It was a calm normal day in Inktopolis. The bright sun hung in the sky with barely a few clouds obscuring the warm sunlight. The inhabitants of this city were Inklings, people who could change from squid to humanoid at their own will, and each was born with their own coloured ink. They were usually in their humanoid form all the time once they mastered how to switch freely around the age of fourteen. At least, that was how it was aside from Turf Wars.

"Ohhh, I hope it says yes…" the voice of one inkling muttered. She had short yellow hair that resembled tentacles, but it was all brushed to one side. She was wearing a purple coloured zip hoodie. She was Aureolin, a sixteen year old Inkling, who wore the black marking around her eyes like a mask. Aureolin was short for her age, but it wasn't too bad in comparison to others her age. She had her blue eyes focused intently on the letter in her hands. It had a symbol on it that looked like someone had shot it with a spurt of paint. She slowly ripped it open and pulled out the letter within. Sadly, the yellow squid girl was swiftly disappointed by the contents. She made her way away from the stacks of small postal boxes that were setup right outside the apartment complex and headed into town.

Aureolin had walked a good distance to get to her destination. She arrived to a small cafe that was mostly setup indoors, but there were a few tables being shaded by umbrellas where customers sat at. There were various ages and families there. She ignored them all and headed for one of the tables nearby the entrance. Aureolin saw someone sitting alone, with a small radio setup right on his table. He was a boy who was roughly her age. He had long purple tentacle hair that was pulled back behind his pointy ears. The teenage boy was wearing a white shirt that had a vertical black stripe pattern on it.

"Hey, Aure, how goes it?" he asked, seeing her. He was Linen, a close friend of Aureolin's. They had known each other for only two years, but they always got along. Linen was waiting for his order from the cafe while his radio blared random chatter about current events that were happening.

"Not so good," Aureolin answered while presenting the letter. He picked it up, curiously. It wasn't the first time she had been bummed out by a letter like this, but Linen knew what it was about. He opened it and began reading.

"Dear Aureolin. We have spent quite some time debating on this topic. You did well when we tried you out, but you are not what our team is looking for. Good luck and take care ~ The Blank Slates," the letter read, being a form of apology and decline. Linen knew what it was. There was a big Turf War tournament coming up, the same as every year. Aureolin had tried out for three teams this year to enter the tournament, and sadly she got turned down by all of them. Turf Wars, in full summary, was a fight between two teams. Whoever coated the area in the most ink of their team's colour was the winner. Usually Turf Wars were fun fights between two groups of random people, but in the competitive tournament, they were assigned a random team to fight against every couple of days.

"Sorry, Aure… There's always next time," Linen apologized while handing the letter back to her, only to see his best friend throw the letter aside in a spark of anger. Very soon they saw a waitress come over, carrying a slice of chocolate cake on a small plate, resting it at the table. Linen licked his sharp teeth, having been waiting for a few minutes to get his lunch.

"Thanks, Linny. I guess it's good to know I'm not the only one without a team this year," Aureolin stated while referring to her best friend by his nickname, though he didn't touch the cake. He was looking away, seeming to have an appearance of guilt over his face.

"N-not really. I actually made it onto the team I tried for. I'm now a member of the Ink jets!" Lenin exclaimed excitedly, though he knew he probably sounded like a show off, having unintentionally rubbed in the fact that he had got onto a team. Turf Wars required a decent amount of skill. No one liked having a detriment to their team either. Aureolin glared to the purple inkling boy, before she reached over and pulled the plate with the cake slice on it toward her. He felt bad for depressing her already saddened mood.

"How'd you get on a team so easily? Did you try to blackmail someone again to do it?" Aureolin requested an explanation, while taking a piece of the cake with the fork and sinking her teeth into it. The cake did taste pretty sweet. Linen looked disappointed, seeing her enjoy the cake slice. He knew he probably deserved the punishment. He could have told her sooner since he found out the other day.

"No! …err, well, just because it didn't work one time doesn't mean I'd do it again, but that's not how I got in. They tried me out and really liked my style. We all worked so well together," Linen explained how he got in. They tried him out in a practice Turf War, and all went well, but he did feel bad for not being able to help her in some way.

"Oh… congratulations, I guess…" Aureolin finally congratulated, offering him another fork to share the cake. Linen was happy with the offer as he took a fork full of the slice and ate it. The delicious sugary coating felt soft on his tongue, and the chocolate flavour was perfect.

"I'm sorry, I'm just getting frustrated…" the yellow squid girl apologized to her friend. She hated acting like a hateful person, unintentionally or not. Linen stopped himself midway through his next bite of cake, sighing.

"You'll still be there to cheer for me, right?" Linen nervously asked like he was afraid of the answer. He knew his friend would never abandon him just because she couldn't enter the Turf War competition, and she had tried out for multiple teams already to no avail.

"Of course I will," Aureolin reassured everything was fine between them. The two soon finished the slice of chocolate cake. It made for a good lunch, even if it was shared. She got up and gave a thumbs up to her purple squid haired friend. Linen smirked while getting his radio and turning it off.

"I'll see you tonight."

Authors note: Hey all! I hope you enjoy the fic so far, I don't know whether or not to continue it yet. Have a good day.