Glowing Neon

(A new story...)
BY ME, ME, ME!!!!!
“You hate pigs?” Jenny gasped. She couldn’t believe the danger Kara was in, just by visiting her house. “Yes. I really want to be a butcher when I grow up, so I can butcher pigs and earn some pork.” Soon they came upon a large neon door. It was glowing. “Hey, what’s this?” Kara reached out to the doorknob. “You’re not allowed inside there.” Jenny told Kara. “Why not?” Kara asked, pushing Jenny aside. Jenny was blocking the door. Kara opened the door. “Don’t!” Jenny sounded terrified. “Why not? Don’t be such a--” Kara was interrupted by a flash of neon light. Jenny blocked her eyes. When she opened them again, Kara was gone. Jenny buried her head in her hands. “Why did it have to happen again?” She groaned.

A couple thousand miles away, in a town called Maribel, a young girl called Penny Lakers was heading to school. She was just going to school. She was going down the hill when a giant truck rumbled by. In it was about fifteen or fifty pigs, all squealing and about to be butchered. Penny covered her eyes and ears and waited until the truck passed before she went on with her journey to school. Now from this, you could tell that she was so caring, she couldn’t stand to look at the poor pigs. She soon reached school.

“What is it?” Katherine yawned. Penny had just tapped her on her shoulder. “Have you ever seen a ‘pig truck’?” Penny asked. “Oh, yes! Lots of times. It makes me feel good.” Katherine was the meanest, least-caring girl in the entire class. “Why is that?” Penny asked. “You know, I love pork! Bacon, ham, and that dish I can’t pronounce. It means I’ll have more of that in no time.” Penny frowned. She imagined the pigs’ heads being chopped off. The first bell rang, and everyone ran for his or her chair.

“Now as you can see, Pennsylvania is blah… blah… blah…” Miss. Lily was jabbering on and on about the great civilization war that was going on between Pennsylvania and Mississippi. “Yawn!” Katherine whispered to Penny. “Yeah!” Penny giggled. Miss. Lily suddenly appeared at their side. “Do you have something you want to share to the class, girls?” She asked sternly, her mouth twisting into a very, very thin line. “No, Miss. Lily. We would rather not share it with the class.” Katherine said in mock politeness. Miss. Lily replied through gritted teeth; “Principal’s office! Now!” She sent them out. On their way to the door, Miss. Lily added; “Oh! And Detention after class, too!” “Oh, perfect. Just perfect.” The two groaned as they pushed open the door and went out.

Cold air enveloped them as the door to the principal’s office swung open. “Well? Come in! I don’t have all day.” The secretary sniffed. Katherine and Penny looked around the office. There was a very stiff-looking orange sofa with brown polka-dots on it stuck to the right wall. There was a long hallway ahead of them, and at the end was the secretary’s desk and a door that read ‘PRINCIPAL’S OFFICE’. Just then the door slammed closed and Penny realized that they were still standing in the hall, so Katherine pushed the door open again and they went in.

“Wow, I never knew that the secretary was such a grouch!” Penny hissed to Katherine. “Yeah, neither did I.” Katherine plopped down on the couch with tremendous force and hopped back up again. “OUCH!” She yelled, jumping up and down, clutching a sore bottom in her hands. “Why?” Penny felt the sofa. “OMG! This sofa is all one painted block of cement!” Penny felt around some more. “Hey, what’s this? There’s a loose block!” Katherine stopped jumping around. “Really? Hey, let me see!” Katherine felt around until she found it and pushed hard. The block gave away in her hands and Katherine toppled over into the gap. “Katherine!” Penny yelled. An echoey voice replied. “Hey, Penny! Get down here! This is very cool! It’s like a secret passageway.” Penny looked nervously at the secretary. All was clear. She jumped right in and pulled the tile in place as she went down.

“Wow! This is so cool!” Penny shouted. “Awesome! But we need some light.” Katherine leaned against the wall. “Yeah…” Suddenly something clicked. The passageway got lit up by a million little Christmas lights dotting the ceiling and walls. “Whoa!” Katherine jumped away from the wall. “Cool!” The two ventured on the secret passageway until they came to a rope ladder.

“This is so cool!” Penny exclaimed, starting to climb up. “Yeah! Do you think we’ll find bacon and ham at the top?” Katherine asked, licking her lips. “Oh, I hope not! I like pigs. They are so cute. They might be dirty, though.” Penny said. Katherine scrunched up her nose. “If you were a pig, I’d butcher you first.” After that, neither of them said anything. Soon they reached the top.

“What is this place?” Katherine asked, as they came up in a room that looked much like a living room. There were brown couches with throw pillows all over the place, and a giant TV was facing them. A glass coffee table had a tea setting on it, and on the brown couch were two young girls, around the age of Penny and Katherine. The girls were surprised. “Oh, someone else found the secret entrance.” The first blonde girl said. “Well, hi! I’m Jenny, and this is my best friend Mandarin.” Penny and Katherine said hello politely. “I love pigs,” Penny told Jenny. “Really? Me too!” Jenny sounded very relieved. “I hate pigs,” Katherine told Mandarin. “Really? Me too!” Mandarin exclaimed happily. Jenny suddenly looked very panic stricken. “Why, Jenny?” Penny asked. And Jenny told her the entire story.

“Once, long time ago, my great-great-great-great-great-GOD-knows-how-many-greats grandfather loved pigs. He hated anyone who hated them, and he mostly hated people who loved bacon, ham and butchering. So he created an invention, and invention that turned his heart to stone. This invention was called ‘Glowing Neon’. Whenever somebody who hated pigs came within power span, there was always a flash of neon light, and the person came to glow neon. Then he or she turned into an alien and was sent to live on the planet Venus. The problem is, everybody who hates pigs have been to my house. It’s like they’re paperclips and the house is this giant magnet. If a person who loves pigs went near the ‘Glowing Neon’, nothing would happen. But everybody forbade me to ever get near it, because it’s malfunctioning. So, I need your help. There are these helmets used to prevent any accidents happening down there, but the father said he put it in the computer, and I could never find it. Can you help? Before Mandarin and Katherine turn into very ugly aliens!”

Penny, Katherine and Mandarin stood with their jaws on the floor. They each closed their mouths and began to talk. “WHAT!?” They screamed. They were all panicky. “This is what happened to Kara, isn’t it?” Mandarin yelled. “She hated pigs!” “I tried to stop her!” Jenny yelled back. “CALM DOWN! The ‘Glowing Neon’ can sense fear. It will turn you immediately into tumbleweeds!” That shut them up. Soon, they were all in Jenny’s father’s office, searching the computer.


“Can’t you work any faster?” Katherine and Mandarin kept groaning at Jenny and Penny. “We’re trying! This thing doesn’t have anything programmed into it, Jenny.” Penny told her. “Let us try!” Katherine and Mandarin tried to wrestle the keyboard away from them. Suddenly, with a crash and a bang, the giant, wide computer crashed to the floor and broke. “Uh oh! You’re dad is going to be pretty steamed about this!” Katherine gasped. “Nope!” Jenny replied. “My father’s dead.” “How about your mother?” “Dead too.” “Who takes care of you?” “The robot my grandfather invented for me, right before my parents and he died.” “Guys!” Penny was kneeling down at the remains of this computer. “The helmets were inside the computer! RIGHT INSIDE IT!” “They’re only two.” Mandarin sounded disappointed. “You won’t go, do you want to become aliens?” Jenny asked sweetly, as she and Penny buckled their helmets on. “Let’s go!”

Penny and Jenny stationed Katherine and Mandarin right outside the power span of the machine, and then they went in the room, their helmets buckled on tight. Inside was a massive, glowing neon machine. The machine was very, very big. They carefully went around to the back. At the back, there was a half-empty box of tiny, molecule spaceships. “What are these?” Penny asked, reaching out to touch them. “They’re spaceships. The people transform into TINY, TINY, TINY aliens, and they take off to Venus in these.” Jenny gestured towards the box. “How do the aliens look like?” Penny asked, suddenly curious. “They’re orange, with three eyeballs, and four tentacles that they squirm around on. But we’re here to disassemble this machine, not to learn about it.” Jenny pointed out, and began to press all the red buttons. “My father taught me about this machine. To bring back the aliens and turn them into people again, press the green, blue and black buttons until they beep. To destroy it, click self-destruct. To de-magnetic it, get in the porthole, remove all the mini magnets, and destroy the whole machine. Then you leap out of power span.” So they set to work.

“Hey! There are a ton of mini-magnets in here. They all read, ‘DRAWING IN PIG HATERS’.” Penny yelled. Jenny gasped. “This is what he used to destroy all the pig haters!” she yelled. She was rapidly pressing the black, blue and green buttons. They beeped. Soon, the out side of the power surge was crowded. “DON’T GO ACROSS!” They heard Mandarin yell. “YOU’LL GO BACK TO VENUS!” But the duo had to concentrate. “Get ready to leap to safety, Penny!” Jenny pulled Penny out of the machine, shut the porthole, and pressed the ‘SELF DESTRUCT’ button. The duo leaped to safety, outside the power surge.

The house erupted in flames. Katherine heaved open the trapdoor and pushed everybody in. “No, I better stay.” Jenny grinned. “I have no more unfinished business here on earth. I’m ready to cross over.” Light rays erupted from her body, and she floated up. She became transparent, or translucent. “I was a ghost, Penny, Katherine.” She explained. “Mandarin knew. She tried to help me to finish my business.” Soon, Jenny vanished, she floated up and away. That was when Katherine and Penny found a huge wave of fire heading towards them. “Duck!” Penny yelled, and they slammed the trapdoor behind them as they climbed down the ladder.

“That was a close one!” Penny gasped as they clambered back along the Christmas-light lit hallway. They reached another rope ladder. They climbed up it and entered back into the principal’s office. They found a grouchy secretary waiting for them.

“You have…” The secretary broke into a grin. “SAVED US ALL! That machine was also for destroying grouchy people, and people in a bad mood, and everyone else, too. But to that great-great grandfather of that little girl, only his wife and himself counted. So, he killed all his children, therefore everyone led a ghostly family. Jenny didn’t want to tell anyone, so she made that story up. She was the end of her family. She hated to think of leading a ghostly family. No, she wanted only mortal families in the world, so she led you to destroy that machine, so that her business would be over, and she would go and cross over right before she even married or had children. And you, our hero, had stopped the haunting of ghostly families all over! HOORAY!”
The entire school was gathered in the courtyard, ready to have a party.
There was a disco ball in the gym, a punchbowl and refreshments. Everyone was dressed in party clothes. Jenny watched their victory from above. “Isn’t it nice? To see our victims happy once more?” A voice asked. Jenny knew it was her great-great-great-GOD-knows-how-many-greats grandfather’s voice. She picked up a fistful of clouds and ate it. “Yes, and boy, this stuff tastes like cotton candy, grandfather!” “Yes… we spin it from the four elements, then the angels add taste, and we puff it up. Do you want to learn how?” “Why, I’d love to! Can I send some down to Penny, now?” Jenny asked. Her grandfather nodded, and she scooped up a fistful, and zoomed down to Penny and Katherine and Mandarin. I could get used to this, in heaven! She thought, as she dropped clouds in their hands. Their heads lifted, and she motioned to eat it. Before they could respond, She was off in the afternoon sky.

THE END!