The Best Colour Ever

      "If I had the neopoints, I would buy the paint brush myself if it would get you to shut up about it!" Lily rolled her eyes, irritated, then apologized. "Okay, that was mean, and I'm sorry, but you have said that multiple times every day for the past two months!"

      "You don't understand!" she retorted. "You are painted the most dazzling shade of Purple, Eve is painted Island, Opal is painted Rainbow, and I'm Red. Just Red."

      "Okay, maybe I don't understand," the Poogle admitted. "But I really wish you would stop complaining about it."

      So on that sour note, the girls reached the entrance of the school, to find Eve and Opal waiting at the gates.

      "What's wrong, Rose?" Opal asked.

      "Nothing. She is just upset about not being painted again," Lily explained.

      "Oh," the Rainbow Kacheek said. "Sorry."

      "It's not all bad!" Eve said. "I think. . ."

      "You see! You don't get it at all!"

      "Well, the bell is about to ring. I don't know about you, but I've got to get to class," the Island Uni said, turning around and walking away.

      "Me too. Seeya," said Opal and Lily together.

      So Rose was left to walk to class alone.

      They don't understand how out-of-place I feel around them, Rose thought angrily.

      So the upset Xweetok had to go throughout the uneventful day feeling lost and alone, as usual.

      She walked home alone, as the other girls were tired of her acting the way she had been since the holidays rolled around.

      They had all been painted as gifts from their owner.

      Except for Rose.

      She didn't have the neopoints, her owner told her. Which was very much true.

      A very, very, very bad random event had wiped her millions of neopoints clean as she was heading toward the trading post to buy the little Xweetok the paint brush of her dreams. She was so happy that she had finally saved up the money, but it disappeared in a flash.

      So now she was kept extremely busy trying to rebuild her neopoints, and Rose was stuck bored and unpainted, probably for a long, long while.

      Instead of going home to be bored, Rose decided to just choose the unpainted part, even though it wasn't much of a choice, and go walk around Neopia Central for a while, to try and forget about her ordeal for a while.

      But this was made quite difficult by the passing Neopets.

      A Baby Scorchio here, a Tyrannian JubJub there.

      All she could see were painted Neopets!

      Of course there were plenty of basic colours, but she only saw the ones that weren't average.

      Red has got to be the worst color ever, Rose thought, disgusted.

      Rose stopped and sat on a little bench near one of the pathways, the envy she felt almost painting her Green.

      She sat for a while, until it was beginning to get dark, and then decided it was time to go. She slowly made her way home to omelettes for dinner. Again.

      The next day she walked to school alone. She walked to class alone. She walked home alone. Alone, alone, alone. Loneliness and envy were all Rose felt anymore.

      Again she went to the bench. Then she went home when it was dark.

      "Sorry, Rose," her owner had apologized. "But omelettes are all I can really muster up if you want that paint brush."

      Rose didn't respond. She just robotically ate the omelette, and went to her room to repeat the process that was more boring than waiting for the Wheel of Monotony.

    ***

     Day in, day out, she followed the boring routine. For days, even weeks she was alone.

      She kept pushing everyone away.

      Until one day while she was sitting on her bench in Neopia Central, she noticed a sign. A sign for the pound.

      She decided she would check it out.

      Maybe it would make her feel like she was lucky if she saw the Neopets that weren't.

      She was just about to walk through the doorway of the morbid place when she noticed something sticking out of the soil of a potted plant outside. Rose stared for a moment, then tugged it out and brushed off the dirt.

      She almost passed out.

      Not believing her own eyes, she stood wide-eyed and shocked for several moments.

      When she'd finally realized what she was seeing was real, it registered.

      It was a Plushie Paint Brush!!!!!

      She could not believe it. A Plushie Paint Brush. The very item her owner had sought on the day everything went wrong.

      And here it was, stuck in an unhealthy looking plant outside a frightening place.

      She squealed in excitement, hugging the paint brush close.

      But then she remembered what she had come here to do.

      She wanted to see Neopets that were more unfortunate than her, and maybe it would make her feel better about her life.

      However, Rose didn't need that anymore. She had a paint brush! The paint brush she had been dreaming of for years!

      She turned to head over to the Rainbow Pool, but a pitiful little voice coming from inside the pound made her pause.

      "C-Can I see it?" the voice asked, hesitant.

      "My paint brush?" Rose asked, peering through the darkness.

      "Yeah, I've never seen one before."

      I may not be painted, but I've at least SEEN a paint brush, Rose thought, finding this statement to be a bit peculiar.

      "Uhm, okay." The Xweetok stepped into the pound and headed toward the voice. "Here it is."

      She held out the paint brush a bit reluctantly and the figure stepped out of the dark corner.

      It was the most bedraggled little Blue Shoyru she had ever seen.

      "This is so cool!" the poor Neopet exclaimed, admiring the paint brush.

      "I just found it outside there. I was about to go to the Rainbow Pool and get painted," Rose replied, not meaning to sound as impatient as she did.

      "Oh, sorry," the Shoyru sighed. "I just really wanted to see it. I hope you enjoy being plushie. I bet it will be great."

      "Uhm, thanks. And no problem," she said a bit uncertainly. "Well, bye then."

      "Bye," the Shoyru said, his voice terribly sad, his eyes even sadder. "Thanks for talking to me. It's been a while."

      "How long have you been in here?"

      "About a year, maybe more," he replied. "My name is Tom1222143467884. Who would want a Neopet named that?"

      "Aw, I'm sorry," she said, a plan forming in her head already. "Well, I'm the only Neopet my owner has. Maybe she can adopt you!"

      "Really? You mean it?" Tom gasped, shocked. Seconds later he looked crestfallen and began to speak sadly."Wait, you're probably just kidding, right?"

      "No, no! I'm serious! And I have a sure way to get her to say yes." Rose smiled.

***

      "Hello, Rose." Her owner was sitting at the table, omelettes in front of her. "Dinner is ready. We're having omelettes. Again."

      "Hi!" Rose said cheerfully, totally out of character. "But we'll need one more. I brought a friend. His name is Tom1222143467884, but you can call him Tom. He is really nice, and I'm sure you will love him!"

      The nervous little Shoyru walked through the door cautiously, his formerly sad, blue appearance replaced by a happy, plushie one.

      "I met him at the pound," Rose explained. "I found a Plushie Paint Brush right outside the door, and I wanted to do something nice for someone for a change. What do you think?"

      "Rose! That is the sweetest thing you have ever done!" her owner gushed. "Have you found an owner for him yet?"

      "Yep!" Rose laughed. "You!"

      So Tom, Rose, and their owner formed a huge hug, and Rose never, ever felt lonely or jealous or out-of-place again.

      Mostly because she was painted the best colour she could ever think of.

      Red.

The End