Chapter 3 - What Happened Here?

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Taylor slowly opened his eyes as he woke up. He was very dizzy, and the harsh, bright light directly above him wasn't helping either. Instinctively, he raised his hand above his face to block it, and instead saw blood smeared all over it.

He screamed.

Mrs. Saltsman came rushing into the room, worried. "Oh goodness, Taylor, you're finally awake!"

"Why is there blood on my hand!?" He asked panickingly.

"Taylor, do you remember what happened before you woke up?" She asked reassuringly.

"Umm… I… uh… I uh… I played in a… turf war, I think…?" Taylor answered, not able to remember much of what happened. "Yeah, yeah, I… I was with Will, and, and the two K-Kelp girls, yeah?"

The nurse nodded her head. "So you don't remember everything. Okay." She said as she quickly wrote something down in a notebook. "Do you remember anything that happened after that?"

Taylor shook his head.

"So, after your turf war, you went to go get a drink of water by yourself. During that time, someone took you behind the shed and beat you up really badly." She explained. "You were covered in blood. They also knocked out two of your teeth." He gasped.

"Otherwise, how're you feeling?"

"My head hurts, and I'm sore everywhere on my body." He winced in slight pain.

She jotted down a note in her notebook. "Are you sensitive to light?"

He looked up slightly to get a slightly better look at the light. His eyes were incredibly sensitive to it, and he closed his eyes very quickly from the extreme brightness of them.

The nurse nodded and quickly wrote something down. "I'll take that as a yes, then. Why don't you go lie down. I'll turn off the lights."

Taylor obliged, putting his hands over his eyes until the nurse turned off the lights. He took his hands off his eyes and looked into the ceiling. 'What even happened?' he thought. 'I wake up, and I'm covered in blood… I guess it's better to just not think about it.'

He closed his eyes to try and get some sleep, but he couldn't shake the feeling that it had something to do with Tommy. After all, he had beaten him in the turf war match earlier. And Tommy clearly didn't like Taylor.

Taylor tried to think some more about who it could be, but all roads led back to Tommy. Nobody else really knew Taylor, nor talked to him too often. The only other options were Will, Emma, or Eliza, but he highly doubted that any of those three would do anything to him of that magnitude.

Then he remembered one other thing: his Splattershot. 'If I had my Splattershot on me, then I could've just shot them, right? Unless I didn't have an opportunity to react…'

His eyes wandered around the small room he was in, but he couldn't see his Splattershot anywhere. The only thing he could see was a door and a small table to the right of him, which had a glass of water.

He picked it up and took a sip of water. It was very refreshing to his dehydrated body. He gulped down the whole glass before putting it back on the table. With no sign of his Splattershot anywhere, he went back to the seat and laid down. Just as he shut his eyes, the door behind him opened.

He jolted up and looked over, and saw Will, Eliza, and Emma standing in the doorway.

"Taylor! I'm glad you're okay," Will said, making his way over to him. "You were gone forever, and we were worried about you!"

"Yeah, I'm alright, I guess…" he responded. "Everything hurts, but I'm alive."

"What are the odds that you're sent to the nurse twice in a single day?"

"I dunno, but I should be in the hospital instead right now. There's blood all over me." Taylor motioned to his right hand, which was still covered in blood.

"You were even worse before," Emma said. 'I got a peek of you when they took you inside. Your whole face was covered in blood."

Taylor's face turned pale. "Really? It must've been bad."

She nodded. "It was. You look better."

There was a brief moment of silence before Eliza broke it. "So, who do you think did it?"

"Well, it's gotta be Tommy, right? He's been after you all day." Will explained. "If he hit you earlier, and targeted you during the turf war match, it's gotta be him."

"Well, we don't necessarily have any proof that either of those things are true, so it's all guessing right now…" Taylor pointed out. "But I still definitely think it's Tommy."

"Taylor, you were there, right? Did you see Tommy?" Emma asked.

"The last thing I remember was me leaving to get some water. Everything after that is gone."

"Oh." Emma scrunched her face. "That doesn't help us much."

The four pondered what Taylor had said in frustration. If they couldn't prove it was Tommy, he would get off scot-free.

"Say, are there any cameras back there?" Emma asked. "If there are, we cou-"

Will cut her off. "There are none. I heard a teacher talking about it with Principal Humboldt, and how they should start installing cameras in the school."

They were back to square one on ideas.

"Honestly, we just have to wait for Tommy to do something," Taylor said. "We can't push him to do something, because then he'll have an excuse."

"That's… a good point, actually," Will said. "Do you think you'll be alright?"

"Yeah. Tommy won't do anything to me."

Suddenly, the nurse walked into the room to check on Taylor. She was surprised to see Taylor's friends in the room with him, and ushered them out.

"This is unfair!" Will pouted. "We want to see our friend!"

"While I admire your devotion to check on your friend, Mr. Wrasse, Taylor needs to rest." The nurse said. "Now go back outside."

The three friends left the nurse's office, visibly upset. Will really wanted to stay with Taylor, but Mrs. Saltsman was adamant that Taylor gets rest following his injury. Will begrudgingly left the room, but only after Taylor told him to leave.

After Will finally left, the nurse turned off the lights and told Taylor to get some rest. He laid down on the chair, and closed his eyes. Not even twenty seconds passed and Taylor was asleep.

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Taylor was still sound asleep in the nurse's office. He was extremely weak and tired from his beating, so he was asleep for a while.

Will, Emma, and Eliza continued to compete in mock turf war battles, and recruited David Macks to be their fourth when his squad wasn't playing. He happily joined them, glad that they didn't mind his knack for breaking things.

Although they had a replacement for Taylor in the battles, they were all very worried about Taylor. Including David, who heard about the situation from Tommy.

"Y'know, when I was talking with him, he seemed to know way too much about what happened," David said. "It seemed a bit weird, honestly."

"Yeah, we think that he was the one who beat Taylor up." Emma explained. "We also think Tommy was the one who hit Taylor earlier this morning."

Will contemplated what David had said for a moment. "Wait, you said he was acting weird? What was he saying?" He asked David.

"Well, he said that it looked like Taylor had gotten beaten up behind the shed," He explained. "But we were both very far away from the shed, and there was no way that he would've been able to know it was Taylor."

"How far away were you?"

"All the way across the park."

"Oh."

"You should tell a teacher then," Eliza said. "That might be enough to get Tommy in trouble!"

"I don't know… what if he beats me up next?" David asked worriedly.

"He won't," Emma said confidently. "He wouldn't dare if he knows he's in trouble."

Suddenly, an announcement came over a loudspeaker, calling for their team. They made their way to the stadium, and prepared for their next mock match.

Taylor, on the other hand, was still sound asleep in the nurse's office. His mother was waiting next to him, stroking his orange tentacles affectionately. His short tentacles bobbed up and down with his breath, and his mother was holding back tears from watching her son be in such pain.

Unbeknownst to either of them, Tommy was watching them through a crack in the door. He watched Taylor's mother affectionately watch him, and he knew he had to get his revenge.

'My mom told me that it was all her fault that dad went to jail,' Tommy thought. 'It's her fault that dad is never around anymore.'

Still glaring at the pair, Tommy slowly walked away, towards the door to the outside. He had a grimace on his face, knowing that he had to do something. But his plans for revenge would have to wait.

Meanwhile, Taylor's mother was plotting revenge of her own. "Taylor," she whispered. "I don't know who did this, but I promise, they will be punished."

Taylor, who was still sleeping, didn't know what his mother had said. But his mom didn't care. She continued to stroke his tentacles, staring into his closed eyes. Without her husband present, Taylor was her only family left. And she wasn't going to let it go. No matter what. She gave him a kiss on the forehead before saying a quick prayer, and leaving the nurse's office.

Outside, the four friends took on a team from another class, and they had a lot of fun spraying lime green ink all over the floor, lobbing bombs in all directions, and practicing their team play.

In the midst of their fun, however, they couldn't stop thinking about Taylor. The poor boy had been extremely excited to get a chance to use his new weapon, and now he was sitting in the nurse's office, injured. It was the last thing anyone would've wanted.

About an hour later, Taylor woke up in a daze. He looked around, and saw nobody else in the room with him. His eyes wandered until the door opened and the principal, Mr. Humboldt walked in, carrying a bag over his shoulder. He sat down in a chair next to Taylor and placed the bag on the floor.

"Hello, Taylor. How are you?" Mr. Humboldt asked.

"Still hurt, but alright." The young inkling responded.

"That's good, that's good… now, do you remember who beat you, by any chance?"

Taylor tried to remember, but he couldn't. The only thing he could remember was going to get some water for Eliza, Emma, and Will. Everything after that was a blur. "No sir, I don't."

Mr. Humboldt sighed. "I was afraid that might happen…" He muttered to himself. "Anyway, your Splattershot was found broken near where you were found. Normally, we don't issue replacement weapons to students who break them. However, given the circumstances…"

He reached into his bag and pulled out a Splattershot.

"Everything else was still found intact, so you'll keep using those. However, if you break this one, you will not be issued a replacement. Do you understand?"

Taylor nodded his head quickly. He was very excited to have his weapon back.

"Great. Here you go then. Get some rest, Taylor." He handed Taylor the Splattershot and started walking towards the door.

The young inkling boy was very excited to get a new weapon, but he knew he needed to get some rest. He placed the shooter on the nightstand and laid down in the chair. His thoughts drifted away from the Splattershot and towards hopes that things would get better.

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