Spic arrived back home around 10 NST that morning,to find with disdain that his owner seemed to be waiting for someone out on the porch.She paced up and down the creaking wooden surface,glancing at her watch every few seconds.Shallowing hard,he was about to just try and fly on to school,when Raz spotted him and motioned for him to come down.He sighed and knew that he had risked all this in the first place,so with some last few thoughts of the glorious White PB that floated around in his mind,he started to flap down onto the porch to his owner.She didn't look angry,but it was obvious she was fighting to control her temper at the thought that her pet had been missing days for some reason or another.

"I just want to know one thing,"she asked him in a cool,crisp tone,"Where were you?"

"Well...I,oohh,I was trying to get a job for something."he started to tell her truthfully,trying his best not to stammer in a twittering,fake voice.But it was hard to be direct with her.

But Raz wasn't about to be led off on another subject,she was determind to get a straight awnser from one of her most intellgent pets and thats what she planned to do.Once Spic saw that his owner wasn't going to let up on the questions or accustions,he realized with as sigh that he wasn't going to do any good to try and lie.

However,just as he was about to start telling his story,they heard a loud yelping noise coming from the kitchen.With a frown,Raz turned from the direction of the noise and looked at Spic with a rigid look and serious eyes,as she began to tell him in a low voice,

"BoReDSpic Conner RippleRazberry,I don't expect this to happen again."

Shortly after arriving home,Raz dropped Spic off outside the Neoschool and waved to him as he walked to school overwhelemed with deep thoughts.Thoughts like what was he going to do know that his owner was not only suspcious,but pushing him to tell her what was going on.Even though he knew she meant well,he didn't want her knowing.Then something crossed his mind...it was almost recess.Which meant he could see his friend about the route.

The smallish Blue Pteri wandered without much hurry to get to the playground,knowing the bell would ring any moment then and that his fellow class mates would be filling out in one mad rush to get the best everything.Of course,he got lost his is thoughts again as he often sometimes did.It wasn't until he felt a feather on his head being plucked,that he was able to snap out of his reverie and glare accusingly at his slightly younger yet smirking bother,Canis.

"Wow,feather-for-brains.Didn't think you'd be here!"he kidded him teasingly,taking a swing by him where they were in just about the center of the noisy and chaotic playground.

"So you did notice I was gone."Spic asked somewhat slyly,amused at the thought that the most forgetful Lupe in Neopia could have remembered not seeing him at school the last 2 days.But he didn't push it,he also knew just how competitive Canis could be at times.

"Yeah,man.Everyone has."a robot Jetsam sat in the other swing beside him and didn't try to his the fact that everyone had been rather concerned.

"Hey Cooper."Spic said to the Jetsam and then offered a sheepish grin,"OK,OK,how much?"

"As in...how much homework has piled up since you haven't been here?Tons."

"Look,"Spic told him firmly,trying to move over some to keep Canis from overhearing,"I know it's risky,but I've been trying to earn myself a white PB.My owner's said no,I got fired from the first job just this morning and I need to know if you're brother Copper will let me help him?"

The Jetsam just stared at him for a long while,they had been best friends since they were only about a week old and thier owners knew each other.And in all the time he had known Spic,never once had he seen his friend so wrapped up in getting something so expensive that he was stooping to low-paying jobs that were for older pets anyways just to get something like a paint brush!But,looking down at his Robot-built self,he did have to acknoldege that he knew what it felt like to be painted something you really wanted.

"But like you said,you're owner said no.And you know owners,they're always surprising us with unexpected gifts even when they already said they wouldn't.Hey,I'm not saying you shouldn't stop wanting and trying to get the brush...but don't miss school for it."

"Right.But could you just see?I know it's a long short,but I'm willing to try."Spic tried again to urge him to ask his brother,hopping up just as the last bell rang and they had to go in.

Later on after two periods of not getting much work done in class,the lunch bell sounded and signaled at the pets to head on into the cafeteria and eat.Spic sighed,he already knew he didn't have much of an appetite as he got down from his desk and was the last to exit the classroom.He almost was,that is,until Mrs. Winters called him back to her own desk.

"Spic,deary.You seem to have been missing a couple of days."the aged-looking yellow Kau observed concernedly,pushing her pointy red-rimmed glasses up onto her snout.

"I know,Mrs. Winters.I guess...I've just been sick."he lied under his breath uneasily.

"You guess?Well,I won't hold you againist you're along then!"the now busybodied Mrs Winter's urshed him to leave hastily,as she began to grade papers.

"Dude,Cooper told us why you've been bailing on school and all."Chinsie or Chinse a Skunk Kryrii and another of Spic's friends,informed him once he finally reached thier table.

"Why aren't you eating?"a Disco Bruce next to him inquired curiously,the Bruce in question happened to be Chinsie's best friend Dyukono,"I mean,are you sick or something?"

"I feel like it."he moaned back flatly,resting his chin on one of his blue-feathered wings.

Just then a very uncertain Cooper came over and sat down by Spic in silence.It was still very clear that he didn't think it was a very good idea to just completely blow off the fact that he'd missed nearly 2 whole days of school to chase some dream,but he didn't say that he had managed to ask his brother up in Neo Middle School where his brother was in 6th grade and he was in third,but since they met once before lunch at thier seperate wing enterances,Cooper was able to quickly mention that Spic was interested in his part-time job.

"It's not easy,"he warned Spic firmly,nodding at thier other friends,"You have to get up real early,like at 4:00 or so and be ready to take on you're block and addtional ones as well."

"You sure you want to do this?"Dyukono equipped him with some nervousness.

Spic nodded and started to get up to leave,"It's just something I know I have to do,thanks."

By early the next morning,Spic was already out of bed and was spending some time with his Blue Buzzer.He had met up with Copper,a golden Gelert,the following afternoon after school and they had it all planned out.While was patting his petpet's head semi-fondly,that's when Spic realized something,when he had connected the Weewoo his sister had wanted a while back to the White Paint Brush he was yearning to pocess.It just didn't make any sense,except he thought it was pretty well ridiculous that he had compared such a rare and expensive pet to one of the cheapest brushes out there.

"Hey,what're you doing up so early,"came cool,calm and collected voice that sent chills up his spine and turning to see the colour his brother was didn't help make the chills go away either.

"What'd you want,Koi?"Spic asked warily,glowering at his older who had joined him in the living room.He had very good reason to suspect that he had told something to thier owner.

"Yeesh,what's you're problem?"Koi repiled curtly,starting to walk into the Kitchen.

With clenched wings,Spic launched himself on top of his brother and after a few minutes of struggling,managed to pin him to the wall.Normally,Spic was a paitent and good-hearted Pteri,but the fact that he needed to why Koi had told wouldn't leave his mind until he head the awnser from him.So,although Koi was strong,Spic was stronger and wouldn't let up.

"Did you tell Raz?"he demanded,making sure he was eye-level with the bigger pet.

"What!Are you nutts?"Koi snapped quickly,grabbing his tail and yanking him off.

"Nutts?You're the one that told!Here I was trying to make my own NP and get my own White Paint Brush.Everything was going find,until you ruined it!You were out to sabotoage my whole plan you...you...you."Spic froze in the midst of putting the whole blame on his brother,who had been there from the start to encourage him to go and do what he felt was right.And here he was,just a few days later telling him all the things that weren't true in the least bit.

"Spic,"his owner entered the room and said softly,"Let's go for a walk,I have to tell you something."

As they descended from thier block and into the main part of Neopia in silence,there seemed to be the need to come right out and say what he was feeling.To tell why and how much this all had meant to him;and still did.But as they both padded over slowly to the Rainbow Fountain,a new thought crossed Spic's mind,maybe Koi hadn't told at all.However,he didn't get his awnser until they were both seated by the fountain's edge,watching at the gentle early morning breeze blew small and shimmery ripples in the murky azure water.

"When you were born..."Raz started to say all of a sudden,but then she paused and then turned to face her pet with saddened blue eyes,"Well,let's just say when my older sister was still in Neopets,she was the best at everything.Melissa,was,that is.She had four wonderful pets and they were all friendly and giving like she was.But,then the day after you were born someone hacked her account and was disowning her pets.Everything she worked for was being given away.By the time she realized it,you were the only one left.I had only been on for a short while with Maui and Koi and then you came along.They froze her and she went on to college the following year.But,the reason she never painted you...was because she her first pet was a Blue Pteri too who I had accidently abandoned when I messesd with her acco-"

One would think that the suspense of all that and the pressure would be too much for a small pet like Spic.But,he just sat there with his eyes transfixed on the fast-paced ripples of thewater and then his own reflection.His own Blue Pteri reflection appearing in the small tides the ripples were starting to create and then he noticed something.He wasn't sure at first,but it appeared to be a white feather drifting up to him.With a raised brow,he picked it up to examine it.It was just a plainning white one,just about the size of one of his.

"Does my past have anything to do with Weewoo's?"Spic questioned his owner after a while of pondering,his eyes still glued to the ivory feather that he twirled around and about.

"Yes,"his owner blinked in surprise,but then she smiled warmly,"It was her favorite petpet."

Spic then grinned,as he let his gaze shift upwards into the sky.Into the constellations of many stars and many moons,from thier galaxy to someone else's galaxy and so on.The thought that he had been wasteing his time by trying to get himself something like a White Paint Brush,all seemed so silly now.Now,that he realized that he had only been missing something.That something,he smiled,was to know where he truely belonged among others.

"And you know what,"he smiled back at his owner happily,flying up and over to hug her.

"What's that?"she laughed,stroking his feathery head in thier small but tight embrace.

"As far as how White I or a Weewoo's feathers are,you're by far my favorite owner."

The End.