Disclaimer: Refer to "The Dogfish Sharks".
Content Warning: Bullying, Blood
PLGQ
Twelve years earlier…
It was a chilly September day; but then, all days in Antarctica are chilly. It was the first day of school. Ten little penguins left for school at half past nine and walked together in two straight lines. Trailing behind was the smallest one; little Peso.
"I hope I get a nice teacher this year," said Lois, an emperor penguin.
"I heard that they're going to have a dance club this year," said Guillaume, a Gentoo penguin.
Peso said nothing. He was very anxious about the new school year.
"Are you excited?" Lois asked him.
"I think he's nervous," said Guillaume. "It'll be alright; you've got me here, and Lois, and Penny. And Mr. Flipperson is teaching here, he'll keep you safe."
The little penguins waddled up the steps into the school and went to find their classrooms. Peso was put in a small class with about twelve other penguins and no Mr. Flipperson.
"Look, here comes the Penguin Pipsqueak!" A bully penguin jeered as Peso entered the room. Peso looked down and sat quietly at his desk.
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Later, at lunch, the little penguins gathered in the cafeteria with seaweed wraps and shaved ice. Peso quietly ate his food alone. Suddenly, he felt something wet being slopped all over his back. He turned around and saw that the bully penguins had purposely dumped a drink on him and were laughing. He sighed.
When he got up to put away his things, he noticed a small group of students fussing over a small king penguin who looked to be in Grade 1.
"What's wrong?" Peso approached them.
"She scraped her flipper." They pushed the little penguin forward. Sure enough, she had a scrape in her left flipper with a little bit of blood.
"Don't worry," said Peso. "I can help you." He brought her to his cubby and took some bandages from his bag. He wiped away the blood with a napkin and gently patched up her flipper. Both smiled at each other.
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It was now the end of the day. As Peso has leaving the school, the little penguin from before ran up to him and hugged him.
"Thank you for helping me with my flipper," she chirped. "I'm Queenie. I think we're going to be friends." She then ran off to find her mum.
Peso smiled as he ran to catch up with the line of ten little penguins. Maybe this school year wouldn't be so bad after all.
PLGQ
Info about which types of penguins live in Antarctica taken from World Atlas
Info about what Mexican primary schools are like taken from Wikipedia
This is a little late, since most people are already back in school by now, but I only got the idea for this chapter yesterday, so screw it, you're getting this chapter today.
Since I've brought up age a couple times, I'd like to clarify everyone's ages:
Professor Inkling – 58
Captain Barnacles – 48
Lekona – 43
Kitsune – 35
Dashi – 34
Elekai – 26
Kwazii – 25
Tweak – 24
Peso – 21
Shellington – 20
Deborah – 18
Also, I debated on whether I should base the school on a British school or a Mexican school, but I went with the Mexican school because my area got the North American version of the show, in which Peso has a Mexican accent, so yeah. Personally, I prefer Peso's voice in the original UK version, but sometimes life makes you do stuff you don't really want to do.