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Pet Name: Bamillo
Owner: curiouslori311
Breed: Scorchio

The room was spacious, but it was wasted space - the huge crowd was smooshed against one half of one wall of the wide-open room.

"Curses!" Bamillo thought as he flapped his little wings, trying to fly up just enough to see above the crowd. Being the thoughtful little Scorchio that he is, Bamillo decided that instead of being angry about his tiny size, he would use it to his advantage. He ducked under and between all the other pets and finally made his way to the front of the noisy and excited crowd. He began scanning the "Basic Job" postings at the Faerieland Employment Agency.

"No... not enough time to complete that one... that job might end up being too expensive... I could never get that score... what to pick, what to pick..."

Finally Bamillo spotted a very easy job - find three bottles of red sand. It was perfect for a beginner like himself! Bamillo reached his chubby little fingers towards the ad when a swift-footed Nimmo sprang sideways in front of the crowd and snatched the ad from the bulletin board. The Nimmo ran off laughing and bragging about his skills.

"Goodness, it was harder for him to GET the job than it will be for him to DO the job!" little Bammy thought. His big green eyes continued scanning the boards, although this time with great haste, in hopes that he could find - and get - a job before another freakily-skilled neopet stole it. Suddenly Bamillo's eyes fell upon one ad... this one looked plausible, and he had done the job before many times, but could he do it under the pressure of a thirty minute time constraint? Well, he could certainly give it a try. Bamillo yanked the posting from the bulletin board and presented it to an agency clerk for processing.

"Congratulations, you got the job," the bored air faerie mumbled with fake enthusiasm, "You must score 350 points at Meerca Chase within thirty minutes." She handed Bamillo a small receipt-like piece of paper, and gave him the technical mumbo-jumbo. "Once you complete the job, go stand in that line over there, and don't forget to bring the score print-out with you. If you forget that, you're up poo creek without a paddle. If you feel you cannot complete this job, you can pay 200 neopoints to quit without failure. If you fail the job, it goes on your permanent record. Have fun." Bamillo pondered for a moment how the faerie had managed to lose enthusiasm by the end of her speel, considering that she hadn't had any to begin with. But he moved on, knowing he had a job to do. Bam bounded out the door of the agency, carelessly bypassing all of the pets who were mumbling about not having gotten a job this round.

"Mom! GUESS WHAT?!" Bamillo cried, nearly falling down the steps of the agency in his hurry to reach his waiting mother.

"I'll never guess!" his mom laughed softly as she spotted the piece of paper in his hand. Bamillo thrust the receipt into her hand and jumped up and down excitedly while his mom read his job description.

"Bammy, I've got to tell you, I'm impressed! You went for a challenge instead of yanking any old easy job that you could find. You'd better go get started, good luck!"

"Thanks, Mom!" Bamillo grinned. Contemplating his mother's comments, he was thankful that he didn't get the job where he had to find three measly little bottles of red sand.

Bamillo stepped confidently into the games arena, and sat at the controls of Meerca Chase. As he began to play, his confidence grew and he wondered why he had doubted for one second that he could do this.

And then he ran into a red negg.

"No problem," Bamillo thought, "I can start over!" And start over he did. And then he started over again...and again...and again...

He began to lose hope and became despondent. "Why did I ever think I could do this?" he said softly. He stopped playing and stared at the game for a moment, trying to decide whether to accept defeat or continue wasting his time playing a game he was certain he couldn't get 350 points on. "Should I even bother?" he whispered.

"It's not like it matters," a shrill voice piped up. Bamillo didn't even have to turn around to know who the voice belonged to because he'd know that nasty halitosis anywhere. Bamillo tried to ignore the Buzz's case of rancid breath long enough to get him to be gone. This kind of attitude was typical of this particular Buzz, who had a reputation for picking on baby pets.

"This isn't any of your business, I'm just playing a game of Meerca Chase. Could you please go away?" Bamillo asked in the most polite voice he could muster up.

"You can't fool me, I can see your agency paper - you're doing this for a job. So how much is it today? 200 neopoints? 350? 600? Oh well, like I said - it's not like it matters. You will fail, Bamillo, and then two minutes before time is up, you'll run crying to your MOMMY, and she'll just bail you out of failure with a big fat bag of neopoints. You rich kids never have to learn anything, you catch all the breaks." The Buzz waved his hand dismissively at Bamillo and flew off.

Bamillo watched him go, and knew he had to prove the Buzz wrong. Would the Buzz ever know that Bamillo had succeeded in his job? Probably not, but Bammy was determined not to give up. He turned back to the screen, and concentrated hard. He made some dangerously sharp turns and was careful to avoid the red neggs and walls. As the Meerca's tail grew and grew, so did Bamillo's anticipation. Finally he did it! A blue negg took him past 350 points, and Bamillo grinned while continuing his game. He ended up scoring a 475! Bamillo waited impatiently for the game print-out that he had to give to the agency to prove his success. As soon as printing was finished, Bammy yanked the paper off the press and half-ran, half-flew back to the agency.

Bamillo didn't even stop to tell his mom he had completed the job, and he didn't need to - she could tell by the look on his face that he had done his job. The fire faerie who was working at the Success section of the employment agency was startled up from her book as Bamillo slammed his print-out on the desk. "I DID IT!" he yelled excitedly at her.

"That's fantastic, all day I deal with pets that 'did it.' Here's your neopoints," she said as she dropped a few coins into Bammy's hand. Before Bam could take off, the faerie informed him, "Next time you scare me like that, I'm going to decrease the amount of neopoints you get back from your job."

This time calmly emerging from the agency, Bamillo strode proudly down the steps to Lori. He told her about how he almost gave up, but didn't! And he told her about the bullying Buzz and his remark about how pets like Bamillo never learn anything.

"Well," Lori replied, "I'd say you learned something. You're so proud of yourself, and you should be! And what is he doing? He's hanging around an arcade all day, sulking because he has no real talent or dedication!"

Bamillo nodded in agreement, only half-listening to her. He was too busy trying to think of what he was going to spend his neopoints on. As always, Lori was two steps ahead of him.

"Now it's time for another lesson," Lori said, eyeing Bamillo suspiciously, "a penny saved is a penny earned!"

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