Chapter 2 - Trouble
Taylor and Will followed the crowd of kids outside and made their way across the field to meet with Mr. Washerton. The whole crowd was muttering excitedly, with some friend groups getting into teams of four.
Will saw this and told Taylor. "Hey, Taylor, are we gonna have to make a squad?"
"I don't know," Taylor answered. "But if we do have to make one, I suppose we could try and find one."
The boys didn't think much of it and made it to the field, where Mr. Washerton was waiting. Behind him was a turf war field, with several obstacles and walls set up to resemble a stage that the professionals use.
"Welcome kids, and today you'll be putting those skills to the test with a mock turf war." Mr. Washerton explained. "What I mean by mock is that you won't be able to get splatted if you're hit with ink, so it's perfectly safe. And, the weapons are weaker, so you won't be injured by shots."
"Now, get into groups of four so we can get started."
Taylor and Will made their way through the crowd, looking for anybody that didn't have a partner yet. However, everybody was with their friends, and they were having trouble finding anybody. After a couple minutes, two girls approached them.
"Hey, are you guys looking for two more?" One of them asked.
"Yeah, we are, do you want to go with us?"
"Sure. What are you guys' names?"
"I'm Taylor Coralle, and this is my buddy Will Wrasse."
"Cool, I'm Emma Kelp, and this is my sister, Eliza."
"Nice to meet you. What weapons did you guys choose?"
"I chose a Splat Charger; Eliza chose a Blaster."
"That makes us very balanced, actually. Will chose a Splat Roller, and I chose the Splattershot."
"So we should be good to go then. I'll go tell Mr. Washerton."
Emma walked up to Mr. Washerton and told him their squad. Will was talking with Eliza, so Taylor looked at his Splattershot thoroughly as he waited for Emma to return. When he realized that Emma wasn't returning for a few minutes, he decided to hop into the conversation with Eliza and Will.
They mostly talked about the Inkopolis League Ranked Battle match that happened last night, a rainmaker battle between the top ranked Inkslingers and twenty-second ranked Inferno Storm. Inferno Storm won the best-of-five match 3-2, with a nailbiter finish in game five. Both Will and Eliza were Inferno fans, so they bonded over that similarity. Taylor was not a fan of any specific team, he just loved watching the sport; Will often made fun of him for that. Jokingly, of course.
Emma returned a minute later, joining in on the conversation about the match. She, like Taylor, did not have any allegiance to a specific team. Eliza and Will pretended to be offended that their sibling and best friend did not have a favorite team.
"How can you two not have a favorite team?" Will asked. "It's the largest sport in the world, and neither of you like a team?"
"I mean, Alliance Rainbow team sounds cool and all, but-" Emma began answering before she was cut off by Eliza.
"Aha! I knew you had a favorite team!" Eliza said cheerfully. "But why Alliance Rainbow? They're not even that good."
"Wha- no, I'm not a supporter or anything, I just like their name," Emma answered truthfully. "Rainbows are pretty."
"Hmph. That's lame," Eliza said to her sister. "What about you Taylor? Do you have a team you prefer?"
After watching what happened when Emma revealed a team she somewhat liked, Taylor kept his mouth shut, even when the two Inferno fans poked and prodded at him, begging for an answer. The two casual watchers chuckled.
As Taylor defended himself from Eliza and Will's teasing, Mr. Washerton called their group over for the mock turf war. The group of four made their way over to the teacher, bringing along their weapons and ink tanks.
When they made it to where Mr. Washerton was standing, the other team arrived right after they did; Taylor and Will looked over and saw it was Tommy Lagardes and his friends. The two boys stared at each other, although Tommy's was with more amusement. Taylor's stare was in anger.
"Ahem." Mr. Washerton cleared his throat, stopping the boys' staring contest.
"Tommy, you and your team will go through this door right behind me to get prepared," He said, pointing to a set of double doors. "Emma, you and your team will go around the other side, where Mrs. Galeus will be standing."
The two teams separated, with Taylor getting one last glance at Tommy before they turned the corner. Emma and Eliza looked at the boy in confusion.
Will, seeing the confused looks on their faces, explained the situation. "Earlier today, before class, Taylor was kicked in the back of the knee and had to go to the nurse. Our main suspect is Tommy, so we're keeping an eye on him."
"Just kick the crap out of him during our match," Eliza suggested. "He won't mess with you then."
"I dunno about that one, but I'll give it a shot."
They reached the set of double doors, and Mrs. Galeus opened it for them. The four quickly went inside, and ended up in a small room that had six chairs randomly scattered all around the room.
"Why are there six chairs? There's only four on a squad." Emma asked, confused.
"They probably expect someone to break one," Will answered, chuckling.
"I expect David Macks is going to be the first one to break something." Taylor said. "He's always breaking something."
It was true; just yesterday, David broke the pencil sharpener in Mrs. Willow's classroom. And the day before, he snapped two pencils before lunch, completely by accident. He takes his habit for accidents in stride, and jokes that he's just too strong. The teachers also understand that they're accidents, so he usually never gets in trouble.
The four of them discussed their game plan; Taylor and Will were going to go to the front, inking as much turf as they could. Eliza was going to be a bit behind them, shooting her blaster at anyone on the other team. Emma would try to hit anyone she could from afar, using his Splat Charger. Even though it was just a scrimmage, the four really wanted to show up Tommy and his friends, so they would be playing hard.
The map was a smaller scaled version of Kelp Dome, which didn't have any plants but still included the stairs and obstacles. After a few minutes of waiting, Mr. Washerton's voice came over a loudspeaker.
"Alright guys, head out to your starting point. The match is gonna start in a couple minutes."
Both teams made their way to their individual starting points and prepared for the battle. Taylor and Will were ready to fight, while Tommy was looking bored. Due to the small size of the arena, Taylor could see exactly who Tommy's friends were. And he recognized them immediately; Cal Stauroza, who didn't live far from him, Evan Planker, who he didn't know, and Parker Reefton, who always seemed to be talking. All of them were wielding Splattershots, which he thought was odd.
Mr. Washerton came back over the loudspeaker to start the match. "Alright, are you ready?" Both sides cheered loudly. "Great. Now remember, you're only here to learn, so don't do anything that would get you a foul." Fouls in the Inkopolis Turf War League were rare; only reserved for physically assaulting someone, using bad language, or repeatedly targeting someone. "On a count of three, both teams will start the battle. One… two… three… go!"
Both teams were off. Taylor and Eliza both made a rush for the center, as Taylor was a painting weapon and Eliza was there for support. Going into squid form still felt a bit off for both of them, but since Mrs. Willow held a class on how to do it, they felt more comfortable than they would have a month ago.
Tommy and his friends split up, vying to ink as much turf as possible. As they were all the same weapon, they were hoping to get an early advantage and keep it. Emma made her way to the sniping perch on the stairs, and Will covered up the spots the two of the rushers missed.
Parkerl, noticing that Emma had taken a strategic spot, attempted to sneak up on her to force her out. However, as the young kids were not used to their squid form, he accidentally popped out into his human form about thirty feet from where Emma was standing. The girl quickly aimed her charger at him, and Parker, not knowing what to do, stood there.
Since Emma's aim was not the best, her shot hit Parker in the foot and Emma was pushed off the platform due to the knockback. She immediately felt bad for hitting Parker, but shook it off when she remembered that it was supposed to be somewhat competitive, and he was on the other team.
'I mean, I'm sure it hurt, but this is non-harming ink," Emma thought. 'He should be fine.'
Parker was, in fact, fine, as he walked away from Emma's potential line of fire. His foot hurt for a bit, but it wasn't bad at all. He shrugged as he went to find his other teammates.
Meanwhile, Taylor had gotten into an intense firefight with Tommy, and the two were not willing to give an inch to the other. The two traded hits back and forth and in a normal match, they both would've been splatted, but since it was non-harming ink, the two continued fighting.
"This is payback, Tommy!" Taylor tried to yell over the sounds of the ink. "For what you did earlier!"
"What?" Tommy yelled back, not hearing Taylor's statement.
"THIS IS PAYBACK!"
"I didn't even do anything! I don't know who kicked you!" It was a blatant lie; Tommy was most definitely the one who kicked Taylor.
After that, Tommy made a "tactical" retreat, Taylor gave himself a silent congratulation before he continued to ink the floor.
Will was rolling the floor with his Splat Roller, having a great time. Nobody had come to attack him, though he heard some fierce fighting coming from his right. So he continued to go left, even though he knew it was probably Taylor fighting with Tommy.
'Taylor can handle him on his own. Besides, he's been itching to do that ever since he went to the nurse's office this morning.'
While he was deep in his thoughts, Will wasn't paying attention to what was in front of him, until he felt a bump from under his roller. He stopped, turned around, and saw Evan on the floor, with a streak of ink running up his back, with footprints in it.
"Sorry," Will said apologetically. "I didn't see where I was going." Then he continued to roll over the ground.
Evan sighed, wondering how he didn't see that coming. At least it didn't hurt.
More shenanigans continued for the next two minutes, with Taylor and Tommy doing their best to get in each other's way. Everyone was running one way or another, with no real rhyme or reason to their chaos. After a couple of minutes, Mr. Washerton came over the loudspeaker and announced that the match was over.
Everyone was smiling, as they thoroughly enjoyed their time running around a shooting randomly. The four new friends were discussing their endeavors during the match.
"I fell off a platform when I tried to shoot Parker," Emma said. "I think I hit him in the foot."
"Did it hurt when you fell?" Eliza asked with concern.
"No. The platform was probably only as high as Will's head."
"Oh, so that wasn't very far of a fall at all." Taylor said jokingly.
"Really, Taylor? I mean be shorter than you, but at least I wasn't targeting one person the whole time."
"I wasn't targeting him! We just happened to run into each other all the time!"
The two girls doubled over laughing. "That was the most pathetic excuse I've ever heard," Eliza said. "Really? You just "ran into each other?" You'd get better excuses out of a baby."
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, whatever. I guess he hates me too." Taylor tried to brush off the whole thing. "I don't know why, though."
"I don't know, could it be that you were targeting him?" Emma said, jokingly.
"Probably, yeah, but I don't remember doing anything to him that would make him upset at me."
Will clapped him on the back in consolation. "Whatever you did, I'm sure he's just overreacting. If it was something really bad, you'd have been in trouble by now."
"I guess you do have a point…"
The four inklings made their way to a table near the school that was giving out water; the teachers whose classes were outside gave out water to rehydrate the thirsty inklings. Contrary to popular belief, water was not actually deadly to inklings. It was only deadly if you submerged yourself in it, so drinking water was perfectly safe for them.
Mrs. Willow handed the four of them bottles of water. "Hey, you two, how was your first match?" She asked Taylor and Will.
"It was fun! We went against Tommy, Cal, Evan, and Parker. I think we won." Will said triumphantly.
"It's only practice, Will," Mrs. Willow said. "Nobody really wins."
Will shrugged, still convinced that they won. They heard footsteps coming from behind them, and they saw Tommy and his friends making their way to the water stand.
"Thanks for the water, Mrs. Willow," Taylor said. "We're going to let some other people get water."
Mrs. Willow chuckled. "Have fun in the rest of your matches!"
The four walked away from the table as Tommy began chatting with Mrs. Willow. They walked across the field to a tree, and sat against the trunk as they drank their water. The tree provided some shade, and they watched from a distance as teams went in and out of the stadium for the matches. All of the teams came out with smiles on their faces, just like they did.
"Do you think Mrs. Willow will let me have another water?" Taylor asked.
"Of course. They had a ton of water back there." Emma answered.
"Oh, sweet. I'm gonna get another water. Anybody else want one?"
The other three shook their heads. With a shrug, Taylor walked away back to the table. He kept his Splattershot with him, because he thought, 'If I always have it, nothing bad can happen to it.'
He couldn't have been more wrong.
Between the tree they were sitting at and the water table, there was a large storage shed that had playground equipment, spare desks and chairs, books, and some broken turf war weapons. All the students knew it was off limits, but every year, there seemed to be a few incidents where students tried to get into the shed. Nobody knew why, because everybody knew what was in there.
Behind the shed was a small amount of empty space, and it was nearly impossible to see if someone was behind there, unless they were also behind the shed. That was because there were trees on both sides, making it difficult to see.
Taylor walked past this shed, blissfully unaware of the danger that lurked behind it. The danger was, of course, Tommy Lagardes. As soon as Taylor walked past it, Tommy and Parker snatched Taylor and took him to behind the shed. Back there was Evan and Cal, standing against the wall.
"Hey! What're yo-" Taylor demanded, before Tommy put his hand over his mouth.
Parker held Taylor's arms behind his back while Tommy threw the first punch. He hit Taylor square in the face, and his nose started bleeding. The other three boys laughed at Taylor's pain, while Tommy stared at him. Cal took off one of Taylor's sneakers and started beating him with it, leaving bruises on his body.
Evan threw small rocks at him, causing even more damage to Taylor's body. The rocks distracted Taylor, because even though he was getting beaten from all sides, the rocks were always unexpected. The bruises and marks were adding up, causing lots of damage to Taylor. He decided that he realistically only had one option.
Trying to fight back, Taylor tried to bite Parker's arm, but Tommy hit him in the head when his teeth first sunk into the skin. The beaten inkling's head jerked back from the impact, causing him to fall backwards. Parker kept him sitting up, and Tommy threw another punch at Taylor's head.
This blow was the final one that Taylor could handle. His nose was bleeding heavily, there were bruises all over his body, and he had lost a tooth. He was very dizzy, and everything turned to black as he went limp.
Thinking that Taylor was faking it, Tommy punched him as hard as he could, twice. The two punches caused him to bleed even more. The boys then realized that Taylor was actually knocked out, so Parker dropped him on the floor, they quickly gathered their things and snuck away. Taylor was left on the ground, bleeding and unmoving.
Sorry for taking so long with this chapter; the next ones should hopefully not take this long!