Jesús: "I'll start off by apologizing about the wait. If you read why I went on Hiatus then you know that Monty Oum's death really hit me hard, about two years after his passing I was starting to get back the motivation to write. But sadly, early last year a close friend passed away. As you can imagine that affected me and took my motivation for writing again. After a lot of thinking and brooding and such things I finally have built up enough motivation to write again. So, without further ado…" [Disclaimer] "…I don't own RF or any of the Anime/Manga/Videogames referenced in this story. All credit goes to their respective owners."
Ch. 45
The next day after clearing the school dungeon I spent the day with Cinnamon. The two of us had work that day, but since it was going to be only about three hours we had just about the whole day free.
"Hey you guys, ready to go?" Sally asked
"You seem happy." I started
"Did something good happen?" Cinnamon asked
"Well…" Sally started but then just got all giddy and started bouncing in place like an overly excited child.
"I take it it has something to do with Dante?" I asked and she stopped, turned and stared at me.
"N-no…" she said while blushing, "…Ok yes, you got me..." She said and hung her head in slight defeat. "…He and I are going on a date today."
Cinnamon smiled and clasped her hands together.
"I'm so happy for you. Both of you seemed to get along really well back at the amusement park." Cinnamon said.
"Yeah~~" Sally sang out as she slowly started drifting into imagination land.
…
…
…
"Sally?"
"Uh!? What!?" Sally replied
This is gonna be the whole day isn't it?
Cinnamon and I only work for about three hours a day, so even though we've been here for a while we're still the "Newbies" even though everyone already treats us like we've worked there for ages. Anyway, Sally mentioned there was no shows scheduled for today due to a storm warning, so today we'd be tending to the animals on the tanks. Sally picked up a couple buckets of fish and told Cinnamon and I to do the same to a few other buckets, Cinnamon picked up one and I picked up two. Sally started leading us through the many halls in the building and eventually walked straight into a wall and dropped one of her buckets.
"Eeep." She yelped and then started rubbing her face.
"Sally?" Cinnamon asked
"I'm fine. I was just…" she started and got lost in thought mid-sentence.
"SAL!" a voice came from the other end of the hall.
"Oh, Shift Manager Wake." Sally said instantly recollected herself.
"You've run into walls a lot lately. Are you ok? Do you need a day off to rest or something?" Wake asked slightly concerned for hir subordinate,
"Oh, no. I'm just distracted lately." Sally answered hurriedly.
"She's a little too excited for her upcoming date with her boyfriend." I added
"Raguna!" Sally yelled, which echoed through the halls loudly, and turned redder than Cinnamon's hair.
"I thought you and Zeth Broke up." Wake asked
"Don't talk to me about that Jerk. Did you know he tried to Rape me?" Sally half yelled.
"WHAT!" Wake, Cinnamon and I all yelled in unison.
"Oh, that's ok. My new Boyfriend thought him a lesson he surely won't forget." Sally elaborated.
"Oh, and who's the lucky guy?"
"His name is Dante."
"Wait…Dante Straight?" Wake asked
"Y-yeah…" Sally replied a little confused.
"Huh? What s small world." Wake said and lightly laughed.
"You know Dante?" I asked
"Yeah, he was my junior in college." Wake answered
"Wait, you're an Aquarium management guy. AKA Sea life expert." I asked
"Hey, I had a backup. I also studied in combat starts and training. That's where I met him." Wake said and started walking pass us. "Well, back to work. I leave them to you Sal, and I leave her to you kid. I'm afraid she'll fall into one of the tanks and hurt herself."
"Right I'll keep my eye on her." I replied
After that exchange Wake left us and we got back to work. And with we I mean Cinnamon and I. we walked to the tanks and started dropping fish into the penguin pens and dolphins. Our work was progressing smoothly and when we were about to leave one of the dolphins started crying for attention.
"Come on Susie. We gotta get back to work…" Cinnamon said petting the dolphins lightly.
"She really likes playing, don't she?" I asked as I approached
"She is still young. Right now, all she can seem to think about is playing with the other dolphins so we keep several balls and toys in the water." Sally replies.
After a few minutes of feeding the animals and playing with them for a little bit we moved on to the next set of tanks and animals and the such.
"This next group likes to be fed while we swim along with them." Sally said and started properly securing her wetsuit.
"can you handle it alone or do you need a hand?" I asked
"I can do it alone, but I think you two can come in. it would hardly be called proper training if I don't teach you how to do part of the job." Sally said and jumped into the water. Once she surfaces and only her head was overwater she called out for us to jump in.
"I-I don't think I…" Cinnamon started
"You don't have to. You're improving, but if you don't feel confident enough yet you don't need to force yourself." I said and patted Cinnamon's head.
"OK…" Cinnamon said and lightly bushed.
I jumped into the water and surfaced too. Cinnamon handed Sally and me a bag with some fishes in them.
"Ready?" Sally asked
"Yeah…"
"If you need to surface go ahead. Don't push yourself too hard."
With those words the two of us took a deep breath and submerged. Swimming around at first I didn't see anything, after a few minutes a few Orcas started swimming our way. They started swimming around us and letting out their cries of joy while underwater. Sally started patting one of the Orcas and then reached towards it with a fish in her hand. The Orca opened up and Sally put the fish in its mouth. I started doing the same thing and feeding another Orca. After a few seconds I surfaced for air and I noticed a few of the orcas started swimming along with me. One of the orcas approached Cinnamon and she started petting it. The orca then opened its mouth and stuck its tongue out.
"I think it wants you to pet its tongue." Sally said as she surfaced.
"Pet its tongue?"
"Some Orcas actually like that. I think is interesting." Sally added
Cinnamon started reaching, very cautiously, towards the tongue of the orca and started petting it. Slowly she started patting more confidently and eventually Sally approached them and handed Cinnamon a fish.
"Go ahead, put it in its mouth."
Cinnamon grabbed the fish and after pulling her hand away she placed the fish into the Orca's mouth. The Orca gladly took it and started swimming away while munching on its snack. The three of us continued feeding animals and playing with some of them for the rest of our shift there.
When everything was over Cinnamon and I went to the locker room and got back on out normal clothes. After getting dressed we met by the employee entrance and started to walk out of the place.
"What are the two of you doing?" we heard
We didn't recognize the voice, but it was the voice of a girl. When we turned around there was a girl that I remember seeing in school, but I didn't know her.
"Only employees are supposed to be in there." The girl asked
"We work here. Part-time." I replied
"What!? Raguna Strife, Cinnamon Weiss. The two of you are in so much trouble." The girl said in a bossy tone
"Excuse me?" Cinnamon asked
"Who are you again?" I asked confused
"My name is Rosetta Handler (German word for Merchant. Pronounced "Hen-d-Lar".) and I'm the student council Treasurer as well as the Disciplinary committee's president. By your words it means you have violated the student handbook rule #8 'No student is allowed to obtain a job.' Any student violating the rules must be punished." Rosetta said
"What?" I asked, Cinnamon's mouth was wide opened as she covered it with her mouth.
I think we might be in some big trouble…
Jesús: "Sorry that took so long, and I know this chapter is shorter than most. Honestly speaking it was much longer than this originally. I already had the chapter done, since last year to be specific, but I pulled the chapter up and read it and instantly was like 'Naaaahhhh' then deleted it and started over about a month ago. Anyway, Thank you al for reading. And I hope you enjoyed it. I promise the next one will be better, or at least a little longer. Lastly, I would appreciate if any of you decided to leave a review to place "In memory of Kai" at the beginning. It may not mean much to you, but it would mean the world to me. I'll see you all next time, whenever that is."