Five minutes.
Everyone was on the edge of their seats. No one had any room for thought of summer homework, of commas and clauses and triangles and lakes and whatever inane drivel was contained in the meager stacks of paper that no one had looked twice at before shoving it in their bags, nearly emptied of books for the first time in what felt like an eternity. The year had dragged on enough as it was- with the train line construction seeming to take forever, the hullabaloo down south that turned the news grim just in time for the holidays, and all the fights that'd broken out around third term, everyone was ready for a change of pace, some fresh air. Time to blow this popsicle stand. It was all so close. So close.
Three minutes.
Not all shrimp talked too much, to say that would be kinda racist, but this one? This one certainly did. She'd have time to read that damn book, they'd all have time to read the damn book, this isn't something they needed to go over. (Not that she was looking forward to reading 'A Story Of Three Bridges', but what needed to be done needed to be done.)
One minute.
The teacher snapped at them for grabbing their bags (literally) but could you really blame them? The collective atmosphere was thicker than concrete- you couldn't even make a dent with a knife. Kids were ready to run as if their lives depended on it, constantly checking their phones under the desks, but Fin'd already gone over the news enough- and she needed to save her battery, anyways. She'd only remembered to bring one battery pack!
Thirty seconds.
It was almost like they were some kind of summer-induced hive mind, more than ready for the whole day to be devoted to nothingness instead of just most of it. She was almost afraid she'd have to fight people over train seats!
Ten seconds. Nine. Eight.
Three. Two.
One.
You couldn't even hear the bell.
Finley was one of the first out the door, (thanks in part to her seat placement,) clutching her bag in one hand and keeping her hat on with the other, all her attention focused momentarily on not being trampled in the narrow hallway. Until you got outside, it was chaos, a near-deafening cacophony of cheers and confusion, but she couldn't relax yet. There was still a train ride between her and an entire vacation in a day, and if she had to step on people to get there, so be it. Others seemed to share her mentality- whether or not they were taking the opportunity for the day trip or not, no one wanted the momentous first day of summer to be spoiled by anything, no matter how small. They were like an army. A colorful, fanged, overly flexible, fashion-obsessed army.
Jyugo's head was visible a mile away among the crowd, thanks to how damn tall he was and that stupid haircut, and as soon as she spilled out into the courtyard with the rest of the school, Finley followed it towards the gates. Their group soon assembled- Umi got the littler kids from the elementary building ('It's a madhouse in there!') and soon Mari showed up as well, escorted by her younger brothers, and was promptly scolded (mildly) for wasting time taking shellfies with people. Now all that was left was…
"Where is that hammerhead? We're burning daylight." Jyugo complained, scanning the crowd for the one missing brother.
"I'm sure Kayden'll be here..." Finley said nervously, tapping her foot as her eyes were drawn by a certain rowdy group of boys ran out of the gates, screaming 'Inkopolis' like a war cry. "...he better be soon, though."
"Speak of the goddamned devil." He ignored Mari's shout about cursing around the kids and stalked off, returning holding someone by the wrist- Kayden, who was holding someone else by the hand. Said someone looked about the same age as Kayden, with similarly styled baby blue tentacles to match the other's light pink, dressed in pastel colors, and a slightly disoriented expression on his face. Aster.
"Woah... this is him?" Finley looked up at the older boy in awe. "I thought he was just a myth."
"Fin!" Mari elbowed her, laughing despite herself. "Don't say that, it's rude."
"Ahaha, sorry... The way he talks about you, I was beginning to think you were from some dating sim or something. Perfect Aster with his perfect eyes and his perfect tentacles and his perfect sense of style."
"Well, I- he says that stuff?" Aster blushed a bit, glancing over at the pink boy.
"Of course I do, babe." Kayden chuckled, putting an arm around his koifriend. "You're worth talking about..."
"Get a room, nerds!" Umi moaned jokingly, looking away. "I get enough of this second-hand at Mari's place."
"Agreed. We're going to miss the train if this keeps up. Move along, folks..." Jyugo started herding the group towards the gate- they started out walking, but soon they were practically running out of excitement and urgency. A few moments were wasted on arguing over a detour, but they ended up deciding on the fastest way to go via rock-paper-scissors. To the older residents of the unlucky district the entourage stampeded through, it was probably one heck of a spectacle, as this wasn't really a neighborhood that was visited by hyperactive youth, but they didn't mind the stares. Soon, they were at the train station- in the midst of not only kids from their school, but the others.
Not only were there kids in normal clothes, from the only public school in the city, but there were about four different sets of uniforms in view as it became increasingly clear that the private school kids were in on the whole vacation plan. The train station, therefore, was packed. (Finley instinctively held Persimmon's hand, who held Jaz's hand, and so on, and soon they were a chain winding through the crowd.) The usual trains were departing and arriving and being inevitably delayed as usual, but now the usual handful of travelers and business men were drowning in a sea of children who were waiting for the Inkopolis line to pull in. They had some time before the train arrived, since Finley wouldn't hear about showing up less than ten minutes early, and their fellow travelers were buying last-minute snacks and trinkets at the imports shop, meeting up with their friends, and looking around the station (as a good amount of them had actually never been there before). Finley, however, made her way to the front of the chain and dragged her entourage straight to the increasingly long line at the platform. She kept checking her phone for the time, but five minutes seemed to last for hours before- at last- the train pulled into the station.
It was almost magical. The train itself stood out from the standard Subway Direct grays and muted yellows, being decorated with flowers and bubbles and ink blots in bright, tropical colors, with a stylistic mural of the Squid Sisters at the center stage of it all. As the doors slid open, a little chime played, and there was a cheer from the line. The man at the gate looked at each of their student IDs in turn before telling them to 'mind the gap' and showing them to the train. Fin was practically bouncing up and down in place the whole wait, and when her turn finally rolled around, she leapt onto the train with joy.
The interior was fairly plain- they obviously hadn't spent as much time on the interior as they had on the wrap- but the carpet had a cool design and the three-to-a-row seats looked comfy, so that was a plus. She had to go through two and a half train cars before she found enough consecutive empty seats for everyone to sit together, since people seemed to insist on sitting on their own or with their bags or two rows from everyone else or whatever nonsense have you, but she finally managed to find a car with a whole left side open. She dragged Mari and Umi to sit down in her row, taking the window seat (of course), and the bouncing returned as she ran her hands over everything in her bag to make sure she hadn't dropped anything on the way here. "Half an hour, just half an hour, we can do this, everything's gonna be fine, let's do this thing, half an hour, half an hour..." She chanted, staring out at the crowd on the platform.
"What's with the pep-talk mentality?" Umi poked her head around Mari's shoulders so she could see out the window as well.
"Just trying to convince myself not to jump out this window and run the whole way myself." She sighed, pausing her bouncing to lean on the window and pull her phone out to check the time yet again.
"Cheer up. Shellfie!" Mari wrapped an arm around Finley's shoulders, raising up her own phone and snapping a quick photo before the other had a chance to react.
"Oh my god, Mari, you and your Wave. Put it away for, like, five minutes. I beg of you."
"Hey, c'mon. I have fans, y'know, I can't neglect them. I'll put it away in the city. Mostly." She giggled, already typing away at lightning fast speed.
"As long as you tagged me..." Fin sighed jokingly. Having a friend like Mari could be annoying sometimes- mildly popular on Wave (everything, but mostly Wave), who occasionally let it go to her head- but it was mostly easy to put up with. (Besides, with a face like that, she deserved those fans... holy carp.)
As the amount of people she could see waiting on the platform quickly diminished and the chatter was reduced to a low roar, an actual low roar rose up from the floor. A jellyfish lady dressed in a train station uniform stood up from the single seat at the front of the car that she'd been in since they got there.
"Hello? May I have your attention please?" She waved her arms around and tried to calm the crowd. "Welcome to the Inkopolis Direct Inkopolis Line's first run!" She said, ruining her previous efforts towards silence as this only garnered a loud cheer from the peanut gallery. "Yes, um, thank you- I would just like to let you know to please buckle your seatbelts and stay in your seats for the whole ride, and please leave no trash or items on the train. Thank you." She sat back down quickly, not wanting to be at the mercy of her passengers.
The noise of the engine got louder, and the cheer returned as the train started moving forward. Fin watched the station go by, looking at the other trains and the people waving, but soon they were out of the station, and soon they were moving too fast for her to try to focus on anything without getting bored or making her eyes hurt. The excited chatter resumed, and Finley sat up straight.
"So, miss schedule, what is the plan today?" Umi asked, turning to Finley. "Time for your big secret to come out."
"I'm glad you asked." She said, pulling the precious folder out from her bag, and then carefully retrieving her schedule. "Now, I know I haven't gone over the details with you all yet, but I spent all week fine-tuning it so we can get all the best stuff done in one day."
"That's a relief. The thought of you all having fun here without me while I'm off at Camp Triggerfish was nearly too much to bear." Umi put a dramatic hand to her forehead.
"Oh, you. We'd save the fun for when you got back if you didn't get it in." Mari giggled. "What would we do with ourselves if we left you to visit alone?"
"Ahem. The reading." Finley cleared her throat. "Get off the train, regroup, check bags, blah blah, and then the main attraction: a tour of Inkopolis Tower. They only take an hour and a half, and you get to go up to the very top at the end. I've got the money for tickets for the three of us, and it's super close to the train station, I know exactly how to get there, they run the tours out the back, even though you can't get in the main doors-"
"Not anymore, kiddo." Jyugo interrupted, poking his head into their row from the seats behind them (and almost giving Umi a heart attack). "Didn't ya' see? The website. They cancelled the tours."
". . ." Fin sat in silence for a moment, almost believing it, then scrambled for her phone. Surely it couldn't be...
"...Inkopolis Tower Tours closed until further notice, due to heavy overload of seasonal traffic, new facilities inside the tower, and future events planned both this afternoon and onwards..." She read in a deflated tone. "Tours will resume later this summer or early fall."
"What? Since when?" Mari exclaimed, whipping out her own phone and checking, like, seven apps at once to see what was happening.
"Like, noon." Kayden shrugged. "Surprised y'all didn't hear about it... Guess no one wanted to talk about it."
"Ah, I knew I should have checked again..." Finley grabbed at her head. "This is a disaster, everything's ruined, aaaaaaaugh." She slumped down in the seat and began to repeatedly hit her head against the seat in front of her.
"Fin- hey- Finley, c'mon, chin up... There's still a whole bunch of fun stuff we can do today! Right?" Mari tried to smile enthusiastically, putting a hand on the orange girl's shoulder, but her face fell when the folder was apathetically tossed onto her lap. "Fin. Come on, it's not the end of the world!"
"I'm just disappointed. This was supposed to be the big thing we were gonna do… Now I gotta reschedule everything, and we're gonna have to wait so long for them to open, and who knows what they're even doing inside?"
"Yes, but look on the bright side! At least we have extra time to do thiiiiii…" Her speech trailed off as she caught sight of the view out the window.
"Where'd your words go?"
"Fin…? Look out your window."
"Mm?" She lolled her head to the side, but when she saw what Mari'd been talking about, her mouth fell open in surprise. "Holy Carp!" She shouted, shooting up in her seat.
"Wha-oh my..." Umi covered her hand with her mouth as she followed Fin's gaze.
"Where the heck did the ground go?!" Finley shouted, pressing her hands to the glass, and causing several other kids to look out the windows at the deep blue, watery abyss below them.
"That's the ocean... Isn't it?" Umi said, awestruck. "We're on a bridge, aren't we?"
"Yup. Didn't you wonder why it took so long to build?" Aster laughed. "And here I thought you lot did research..."
"Shut up." Fin glared. Bridge-building over the ocean was dangerous work- if someone or something fell into the hot, salty waves, they weren't coming back. Everyone had to be super careful, and it was no wonder the construction had been repeatedly delayed. (Woah, technology.)
"I hope there weren't any casualties..." Umi said hesitantly.
"Nah, it'd have been on the news."
"It's beautiful… Like being at the beach, but way more water and a lot less sand." Fin couldn't help but smile. "I didn't think I'd ever get to see anything like this…"
"You wouldn't get this view from Inkopolis Tower, would'ja?" Mari laughed.
"Yeah… you're right!" Finley exclaimed with a grin. "And who knows what other cool stuff we'll see?"
"There's the spirit!" The blue girl beamed. "Speaking of which, keep talking about that schedule."
Finley started excitedly chattering on in a hushed voice about all her plans for the afternoon, frantically erasing and rewriting and rescheduling, her friends listening intently the whole time, and the remaining time seemed to fly by in an instant. Before they knew it, they were back on the ground again, and soon after the train was slowing down. As it came to a stop, kids sprung out of their seats and flocked to the doors of the train compartment. Finley was surprisingly calm, the surreality of the experience catching up to her again, and before she knew it, it was her turn to leave.
She took a deep breath, kept both hands on the straps of her bag, and stepped out into Inkopolis Station.