Bonnie's PoV
"No way..." Yuri breathed, marveling at Alexis's new dualies. "How'd ya get these?" The short-haired inkling let the spiky-haired inkling take one of them, and he began spinning it around. Bonnie, slouching on the table, eyed the dualies. Black-and-lime, decorated by blue lights. Exactly like...
"That's a Hero weapon, isn't it?" she suspected.
"Yeah," Alexis confirmed. "Sheldon gave me them."
"Really?" Inigo asked. She nodded.
"I don't understand," the dark-skinned boy admitted. "The only people who have actual Hero weapons are Callie, Marie, and... whoever has the Hero Shot." His yellow eyes glanced around the area before meeting the young girl's orange eyes again. "So what makes you special?"
"I wonder..." Octavia pulled a phone out of her pocket and brought up Squidsagram, showing a picture of the mysterious girl that arrived with the Great Zapfish yesterday. "This girl does look a lot like you, Alexis."
Her sister snatched the dualie out of Yuri's hand and crossed her arms, holding both of them. "And she just looks like me, end of story."
"I think you squids are just jealous," Bonnie noted. "She has some fresh dualies, who cares?"
Yuri and Via looked at each other and shrugged. "Actually... you're right, Bon-Bon," the former started. "They are just some fresh dualies." He scratched the back of his head. "Can't believe I got ahead of myself..."
"I don't know, something's fishy about this whole thing," the latter continued, skeptical.
"Don't worry about it," Perry interjected, leaning back in his chair and putting his arms behind his head. "So what if it's a Hero weapon and Sheldon gave it to her personally? Bon-Bon's right; no one cares."
"Hmm..." The wavy-haired girl's orange eyes stared straight ahead, though it was unclear at just what exactly.
"Anyways..." Roy spoke up. "Wanna go do some turf wars?"
"I don't know..." Bonnie frowned. "I failed my math test today..."
"C'mon, you didn't fail it," Yuri tried to encourage. "I bet you did great!"
"Yeah, there's no way you could have failed!" Via exclaimed, now smiling.
"That's not helping," she murmured. "I couldn't understand it... Like, my teacher just introduced it, and now we're taking a test on it. It's not fair."
"Maybe she'll curve it?" Inigo theorized.
"No, she never curves anything," the beige-skinned inkling argued. She turned into a blue squid on the chair, making her seem small, and closed her eyes. "I'm a failure."
She felt someone pick her up. "Not with that attitude!" chirped the spiky-haired boy. She opened her eyes and was met with Yuri's yellow eyes. Plastered on his face was a big, dumb smile. Oh no... "Say, what grade do bees get?" He paused. "A B+!" A few squids giggled at his joke.
Bonnie stared at him, not impressed. "That wasn't funny."
His smile fell. "It wasn't? Then..." He set her back where she was sitting, where she promptly turned into her kid form. He pushed his phone towards her, which displayed a funny image. "Someone found this old human thing and posted it online. I don't know what it's supposed to be, but it's hilarious!"
The girl laughed. "Does it have music? I think that would make it even better."
"Oh, yeah." He turned up the volume of his phone, and immediately, some sort of pop music started playing in the background. At the sound, the Rainbow Squids started crowding around Yuri, trying to get a good look at his phone.
"There ya go, Yuri," Perry praised, trying to hold back his laughter. "Master of making e-everyone laugh."
"See, Bonnie?" Octavia whispered into her ear. "A good way to take your mind off of things, right?"
"Yeah..." the inkling with the double bun agreed.
"BONNIE LARGHA!" her mother called.
The blue-haired girl walked to where her mom was sitting and asked with a shaky voice, "Y-Yes?"
"It says right here-" She showed her the phone screen, displaying the score of her latest test. "-That you got a C- on the test. A C-!"
"I'm s-sorry..."
"Sorry doesn't cut it. Now hand me your phone."
"Yes, Mom." She pulled a blue phone out of her pocket and slid it into the older inkling's hand.
"You're grounded for the next week. That means no turf wars."
Bonnie frowned, and, with her head low, she lumbered to her room and plopped onto her bed, groaning. I knew this would happen, she told herself. If only my stupid math teacher covered it more, then I could have got it. She sighed. I wish I could have explained myself to Mom...
About an hour later, she heard her father's voice call her name. "Bonnie!" he yelled. "Our old teammates are here!" By 'our', he meant 'me and your mom's'. When they were teenagers, they were both part of a team known as Ink Rush. As the story goes, they were among the top-rated teams in Inkopolis and won numerous tournaments. Eventually, the team's captain, Bonnie's mom, and her right-hand man, Bonnie's dad, fell in love, and after several years of battling, the team disbanded after everyone was caught up in their own lives.
Bonnie always worried that the Rainbow Squids would disband because of a similar reason. And they were so close to breaking apart because of the feud between Roy and Octavia a while back. That fact that they managed to reconcile was a miracle in her eyes, and it only solidified how glad she was to be in the Rainbow Squids.
The blue-haired inkling walked down the stairs of her home to see two new inklings sitting at a table with her parents. All four of them had changed their ink color to a royal blue color. She had met her parent's teammates before, but it had been at least two years since she last saw them. Bonnie's parents looked similar to her—both had beige-colored skin, though her father had a slightly darker shade. Another member of Ink Rush was named James, having warm ivory-colored skin and stern brown eyes. The last member of that team was named Beth, having almond-colored skin and green eyes.
Upon seeing the teenaged inkling, Beth grinned. "Oh, Bonnie!" she exclaimed. "Look at how much you've grown!"
"It's only been two years," she muttered.
"Two years is still a long time for you, is it not?" James remarked.
"And so much has happened in the turf war scene these last two years!" the woman added. "The complete overhaul of specials, so many new weapons, et cetera."
"And it's very different from back in the eighties," the girl's dad mused. "Rollers weren't really a thing back then."
"There were a lot less chargers to choose from," her mom added. "The Squiffer and the Goo Tuber didn't exist, and neither did the scoped weapons. The E-liter was just bad, so the Splat Charger and the Bamboozler were pretty much your only choices. They were a lot less fancy, too."
She didn't really care, but all Bonnie could say in response was, "Fresh."
"I knew you would think of it as fresh," she beamed.
"I brought something else, too." Beth reached into her bag and pulled out a DVD case. "Our first tournament! Now on DVD!" The adult inklings made a sound of awe on sight of it.
"Can't we just watch it on the internet?" James grumbled. "I bet it's there, too."
"I know, but isn't this more homely, Jamie?"
"I guess."
"Alright! Let's go watch!"
As the group walked towards the living room, Bonnie's mom paused to look over her shoulder, towards her daughter, and said, "You're still grounded, but you're welcome to watch it with us if you'd like."
The beige-skinned girl looked to the side before returning her attention to her mother and replied, "Sure. I don't have anything else to do."
"Great!"
Her parents and friends had taken up the entire couch, so Bonnie was forced to sit the rocking chair next to it. Beth put the DVD in the player and bounced back to the couch to watch whatever came on. A few seconds later a selection screen popped up, and Beth, who had the remote, pressed 'play'. Seconds later an announcer began talking, describing the tournament, called Ika Tournament, and its rules. The first match displayed, to no one's surprise, Ink Rush.
"On the Alpha Team, represented by the color blue, we have the up-and-coming Ink Rush! From left to right, we have James 'Jamie' Fiddler with the .96 Gal, Henry Largha with the new Splat Roller, team captain Alice Baleen with the Splat Charger, and Elizabeth 'Beth' Lepturus with the Splattershot!" He announced the other team before handing the microphone off to two cuttlefish, who Bonnie presumed to be the idols on Inkopolis News at the time. Throughout the match, they provided commentary on what was happening.
Bonnie sank into cushions of the rocking chair with a sigh. This is gonna be a long week...
When the blue-haired inkling arrived at school the next morning, she was immediately surrounded by the Rainbow Squids, minus Alexis, making her a little nervous.
"Hey, Bon-Bon, what happened?" Perry asked.
"Yeah, you weren't responding to any of my texts yesterday!" Octavia added.
"I got grounded," she replied.
"What?! Really?!" Via exclaimed, surprised.
The beige-skinned girl nodded. "I got a C- on my math test, and my mom grounded me for it."
"And she took away your phone?" Inigo perplexed. She nodded. "Dang, no wonder."
"But a C- isn't bad," Yuri tried to cheer her up. "At least it wasn't an F!"
"If I got an F, I'd be grounded for a month," Bonnie argued.
"But still, you didn't do that bad," the yellow-haired boy pointed out.
"In my mom's eyes, I did."
Roy let out a frustrated sigh. "Enough 'mom' this, 'mom' that." His red eyes focused on Bonnie's blue ones. "How do you feel about it?"
She blinked before replying, "I..." She never really thought about it before. For almost all of her life, she had been a follower, to the point where she rarely made a choice for herself. She always just followed the words of others, fearing backlash if she refused. "I... don't like it. Being grounded."
"But what about the test?" he pressed. "You happy with a C- or not?"
"Well, it led to me being grounded, so... No?"
"You don't sound sure."
"Alright, I don't know. I thought I would do worse, but I only got a C-. Which is..." She smiled. "Considering what happened... good." She looked around at her friends. "Thanks, squids."
"No prob." Perry winked.
"That's what friends are for," Inigo remarked.
"Remember, no matter what happens..." Roy started.
"We'll always be the Rainbow Squids," Via continued.
"Nothing can break us apart!" Yuri exclaimed. "Absolutely nothing at all!" They looked at her, expectant of her to continue the motto.
"...Oh!" Bonnie blushed, a little embarrassed. "And if anything tests our friendship..."
"You can be assured," Inigo stated.
"That we will stay!" Perry proclaimed.
"Go, Rainbow Squids!" they all finished.