"GINGER!!!!"

Ginger skidded to a stop around the corner to the living room. Panting, he poked his head back around to see if he was being followed. Coast was clear so far, so good.

"GINGER!!" the voice hollared again, "Don't you make me chase you, you LETTUCE HEAD!" Dral's voice boomed down the hall. Ginger winced and tried to become as small as possible in the hallway. That's not so easy to do when one is a gigantic grarrl. Who knew his sister was so touchy? It's not like she really LIKED her stuffed cybunny collection...

Hearing a snuffling noise, he looked down to see Dral's petpet, Woofie the Warf, sniffing the floor beside Ginger. Woofie looked up at Ginger, sat on the floor and proceeded to howl at the top of his little voice. Ginger briefly considered eating the stupid warf, but instead decided to hotfoot it before his enraged sister arrived. Discretion is the better part of valor and all... In other words, Ginger bolted

Once outside, he decided to head into town. He still had some neopoints left over from his allowance, so he decided now is the best time to spend them. He trotted off to Neopia Centeral. It was very convenient that he "forgot" he was supposed to never go into town alone. Something stupid about making sure he didn't get into trouble or some such. Thumbing his nose at the house he headed into town.

One hour later he returned home. With Mom dragging him into the house by his ear. He didn't know grarrl's even HAD ears let alone that grarrl's could be dragged along by them. That was okay. At least Mom was no longer shouting at him at the top of her lungs. Geeze, the shopkeepers were picky. What's wrong with eating wood? Okay okay...so maybe there were scarab cookies on the wood....and...maybe he didn't have enough money to pay for the cookies, let alone the mess involved, but it wasn't like he meant to do it!

Mom hauled Ginger into the house and plopped him into the center of the living room. Ginger shuffled his feet and stared at the floor.

"You know you are to never go into town alone." Mom started. "AND! You know you are never to go without telling me first! What were you thinking??"

"Well...." Ginger thought fast, "I didn't have anything to do and all Dral was doing was yelling at me so..."

"Dral was yelling at you because you ate her toys and refused to apologize. In fact, you laughed in her face and kept eating them." Hand on hips, Mom started to tap her foot.

"Dral is a tattle tale. I woulda paid for them..." Ginger said testily.

"With the same money you just spent downtown?" Mom arched her eyebrow.

"Um. Good point." Ginger was getting desperate. This was not looking good....if things didn't start to turn around Mom was going to say...

"You are grounded for a week." There, Mom said it.

"Aw Mom!" Ginger whined.

"Don't you 'Aw Mom' me, buster! NO TV. NO computer. NO phonecalls. NO outside. AND! You get to do all of Dral's chores as well. PLUS! We will work out a re-payment schedule to reimburse your sister." Mom said.

"But Mom..." Ginger whined again.

"Care to try for two weeks?" Mom asked. Ginger shut up. Mom was in no mood to negotiate. He just nodded and headed for his room. Plopping down on the floor he sat alone with his thoughts.

Dral came to his door and poked her head in. "I just heard," she said, "Serves you right! Oh, and it's my turn to clean the living room. Better get started. Ta-ta!" Dral said sweetly as she turned to go into her room. Through her shut door came the sounds of music.

Muttering to himself, Ginger dragged himself upright and headed into the living room. Grabbing the vacuum, he turned it on and started cleaning the rug. After a few minutes it started to clog so he turned it upright to check it. It would of helped had he turned it off first. After tapping the beater bar a few times, he accidently hit the "reverse" button and ended up with a face full of dust and dirt. Sneezing and coughing he dropped the vacuum and tried to back away. Grarrl's don't back away very well. He bumped into an endtable and cringed as a lamp hit the floor...shattering into a thousand pieces. Since no one seemed to have heard, he swiped the pieces into one big pile...than ate it. No evidence. He wiped his mouth and finished cleaning the living room.

It took an hour, but he finally got all the chores finished. Giving a long sigh he headed back to his room. After wandering around for some time, he finally pulled out some of his old toys to play with. At least he got to keep this stuff. After setting the toys around his room, he had a really good time playing knights and dragons. Just as he had a dragon eating a knight, there was a knock at his door. Looking up, he saw Mom in the doorway.

"Do you know anything about the missing lamp in the living room?" Mom asked.

Oh no! He had forgotten about that. "Uh, I ate it." he said slowly.

Mom sighed. "And you ate it because...."

"I made it fall and it broke into a thousand pieces" Ginger finished.

Mom sighed again and rubbed her forehead with her fingers. "How did it fall? No, never mind. I don't want to know." And with that she headed off to her room. Ginger heard her rumaging through her desk looking for migrane pills.

Ginger looked down at his toys. What a lousy day this was turning into. He smacked his toys across the room. Seeing what a lovely shape they left in the walls when they hit made him smile some. "This is all Dral's fault" He thought to himself. It's not like he meant for any of this to happen.

After sulking for some time, he headed down for dinner. Dral, Mom and Emerald were already seated and getting their helpings. Ginger plopped down and looked to see what was for dinner. "Great" he thought. "Meatloaf. I hate meatloaf" Sighing, he looked to see what else was for dinner. "Yippee" he thought sourly. "Mushy peas to go with it". Now being in a truely lousy mood, he looked at Mom. "Can I just eat my plate?"

"Ginger..." Mom warned.

Ginger gestured at the table. "Why not, it would taste just as good as what would be on it". Emerald and Dral froze and stared at him.

"Ginger....last warning." Mom said softly.

Ginger made a face and scooped up some meatloaf and plopped it on his plate. Mom shot him a look. Ginger looked back innocently. Next he scraped up some peas (scraped being the operative word...he dragged the spoon across the pottery causing screeching noises) and plopped them next to the meatloaf. Emerald sucked in her cheeks as if she was chewing on lemons, and covered her sensitive ears. Mom shot Ginger another look. "Ginger..."

Ginger mashed all the food together, scooped it onto the end of his spoon and shot the whole mess square into Dral's face before Mom could react. Dral blinked once or twice through the meatloaf and peas and than began shrieking at the top of her lungs. Jumping up, she scooped up some meatloaf and gravy and slung it at Ginger. Emerald whimpered and huddled under the table. Se was too new to join in just yet.

"THAT IS ENOUGH!" Mom shouted. "I have had it! Ginger, go to your room! Dral, clean up this mess!"

"But Mom!" protested Dral "That's not fair!!"

"Don't you even start with me about what is fair!" Mom shouted right back.

Sticking his tounge out at Dral, Ginger went to his room and slammed his door. After listening to the shouting voices for awhile, he decided to get ready for bed. Sure, it was early. But this day had to end sometime! After a few hours, the house settled down and Ginger crawled into bed. Just as he was dozing, a soft tapping came at his door. "Come in" he said groggily. The door opened.

Dral stood there along with Emerald. Dral was carrying a covered dish and Emerald had a covered basket hanging from her mouth. The wonderful aroma of rolls and turkey wafted into the room causing Ginger's stomach to rumble. "Can we come in?" Dral asked. Ginger nodded yes.

Dral and Emerald came in and set the food on Ginger's desk. As they were heading back out, Dral stopped at looked at Ginger. "Nice move on the spoon." she said with a smile. "I never saw it coming." And with that, she left the room. Ginger grinned broadly to himself, Dral never complimented ANYONE if she could help it. Going over to his desk he proceeded to wolf down dinner before jumping back into bed. "Maybe" he thought to himself, "Just maybe...this wasn't such a bad day after all." And with a satisfied burp, he went to sleep.

Back to My Short Stories
Now for all the legal jargon. Neopets owns the rights to everything Neopet related: past, present and future. I am just a fan, and while I like to write stories, all the charactors, food items, etc. all come from Neopets!!