Breaking Barriers

Can You Feel It?

Pinto Pengino:

This is probably the one time that stupid Saumensch is allowed to wake me at 2 in the morning without any consequences.

The Captain had insisted all of us go to bed after hearing about Boston, but I couldn't sleep, and was rooted to the bed in anxious anticipation for what was going to happen next. The Captain however, wasn't going to let me stay like that all night, and after a lullaby, I had fallen sound asleep until I felt someone shaking me so hard my teeth chattered in my head. I opened my eyes, and my heart couldn't help but lift a little once I saw who it was, and I quickly put on a mask of grumpiness,

"There better be a good reason why I'm awake, Saumensch." I used my best grouchy voice, but I don't think she was fooled. Even in the darkness, I could see her shaking her head.

"What if I told you Paani's downstairs, and he has ice cream." Darn it, she knew my weak spots.

"Why?" I asked, unable to keep the interest out of my voice.

"Remember Boston?" She whispered.

"Yeah." I whispered back, sitting up, all my sleepiness vaporizing as the memories of the past evening came back.

"Ganamos." The second she uttered that one little word, the room became silent except for the low, buzzing hum of the air conditioner and the soft, fluttery breathing of my sleeping roommates. Then the excitement hit me harder than she did whenever I asked her for a kiss, and I launched out of bed at rocket speed and began to screech.

"WE'VE WON! WE'VE WON! WE'VE WON!" As you can imagine, everyone woke up and no one was happy.

"Pinto, what are you screaming about" Squirt asked, his voice fuzzy with sleep as he turned his lamp on.

"We won, that's why!" I continued to shriek and bounce up and down. At that moment, he had just realized Jane was in the room, and turned to her with the most annoyed expression a half-awake octopus could give.

"What on earth are you doing getting him all riled up at 2 in the morning?"

"Geez, I thought the Puricians having their butts handed to them in Boston warranted this but if you wanna sleep-"

"WHAT?!" Squirt exclaimed as well, swinging his tentacles out of bed as everyone else groaned and mashed their heads deeper into their pillows.

"For the love of all that is good and pure, kindly go and celebrate elsewhere!" Inkling groaned, and we all were out of the room in the blink of an eye.

"Let's get Koshi!" Squirt began running in the direction of the girls' room just as Nastya passed him in the hall.

"No need, Squirt, she's downstairs." Nastya called from the bottom of the stairs as the three of us began to come down.

Once we got downstairs, we could see Paani. He had his back to us and was pajamas with a little raindrop pattern on them and whooping with joy. I hadn't seen Paani in a long long time, and my heart was already bursting, so I sprinted up to him and practically attached myself to his leg.

"Paani!" I cried, "I missed you." And he only laughed.

"I missed you too, little buddy."

"We're gonna win, Paani!" I looked up at him. He was smiling, but his face fell the slightest bit.

"Yes we will, my little volcano enthusiast. We will one day."

However reassuring his words were, there was an element of shakiness underneath them, like he was trying to convince himself of that as well. Would we win? Only time can tell, but I am clinging to the belief even if the odds are 100 to 1, we'll win in the end. We need to.