That week, Inkblot Art Academy was holding the annual Musinkfest, a music festival in which bands from Inkopolis came to perform. On Monday, Wet Floor came to perform. On Tuesday, it was the Squid Squad who performed and on Wednesday, the Bottom Feeders performed. Finally, on Thursday, the Squid Sisters performed. The next day, Off the Hook would mark the end of Musinkfest.
"If you make a mess, you're cleaning it up," said Kishi, opening the door to the dorm. Kishi was a short Inkling girl who had short coral tentacles with salmon pink spots. She had just changed into her pajamas, and held her uniform on one arm. She walked around Yuna and the Coreos, to her chest of drawers and put away her uniform.
"Unless Kennie steps on them from being so distracted," replied Yuna. "She won't even eat these, and Coreos are her favorite snack."
"Oh yeah, relax Kennie. Only your favorite rap and electropop duo is going to perform live, Kennie," said Kishi.
Kennie ignored her, and said, "I can't decide with this leather jacket and turquoise skirt, or this Inkblot sweater with denim shorts. But I'm definitely wearing my favorite white sneakers." She was looking at all the clothes laid out on her bed. On the side of her bed, she had taped on the wall about a hundred photos of Marina of Off the Hook.
"You really want Marina to be your girlfriend? She probably has her eye on Pearl already," teased Yuna. "I bet she'd like your leather jacket."
Kennie blushed without saying anything, then put her outfits on top of her dresser. She sat down on her bed and reached over to grab a Coreo. "Can you stay with us tonight, Yuna?"
"Well, if that's okay with Kishi..."
"Go ahead," said Kishi, smiling. "I like it when you stay here."
"Cool, then I'm staying," said Yuna. "I'll just have to hang my Squid Sisters poster tomorrow. I like where you two put it, right next to the window. I think I'll put mine there."
"How was the Musinkfest finale last year?" Kishi asked Yuna.
"Well, last year when the Squid Sisters did the finale, and they tossed out lots of merch into the audience. It was a way bigger celebration than any of the earlier concerts—more confetti, more lights, more everything. Their ending with the Calamari Inkantation was a smash."
"You bought the backstage pass last year too, right?" asked Kennie.
"Oh my gosh, yes! They're sooo cool to talk to!"
"Calm down a bit," said Kishi. "They're going to hear you in the other dorms."
"Okay, okay... I'll start getting ready for bed. I shouldn't even be eating this late."
Eight o'clock, Friday night. Kennie was the first one out, practically dragging Kishi and Yuna out with her. Kennie was wearing a leather jacket, denim shorts, and white sneakers. Yuna and Kishi stood next to her in front of the stage, wearing hoodies and jeans.
In the crowds of squids and octopi, Yuna saw Beck's short, highlighter green tentacles. Beck had a Splatfest shirt and cargo pants on. Next to him, Brine was walking carefully, trying not to bump into anyone. Unlike Beck, Brine's hair was ultramarine and had two dark blue-tipped and light blue-spotted tentacles on the top of his head, held by a hair band. Brine wore a light blue sports jacket and black shorts. After looking around for a few moments, Beck saw Yuna waving her hands and pointed her out to Brine. Brine and Beck made their way through the crowd towards Yuna, Kishi, and Kennie.
"Are you guys hyped for the finale?" shouted Beck.
Before Kennie could finish responding "oh yeah!" he interrupted with "I'm so hyped! This week was awesome!"
"Thanks for coming early and grabbing the best spots for us!" said Brine.
"It's thanks to Kennie here," said Yuna.
Two microphone stands, connected to the large speakers on the side, were at the front of the stage. Marina's DJ set and a smaller microphone were at the back, on top of a pedestal, and wasn't connected to any speakers. The stage was surrounded by sculptures made long ago by graduates of the academy depicting squids in different positions.
Brine nudged Kishi, who stood next to him, and asked her, "Do DJs actually do anything during concerts?" Kishi shrugged and said, "Maybe."
A few minutes later, the lead organizer of Musinkfest, Professor Clambell, walked onto the stage and took a microphone. He was a tall, pale Inkling with a light blue bowl cut, wearing the Inkblot Art Academy Musinkfest shirt that was given out at the first concert of the festival. "Thank you all for attending this year's Musinkfest," began his speech. "Thank you to those of you who put in hard work and countless hours of your time to organizing this." He went on to thank everyone who contributed and the significance of Musinkfest. He concluded with "And now, please welcome our last band of the week, Off the Hook!"
As Clambell walked off the stage, a pink spotlight focused on Pearl, an Inkling with short, cream and pink tentacles, and the audience cheered and clapped. The jewels on her crown shined under the stage lights, while she ran towards her microphone. Then a green spotlight came on and followed Marina, an Octoling with long plum brown and teal tentacles wearing headphones and a bandana, who walked steadily and briskly towards her DJ set, met by even more cheers and applause from the audience.
"Y'ALL KNOW WHAT TIME IT IS!" yelled Pearl, pointing around at the crowd.
"It's Off the Hook, coming at you LIVE from Inkblot Art Academy!" announced Marina.
Marina flicked on a switch on her set and the music of "Fly Octo Fly" boomed through the speakers. Marina began singing "Keep your wits about, no don't lose your head..." while Pearl danced back and forth on the stage. Marina looked at Pearl, with an expression that was hard to tell if she was worried or concentrated.
Kennie sang along to every word, jumping and waving her hands. The entire audience sang "Whoah oh oh, oh waaaohhh oh!"
Pearl began singing, much louder than Marina "You may think our kind's not worthy of life, but we won't go down without a fierce fight!" Kishi flinched as soon as Pearl started singing.
A few minutes later, with a turn on a turntable and turning up some sliders, Marina transitioned to the instrumental for "Ebb and Flow". Pearl sounded slightly off-key on some lines. At one point, Pearl even tripped over her own feet while dancing energetically.
Marina then transitioned to "Acid Hues" and jumped off the pedestal to join Pearl at the front of the stage. At that moment, Pearl pointed to everyone at the front of the stage and yelled "MOSH PIIIIT!"
"AWWW YEAH!" yelled Yuna, while jumping and flailing her arms along with Kennie and Beck. Kishi grabbed Brine's hand and the two fled away from the mosh pit.
The last thing Kishi and Brine heard before leaving the concert was Pearl yelling "STAGE DIVE!"
The next morning, on Saturday, Yuna, Kennie, and Beck were still in pajamas, and they sat in the sofas of the dorm floor's common room. They were laughing as they talked about last night's concert. Kishi and Brine brought back some breakfast sandwiches for them.
"So, what exactly happened last night?" asked Brine.
"You're not going to believe this," said Beck. "So after Pearl jumped into the crowd, the mosh pit got so wild that a bunch of sculptures got knocked down and broken. Security had to stop the concert and talk to everyone who was in the mosh pit, and also Pearl and Marina. Now we all have to pay a bunch of money for reparations."
Yuna also added: "Pearl's crazy. Marina said they briefly visited a party in someone's dorm room right before the concert."
"Oh yeah," said Beck. "You know what Marina said? It was something like, 'I don't think what they were serving was fruit punch after all because Pearl had a sip of it and started acting up, but I thought she'd be okay enough to perform.'"
"Poor Marina, she had to apologize for Pearl," said Yuna.
"Oh gosh," gasped Kishi, as her eyebrows raised. "I hope Pearl's okay now."
"She's probably fine," Beck reassured.
Kennie, who had been grinning the whole time, sat up and said, "Before they had to leave, I got Marina and Pearl to sign my shoes! I can't believe it. Marina looks so hot in person and I actually got to talk to her!" She was shaking her hands so much that her breakfast sandwich slipped out of her right hand and barely caught it before it could fall on the floor.
"Tell me about it," said Brine, who was used to Kennie fangirling about Marina.
"Let's go work at Grizzco's after breakfast. We need the money," said Beck.
"But I'm tired," groaned Yuna. She took a bite of her breakfast sandwich.
"You did what you did," said Kishi with a shrug. She and Brine looked at each other with smug smiles.