Author Notes - I just wanted to write a fanfic detailing how the Guppies' first day of school may have gone down. We got very little details in the episode 'Get Ready For School' (which this story is of course named after), such as Gil mentioning that he was a little nervous, but I'm kinda okay with that. It means that whatever I write can't be contradicted by canon.

Unless, of course, Bubble Guppies decides to detail their first day and ruin everything, but I have my doubts. Regardless, this story is going to cover all the bases. We'll get to see glimpses of their home life, how they met each other, and even the beginning of some of the sketches such as the story adventures and the shops. Maybe have a bonus chapter showing some glimpses of Zooli's first day, and maybe even the 'next generation' if I feel like it.

By sheer coincidence, I started working on this story when the show's tenth anniversary was approaching. Oh yeah, the show is a decade old. Meaning it's been there for half my life. That's... that's a weird thought to have. So, I decided to delay the release of this one just a bit to publish it on the Guppies's tenth birthday. The actual date is the 24th, but I'm sure as heck not waiting that long! Also, with the inevitable weekly release we'll probably end up passing that date at this rate anyway.

CHAPTER ONE - GETTING READY

Wake up, put on your clothes. You have to get to school on time! You're gonna meet lots of new friends today.

Molly breathed in, and breathed out. Slowly. That's what she was told to do when anxious, and it seemed to be working.

The date had finally arrived - the first day of school. Her eyes glanced at the calendar as she packed her school bag. She had just turned five last year it seemed, and now already she was heading for school. Her parents loved to tell her how smart she was, so it wasn't the schoolwork she was worried about. It was something else.

'And I'm sure you'll make a lot of friends!' Her father Marty had said.

Her mother Madison chuckled. 'Oh golly, who would possibly be friends with a superstar like our little Molly?'

That was a conversation her parents had a few minutes ago, when Madison was brushing her hair. It got interrupted when Molly realised that she forgot to pack her toy microphone. Good thing too, as the little discussion made her stomach feel icky. She may have been built to be the centre of attention, but she certainly didn't feel like it. Her parents made such a big deal out of her making friends for a reason.

She hadn't made any friends yet.

'It's okay, Molly.' She muttered to herself. 'There's gonna be five other kids there. At least one of them will be friends with me.'

She strapped on her backpack and stared out her window. Already, she could see a school bus driving past with many kids on board. It wasn't going to her school, though. She had been put in a different school, one built more with Guppy needs and anatomy in mind. Guppies were rather rare, after all, and few schools were made to accommodate them.

'Molly!' Her mother called from downstairs. 'You'll be late if you don't hurry up!'

Molly flinched. 'Coming, Mom!'

Once she arrived in the living room, Madison made a few adjustments on the backpack strap. She took her daughter by the hand, and led her towards the door with a grin on her face. Why was she grinning, you may ask? Because she knew that after her daughter was dropped off, she and Marty would work on 'making Molly a big sister'. She always seemed to love it a little more than Marty, who wished that having children wasn't so complicated.

'Don't fret too much, sweetie.' Marty said, putting his hand on Molly's shoulder. 'You won't be going alone.'

She gave him a look of confusion. 'I... won't?'

Madison giggled. 'You see, I called up an old friend of mine. Turns out, she has two sons now.'

Marty opened up the door for his girls, and Molly was greeted with a sight that she didn't quite expect. There were three Guppies on the other side - two adults and one kid her age. The man had blue hair, green eyes, and a blue dotty tail, while the woman had green hair, blue eyes, and a green camo tail.

They were not the ones who caught Molly's attention. That honour went to that blue-haired boy with a backpack of his own. And he looked just as nervous as her, if not more.

'Molly,' Madison said. 'Meet Gil.'

Gil was not exactly known for being brave. Truth be told, he was quite the jumpy lad. He was certainly not a coward, but he didn't deal well with surprises or scary situations. And this... this was definitely one of them.

First day of school? Already? Just yesterday it felt like he had a whole year to prepare for this, but here it was. After his birthday last July, he thought he was old enough to embark to such heights. Turns out... he wasn't. He stayed in his room, just staring at the wall, even as his older brother Dorson approached him. Though Dorson had green hair and a blue spotted tail, those big blue eyes made it obvious him and Gil were related.

'You okay, bro?' Dorson asked, ruffling up his hair a little.

Gil laughed just a bit, and pushed his brother's arm away from him. 'Yeah, I'm okay. I'm just a little...' He rubbed his elbow and looked to the floor.

'Nervous?'

'Y-Yeah. Pretty much.'

Dorson rolled his eyes, and sat down on the bed. He found it a little humorous that his little brother had to have everything coated with various shades of purple, even his pillows. Heck, it even made the windows look slightly tinted.

'Yeah.' He said. 'I was pretty dang nervous on my first day of school.'

'Y-You were?' Gil asked. 'B-But you're so confident.'

'I know. Sometimes I wonder if you really are my little brother.'

Gil chuckled. 'Hey!'

Dorson shrugged. 'Anyway, almost everyone gets nervous on their first day of school. Lucky for us Guppies, we get our own little schools with less kids around to make it a little less scary. One of those kids was just a complete jerk, but most of them were very nice. I even met this really nice girl named Tetra. The point is, I'm sure you'll have a great time.'

Gil looked down to the floor again, and tapped his fingers against his backpack straps in a rhythmic pattern. If only he wasn't so nervous all the time! If only he could be more like his big brother... Dorson had seen his little brother nervous and scared more than enough times to identity it easily.

'And hey, it gets even better!' He said. 'Mom said she got a call from an old friend of hers, and guess what? You won't be going to school alone today!'

Gil cocked an eyebrow. 'Wait, really? You're coming too? I thought I'd be going to school by myself.'

'I don't mean I'll be taking you there. Mom and Dad are just taking you over to Mom's friend's place. Trust me, you'll love it.'

The younger boy gulped. 'Okay. I-If you insist.'

Gil was just about to leave to meet up with his parents, when Dorson grabbed him and trapped him in another one of his 'morning tussles'. Luckily for Gil, Dorson was always just rough enough not to hurt him. When it finally ended - which it only did because their father Skayl demanded they get themselves ready for school - Gil and his parents were on their way to the house belonging to Fiona's friend.

It was quite the swim, but fortunately on the way to school. The entire trip, Gil couldn't shake off that icky feeling in his stomach. He felt like he was going to be sick, and he really didn't like that feeling at all. What did his parents have in mind? And, more important, was it something he was going to like?

'I am so excited for this!' His mother Fiona announced, squealing a little.

His father Skayl chuckled. 'You're acting like you're the one who'll be getting the surprise.'

She gave him a look. 'Honey, we both know I'm no good with surprises.'

Gil was quite surprised, perhaps pleasantly or perhaps not, when they finally did arrive at the Andersfin residence. Three people were waiting for them at the door, but his attention immediately fell on the young girl looking right at him.

'Molly,' The woman said. 'Meet Gil.'

At first, this girl seemed just as nervous as he was. It only took a second for her to give him a big warm friendly smile and a nice little wave.

'Hi, Gil!' She greeted. 'I'm Molly!'

Gil wasn't so much shy around strangers as he was actually scared, and at first he didn't say anything. There was something about that warm smile of hers, however, that seemed contagious. He soon was smiling along with her, and waved back.

'Hi Molly!' He replied. 'I like your hair.'

Molly giggled. 'I like yours too!'

Their parents couldn't be any more happy, each of them watching the kids with big smiles on their faces. They hadn't expected the first meeting to go so swimmingly, if you'll excuse the pun, and they had never been so happy to be proven wrong.

'Guess what, Gil?' Molly said. 'We're going to the same school!'

Gil's jaw dropped. 'Wait, really? Awesome!'

Madison gave her husband a cocky little smirk, and she moved her eyebrows up and down in a slightly suggestive fashion. Marty shut down whatever she was thinking about with just one stern look.

'Are you excited, Gil?' Molly asked.

'Uh, I was nervous before. But I'm really excited now!'

Molly giggled again. 'Well? Come on!'

Whatever fears Molly had just a few minutes ago were forgotten, never to be seen or even thought about again. Though she had just met this kid, she could already feel real chemistry going on between them both. To say the least, she felt a lot more confident to go to school now.

As for Gil... what fears? Okay, so he was still a little terrified to be going, but with this friendly girl by his side he felt like he could take on a dragon. Okay, maybe not a dragon. Maybe a... tomato. A rotten tomato!

'Catch, Goby!'

'Hey, give that back!'

Goby, like almost everyone else, was nervous about his first day of school. He was already a shy kid who didn't like talking to strangers that much. With his rowdy sisters around, however, that didn't really seem to matter anymore. They were more of a handful than any school could possibly be. Right now, he was in the living room, all packed and ready to go, and just had to deal with his older sisters tossing his bag around.

The middle sister, Tetra, held his backpack way up in the air. She apparently forgot that he could just swim up, so she tossed it to the eldest child Minnow before the young boy could get his hands on his bag.

'Gotta try harder than that, Gob-ski!' Minnow playfully teased.

Goby had long gotten used to his sisters' annoying games. A few years ago, this kind of treatment would've made him cry, which fortunately made his sisters repent in their little games. Now, he had gotten so used to it that he was just mildly annoyed at worse.

'Minnow, please.' He said with his arms crossed. 'I need that.'

Minnow put her finger to her chin. 'Hmmm, I dunno. You do have a habit of forgetting things.'

'No I don't!'

Trout chuckled. 'You sure about that? Just a day ago you would've left your rock collection at the park if we weren't there to pick it up. Last week when we went to the beach, you nearly forgot your dump truck.'

Goby rolled his eyes. 'Okay, so I sometimes forget things. Can I have my bag back please?'

Minnow giggled, and handed him his backpack with a gentle 'here you go', much to his pleasure. He slipped on the straps and was well and truly ready to go. Well, on the outside he was. On the inside, his nerves were getting the better of him. Shame his parents weren't there - they left for work like a few minutes ago, because having three children requires a lot of work to pay for it. Good thing Minnow was more than old enough to take care of them all.

'N'awww!' Tetra cooed. 'Our little bro's still the adorable wittle shy boy we know and love!'

Goby flashed her a look of annoyance.

'Now now, Tetrie.' Minnow said, crossing her arms. 'Goby's growing up. And I still remember your first day of school.' She giggled. 'Oh, the kids were calling you 'Super Soaker' for weeks.'

Tetra blushed hard enough for the reddening to be visible in her dark skin. 'Hey! I keep telling you, I just fell in a puddle. I swear I didn't really-!'

'OKAY!' Goby yelled. 'I-I don't think I need to hear the rest of that conversation. That doesn't help me out.'

Tetra continued to glare at Minnow, to which neither her older sister nor younger brother seemed to notice or care about. Minnow knelt down to her brother's level, looking him right in his big brown eyes.

'It's gonna be okay, Goby.' She said. 'And you wanna know why? It's not because you have Tetra's hilarious embarrassment in your head.'

'HEY!'

'I know what'll make you happy to go there. Deema's gonna be there too.'

The very mention of that bubbly Guppy girl raised Goby's spirits. He had only met her a week ago, and although her behaviour had pushed him away at first, he considered her a true friend. No doubt her big bright personality would help him through such a stressful day.

'Wait, Deema will be there?' He repeated. 'I gotta get going!'

And with that, he dashed out the door without another question. Tetra gave Minnow a confused glance.

'How did you know that would work?' She asked.

'Goby hasn't stopped talking about Deema since the day he met her. It's kinda hard to miss.'

'I can't believe it. THE DAY'S ALREADY HERE!'

Most of the Guppies that day were varying degrees of nervous, like any kid would be on the first day of school. Deema, however, was a little different. Everyone else may have been a mix of excited and nervous, but Deema was nothing but excited. She dashed around the living room without stopping for a moment, much to the chagrin of her father who just wanted to make sure she was ready.

It baffled Daryl that his daughter could be this full of energy. After all, they had to get up a good thirty minutes before anyone else did. Hair like Deema's couldn't be brushed with ease, and Diane required at least thirty minutes a day to get it under control. The fact that all those golden curls were natural somehow only made the job that much harder, but Diane was used to it by now.

'Open the door!' Deema cried. 'OPEN IT! I wanna get going right now!'

Daryl reached his arm out and grabbed onto his daughter's arm before she could injure herself, something that was fairly common whenever she got this excited. Had she been going any faster, the G-forces from the sudden stop would've given her whiplash.

'Now now, sweetie.' He said, trying his best to fight against her pull. 'You need to calm down. You don't want you to waste all your energy before you even get to school! You have five other kids to play with first.'

'That's why I'm so excited, Daddy!' She yelled back. 'Can you imagine? Five new friends! Well, it's really just, um, four, cos I already know Goby. But that makes it even better! GOBY'S GONNA BE THERE!'

Daryl chuckled. As tiring as it could be, he always adored his daughter's endless joy. If only Diane were here to help him out, but she was a little too busy melodramatically crying tears of joy in the bedroom. For a moment, Daryl cursed the fact that his daughter inherited Diane's over-the-top personality instead of his more down-to-earth one.

'I CAN'T WAIT ANY LONGER!' Deema yelled. 'I gotta get going right now!'

She broke out of Daryl's grip and charged for the door.

'Wait, Deema! The door isn't-!'

*THUD*

'... open yet.'

Though Deema did just smack face-first into the still-closed door and had a great big red mark on her forehead because of it, she threw that door open and dashed out like it never even happened. Daryl only had two worries - that she would get hopelessly lost on her way to school, and the much-more troubling prospect of her teacher not knowing how to teach a kid like her.

He tried to ignore these worries. Even if Deema did get lost, she had enough energy to get her all around Bubbletucky so she'd find the place eventually. More importantly, he had a long talk with the teacher just a couple days ago. It was a long conversation between them and Diane, but it was worth it. Both parents came out of it reassured that their daughter would have the best teacher imaginable.

Deema wasn't the only one excited for the day.

'I can't wait to get there!'

Sure, Oona wasn't quite as excited as the bubbly blonde was. Only an Olympic gold medallist could leap over a bar that high. But still, she was pretty darn excited. It made things a little difficult for her big brother Kian, who was trying his hardest to do her pigtails. The older boy found it a little funny in a ironic sense that, in a household with one boy among one little sister and two mothers, it was the one boy who had the knowledge on hair. He could still remember Sakura's attempts as doing Oona's hair. It ended very very badly.

'Oona, please.' He pleaded. 'Sit still for a moment. You don't wanna go to school with messed up hair, do you?'

Oona shrugged. 'I don't care! I'm just so excited to meet the others!'

Kian resisted the urge to swear as he noticed that the left pigtail was horribly wonky, and reached out to fix it. Upon looking at it closer, however, he realised that it really didn't matter. If Oona didn't care, he didn't have to care either. As he was putting on the finishing touch - that adorable little pink star - their mothers were busy packing their bags.

'Remember Sakura,' Kagami said as she packed a book about baby animals. 'Veggie options for Oona. You know how she feels about eating meat.'

Sakura groaned as she cut Oona's sandwich in half. 'Come on, I made that mistake once! You just can't let me forget that, can you?'

'No. It's Oona's sad eyes that you're not allowed to forget.'

'Oh great... now you've made me feel guilty!'

The moment Kian finished putting the pink star in place, Oona gave him no time to think and brought him into a tight hug. At this point, he could see these sudden embraces coming and managed to return it before Oona had his arms trapped.

'You sure you're not nervous?' He asked. 'I know you're a lot more bubbly than people seem to think, but even you're not immune to being scared.'

Oona's embrace tightened a little. 'Maybe a little... but just a little! I'm gonna meet a ton of new friends, and I know I'm going to like my teacher!'

Kian sighed. 'Of course. You're the one who got all the optimism out of the two of us.'

She gave him a look. 'What's... optimism?'

'You know how nothing keeps you down for long? How you always face the world with a happy attitude? That's optimism.'

One of Kian's favourite things about his little sister was how many questions she asked. She wanted to know everything, and she wasn't afraid to show it. As much as he loved explaining things to her, he did wish someone else would do it sometimes.

'Will you be taking me to school today?' Oona asked.

Kian shook his head. 'Sorry, but I have my own school to go to. And they're way less nice to people who are late than your teacher will be. If I'm a second late, I get detention. You, on the other hand, could probably have a full-on conversation with a friend or some random stranger and still arrive on time.' He glanced at the clock. 'Speaking of which, we should probably get going.'

Nonny was nervous, just the same as most of the other kids starting their first day, even more so when it dawned on him that the only kid he would know would be Goby, who he barely knew to begin with. None, however, was more nervous for this day than Nonny's father Leo.

'... aaand, done!' He said, putting a stack of papers onto the table. 'The list of things that can go wrong, and how to fix them.'

Leo had spent a good hour thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong during the first day of school, from the mundane like being called on by the teacher, to the less believable like a spontaneous earthquake. The solution to most of these problems was just calling up his father or even running straight home. After making sure everything was there and sorted alphabetically, he slipped it into Nonny's backpack.

'Dad,' Nonny said as he waited by the front door. 'You don't have to do that.'

'I'm not taking any chances here, Kiddo!' Leo said. 'This will be the first day we spend separated from each other, and I want to make sure that you'll be okay.' He peered into the backpack. 'Allergy medication? Check. First aid kit? Check. Lunch? ... Allison, where's his lunch?'

Allison (who happened to be the family member that Nonny inherited his astigmatism from) was in the kitchen, a place in the house that she didn't spend much time in as her husband usually took over the duties of cooking for the family. After checking twice over for any food tampering, of course. She rolled her eyes as she prepared her son's lunch. She completely understood Leo's overprotectiveness - losing the custody rights to your first son will do that to you - but a first aid kit? Surely the teacher would have one of those anyway.

Leo drifted into the kitchen. 'Allie, this isn't the time to be making him one of those punny lunches.'

Allison chuckled. 'That would just eat you up, wouldn't it?'

Leo sighed. 'This is our boy's first day of school! I don't want you packing any backpack-aroni-and-cheese, or chicken-poodle-soup, or spaghetti-with-snowballs, or anything like that!'

'Not tell a joke? Now that would be a first. Guess I'll just have to go hungry.' She laughed at her own pun. 'But seriously, not puns this time. I'm saving them for later. You gotta have at least some leftovers!'

Leo, with another sigh, picked up Nonny's finished lunch, checked it for any sort of puns or tricks just in case, and packed it into his son's bag. Nonny stood still and allowed his father to slip on his backpack and adjust his goggles for him.

'Now remember Kiddo,' He said. 'I won't always be available to help you. Luckily, I know Mr Grouper well. He'll keep you safe. If push comes to shove, however, call me straight away. I don't care if you've broken a bone or just chipped a nail - tell me right away!'

Nonny nodded. 'Okay, Dad. I will.'

'Most importantly, if they tell you that you need to smile and won't leave you alone when you tell them to, they're not worthy friends.'

No stranger would've known how nervous Nonny really was just by looking at his face. He showed his usual facial expression - somewhat apprehensive, and perhaps a little worried. Most people wouldn't be able to pick up a single hint of emotion on that face, and Leo loved it all the same.

'Are you sure you're ready, Nonny?' Leo asked. 'I will admit, I've been tempted to homeschool you. But I know that, sooner or later, you'll have to be more independent. You ready to go?'

Leo didn't mention it, but what he feared the most was Mr Grouper being unable to teach a kid like him. That was why he was tempted to homeschool in the first place. Still, he placed his trust in that teacher.

'Yes.' Nonny said, nice and plainly. 'I'm ready.'

'Alright!' He paused. 'You... you don't mind if I walk you there, do you? Just the first time. You know, just to be safe.'

Nonny nodded. 'That's okay.'

Author Notes - Just a relatively simple chapter about their home lives, before they head out to school. Like I said, I want this story to be rather thorough. Being thorough with my storytelling is ma game, after all.