"I'm ready, let's go!" Meulin yelled from the second floor, her boots thumping against the wooden steps of the stairs.
With a click, Nepeta's mother pressed the stapler into a piece of yarn and Nepeta's paper nametag.
"You have everything?" her mom asked, eyeing the siblings as she slowly moved their kitten off of her lap.
"Yup!" they say in unison, Nepeta tucking her crayons into her little cat-faced backpack.
A wide smile was printed on her face today was finally the day! They'd see a bunch of cool fishes and not only that; the class would meet their pen pals.
Crawling off of her seat she followed her mom and sister out of the door but not before waving a good bye to a sleepy-eyed Pounce who simply flicked her tail as she trotted off to find a comfy spot elsewhere.
"You're lucky," Meulin blurted out slowing down to walk by her younger sibling who slipped her nametag around her neck, "I don't think we had that in our class before—and a fieldtrip too? Geez!" she said a little bit too loudly although it wasn't quite her fault that her hearing had been deteriorating.
Looking back up at Meulin, Nepeta giggled "Hehe, but you still have them sometimes right?"
"Not as often as I'd like!" replied Meulin, "And we don't really go to cool places." Before briefly turning her head and outstretching a hand to open up the back seat of the small family car, allowing Nepeta to jump in first.
Scooting off to the side in order to give Meulin some space, the younger sibling pushed out the bottom of her lip in a pout; "Huh…makes me less excited to move up then!" prompting a chuckle from Meulin.
The car rumbled to life and had steadily backed up. Nepeta pressed her face against the car window…watching as they passed familiar places in their little town.
In her mind she daydreamed the future events during her class's little trip, the good, the funny, the bad.
…She'd recalled being given Karkat's letter in response to the one weeks prior as soon as she had returned from the small break. He didn't seem as enthused about the trip as she had been.
A little nibbling crawled up against the skin on her arm and unconsciously Nepeta reached up to scratch the itch away…only to scrape her nails against a plastic texture.
Nepeta groaned in irritation in remembrance of the little incident and that meant there was no way to chase that annoying bugging on the plaster cast encased arm.
"Mama, it's itchy again!"
"I know it sucks, Nep, but it'll stop in a few days." Her mother replied with an inflection of amusement as she turned the wheel.
"You said that same thing three days ago…" Nepeta muttered still scratching futilely at the plaster cast with of course no avail.
Nepeta's mother pulled up in front of her kindergarten.
The girl stood up to kiss her mother and sister in good-bye before bouncing out of the car.
"As soon as I've dropped off Meulin, I'll catch up to you soon."
"Okay, mama!" Nepeta called in return, beginning to skip towards the entrance along with the children flooding into the building.
She'd noticed, on the way inside the set of yellow school buses that was shared among the school campus.
There seemed to be much space in them that could hold a bit more than the usual number of kids in her class.
Were the other classes' going on trips too? Probably not in the same place, her teacher had never mentioned it.
It had rarely struck her mind but it always surprised her that she and her sister had always been in the same school…the only difference was because of the lack of space, the buildings; Elementary and High school were separate just a mere few blocks away.
She felt someone grow close towards her and she turned her head to find Equius walking beside her.
As soon as she took notice he blurted a "Hello."before slowing down as he knew she'd throw herself at him in a big hug, "Good morning, Equius!" despite being used to this after their fairly long friendship it had still took a while to get his balance straight when she knocked him back.
There was a small pause before Equius hugged her back gently, a small smile on his face.
"Alright, I think we should be getting going." Equius said with a sudden stutter, breaking the embrace first. Nepeta figured that he might've caught the others staring.
She didn't quite understand what he was embarrassed about! Sure the other kids give them funny looks but it was odd to Nepeta since she'd consider him family!
Besides…she knew he might've had a little bit of a crush on a certain girl in their group!
Nepeta just shrugged, not taking any offence, and had returned to walking alongside him to their class as per usual.
They met up with the rest of their bunch, had taken a seat by their respective table and had begun listening to Ms. Aranea's instructions.
It seemed it wasn't only Nepeta's mother to be joining the trip. A few of the adults sitting awkwardly on the small chairs at the back, either parents or guardians, she could see some semblance to a few of the kids or had recognized their faces
One of them looking quite similar to the shy boy who'd often found difficulty walking although he obviously looked older and had a peculiar trait of having a red blaze in his spiky hair.
Oh, wait…she was supposed to be paying attention!
Swiveling her eyesight towards Ms. Aranea up front she saw at the corner of her eyes the door open slightly, her mom slipping in and waving at Nepeta who reciprocated the a
gesture back with some embarrassment.
The older woman scuttling off to the back with the other adults after taking note of Ms. Aranea's seemingly irritated look of being interrupted yet again!
It wasn't long until the briefing was over, and children had started…if they haven't already, to put on the nametags they were instructed to make last Friday
In a single file they walked into one of the buses, on the way there seeing other classes pouring out of their rooms.
The parents and guardians were given space at the back, or had the option to go in their separate vehicles. A few, a long with Nepeta's mother, had gone off into their own cars. Probably to escape the oncoming ruckus you might expect from a bunch of bored kids packed in a bus!
The hour and a half ride itself was quite uneventful, most of the students likely being split from their friends with how the seating was planned to be by alphabetical arrangement. Had to stop a couple of times because this one youngster had gotten a bit too motion sick. Nepeta could've even sworn she'd caught Feferi snoring somewhere at the back! She almost laughed at Feferi's poor neighbor who had to deal with being the messy-haired girl's pillow.
She'd also remembered her friend ranting on and on about being way too excited she just couldn't go to bed even when her older sister had began yelling at her from her room.
Nepeta had at least made the brilliant choice to pack a notepad before leaving.
But in the end it had been worth it and Feferi who seemed content in the land of Zs had very much sprung to life as soon as the bus halted in the parking area and the same girl was the first to have been springing out of the bus much to their teacher's slight exasperation.
Everyone else followed suit, flashing admission tickets they had pre-ordered a week before with the exception of the adults.
The entrance building was massively grand; flooring was tiled with shades of blues and on the center of it all a large mosaic of a variety of fishes swimming in a circle.
The ceiling was high up; much, much, much, much, much higher than Nepeta could reach even if she strained as hard as she could.
Around the walls of the ceiling depicted different pictures of marine wildlife…ones she knew and other she couldn't believe existed!
And with the marveling of her new surroundings she had almost forgotten it was she was initially waiting for if it weren't for a tall woman being surrounded by a sea of kids around their ages.
Her teacher had taken notice of the other group and had gathered her students up before bringing Nepeta and her classmates over to the other flock.
Now seeing the woman up close it seemed she definitely was older than Nepeta's teacher…not saying she wasn't pretty. She really was! Nepeta thought.
The tall woman with the short hair and obvious affinity for green spoke gracefully, Nepeta noted from the exchange between Aranea and she who introduced herself as Dolores.
Ms. Aranea had turned to her class and so did Mrs. Dolores, both similarly introduced each class to each other.
And this short time was to allow them to meet each other's pen pals.
Terezi grumbled beside Aradia and Nepeta, "If he isn't here…at least I wouldn't need to share anything during snack time." The words being followed by a cackle as the two different classes began to disperse…some of Nepeta's classmates had already found their pair.
She could see Feferi energetically shake the hand of a boy wearing a striped scarf; there was Aradia who was once at Nepeta and Terezi's side before suddenly disappearing into the crowd!
Equius was found nervously speaking to a girl who looked similar to Mrs. Dolores…huh…
Nepeta looked at all sides on the large room scanning each passing child's nametag if not for a known name…a familiar handwriting. Terezi was still by her side who did the same although with less effort.
Nepeta felt a tap on her shoulder, jolting instantly with a bubbly feeling before finding a surprised Terezi who looked her odd before simply saying, "I think I found my pen pal, I'm going to go over and say hi before he disappears."
Dismayed Nepeta put up a smile and said, "Okay."
Behind her, her mother approached; "Nepeta, where's your friend?"
"Um, I don't know. I don't see him." She mumbled in response, twiddling with her fingers.
"Why don't you go and ask one of the teachers? Maybe the one wearing green might help you find him."
…Why didn't I think of that?
"Oh, right!" Nepeta perked up suddenly, not even stopping to say thanks before she bolted over to Ms. Dolores.
Her mother simply shook her head with a chuckle.
Nepeta had found the tall woman to be talking to someone, she couldn't actually see who it was but then again the others had still been crowding around the area.
Nearing Mrs. Dolores, Nepeta had begun to call out for her.
The tall woman had looked up from the floor, glancing at Nepeta with a pleasant smile on her face; she waved Nepeta to come closer.
"What's wrong, little one?"
Nepeta didn't even notice the mess of curly hair behind Mrs. Dolores as she faced the woman quickly; "Uh-um. I was wondering if you could help me find my pen pal? He's in your class...of course! Hehe!" she paused with an embarrassed laugh.
"What is his name?" there was a knowing tone in the woman's voice.
"Karkat."
The small figure behind Dolores seemed to jump.
"See, I told you she'd be here." The woman outstretched a hand beside her and urged a youngster out of his hiding spot.
Nepeta blinked, tilting her head to the right as she eyed the boy in front of her.
He had curly black hair that seemed as though it never had been combed through at all! And he wore a pretty scratchy looking woolen sweater.
She'd have been clawing at herself if she were in that mess.
It wasn't until she saw his nametag, in the familiar jagged bold words 'Hi I'm Karkat' that she jumped at him.
He'd stood there uncomfortably at her staring and the sudden action had pretty much shocked him, Nepeta easily being able to knock the wind out of him, forced an angry yelp from the dark-haired boy who staggered to keep his step.
Nepeta hugged him as best she could with one arm that wasn't pinned into place by a cast.
Karkat (She couldn't believe she was actually seeing him!) squirmed at the tight hug, grousing incoherently at her.
It wasn't long until he had pushed her off of him, causing Nepeta to fall on her rear.
Karkat assumed the pose of crossing his arms with an irritated look before dropping the stolid posture at the sight of her.
"I'm-I'm sorry." He blurted, thrusting a hand towards her direction. His face spelled worry.
She took it, allowing him to pull her up on her feet; "It's okay!" she laughed. The happiness of finally getting to meet him…for real! Was still on her system.
Besides, he did seem genuine about it…!
Karkat was pretty lucky Equius didn't see that though.
"I'm Nepeta!" she squeaked, shaking his hand as it was still in her grip.
"Yeah…I know." Karkat replied his voice wobbly from her shaking his hand vigorously.
"Sorry I'm just really, really, excited to see you!" Nepeta's grin grew even wider when she noticed what was dangling on his wrist.
The bracelet she sent! He'd kept it!
"Hey, you still have it! Do you like the bracelet I sent you?" she asked quickly.
He blinked simply at her animated demeanor before nodding his head saying, "I wouldn't have it on right now if I didn't like it."
Nepeta simply giggled, now letting go of his hand. There was pause between the two as they just glanced at each other. Karkat crossing his arms again, his eyes often faltering and looking elsewhere before returning back to hers.
"That looks like it hurt." Karkat pointed at her cast with a sudden subject change, his face changing from furrowed brows to a wide-eyed look of regard.
"It did…but not so much anymore." Nepeta answered him eagerly.
"I was…a bit worried that you wouldn't show up because of it. I'm sorry for pushing you too." He repeated his apology once again.
Nepeta shook her head, "It's fine I guess I just got a bit too jumpy! I don't usually do that when I meet someone new and I wouldn't want to miss something like this for the world!"
"You said you fell off a tree…that's kind of silly." Mumbled Karkat who almost immediately received a punch on the shoulder.
"Shut up!" she laughed as he rubbed his shoulders, "It's great you're okay though…" Karkat added.
The two's attention was taken by Ms. Aranea who instructed that each pair of pen pals were to be tour buddies and both had the responsibility to look after each other even if that child did have a guardian along. Soon they'd be going into the actual Oceanarium and this was their last minute to find their partner.
Nepeta grasped for Karkat's hand, the boy looking at her silly while she couldn't help but just smile at him.
Oh jeez, longest chapter so far...probably might be a few of these fellas. Finally, the duo get to meet! Will be continuing the trip after this of course.
Anyways, you might get this a lot too but thanks for all the reviews you guys and we've managed to reach 12 followers already! ;u;
I'm going to draw a simple cover for this fic soon, hope you guys'll like it when it comes out. ^^
Anyway, reviews, reports on grammatical issues and ideas are always welcome!