Disclaimer: If I own Neopets I am a three-toed sloth—which I'm not so I must not own Neopets.

Author's Note: Hi, hi! Thanks a lot for the reviews guys! They mean sooo much to me. If any one else in reading this please review! Also I've changed the set up in the chapters so I hope you like it!

Chapter 5

Better Relations

I stared at the menu in front of me, again. Skip had taken me to a simple pizzeria for a lunch that was "on him". Oh, it would be on him alright if he makes one more inkling of a notion that I couldn't read. Only minutes ago I had been staring at the same menu I had in my hands now, and Skip had gotten the idea that I was staring at it because I didn't know what anything said. "' Don't know how to read?'" he had asked, "' It's okay I know plenty of pets that don't—YOWOUCH!'" that's what he had said after I had knocked him over the head with a fisted paw, hard. Well, back to the present. Skip, I noticed was brooding over his own menu, long after he had ordered an ice pack from a waitress.

"Sorry about that…" I dared say after I noticed he took a quick glance at me and had shown just how fast one's eyes can dart downwards. "I'm just kind of rushed today and also kind of looked down on in my family so when you made the assumption that I couldn't read…" I stopped my long half lie as he put up a paw for silence.

"It's okay," he said with a smile on his face. "I understand." At once the heart-warming, stomach-churning scene at the potion shop came to my mind. I wondered if Skip's father, or maybe even his mother, was anything like my sister. Not likely. Both of us looked down upon because we were the younger wasn't likely. Kaymara looked down on me because (Going back to the menu) she eats breakfast and I the dead one haven't eaten in three years. Ah well, I could touch folks couldn't I? I'd eat, or at least try to, I must have a stomach after all if I felt the sensation of nausea and feared of myself being sick right at that moment. I'd order something. My eyes scanned the menu for something with a long name but inexpensive and interesting to me. I would make sure Skip knew I could read, understanding or no.

"Thanks." Skip was saying as the waitress handed him the ice pack and gave me a thumps up sign as she left holding back a storm of hysterical laughter at the fact I had not been shy to wallop the Shoyru over the head. I sighed. Feminist. Skip seemed to pour over his menu as if it were one of the few volumes of complicated math and science encyclopedia's sitting in the basement along with my (At this time I wasn't sure) either sleeping or writing sister. An idea clicked in my mind, forget the long named pizza. Skip was the one who couldn't read! He would prove it to. I had a feeling he would order a pizza that was pictured in the menu. He would refer to it as "this" and point to it. Or at least that's what I thought. (Jeez, where'd the sudden need for absolute revenge come from?)

"Miss?" Skip called to a passing waitress. "I'd like this please." He said pointing to the menu. I smiled.

"When you said you knew plenty of pets that couldn't read…were you by any chance on the list?" I asked trying not to sound triumphant. Skip looked rather sheepish.

"Er, um…ye-no I don't believe so." He said with anticipated falters. I looked at my menu.

"Sir?" I called summoning a waiter. "Could I please have a Mushrolivepepper Pizza?" I smiled innocently at Skip who fidgeted in his seat. He couldn't read!

"So you can't read?" I inquired. Skip solemnly nodded. "Speaking of being an idiot," I continued harshly hoping to change the air of caution Skip had put around himself and the totally bossy-brat impression I put on myself. "I can't swim, I must say reading is less important than swimming as reading can't save you from drowning now can it?" I said all this of course easily because never would I absolutely need to swim to save my life as I was dead already. I just hoped I get back on good terms with the guy, no matter how much he managed to some how get on my nerves.

"You really can't swim?" Skip said cracking the ice, the thick ice, but cracking it no less.

"With those wings, can you?" I answered him. Born and breed to be a lady, daughter of my late, very proper mother, and I was insulting someone with every word that slipped from my lips. (How did Mother turn up?) Any way, our conversation carried on past lunch. By the time it stopped, only two and quarter hours were left before we were to head back to the Haunted Woods. And the only reason it stopped was the fact we walked by a clothing store and Skip couldn't seem to walk past the display window without leaving me behind.

"Want something do you?" Skip said walking over to me. I nodded entirely forgetting that my sister would freak if she saw anything new in the house. We both walked in the store and I saw something I wanted, but I ignored it. I was shopping for Skip first both as a thank you and apology (even if it was his money).