We're so back after a 4 month hiatus!
The next day, Ori walked into the school as normal. "This is going to be a very normal day-" A boy punched him in the face. "SOMEONE FOUND OUT ABOUT YESTERDAY YOU ASSHOLE!" shouted Blade. "That bitch is going to make me the laughing stock!"
"Who?" asked Ori. The lavender inkling was surprised. "That nosy snake must have found out herself!" he thought. "Whatever, just get your ass to class." muttered Blade, out loud this time. "Okay." replied Ori, who just gave a slightly awkward smile as he left for math class. In math class, the teacher decided to throw a pop quiz at everyone. "ON THE SECOND DAY OF SCHOOL?! REALLY?!" yelled a student. "Yes." said Mr. Lewis, smiling.
After, Ori walked into period 2 for the first time (he missed it yesterday due to detention). "Ori! Ori!" waved Maya. The firefly squid sat next to her in the conveniently unoccupied desk. "Uh, what class is this?" he asked. "Inklish!" replied the octoling girl. "I wanted to introduce you to my other friends, but they're skipping today!" she sighed. The teacher glared at them. "SKIPPING MY CLASS?!"
(Technical difficulties)
Maya spent the class helping Ori catch up with what he missed. "And that's what an alliteration is!" she exclaimed, right before the bell rang. "Meet you at the cafeteria! I'm gonna go look for my friends!" A few minutes later, the inkling boy waited at the cafeteria, saving a seat for Maya by resting his feet on the chair next to him. He decided to play on his switch to pass the time.
"Hey, what you got there?" asked an unfamiliar face. "A switch." said Ori. "You're playing Mario?" asked the girl. "Hey Lilly, you like Mario right?" she asked the other inkling girl next to her. "I played Mario Kart before." replied Lilly, who was lavender like Blade. "Mario's cool, it's nice seeing another girl play video games." continued the girl. "I'm a boy!" said Ori, who slightly raised his voice.
"Woah, really?" she gasped. "I like your pilot goggles, by the way. Where'd you get them?" The girl smiled while saying that, but it almost looked like she was holding back a laugh. "Uhm…" Ori began to feel a bit intimidated. "N-Naut Couture." he stuttered. "Ooh, so modern!" smiled the girl. "So, you helped Blade in the dark yesterday?" she asked.
"Oh, n-no!" panicked Ori, respecting Blade's wish to keep it a secret. The girl laughed. "It's okay, we'd never tell anyone, right Lilly?" she asked, seemingly innocently. "Yup." answered the other girl. "Blade is, like, ALWAYS so protective of his image! He must have hurt you really badly yesterday." The red inkling girl gave Ori a sympathetic look. "He did at lunch." sighed the firefly squid. "I imagine Maya helped you though, she's really cool." she added, and Ori nodded in response. "Oh really? She doesn't just help anyone you know. Maybe you are special!"
"Special?" asked Ori. "Yeah, maybe you could hang out with us for lunch!" replied the girl. "I'm Ashley Goldsea, by the way. The girl next to me is Lilly Dawn." she added, smirking. "I'm Ori." replied Ori. "What a unique name." said Ashley. The three saw Maya heading to the table. "Guess you guys already met each other!" she said, grinning.
"This is the guy you were talking about?" whispered Ashley, seeming rather unimpressed. "Hey, I think he's nice! Plus, he has dirt on Blade!" Maya whispered back. "Anyways, we should talk about the upcoming fall dance." said Ashley to everyone, changing the subject. "Ori, you might struggle finding a partner, but that's okay because we're here to help! You may never be as attractive as I am, but-"
"He doesn't need the help of a whore." cut in a familiar lavender inkling. "Oh really?" replied Ashley, her passive-aggressive look growing less passive. "At least I'm helping Ori, and not submitting to his pathetic ass." she whispered to him. Blade was speechless. "Oh sorry, did I offend you?" she snickered quietly. "For a monster, you sure get offended easily."
"Ori, let's go." said Blade, firmly.
"But they-"
"I said let's go."
"Oh no, it's okay." smiled Ashley. "You can come back tomorrow." She seemed okay with this, but she seethed as soon as the boys left. Blade took Ori to a hidden room in the library. "I like to hide here." he said, taking out his manga. "Don't tell anyone I read." he mumbled.
"Blade, why did you step in?" asked Ori. "Those girls are jerks, they'll fuck you up if you aren't careful." Blade scowled. "You should find other friends." he added. "Like you?" smiled Ori. "Err, no, not me." replied Blade, stuttering as his cheeks began to glow a very faint red. "Why not?" pouted the other inkling. "I'm not a good person either." sighed Blade. "Besides, why the hell would anyone wanna befriend me?" he muttered.
"I dunno, I just enjoy your company when you aren't being aggressive." said Ori, replying to what was meant to be a rhetorical question. "Really?" mumbled the other inkling. "Really!" smiled the firefly squid. Blade hid his face in the book, and let out a hmph. "We should play turf war after school!" suggested Ori. "I don't think either of us have a team." responded Blade. "1-on-1 then?" asked the firefly squid. "Maybe." mumbled the lavender inkling.
"And what are you reading?" asked Ori. "Geez, all you do is ask questions!" groaned Blade, but nothing stopped Ori from sticking his face into the book. "HEY! DON'T LOOK!" he shouted. "What is it?" asked the firefly squid. "Fine, I'll tell you." Blade blushed. "It's a gay love story about two high school boys." he said. "I wish I had what they had." sighed Ori.
Blade's eyes widened. "Wait, WHAT?" He looked back at Ori. "What do you mean by that?" he asked him. "Who wouldn't want a pretty boy who cares for you and motivates you to do your best every day?!" Ori responded enthusiastically. "I feel like that's exactly what you want too." he smiled.
"Ori…" muttered Blade, unable to take his eyes off him. "Uh…I guess so." he said. "And I won't tell anyone!" laughed the firefly squid. "Don't mock me!" pouted Blade. The two boys rushed out of the secret room when the bell rang.
Ori was about to head to his class alone, but he felt Blade grab his hand. The firefly inkling blushed, he didn't expect the other boy to suddenly take his hand like that. "Blade?" stuttered Ori. "I'll take you to class. I don't want those girls bothering you." said the lavender squid firmly. "Where is your class?"
"Room 220." said Ori, with a slightly shaky voice. "What the fuck?!" replied the lavender inkling. "That's my class too…" This made Ori smile. "REALLY?!" he exclaimed. "Yes, really." said Blade, in his usual grumpy tone.
The two made it up the stairs, and stepped into class. They didn't notice her, but Lilly was in the room and saw them. "They were holding hands, are they…?"
"Good afternoon boys, sit anywhere you'd like!" greeted the teacher, Mrs. Tanaka. "Welcome to history class." she smiled, not minding the fact that both technically skipped class yesterday. "Today we'll be discussing Ancient Inkadia, specifically when squids evolved into the modern-day inkling!"
"...Sorry for being pushy." said Blade. "I took your hand because I really didn't want you to run into Ashley and her lackeys." he added, pretending to pay attention to an obviously blank page in his notebook to hide his flushed face. "The truth is, I find you to be more than-"
"Blade, what was the first order of King Squidson the third?" asked Mrs. Tanaka. "Uh…Fixing the economy?" guessed the lavender inkling. The teacher sighed. "Please pay attention, okay? This will be on the assignment soon."
He sighed, looking at Ori while the firefly squid wasn't paying attention to him. "Why have you become so special to me?" he wondered.
"Blade, you seem really out of it today. Is everything okay?" asked the teacher. "Yeah." sighed Blade. "Just woke up feeling terrible." His answer was enough for Mrs. Tanaka to leave him alone. "Wait, is something actually wrong?" asked Ori. Blade shook his head. "Okay then, just tell me if you are though." smiled Ori.
The bell rang at it's usual time, and Blade sadly watched Ori head to his final class. "I don't want to act overprotective again." he thought as he watched him happily walk down the hallway. On Ori's way to class, he felt someone grab his arm.
"We need to talk." said Ashley, lowly. "Uh, Blade said you're not a good person." replied Ori, anxiously. "Who cares what he says!" shouted Ashley, pulling him into a dark hallway. "What do you want anyway?" inquired Ori, a bit nervously.
"Blade talks a lot about how awful me and the girlies are." replied Ashley. "It's ironic, Ori. He's not a saint himself. You must have seen how brutal he is to anyone who looks in his direction, and how he uses his intimidating image to control others!"
"I don't think he's manipulated anyone though."
"Ori, you're too innocent. No one gets close to his favorite places to sit, the teachers apparently pass him in fear for their own lives, everyone will change something at the drop of a hat just to avoid being killed by that brute!"
"Killed?" asked Ori in a shaky voice.
"If he's so keen on keeping you around, you must have something he wants, because he would never truly think about being your friend!" she said. "If you leave him now, he'll have you dead by next week, if you had just stuck with me, you would've been safe."
The firefly squid felt tears form in his eyes. He was now terrified of what Blade could do to him, but he also felt betrayed. He truly felt like he had something special with him, but it was all a lie, wasn't it?
"Ori, you have two options here. One– Stay with Blade and risk being beaten to death, or two– hang out with Maya and I tomorrow instead! Don't forget, Maya was your first friend here after all. We could also find you a date for the dance, buy you the expensive clothes you want, make you popular…But in the end, the choice is yours." The red inkling saw her friends and wanted to catch up with them. "Goodbye."
Ori didn't even bother getting to class on time, he just fell to the ground and sobbed quietly. He remembered how Blade seemed grateful for his help during the power outage, their time together at lunch, and when he held his hand. "Was that all nothing to him?"
Blade's final class for the day, gym class, was canceled and every student was sent to work on their other subjects in the library. There were a bunch of jocks in the library, a bit of an unusual sight at this school. The lavender inkling didn't give a damn about his missing homework though, so he left the library to find the nearest vending machine.
"Hey." greeted Ashley in a condescending tone. "The fuck do you want?" grumbled Blade. "It seemed you had Ori wrapped around your finger." snickered the red inkling. "Thankfully he has his real friends to warn him about these things!"
"THE HELL DID YOU DO TO HIM?"
"Calm down big guy, it's not like you truly cared about him."
Enraged, Blade slapped her. "QUIT ACTING LIKE YOU CARE ABOUT HIM! YOU CLEARLY FUCKING DON'T YOU WHORE!"
This really angered Ashley. She cried after the lavender inkling punched her, grabbing the attention of the jocks passing by. "H-He punched me!" she cried, letting the strong looking boys comfort her. Blade shot her a nasty look. The lavender squid glared at the jock boys too. "Only idiots would fall for those crocodile tears." he scoffed before leaving the scene.
As soon as the bell rang, Blade knew he had to rush to find Ori. He even had his weapon ready for that unusual turf war the firefly squid wanted to have. "ORI!" he shouted the moment he saw him. Ori, standing by the front doors, looked back and saw the lavender inkling. The firefly squid's eyes were full of terror and sadness, even Blade could see it.
"Ori, you have to listen to me-"
The firefly squid ran away from him, tears discreetly streaming down his face.
The lavender squid just watched him.
"I thought I finally found someone special to me, I should have known it was too good to be true."
…Is what they both said to themselves.
To be continued...
I spent like a month figuring out what to do with this story then I rewatched mean girls and everything just clicked! I promise the next chapter won't take as long lmao :P Also mrs. Tanaka was actually a teacher in this rlly old splatoon fanfic I wrote in 2021 (its SO EMBARRASSING AND ITS 10 CHAPTERS LONG ;-;)