We all groaned.
"I'm sorry." Shellington garbled, "I-I don't remember that being there..."
"It's OK, matey." Kwazii yawned, "We can hide our lil mateys inside our suitcases." He winked at us.
"Absolutely not!" Inkling scolded him, "It's ideal we don't do that. We don't need to be banned from 2 hotels in one night."
"Professor," Bella chimed in, "I have a rental flat a few blocks from here, maybe all the children and their guardians could stay there, and everyone without a child to care for can stay here for the night."
"Great idea, Bella!" The Captain smiled, "You can get off now, I'll drive everyone else to your flat, just give me the address." Bella grabbed a pen and paper, scribbled something quick down, and thrust it toward the Captain.
"Thank you so much, sir!" She sighed.
"It's no problem, Bella!" He answered her, "I'll drop them off and come right back!" We drove for a while down empty, dimly lit streets until we arrived at an desolate, dark avenue where the only light was a small halo of flickering yellow coming from a single streetlight. We all uncertainly got off. The Captain got off with us, eyeing the street suspiciously.
"Everyone, stay close to me!" He said, stepping in front of Shellington as if he were shielding him. He led us to the door, trying to keep a firm, steady grasp on everyone.
"Stay together." He kept saying to us, "We don't want anyone getting lost." We walked up to the door, or what we thought was the door. I groped in the shadowy dark for the door, and my paw brush against something hard and sturdy. I heard a slight click followed by a rattle and a growl. The door was stuck. The Captain jiggled the door harder, and gave it a hard shove. It creaked open steadily. We all stepped into the threshold, and immediately dropped all of our luggage. We were all completely exhausted; it was 3 A.M. and we had been traveling for hours. All we wanted to do now was find a nice warm place to stay for 3 days, and not lose our minds. After the Captain made sure we were all comfortable in the 2 bedroom flat, Shellington and the Vegimals in the living room, Inkling, Peso, Pinto, and Squirt in the master bedroom, Dashi, Koshi, and I in the smaller room, and left after tucking us in. My eyes ached, and I longed to close them for some rest, but my brain wouldn't let me. I lay in the dark and silent room, wondering what we were supposed to do now, until sleep finally crept up on me.
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The bus rattled and jostled us down the road toward the conference. The spastic motions of the bus combined with the lack of sleep I had the night before, and Inkling's endless on how to behave in the conference center made one killer headache. When the ride finally stopped, we all got off and Inkling gave us the game plan one more time. He and the other Octonauts would meet with specialists and journalists in the conference hall; We were originally supposed to go with him, but Bella had kindly offered to take us with her, so we would go with her. As we split, I had the nagging feeling in the back of my mind. I couldn't quite place my paw on what was wrong, but our group seemed slightly smaller, and quieter. But I no longer needed to figure out what was off, because Koshi voiced all of our concerns.
"Bella? Where's Pinto?"
YOU ARE READING
The Odd Sister Out
Fanfiction"The middle child has it worse" Janine Margot Doxter knows that this is a lie. Being the younger sister of Dashi and Koshi, who were known as inseparable, mystery-loving sisters in their hometown. Therefore, she has always been the third wheel to he...
