Wind flew up into the air and water vapor around her started to expand. They became surrounded by clouds. They made their way to the Inkopolis lab. After everyone got off of Wind, she flew up into the air and scattered into vapor once more. Jazzy and Chizel quietly left to go their houses. Dylan retreated back to his room. Leon started walking back to his house. He stopped at the supermarket to grab some snacks. The cashier saw him and happily greet him.
"Hey there Leon. Getting the same things?" She noticed him sulking a bit, "Oh… you are upset about something aren't you?"
"No…" Leon grabbed some blue raspberry soda bottles and handed it to her, "I'm just peachy."
"Come on, don't be like that… Wanna talk about it?"
"No…" he grabbed a bunch of bags of chips and they piled in her arms
"I think you do…" the pink inkling giggled, "You can't eat all of this by yourself."
"Leave me alone… Ruby… "
"I bet you don't even have enough for all of this, do you?"
Leon stopped and his ears lowered. She just laughed at him. She just patted him on his head.
"I got it, but you'll have to tell me what's wrong okay?"
"...Fine..." Leon just sulked
They went to a nearby park, and sat down on the ground. Leon just started angrily stuffing his face. Ruby just took a couple of chips at a time. They didn't say a word, until finally Leon spoke out.
"... Ruby… what would you do if we couldn't be friends?" Leon asked
"What? What type of question is that?" Ruby took her glasses and clean them
"I'm just saying…"
"Well, would you have a reason that we couldn't?"
"I… I- What if I was an Octoling?"
"Well are you still going to be the same Leon? Cause, then I guess, it wouldn't matter to me. We would still be friends even if you were two tentacles short."
"But-"
"Listen, there isn't really a good reason for friends to not be friends. There will be days where friends will fight. It's only natural, but even with all the fighting, true friends come back to each other. I remember when we first met. There I was playing with my squid dolly, and you accidentally ran into me. I dropped my dolly into a river and it got swept away. I was so mad."
"Hey! I said I was sorry…" Leon fidgeted with his thumbs
"You wouldn't listen to a word I said, and told me it was my fault for getting in the way. I just left you alone. Finally we gone into kindergarten. I was so upset when I found out you were in my class."
"Everyone, didn't like me because I kept arguing with them. The other squids started picking on you."
"At first, I believe it was karma and that you totally deserved it."
"Hey… that's cruel Ruby..."
"But after awhile I saw how lonely you were… So I started following you. Everyone started teasing me."
"Oh yeah… I called you a squalker too, just to make you mad."
"I know. I still followed you around for a month I think. One day, I got sick and couldn't go to school. "
"I felt so alone… that day. I would look back hoping you would pop out of nowhere. The next day you still haven't come back, so I asked one of your friends where your house was."
"Actually it was more like begged…" Ruby laughed, "She told me you were bawling your eyes out"
"Sh-sh-she lied! I wasn't crying!" Leon flashed pink
"Sure, sure if you say so Leon. Anyways"
"Right, I went to your house and I brought you some…some..."
"Cookies"
"Cookies, I was just about to say that!"
Ruby rolled her eyes, but smiled
"I brought you some cookies, and stayed at your house for a while."
"Yeah, we wouldn't talk to each other, until you finally apologized. At first I was like 'what?' and then I started eating the cookies you gave me. You still ate all of them in the end, and I only ate two."
"...sorry" he smiled sheepishly
"It's cool. We're hatchlings what can I say? Anyways, we started talking at school, and playing together. Those were years ago, that's why even if you were an Octoling, if we couldn't be friends you better have a GOOD reason for it."
"So we are friends because of the time we spent together?"
"No silly, it doesn't matter how long or short the time we spent was. It was how we bonded in that amount of time. It was those moments in that time, that's what made it special. So time me, did the short moments you spent with your friend mean anything to you?"
Leon sat there for a minute, until he finally understood. He stood up and started to bolt off. He stopped and looked back at Ruby.
"I realised I have to do something!" Leon shouted at her, "I got to go! Sorry Ruby! Catch you later!"
Ruby sighed and waved back to him. He ran off towards the Lab. She looked around at the trash and started gathering them.
"Still hasn't changed a bit" Ruby smiled to herself.
Leon ran back to the lab, and he sat in front of Dylan's door.
"Even if we only met for a short while, we are still friends! I don't care if you say we can't be friends. Being human isn't a good enough reason!"
He quietly waited in front of Dylan's door for so long he fell asleep.
-Jazzy and Chizel's Side -
Jazzy and Chizel were walking to their respective shops. Jazzy stopped Chizel for a bit.
"Hey, let's hang out for a bit. I need relieve some stress" Jazzy adjusted her hat,
"What are you going to go on your stress crafting again?" Chizel snickered,
"...Whatever! Just come on!"
She dragged off him off to the fabric store. He watched her angrily purchase tons of fabrics, yarn, and many other things. The shopkeeper just looked at Chizel confused. He shrugged.
She made Chizel carry everything to her Cafe, Rhythm & Blues. Her mother and father walked over to greet them. Her mother stopped as soon as she saw the bags full of stuff. Chizel nodded. She smiled and continued serving their guest. Her father returned to the kitchen. Jazzy stormed up stair and opened her room. Chizel put all her stuff down and sat on the floor. Jazzy took out the fabric and started cutting into it.
"You always do this when you're mad…" Chizel pulled out his book, and started reading, "Did you wanna talk about it?"
"I just I don't understand… Are we not good enough for him?!" She got on the sewing machine and started it up, "It makes me so angry when someone just doesn't appreciated what we did for them."
"Come on Jazz, he just lost his best friends…" Chizel turned the page, "Shouldn't you cut him some slack?"
"I find it… difficult to do so." She started knitting a scarf at a quick rate, "He keeps it up and he won't have any friends"
"Come on now… Don't you remember when we first met Char?"
"That was different… "
"Was it? I remember our teacher just assigned us a science project and paired us up with Char and Leon. We were all researching about how to tell different minerals apart. You didn't like how unfashionable they were and gave them a hard time."
Jazzy stopped and threw the finished scarf at him. Chizel rolled his eyes and tossed it back at her.
"Char accidently tripped and spilled the hydrochloric acid on you." Chizel continued, "It burned off most of your school uniform…"
He stopped and hide his face behind his book. She turned red and threw the yarn balls at him.
"CHIZEL! YOU WERE LOOKING?! HOW COULD YOU?!" She started throwing more things.
"I WAS TOLD! I DIDN'T SEE ANYTHING! I SWEAR!"
Chizel turned into his squid form and hid under her bed. It took a while before she finally calmed down. She sat back down, still flustered as she began sewing on a zipper. Chizel peeked out, and slowly came out to grab his book.
"Who told ya?" She seemed slightly annoyed
"Your mom told my mom… that one time."
"Figures…"
"That's beside the point… You hated Char after that. She would try her best to make it up to you and yet you would still hate her."
"I did… Yeah, aight I did. I couldn't forgive her. I know it was something stupid, and I know I was being a snobby brat. But… after that one day… I just couldn't hate her anymore. She tried to apologize to me again that day. I was just so annoyed and irritated, I crossed the street without looking. The car came out of nowhere, and Char pushed me out of the way."
"Oh, right I heard about that in class. She was in the hospital, for a while. At least she was not too hurt."
"You don't understand! I was such a jerk. I did horrible things to her. An-and she saved my life, and could have died. It made me realize, how much of a snob I was."
"At least you started visiting her everyday at the hospital. You kept dragging me along too. Your stress crafting lasted for weeks that time."
"I was so guilty and upset at myself… How could I help it?"
"You must have made a shop full of clothes… Just what did you do with all of them?"
"Want 'em? They should be in the other closet. I believe I made a couple of guy clothings. Well, quite a bit actually..."
"No, I have enough clothes," Chizel smiled, "At least you are a bit happier now…"
"Well, talking really helps… Annnddd… Done."
Jazzy held up the finished outfit. It was a bright orange T-shirt, a striped white and cream knitted scarf, some blue jeans and some knitted socks. Chizel stood up and looked it.
"Wow, nice…" Chizel picked up the shirt
"Here, you take it, maybe give it to Leon or something" she waved it off
"It may look nice on Dylan…"
"Huh?! No way! I won't give my clothes to people who aren't my friends!"
"Jazz, come on… He probably didn't mean what he said… AND you wouldn't want him to walk around in the patient's gown, NAKED would you?"
Jazzy became quiet and flashed bright red. She threw the clothes at his face and kicked him out of her room. He smiled and picked up all the clothes and walked back to his mother's bookstore. He helped clean and closed the store. He nicely folded and put the clothes into a box, and got ready for bed.
-Author's Notes-
So yeah I wrote the previous chapter before I read the comments. I have to really thank you guest, whoever you maybe. Your criticism helps me know what I need to improve on. So I tried to get a moment so readers can get to know the characters. Of course, how effective that is... I haven't a clue. As for romance... umm I haven't a clue what I am doing. I'll be honest here, I am a dunce when it comes to romantic stuff. (Forever alone, probably). That stuff aside, thank you for helping me improve. I hope you like these chapters.
Please tell me what you think and what I can improve on! Thanks for reading!
