Sunny the Spotted Kacheek greeted the new Kreludan day by tacking yet another Jazzmosis Poster on to her bedroom wall.
i"…With a breathable air quality of 87 and an average high of -55, this otherwise clear day is a perfect day for a good game of Moon Rock Rampage, but expect a small chance of meteor showers in the evening. We leave you with the old Jazzmosis classic, 'Who Cares?'"/i
With a sigh, Sunny fell back down on to her unmade bed and let herself be absorbed in the smooth sounds of a slow alto saxophone solo coming from the loudspeaker (tuned to station KRE 94.5). It was only when her owner called, "Sunny, get here now!" that she got up and ran out of her room.
"What have you been doing?" Ace exclaimed. "This is no day to be inside your room!" He pressed a few hundred Neopoints into Sunny's hands. "Go out and have some fun!"
"But Ace," Sunny said in a whiny voice, "There's nothing to ido/i on Kreludor! We live in the space station, and all we've got is a café and a book shop and –"
"You can go read some books! I'm always telling you to get a little smarter, you know. Maybe have a game of Moon Rock Rampage when you're done!"
"Fine…" Sunny said grudgingly. She left their NeoHome and stepped out into the Kreludan Space Station hallway, made out of orange metal and featuring a purple-stained window displaying the surface of Kreludor every few paces.
She sighed and leaned against a window where she could see the distant planet of Neopia. For some strange reason, Ace had ever taken Sunny to Neopia. She had spent her entire life locked up in the station, ruining furniture and poaching food. The only things that had kept her from leaving was a lack of funds and a dream; an extremely wondrous dream of one day becoming a jazz vocalist, recording at Virtupet's Space Station, and performing down at Tyrannia. She'd have to stick with Ace until he finally envisioned the same for his Neopet and gave her the funds needed.
'Who Cares', which was still blaring over the loudspeaker, ended and an ad for Moon Rock Rampage came on. Sunny quickly remembered the Neopoints she had and decided to head down to the game centre and have a couple of rounds before going to Booktastic Books. Lucky for the Spotted Kacheek, her life was about to be changed greatly as she inputted 100 NP into the game machine and booted up the game.
The music blared over the booms and bangs that were coming from Moon Rock Rampage. Sunny noticed that it sounded somewhat like 'Who Cares'. Without even noticing, she began singing along, and only stopped when she had lost all of her lives and the music ended. She turned to leave, but instead saw a Disco Nimmo with a tenor saxophone, clapping.
"I've never heard 'Who Cares' sung like that before!" the Nimmo said. He played a short solo on his saxophone, and Sunny could tell that the Nimmo was an extremely good saxophonist. Perhaps…
"Erm… thanks… I'm Sunny." Sunny said sheepishly. "I never knew anybody else around here liked jazz music."
"Are you kidding me? I live for jazz!" the Nimmo responded energetically. "I'm Bean."
"Ah…" Sunny said, in deep thought. Should she ask him? Nah, they had just met. But she had been waiting for such a chance all her life. It wouldn't hurt to try.
"Say, Bean," the Kacheek said slowly. "How would you like – how would you like to work together and – and…"
"Be the biggest jazz stars this side of the moon?" Bean finished for her, beginning to smile.
"Yes, that'd be great!" Sunny said, relieved. "I've wanted to be a jazz star all my life!"
"Me too!" Bean said. He quickly bent down and fumbled inside his saxophone case before pulling out a piece of sheet music. "I've already written a song you can sing, it's called Meteor Mash… let's try it out, shall we?"
Sunny gazed down at the paper. Lyrics were written in a scrawl underneath some notes, all of which looked easy to sing. She nodded to Bean readily, and he picked up his saxophone.
i"Everybody - do the meteor mash, dance dance dance - till all the space rocks crash…"/i The song turned out to have a heavy latin beat as Bean played complicated accompaniments on his tenor saxophone. Neopets also playing Moon Rock Rampage stopped their games and turned around just to watch the duo perform. Small, harassed-looking Grundos carrying heavy stacks of paper in the hallway stopped and gazed, transfixed, as the Kacheek and Nimmo proceeded into the final verse.
The song ended with an extremely fast arpeggio from Bean. A small group of Neopets had gathered around the two Neopets, and all were mesmerized by the song they had just heard. When they realized that it was over, they all began to clap and cheer loudly. Someone threw a charm bracelet at Sunny, who picked it up and examined it while she and Bean bowed. There were only four charms on it: a musical note, a piece of a moon-rock, a small, plastic sun, and what looked like an Eyrie. She slipped it on to her wrist and could've sworn she saw Ace quickly leave the room as the crowd rushed forward to embrace the duo.
Later, Bean and Sunny sat down on two stools in Café Kreludor and ordered two Orange Ixi Drinks.
"That was amazing!" Sunny exclaimed. "You really are one of the best tenor saxophonists I've ever heard! I hope Jazzmosis are crestfallen that they don't have you!"
"Well, you're not too bad yourself," Bean responded sheepishly as their drinks arrived. "Man, if we could arrange a big band, we might even be able to go to Virtupets and record a song for the loudspeaker…"
The idea seemed to mull over him as he sipped his Ixi Drink. Suddenly, he sat up again. A group of Neopets carrying a large array of cases had just sat down at a table in the corner of the café. "Up for another performance of Meteor Mash, Sunny?" he asked, his eyebrows raised.
In what seemed like only a few seconds, the first repetition of the chorus of Bean's song had arrived, and Sunny saw that the attention of the Neopets in the corner had been raised. They quickly unpacked their instruments and came to join them. A Krawk played harmonizing chords on his keyboard; a Mynci drummed a miniature drum set; a Techo strung a large double bass; two Blumaroos played two silver trumpets while two Lupes boomed out notes on their trombones; a Usul played the alto saxophone and a Grarrl played with the double bass on a baritone saxophone. As the song went on, the band began to sound like they had rehearsed Meteor Mash many times and had not only met in a small café moments ago.
With the final arpeggio shaking the dust off the ceilings, a small crowd, including those who had heard the song at the Moon Rock Rampage game center, had gathered around the performers. They were all beaming at each other and accepted the praise. It was as if Sunny's dreams had ialmost/i come true; everybody was cheering, but it was only a small crowd compared to those of the Tyrannian Concert Hall. 'Ah well,' she thought to herself, 'Good practice…'
"That was an excellent performance!" A Mynci dressed in a suit had approached them from the bar after the crowd had all been kicked out by the café shopkeeper for being too loud. "Name's Vaio, an agent for Neopian loudspeaker transmissions, and I'd like to sign you all!"
Sunny, Bean, and all of their new fellow band mates all cheered and whooped at this. Having a hit single being recorded and played at the Virtupets Space Station, the leading industry of musical broadcasting, was the first step to being able to play at the Tyrannian Concert Hall.
Vaio seemed to be amused by their reaction. He said, "Yes! I think you guys have some real, potential talent. Take a space vessel line to Virtupets Station tomorrow, and we'll record a couple of tracks and see how Neopets all over Neopia respond to them. If people love it, we'll book a few stops around Neopia on a small tour and we'll eventually hit Tyrannia."
"This is awesome, Bean!" Sunny said, when Vaio had left and all the band members had written down their names and contact numbers on a piece of paper (it turned out that they were a traveling mini-band from the other side of Kreludor, and had been looking for a vocalist and tenor saxophonist for quite some time now). They had returned to their table to finish their Ixi Drinks. "When I woke up this morning, I never would've imagined that this would happen… Bean?"
Sunny stopped raving. Bean had his head bowed and was moodily stirring his drink. Sensing something was wrong, the Kacheek asked, "What's up?"
"Well…" said Bean uneasily. He took a deep breath and continued, "I don't have an owner." At this, Sunny gasped. "I don't know where I'll get the funds to travel to Virtupets. I've used them all up on buying reeds. You probably won't want to work with me now."
Sunny was in mild shock, though she had already had a nagging suspicion that he might've been an ownerless Neopet. "It doesn't matter that much Bean; I have an owner, but I still don't have the funds I need. Here, look: we can quickly do a couple of more songs in this café! That crowd left a large sum of Neopoints. We already have enough to buy one ticket!"
This seemed to cheer Bean up. He pulled out another song called 'What If?', which turned out to be a slow ballad with relaxing notes played from the Nimmo's saxophone. The crowd outcome was not as hectic this time, but they had managed to make enough money to get to Virtupets anyway.
"I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Bean said happily as he packed up his saxophone.
"Tomorrow it is." Sunny said with a smile. She left the café and returned to her NeoHome.
"Where have you been?" Ace demanded as soon as his Kacheek stepped into their living quarters. "Were you getting involved in mobs? I heard there were three today, all because of some stupid musical duo."
At this, Sunny flushed in anger. "That 'stupid musical duo' was me and Bean!"
Ace stopped setting the table for their dinner. He looked up at Sunny in what looked like a cross of shock, horror, and disgust. Stammering, he said, "You – you were involved in all these complaints Kreludor has to deal with? You're the other half of the soothing yet unharmonious sounds of a tenor saxophone and vocals? You're – you're –"
"Don't say it!" Sunny said, angrily. Any happy thoughts that she had had only moments ago were lost. Picking up a purse with Bean's sheet-music, the space vessel money, and a bit of food she had dropped on the couch, she stamped out of the door in anger.
As the Kacheek stormed down the hallway towards the vessel stop, she heard a plate being dropped in the room she had just left. "Wait," shouted Ace. It sounded as if he had begun running to catch up with his Neopet. Smushing her eyes together to block the tears, she began running as fast she could until she arrived at the station. A large spaceship was just about to leave, and she quickly ran forwards, paid the money needed for a ticket, and hopped on.
Looking out the window at the moon she was leaving, she saw a blonde-headed figure run into the station. He saw Sunny's face and then waved his arms frantically before falling down on to the floor, a fragment of a broken dinner plate still in his hand. Sunny turned away from the sobbing form of Ace and tried to let excitement wash over her, though the vision of her collapsing owner was still fresh inside her mind.