OctoSquids (Splatoon story)

Chapter 3 - Up a notch

The end of another round of Turf war was at hand, and Plum was not planning on losing this one. He took a high point on his side of Inkblot Art Academy and watched to see if anyone on Moray's team decided to get any closer. Eventually, he found Moray herself, who quickly hid behind a wall. Plum waited patiently for her to come out of hiding, but all she did was peak her head over the wall, look straight at Plum, then hide behind the wall again. Plum raised an eyebrow, confused. He can't throw an Auto Bomb that far away, so he instead tried to fully charge his Hydra Splatling and fire toward the wall Moray was hiding behind, in hopes to get her out of hiding. All Moray did in response was peak her head out, look at Plum and giggle at him, going back into hiding.

Plum began to grow impatient, so he charged his Hydra Splatling and tried what he did last time again. He knew Moray was giggling to herself behind that wall. Little did she know that they were not the only ones in the battlefield, as Rainey eventually found Moray and splatted her. Plum laughed a bit as he and Rainey gave each other thumbs up, unaware that the opposing team's Octobrush Nouveau, Maria, also found Plum and proceeded to splat him. As he respawned, he could definitely tell Moray was laughing too. Plum chuckled, knowing that it wasn't over quite yet, so he hurried back to the battlefield.

The round ended and Plum's team came victorious. Even Moray cheered for him, and she lost the game.
"That was really fun!", said Moray to him.
"I know! I feel like I'm getting better and better!", he replied to her.
"Oh, I can definitely tell!", she laughed a bit, but suddenly grew a bit silent, and Plum noticed.
"What's up?", he asked her, and Moray seemed to have snapped out of some kind of daydream.
"Oh, nothing much. I've just been in a little bit of a losing streak, that's all.", she said. "I know I shouldn't really mind and it's the fun that counts, but it still sucks to lose, you know?"

Plum looked at Moray with surprised eyes. He didn't expect her to say something like that. He had always thought she was the most confident and optimistic person he had met, but that just goes to show that even Squids like her have doubts. He began to think for a bit, then got an idea.
"Mind waiting for me here?", he said as he walked off, reentered the Deca Tower, took something out of his locker and came back. What he brought back was a teal colored hooded jacket. It looked pretty new. Moray looked at the hoodie with surprised eyes.
"Oh, Plum, you shouldn't.", she said as she began giggling.
"Yeah, well, if you pay something for me, expect me to pay you back somehow.", he said to her ironically, calling back to how she bought him his new outfit. "Trust me, a simple thank you was not going to be enough. And who knows, maybe it'll help you break that losing streak!".

Moray smiled more as she took the hoodie. Plum then noticed a message that the hoodie had in the back. The message said "Freshest Squid" in bold Inkling letters. He froze up as he felt a blush on his face. When he bought the hoodie, he never noticed that message. He didn't want Moray to think he had a crush on her or anything. He just wanted to be a good friend.
"I love it! Thank you!", she exclaimed happily as she proceeded to hug Plum. He was caught a bit off guard, but he hugged back anyway.
"Don't mention it.", he said as he caught a glimpse of Douglas, who was glaring at him again, making him chuckle awkwardly. After they parted from the hug, Plum decided to ignore Douglas for now and smiled at Moray. "G-Good luck out there!", he said to her.
"You too!", she said with a bright smile as she and her team walked away, with Douglas still glaring at Plum as they slowly disappeared in the distance.

"Hey, Plum! Come join us!", called out Calder to Plum. "Ridley got you your food already!". Plum smiled and sat down with his team at one of the outdoor tables of the Crust Bucket as he looked at his teammates with a bit more detail. Calder had a fierce look in his eye. He could tell he was somewhat of a thrill seeker. His ink color was green and his hair consisted of four shoulder length Octarian tentacles around his scalp, with only the front right corner of his head shaven. Rainey's ink color was dark blue and her hair consisted of one large Octarian tentacle combed back with three thinner tentacles behind her head, going down to her waist. Ridley's skin color was slightly more tan than the rest, and his ink color was orange. His sides of hair were completely shaven, and on top of his head, he had four tentacles side swept to the left. Ridley was the one Plum knew better than the others, given he is his cousin, so he did expect that look from him.