Best Mateys (Peso x Kwazii)

Jagged Ice

(Peso's POV)

I woke up pretty comfortably for once. It feels pretty nice to get a good night's sleep after weeks of 5 hour naps. I look over at the clock: 7:00

Huh, I guess I didn't get much sleep then. That's weird, I feel like I slept for days. I look outside and it's seems too dark for it to be a little past sunrise. I look back at the clock to see if my eyes we're tricking me or something.

7:00 PM

Seven PM! Oh my it's really late, I hope the crew wasn't waiting for me or something. I quickly got my nice clothes on, it is my birthday after all, I've gotta feel good. I grab my medical kit and make my way to the HQ.

As I get out of the octochute, I notice that the room is completely empty. The lights also seem to be off, but the sunlight from above the surface of the water illuminates the HQ sufficiently. After walking around a bit, I hear faint whispers from somewhere and then...

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY PESO!" the whole crew jumps out from their hiding spaces and yell out unanimously. I jump up and scream out of fear, but laugh it off as soon as I realize who it was. Looking around with the lights on, I see that there are balloons and streamers everywhere. 

"Finally Peso, you're awake!" Barnacles remarks, chuckling. 

"I almost thought you'd never wake up matey!" Kwazii jokes along.

I guess they were waiting for me after all. I honestly couldn't have asked for a better team. It's like we're all family. Moments like this remind me of my family back home, Pinto (my little brother) always finding the most unpredictable ways of surprising me on my birthday. I probably should be used to it by now, but I can't help but get a little scared each time.

The Vegimals come out of the kitchen with a big cake and some small kelp cakes on the side. We all go to the table and eat. We reminisce about some of the memorable moments with me, most of them being pretty embarrassing. Suddenly, a large current shakes the octopod a bit, knocking over the tower of kelp cakes. That's when I realized that we were moving, when the previous days before we were on plan to be stationed near the edge of the Atlantic for awhile. 

"Hey Captain, where are we going? I thought we were supposed to be stationary for now?" I ask.

"Oh yeah... well you'll find out soon." He says, smiling sneakily. 

Hm, I wonder where they'd be going. Captain's not telling me, so it must be a surprise for my birthday. But where would they take me? I haven't really been asking to go anywhere recently.

"Hey, how about we go and play some ping pong in the rec room for now, till we reach our mysterious destination?" Kwazii offers. 

I could tell he was trying to scare me, but I won't fall for that trick again, he's used it way too many times. It makes for a good chuckle though. 

We make our way up to the rec room, Kwazii goes on and on about how he's gonna win, playfully of course as he always does. He's been getting me to play more and more ping pong, and I'm starting to get pretty good at it. It's one of the few sports that I've gotten the hang of.

He really likes to get into his game when he plays with me, but luckily for me that means he gets tired pretty easily. He may be a better player when he feels good, I've got stamina. After 4 or 5 games, I get onto a win streak. He starts to get kind of embarrassed, and tries to distract me by pointing outside. I will say that it worked, and he did get the point, but I was captivated by what he pointed to. I don't think he realized it, but he just pointed at one of the most beautiful sunsets that I've seen in a long time.