I heard the jingle play again, signaling the train was about to leave. I flicked my wrist to turn on my Gamepad. I pulled my earbuds out of my pocket and plugged them in, and put on my favorite playlist. I had some popular songs but mostly instrumental music, which I really enjoyed. They seem to fit whatever I'm doing more than songs with lyrics do.
We made several stops, a few at each sector. Watching all the buildings and scenery fly past while listening to some of my less-hyper songs really helped calm me down. Well, until a Squid Sister Song came on. Their songs were always happy and energetic, and usually glorifying Turf Wars, like the one I was listening to now. I imagined myself battling to this music. It was easy to see why they were one of the most popular bands in Inkopolis.
I was just about to take out a Carbon Roller with a Splat Bomb when the conductor's voice crackled over the loudspeaker, forcing me back to reality. "Arriving at the Bluefin sector." I looked at the Train Schedule and saw that my stop, Booyah Junction, was next. I looked around and noticed a girl inkling about my age on the seat opposite of me, her head pressed sideways against the window. She had earbuds in too, and a sort of worried look in her orange eyes. She had long, vibrant turquoise hair, and was wearing the starter clothes like me. This must be her first time too… How did I not notice her? I thought, beginning to feel nervous. My clothes suddenly felt tighter, and my heart rate increased. I suddenly felt more self conscious about my appearance, especially my outfit, than I ever had in my life. Calm down, you idiot, I thought. She's wearing the same clothes as you!
She blinked a few times, and noticed me looking at her. I quickly looked away. She didn't seem to care I had been staring at her and flashed me a quick smile. She went back to looking out the window. What did I do right? Was the smile genuine, or sarcastic? It dawned upon me that we would be getting off at the same stop and, kill me now, going through training together. You might be thinking this is a good opportunity to make a new friend to share the experience of my first day with, but let me tell you, it's going to be my doom. I am pretty socially awkward and insecure in almost any situation, especially when a girl is involved. I figured that there is a 90% chance I will blow it and embarrass myself right off the bat.
As the train screeched into Inkopolis Station, I was, unsurprisingly, still pretty nervous. The door slid open and I waited until the girl walked out before joining her. The rest of the Inklings my age got off at the next station, which was a plus. Although maybe one of the nicer ones would have been able to point me in the direction of the tutorial, because I didn't have the slightest idea of where to go next, and it didn't seem like the girl Inkling knew either.
This problem seemed to solve itself fairly quickly as both of our gamepads beeped simultaneously. We both looked down. "Tutorial directions load complete. Activate now?" Man, these things are awesome, I thought as I selected 'yes'. It beeped again, and projected a large holographic image of 3 orange circular outlines and an arrow in front of me. The same thing was projected out of the girl Inkling's Gamepad, only in turquoise. The arrows both pointed in the same direction, and it didn't take a genius to figure out we were supposed to follow them.
We wordlessly followed the arrows until we reached a door at the end of an alleyway and some stirs. It had the word "Tutorial" written on it. I held open the door for her, and she flashed me another smile. "Thanks," She said.
"Um...You're w-welcome," I said, trying to hide my nervousness. So far, I wasn't doing so great. "Um… My-my name's Coral." I smiled shyly. I hoped it didn't look dumb. I'm sure it did.
"My name's Stella. User's the same. Nice to meet you!"
Still smiling, she extended her hand. I shook it. "So… Um… You have any idea what to do now?" I asked, and took a look around. We were in an open-air enclosed park-ish area. There were some stairs leading down in front of me, so I started walking towards them. As soon as I took a single step, our gamepads beeped. I looked down. On the screen was an image of a lot of young inklings with various weapons and ink colors. 'Hey you. Yeah, You! Want to be the freshest squid on the block?' It read in white letters on the bottom. "Uh…Yeah?" I said and tapped the screen. It changed to a picture of some more kids and squids shooting various weapons and swimming around. 'We'll teach you some funky-fresh moves on the way to Inkopolis!' Ok. Sounds good. I tapped the screen. The message changed to 'Shoot ink to pop the balloons!'