be dead before you can say fatso loser." On the way home, Kaida kicked snowdrifts and scowled at children. She'd seen Tim giving Gami a kiss that day. How could he betray her like that? The traitor. She felt like giving him a piece of her mind. Upon getting home, Kaida pulled off her coat, sat down on the couch, and picked up a piece of paper and her favorite red pen to write a Neomail. But before she could get any words on the page, a new Neomail flew in. Kaida slit open the envelope with a long fingernail and read the message. "Hi," it said in round, perfect writing, "i"s dotted with hearts. "My name is Abira Anion. I don't know if you've ever noticed me, but I'm in your Neohome Economics Class. I heard you have a skeith, and it's such a coincidence, because skeiths are my favorite Neopet, but I'm not allowed to have one because my parents say they're too big, so I was wondering, could I come over to your house and see your skeith, pretty please? Much love, Abbie, xoxo" Kaida hesitated. She half-remembered hearing the name Abira somewhere, but she couldn't remember where or when. So she scribbled a reply in her own messy writing: "Hi Abira. I guess you can come over, but are you sure you're in my Neohome Economics class? I don't remember anyone named Abira. See you soon, Kaida." The reply came almost immediately: "Great! I'll be right over." Kaida paused for thought -- why hadn't Abira answered her question? I guess I'll find out when she gets here. Fifteen minutes later, there was a knock on the Welsh Neohome front door. When Kaida opened the door on Abbie, she was surprised: "Aren't you that girl who disappeared from school last year? But your hair is different." Abbie smiled sweetly and replied, "Haha, disappeared from the spotlight maybe. I used to be really popular, but now I realize that there's more to life than popularity, you know! So now I'm pretty shy! Now about your skeith, could I see her please?" Kaida frowned, confused, as Abbie started edging through the doorway. "Now I remember you. You were in my English class two years ago, weren't you? And then you just stopped coming to class one day; someone said you completely disappeared from school." Abbie let out a weird giggle. "Yeah! I got into a, um, fight with, uh, the teacher, and, ah, I had to, um, transfer out of her class." "But our teacher was a male shoyru," Kaida invented, wondering if Abbie actually remembered this. The two-tone-haired girl was now standing in the hall, and it was creeping her out just a little. "Yeah! Right! That's what I meant," said Abbie with the same weird laugh. "So do you want to go get your skeith now please?" "But . . . why did you disappear?" Kaida persisted, stubborn as usual. Abbie sighed, then laughed again - still weirdly, but now it didn't sound like she was faking. "I'm tired of this. Chia Chaos Power, Make Up!" In a flash Abbie was replaced by a Sailor Neopet. "You idiot," she snapped, "how long were you going to take to realize I was lying? Chia Giggle!" Kaida was hit in the stomach with a painful blast of orange energy. She was knocked over backward into her mother's favorite vase, sending it crashing to the floor. She felt pain rushing through her entire body, could hardly move for it -- then remembered something her mother had told her, when she had scraped her knee as a child. "Pain is only in your body. What's important is in your mind. You can get over pain if you realize that it's just a sensation, just like petting a Lupe or picking up a book." :So Kaida stood up. "What's your problem? What did I ever do to you?" "It's not what you did, but what you will do," cackled the sailor. "Or rather, now, what you won't. CHIA GIGGLE!" And Kaida was knocked over again. This time she just stumbled backwards into a table, tripping backwards and bringing the whole thing down, along with the lamp on top of it. Wait a second. There was no lamp there. What was that silver thing, then? The sailor formerly known as Abbie let out an enraged hiss and took aim. Kaida reached out and grabbed the thing - it was a beautiful silver cup. As she held it in her hand, it opened, and out came a brown and pink pen with an N on top. When Kaida took the pen, her mind was filled with words that she couldn't ignore - they were so pressing that she didn't notice when the cup vanished. "Chia Giggle!" "Skeith! Neo! Power! Make! Up!" The orange attack was harmlessly absorbed by the fire that had suddenly engulfed Kaida. But she wasn't burned - it was warm, comfortable fire; and then she realized she was spinning in midair! When she landed, she was wearing a Sailor Neopet uniform! The fire continued to surround her as two ribbons cut their way across her stomach, cutting out the bottom section of her outfit, exposing her navel ring - and for the final touch, a golden tiara appeared on her head! The other sailor looked furious as Kaida -- no, Sailor Skeith! -- shouted, "You have destroyed my mom's vase and hurt me and for this you will not go unpunished! I am Sailor Skeith! And in the name of Skeiths everywhere, you're going down!" "Yeah, right. You obviously don't know who you're talking to! I'm Sailor Chia, and even transformed you don't stand a chance against me." "Skeith Stomp!" responded the newly transformed sailor. As she yelled, she threw her arms above her head, did a pirouette on one leg, then brought the other leg down along with her arms. As she stomped on the ground, it rumbled like an earthquake had hit it, but only in the direction of Sailor Chia. The vibrations threw her into the air, but she landed on her feet. "Is that all you've got? Even with your sailor powers, you're just a fat weakling! CHIA CHAOS RUIN!" The storm threw Skeith against the wall, knocking the whole thing down. Struggling to her feet, Skeith gritted her teeth. "Fat? I'm FAT? Well, let me show you just what FAT can do! PRINCESS!" A much-discussed blue skeith lumbered into the room. "SKEITH STOMP - Double Attack!" yelled Sailor Skeith, and both she and her pet performed Skeith Stomp! Chia was shaken, but not defeated. "You think that's enough? You might as well be alone, for all the help that stupid Skeith will be!" she gloated as she stood up. "CHIA CHAOS RUIN!" At last it was too much for Skeith. She was thrown into the pile of dirt and dust that had previously been her wall, and couldn't move any more. Princess stood protectively over her as Chia grinned. "Having a little trouble, there?" "And just waht do you think you're doing?" a voice called from the still-open door. Looking up wearily, Skeith could see that it was Sailor Lupe, with half a dozen other sailors behind her! "Attacking an innocent before she's become a sailor, and then trashing her house? That's just bad form! Come on out here and fight fair, Sailor Chia!" As Sailor Lupe advanced, with Sailors Mynci, Usul, Bruce, Quiggle, and Elephante behind her, Sailor Chia took a step backwards. "Fight fair? Sorry, but that's just not my style. Until next time, my naïve foes." Pressing some buttons on a bracelet on her wrist, she was teleported away. Sailor Lupe and the others hurried over to help Skeith up, tell her about being a Sailor Neopet, get to know each other, and, above all, help clean up the mess that the battle had caused before her mom got home. A few days later, at school, Kaida was eating lunch with her friends when a familiar presence walked up behind her and said hi. "Oh, hello, TIM." As much as she resented him, he was still so handsome! His longish brown hair fell in his face, and his deep brown eyes looked like she could fall into them and be lost forever. "Kaida," Tim began, "I wanted to talk to you. I've realized what an idiot I was for dumping a girl like you for someone like Gami. She broke up with me for Rob Skeines! Can you believe it?" Kaida laughed. "That jerk? They deserve each other." "Kaida, I know I was stupid, but please . . . could you find it in your heart to take me back?" She looked straight into his deep brown eyes and said softly, "No." "What?!" yelled Tim, clearly surprised by this answer. "No. Any guy who would dump me for a popular girl isn't worth it for me. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm eating lunch with my FRIENDS." And she turned back to Hana and Gail and Breyann - as well as some new girls who would eat with her on occasion, Kami and Jody and Venus - leaving Tim frozen, blibbering like an idiot. "Now, where were we? . . ." |