Putz12 Plus One

NINE | TEETH

"C'mon, we really have to go! You were all scared just a minute ago. Why is everything so fine and cheerful now?"

But Buddy didn't move. He ran and chased his tail.

"I'm going without you, follow me or not, be as useless as a teammate for all I give a squit."

The flow of the river picked up and he had to go fast. Stupid wind. Stupid sky. Even if it was pretty, it was pretty and stupid. He didn't care about the moment of captivation it held on him. He glanced away and was over it.

A wave from the river came crashing into the rock he stood atop of. He'd almost fallen and if Buddy didn't run next to him he may have just died.

"Jesus..." He looked for a better way out but it was too wide to move across, and too long to ever go another way. He yawned and thought of those people. If they weren't murderers or part of the order thing, why would they be out there? And why wouldn't they accept anyone? Would they kill Iza? He laughed a bit to himself and then lifted one foot to another rock, the other, and, "Damn it!!" His shoe fell off, flying down behind him. "Are you fucking squidding me?!" Buddy ran off behind him. "No!!! Get back here, the shoe isn't important! I'm important!"

The shoe and Buddy treaded into a thin line and disappeared from his vision entirely. Putz was hanging on by his fingers sinking into the branches beside him, the waves absolutely irritating him as his sock was wet. "I hate today, so fucking much. I hate it more than yesterday. I hate it." He wouldn't even say 'tonight' because the coddamn sky made no fucking sense. Why give it any more credit than it needed?

If only things were easier. But guards apparently existed, of course. Anything to impede his chances of living a normal, happy life. Because of course.

He gripped the grass after waiting thirty minutes for the river to go down. Now he had bags under his eyes and was uncouth. He pulled himself out of the grass and dirt met with his wet hands and he became muddy.

"Fuck this squit." He thought, brushing himself off. "I'm going over there, and they're gonna give me some clothes. And respect." He was Putz. The sports super star from the above world, a place they weren't even considered good enough to be in. Too stupid to fight for themselves, of course they'd have to rely on him to get them out of there. In fact, there was no reason to be scared. He felt strong and adequate, and was most definitely sleep deprived.

"And if they don't accept me?" He thought, trudging through the wasteland. "I'll take what's mine and go."

Bright red scorched her eyelids. A blurry face greeted her upon awakening. She wasn't sure where she was, but many octolings were there. Even Octofro.

"Who are you?" The voice was deep and intimidating.

"Nnnm, Inkling Boy? Is that you?"

"Negative." Said a voice.

"Shutup, we're not robots from fucking Squidnet, you're gonna scare her if she's innocent."

"IF, likely story..."

"Quiet, you two. Let her wake up."

It took a while for things to come to focus, but she made out the face of the speaker. It was the older one with the blue blob atop his head. She could do without the light above, it wasn't like she'd done anything wrong. When her vision came to focus, she saw five there. All staring at her. She smiled.

"Do you think you're funny, punk?!" Derek rolled up his sleeves. "Make a fool out of me, huh?!"

"What? No, I--" She blushed. It's been so, so long since she'd seen any other octoling boys her age that wasn't Marcus. And there were a lot of them.