The following day, the crew was up early preparing for school. Charlotte was preparing breakfast. Erink and Teuta made sure snacks and all the school supplies were accounted for. Jr really didn't need to do much since he didn't know their schedule yet, so he just prepared himself and got dressed in the uniform. He didn't need to wear a disguise anymore since Octarians invaded Inkopolis. Everyone knew what they looked like by now. Charlotte and Teuta's mom was a bit startled to find out Jr was an Octoling, but still treated him kindly as she did before.
Once everything was all set, they ate breakfast headed out the door. First they dropped Cephine off at daycare and then made their way to school. They chatted just how things used to be before all the commotion. The main difference was the fact that there were Octarians everywhere. The Octarians knew not to mess with Jr, so they just minded their own business. After they reached their stop, they made their way towards the school grounds. Something was up.
They entered the school and everything was in disarray. The halls were a mess. Purple ink was spread from the floor to the lockers to the ceiling. Octolings and various other Octarians were running around in the halls and chasing Inkling students down. The teachers couldn't teach and we're mostly cowering in fear because of the Octarians terrorizing them. Jr was not having it. He tapped Charlotte's shoulder.
"You guys have a PA system, correct?" he asked.
"Of course. It's in the office. Why?" she asked back.
"Octarians won't listen to Inkling voices of authority. They'll listen to me." She nodded and the four of them headed go the main office. The secretaries were nowhere to be found, so they headed right to the principal's office. Upon seeing Jr he jumped.
"A-another one? Please don't hurt me!" he whimpered.
"Don't worry, sir. He's on our side!" Erink said happily. "Do your thing, Octavio!" Jr went up to the PA system. Once he figured it out he began speaking.
"Fellow Octarians." he began. The school fell silent because all the Octarians froze. "This is a school. It's for learning, not seahorsing about. Start acting like civilized cephalopods and head to class. Prince Octavio, out." He clicked the PA off. He turned back to his friends who were staring at him. They turned to look outside of the office window and all the Octarians were indeed heading to class. The principal sighed, relieved. Teuta patted Jr on the back and Erink noogied him.
"Great job, Prince boy!" Teuta exclaimed happily.
"Yeah! Who knew being royalty had its perks!" Erink added. Jr smiled and shrugged.
"It has its perks, sometimes." he declared, somewhat proudly. Charlotte headed towards the door.
"We should be heading to class too." she said. They all nodded in agreement and headed to their class. Class went about pretty normally and the Octarians were behaving now. Eventually first recess came and everything went wild again. The Octolings were wrestling, jumping around, and just generally being aggressive and wild amongst themselves. The Inklings were on the other side of the yard, quietly and in a somewhat scared manner watching the Octolings. Charlotte, Teuta, Erink, and Jr were amongst these kids.
"Why are they fighting and all that junk?" Teuta asked.
"It's basically all they know. Octolings are trained to be ruthless fighters from childhood. We're not trained in much out of that, I suppose." Jr replied.
"Should we just leave them? I mean, they're kinda messing up the yard…" Erink asked. Jr shrugged.
"I'd leave them be. Better they tucker themselves out. You can go over to them if you want, though." Jr goes off and Charlotte follows. Teuta stares at Erink.
"So, you gonna try or?" she asked.
"I'll try. If they kill me, please beat Super Squid Jump for me, OK?" Erink replied.
"Gotcha." She watched as he approached the Octolings. Charlotte and Jr were just hanging out while devising a plan to take out his dad. He remembered the younger Octarians.
"Charlotte, where do young Inklings go to school?" he asked, with a tint of urgency in his tone.
"Squiddy Elementary school. Why?"
"There's most likely Octarians there. I'd like to check on them to make sure they aren't making trouble." She nods and leads the way. It wasn't too far off from their school. Upon looking into the yard, he lets out a sigh of relief.
The Octarian kids were playing and getting along find with the Inkling kids. Some Octarians ran up to the fence to greet Jr and he crouched to greet them. Charlotte couldn't help but smile at him petting and saying hello to all the kids. She tapped his shoulder and he turned to look at her.
"We should get back. Recess is ending soon." she said.
"Oh, OK then." He stands up.
"Aw, you gotta go now?" an Octoball kid asked. Jr nodded.
"Even princes have school. Bye kids. Behave yourselves." Jr said while beginning to walk with Charlotte.
"Bye, Prince Octavio!" the Octoball called.
"See ya, Prince Octavio!" an Octocopter kid peeped. He just waved as more kids were screaming goodbye to him. Charlotte couldn't help but laugh a little. Jr blushed slightly.
"What's so funny?" he asked her, still flustered.
"It's nothing." she said through laughter. He rolled his eyes. They continue their way to the school.
Erink approached the hoard or Octolings and cleared his throat. He began speaking.
"Um, excuse me, Octolings!" he called. They all stopped what they were doing abruptly and whipped to look at him. He began to sweat nervously, but continued. "You know you lovely ladies don't need to be fighting like that."
"What are ya sayin'?" one of the Octolings asked.
"Well, in Inkopolis, the only fighting that really takes place is in turf wars and ranked battles. And even then it's not very physical. You can totally chill out, maybe look at the sky. I mean, when's the last time you really got to relax and take it all in?" He winced expecting a negative reaction, but was met with silence. When he opened his eyes, the Octolings were all staring up into the sky. They were so focused on rough housing, that they forgot this wasn't underground anymore.
"You're right, squid boy... It's nice..." the Octoling from earlier said. "What else kinda nice stuff do ya guys have?"
"And what do you Inklings do when there's no school?" another Octoling asked.
"And where do you get all your fresh clothes?" a third Octoling asked. Erink laughed.
"Ladies, ladies. There are enough Inklings around to ask questions too. Give it a try." he suggested. They took his suggestion and soon enough, Inklings and Octolings were starting to talk and become friends. They were talking and teaching each other about their different cultures. One Octoling in particular hung around Erink.
"Um, excuse me." she said shyly. "I heard your little speech there, and it was really eye opening... My name's Ophelia." She bowed politely.
"I'm glad you liked my little spiel. There's more where that came from." he grinned. She giggled. "My name's Erink. Nice to meetcha Ophelia." The two began talking.
Eventually, Jr and Charlotte reached the school grounds and it was usually quiet. They looked and Erink was there talking to an Octoling. Jr was impressed that he got them to chill out and that the two races were hanging out with each other. He tapped Erink on the shoulder.
"I'm impressed that you calmed the troops down, Erink." Jr commented.
"Heh, it was nothing. These girls are real neat. They're just like Inklings, so I don't see why we shouldn't be nice to them." Erink replied. "Right, Ophelia?" She smiles and nods.
"Prince Octavio? I hope we don't have to go back underground. I really like it up at the surface." she said, hopefully.
"I hope so too, Ophelia. I'm sure we'll find a way." he replied. He goes back with Charlotte. "Let's continue devising a plan." She nods and they continue. The school day goes about normally and with a lot less chaos. With the kid Octarians behaving, it took some Octarians out of being a hindrance to the plans.
When they reached home after school, Jr and Charlotte had their whole plan thought out. The four of them held a meeting in the living room.
"The two of us finally finished up our plan to take down DJ Octavio and save the Zapfish and Inkopolis." Charlotte began. "First part of the plan: recruits. That starts tomorrow."
"Who are we gonna recruit?" Teuta asked.
"I'm sure Octarians will be willing to participate. The desire to stay up in the surface will surely make them comply." Jr answered.
"And I'm sure Inklings would be willing to help in order to get our city back." Charlotte added.
"What's next after recruits?" Teuta asked.
"We take back our city. So all the Octarians occupying Inkopolis we'll take out." Charlotte answered.
"And then the last phase of the plan will be taking down my dad." Jr added.
"Sounds like a plan to me! Go team saving-the-city!" Erink cheered. The plan would go into action tomorrow, so they awaited the next day. Hopefully they would get as many allies as possible.