*This is an AU of how the Octonauts met Peso. This isn't how I usually picture it, but I thought it might be cute.
You can read the comic I used for inspiration, such as the sample above, in the summary of my upcoming sequel to Hush Little Penguin; Hush Little Penguin 2: Diana's Babying. We all remember Diana. I wanted to give her a bigger role.
Enjoy! I might turn this into a story of it's own if I have enough to back it up. UD602 🥰😘*
The Gup A surfaced with it's usual gusto that came with being a part of the water world. The minute the windowed hatch opened, Kwazii tumbled out through midair, landing on his feet like all cats do, and stretching. He curled in on himself with a start. "Yeow! Why does this place have to be so cold?"
Shellington stepped out, careful of the snow, and adjusted his snow suit. "Because it doesn't get an direct sunlight, even less than the arctic." Shellington carried on with his speech and the others felt free to tune out. Shellington sometimes talked to himself to make sure he knew everything he needed to. Barnacles smiled. "I admit Kwazii, I'm also a little chilled."
Kwazii grumbled something about living in an icy home, and the bear chuckled. Inkling tugged gently on one of the many sleeves of his own coat. "I don't expect there were many pirating expeditions toward Alaska."
Shellington paused his ramblings. "Kwazii grew up in Arizona, where it is very hot and rarely snows. He's probably not used to such cold weather."
"And I doubt pirates have coats." Tweak griped, taking a bite out of her carrot, in hopes of finishing it before it froze. "What are we doing here again?"
"The professor has someone special he wants us to meet before we officially start our voyage as the Octonauts." Barnacles smiled at the octopus.
As Inkling geared up his hover chair, he continued for the captain. "We still have a very important role to fill on our crew..."
"...And an empty Sick Bay..." Tweak joked.
Inkling went on. "And I have a friend here who has been able to help."
Barnacles nodded. "Dr. Galen. He runs the hospital here...where exactly is here?"
Inkling chuckled. "Whitewood Antarctica. This is where Dr. Galen and many of his employees live. It's a very small town and the hospital should be only a walking distance from here. But that's not where we're going." He gestured for them to follow.
The trek through the snow wasn't as bad as they might have imagined. It was quite nice out, and feeling so much so that a few hoods went down. A group of kids came clammering by, almost knocking Kwazii over in the process and eliciting a cry of alarm from the cat. Dashi giggled and looked at the sky. "It's such a beautiful day, for a place that doesn't get direct sunlight." She smiled at Shellington, who chuckled in response. "It's around spring here in the Antarctic, and school will be letting out for them in just a few weeks." They had all gotten quite quickly used to the fact that they often traveled to different times of the year long before they were supposed to begin. Tweak called it, 'Traveling ahead of time.'
It was very nice out indeed, for there were many other kids to avoid. The elementary school must have already let out, for it was around two o clock and the small town's streets were littered with children making to most of the sunny day. When the Octonauts passed, a lot of curious eyes stopped to stare. One kid went up to Kwazii and asked him where his long metal toys were.
"He probably means camera equipment." Shellington explained after he had run off. "Penguins always have documentary crews filming them."
"Ah, that's just because they're cute." Tweak brushed him off. She could be a little prickly sometimes and had missed most of her night trying to shoo some stray crabs ot of the launch bay.
And she refused to go to bed.
Barnacles didn't always know what to do with her.
Inkling led them to a large brick building with giant letters printed neatly on one side, along with a picture of a white bird; "Harriet CatterPill All-Grades School. Home of the Flying-High Albatross."
Kwazii tipped his head. "What are we doing here?"
Inkling opened the gate and carefully maneuvered around groups of kids, who looked to be tweenagers, half of whom were playing a joint game of volleyball, the other half of which were using their afternoon break to catch up on their schoolwork. "Dr. Galen recommended a very special medic to help us. He should be almost through with his school day by now."
Tweak's eyebrows furrowed. "He's still in school."
"Somewhat." Barnacles joined in. He'd heard all this from Inkling before. "He's very gifted. He graduated college before he was even in middle school, and he works for Dr. Galen. But the doctor, as well as his parents, think it would be beneficial for him to spend some time in school with other kids his age. To work on social skills."
Inkling nodded. "They think it would be a step toward his...ahem, recovery...from his parent's recent divorce."
Tweak's expression softened some. "That's no fun."
"A particularly nasty one." Inkling agreed. "But it's not really my place to make gossip of it."
They walked up the stone steps and into the building. It was particularly quiet, and somewhat peaceful. According to Inkling, this was one of the best school Antarctica had to offer, and catered to all kinds of educational programs. Every moment was spend on helping their students reach high heights.
"We're looking for room 224. It's supposed to be in hallway 35, from what Dr. Galen told me." Inkling folded the paper and placed it back in his coat pocket, just as they passed an opening door. A teenage girl came trudging out, hunched over so her ponytail was not swaying behind her but curtaining her face. Barnacles smiled. "Excuse me, but-!"
She interrupted. "If it doesn't fortify my essays, raise my GPA, or count as community service, I'm not interested okay?!" She sounded really frazzled. The Octonauts watched her storm off down the hall, grumbling to herself as if they had personally offended her. Dashi raised an eyebrow. "Is this what all teenagers are like these days?"
Barnacles chuckled, seemingly unbothered. "You have to watch out for them. They come out this time of year. It's known as 'final exam' season."
Inkling shook his head lightly, and poked it into the door the girl had just come out of. Tweak shook her head as well. "I can hear their little beaks grinding as they leave the guidance counselor's office."
After a few minutes of wandering down halls, they found the room they were looking for. Inkling just barely raised a tentacle to knock before it was opened by a smiling panther in a purple suit, a green ascott tied around her neck. "Come in, come, come!"
Her cheerful demeanor made it easier to feel comfortable in this room. It was painted buttery yellow and the walls were covered in pictures that seemed to have been drawn by little children. Barnacles figured that, since this was an all-grades school, she was tasked with the younger classes, like kindergarten. Maybe the medic Inkling talked about was volunteering with them.
There was another student in the room. He had long hair and was almost easily mistaken for a girl. He glanced at them, looking scared for a moment, before turning back to the panther, who was settling into her desk after gathering chairs for them all. "Ms. SoBotton, I have the new...brand, you requested for our next transfer."
"Thank you Mark. You can head back to the classroom. Tell the children I put you in charge for the rest of the day. I may be preoccupied."
"I know the drill ma'am." Mark glanced at them, as if he were keeping a secret, before leaving. The panther, who's desk plaque read, "Willow SoBotton" didn't seem any the wiser. "That was Mark, one of our volunteer students in the ART SE Program. He's one of our more dependable ones." She rooted around through her drawers before producing a manila folder stuffed with papers and spreading some across her desk like she was playing solitaire. "I assume you're here for Peso?"
"Quite right." Inkling agreed. Ms. SoBotton chuckled, her loud choice of color seeming to brighten the room. "Dr. Galen said you'd be dropping in, I had no idea. I was worried you wouldn't make it. He was in here for Peso just the other day. Now, do you want the whole file, or just some bits?"
While Inkling sorted things through with MS. SoBotton, Barnacles turned to the rest of his crew. "Peso has been working for Dr. Galen ever since he was twelve, half a year after graduating college. So he's fifteen now."
Kwazii frowned. "Is this legal?"
"With parental permission, yes."
Tweak crunched her carrot thoughtful. "He must be good if he graduated that young."
Barnacles chuckled. "In Inkling's words, there are many talented children at this school, but Peso is something to make your eyes pop. We'll have to evaluate him at the hospital later, but Dr. Galen thought it would be a good idea for us to meet up with him here."
Shellington piped up. "What for?"
"Well..." Here, Barnacles struggled for the words. "As Inkling said, it's not really my place to say, I suppose. It's really more Peso's decision whether to tell that story or not. But he comes from a rough background, and it's severely impeded his social cognition and his mental/emotional state. That's why he's back here in high school. They put him in the class he would have been in this year had he not graduated, so he could work on social skills. Dr. Galen believes that once he has done that, he'll have taken a big step to getting his life on track after, uhm...being cut off for so long."
"Does this have anything to do with his parents?" Dashi inquired, her face etched with worry.
"I'm afraid so." By now, Inkling had finished with Ms. SoBotton, and had turned to join them while she ran to her printer for a moment. "Peso's usually stuck inside himself and doesn't have a lot of GOOD experience when it comes to socialites. Especially with adults. Somewhere along the way he picked up some nasty distrust. But I believe he is fully capable of pulling this off." He went to join Ms. SoBotton.
Barnacles took up the conversation again. "Don't be hard on the professor. Every one deserves a chance, no matter how unlikely it seems that they'll succeed. I think you'll all like Peso. He's supposed to be very sweet, from what I've heard."
The other four glanced at each other, as if silently contemplating. But Kwazii was up to it in a second. "Alright Captain. I'm all for it."
Kwazii of all people knew what it felt like to be denied a chance for being different. In all his years at the orphanage, it was as if no one wanted to adopt him for fearing he wasn't the right kid, for belief that he was not ready to be adopted. All because of the eyepatch and devotion to his family.
Barnacles smiled at Kwazii and turned to Tweak, Dashi and Shellington. "I trust you'll give him a fair chance?"
There was a stream of approval, just of Ms. SoBotton sat back down. "Now, before I call him in, I should warn you that this program is particularly aimed at children with social instabilities in their lives, as well as mental or emotional cognitions that have been twisted somewhere along the way. It's our job," she gestured to the walls around her, despite there being nothing there, "to untwist them."
Kwazii blinked blankly. "Meaning?"
The teacher chuckled, as if Kwazii had told a funny joke. "Let's say you have a child who's been trapped in an abusive home their whole life and have just recently been freed." Dashi thought she saw Inkling twisting his tentacles in apprehension of some sort. Ms. SoBotton continued. "That child, in high school, would have two roads to go down; either become a bully or pretend he doesn't exist. What I mean is, it's the age old struggle of being under eighteen; child gets hurt, child learns something. Child earns something, it affects the way he or she thinks and possibly how she views the world. If this becomes a problem for them or any of our other students, then that's where ART comes in. It's still slightly new, having inly been in progression for about two or three years, but it's been proven successful enough to the point where the school board of Antarctica, the SBA, has decided to allow it to keep running." She grinned at the end, as if waiting for applause. There was none, but it made more sense now. Shellington nodded thoughtfully. "So Peso's here because his parents divorce-!"
"Or something else!" Kwazii interrupted.
Shellington shrugged. "...or something else left him in a state of insecurity and uncertainty."
Barnacles nodded. "Which makes it hard for him to trust anyone or feel comfortable in his own feathers." Inkling also nodded. "He doesn't say much, I'm afraid."
"Now," Ms. SoBotton shuffled some papers on her desk. "This program is discreet from the rest of the students, allowing them to focus on their own schoolwork, and us to focus on our own students. And, for the unfortunately, many students who seem to believe it right to pick fun, it keeps our hard work for students like Peso, whose confidence needed a boost, intact."
"So people would pick on them for being a part of this special education program?" Dashi asked, looking woebegone. Barnacles knew it made her terribly sad to think of things like this. And unfortunately, there was a great many people who would poke fun at anything they could find that was different about you.
It must have hurt Peso so badly.
Tweak figured it out quickly. Barnacles had to give her credit for that. "Peso comes from an abusive home, doesn't he?"
Ms. SoBotton's eyes grew round. "Yes! How did you know?"
Tweak shrugged. "Just came to me. What, with all you talk and all."
Barnacles shook his head. "Might as well let it go. With those ears, Tweak could hear the secrets of mount Rushmore."
There was laughter at this. Tweak snorted and playfully shoved him, but smiled proudly anyway.
Ms. SoBotton pulled herself together quickly. "Well then. I take it you can imagine how hard it is to be raised on a burden like that. And unfortunately, how many of our students believe it to be the joke of the century."
Kwazii nearly jumped out of his seat. "What could they possibly pick on him for?!"
Barnacles tried to calm him. "I'm afraid, Kwazii, that at this age especially, many children find it a comfort to embiggen each other's flaws in relation to shrinking their own. It's safer to be the one in power than it is to be under a power."
Ms. SoBotton shook her head and sighed. "The follies youth has gained. They're children. They shouldn't have to make their social ladder an empire for themselves. They should be more focused on making friendships instead of ruining it for others. Oh, what we could do if we all tried to make school better for each other instead of making it worse..." She shook her head. "Never mind that. That's the basic long-term goal for ART. It will happen someday, but until then, one student at a time." She stood up and bustled about for a moment. However, she didn't stop talking. "This is a particularly unorthodox, but proven effective program that will not only bring a safer, more comforting environment to students like the one you are about to meet, but it will also give other types of troubles students, such as bullies, a strict environment in which they can relearn the proper way to go about one's social life. Among other things. Here." She found what she was looking for and handed it to them. "Read up on that, it'll make more sense than my rambling ever will." She laughed again, and pinned up another picture. Barnacles handed the pamphlet she'd given him to Shellington, who dutifully slid it into his satchel. Dashi tried to think of something else to distract herself from the sympathetic pain of what Peso must have gone through. "Are these pictures your children drew, Ms. SoBotton?"
"No, not quite. But you're not too far off." She sat back at her desk. "These pictures were drawn by my students, during and after their treatment here in the ART program. It helps me keep track of their progress."
The Octonauts decided not to comment on the childishness of them, as the other decorations on her walls, such as the alphabet chain, and the strange posters that reminded people to be nice and share. Dashi's eyes flickered to one poster in particular and stopped there, as if glued to it. But only a moment later, Ms. SoBotton got back to business and pressed a button on her computer. They could hear her voice in the hallways through the intercom. "Peso to my office. At once, please."
There was chatter in the hall. Ms. SoBotton's face darkened to a startling degree and she stormed over to the doors, throwing them open. "If I have to hear any horror stories from Peso about what happened in the twenty seconds it takes him to get here, your bottoms will be mine!" Closing the doors, she returned to her desk and sighed. They could still hear the children outside jeering cruelly at something or someone, the adult's warning having been completely dished off. "Peso is the smallest student we've ever had in his grade. That's only the tip of the iceberg. His family circumstances also provide a foundation for bullies to build on. It says a lot about the school that we at the board would rather not have made public."
Kwazii noticed Dashi looking teary at the thought of a child who'd already been through so much being bullied on top of it all, and tried to change the subject. "What's a panther doing in Antarctica?"
Ms. SoBotton smiled. "So clever, I like this one." Kwazii's chest puffed out like there was a balloon in it. "I'm the founder of this program, from a visiting global child program for anti-bullying. I'm not going to be here too much longer-- I'm only visiting. But I'm sure whoever takes my place will know how things g-!" A soft knock on the door sounded. Ms. SoBotton smiled. "Come in child. Don't be so shy."
A round little head poked in, and pulled away slightly upon seeing the Octonauts. "You wanted to see me? Ma'am?"
"Yes." Ms. SoBotton beckoned him to her desk. Peso did just that, but tugged the skirt of his school uniform down as if to hide something. Ms. SoBotton smiled gently. "You know you don't have to wear that uniform."
Peso shrugged, not looking up at any of them.
"Come sit." At the teacher's words, Peso climbed quickly up into a chair. SoBotton was right about his size. He looked to be only ten, maybe even younger. He didn't look like a teenager at all, but quite the opposite.
Ms. SoBotton began to explain the predicament to Peso, and Barnacles noticed something poking out from under Peso's skirt. It as round and white, with little splotches of more color under it. But before he could get a good look, Peso tugged the front of his skirt down to cover it, looking up at him cautiously. Barnacles offered a smile.
Ms. SoBotton interrupted. "Peso, you and I both know that if we could keep it that way, we would. But for you, it's going to have to come out eventually." Peso just stared at her, wide-eyed and unmoving, as if she had just told him his mother had his lifelong best friend put down like a dog.
Shaking her head, Ms. SoBotton glanced at the clock. "Oh, dear. the other classes will be letting out soon. It's about time to get you home. Off you go then. Dr. Galen will have more to say about it when you get to him, okay?" Peso nodded and scampered away like he couldn't get out of there fast enough.
Ms. SoBotton stood up. "I suppose I could invite you to the dismissal. Like I said, we keep our program discreet, but I assume at least one of you has already seen the front of the pamphlet. We keep our secret by putting our students in a forbidden part of the school and sending them out the back door to their bus stop. The bus is also used to keep them safe from discrimination, because every other student here usually walks home. We don't tolerate bullying while on school grounds. But some students have decided that if they drop off their things at the front stoop, it counts as being home and they're free to do whatever they want."
"Including bullying your students." Barnacles concluded, earning a nod. The panther threw on her coat. "I've a board meeting. I suppose you could take the bus with Peso to the hospital. He get's dropped off first because he has to work. All of our students are coming along in their special education quite nicely and won't notice a thing about you, trust me. You won't seem too out of place. And I trust that..."
"We won't tell anyone." Barnacles nodded at her. She turned toward the door, but scampered back to grab her purse. Kwazii leaned forward to the captain. "What's the big secret?"
"ART program. A-R-T----Age Regression Therapy. I read about it in the pamphlet."
As Ms. SoBotton led them down the hall of the school's private wing where ART was kept, Shellington read aloud from the pamphlet; "By backsliding a pupil to a certain degree of open-mindedness...or, in other words, a certain age... they can settle into a physically, mentally, and emotionally safer environment to relearn what morals were lost for them, and to get their life back on track. After a traumatizing event of any sort, it can leave the child in a state of inner ailment, which will need to be erased before they can start their life over on a new angle." He glanced up. "Is this why you keep it such a secret? If your students were bullied for their...ah, treatment, then it would destroy a fair amount of the work you put into healing them."
Ms. SoBotton nodded. "Mmhmm. I don't understand it, but people usually run away from this simple concept, and turn to more complicated matters just over the notion that they're more dignified. It's very disappointing that no one is willing to accept it, and yet, it's very simple why not."
"Why's that?" Dashi asked, reading over Shellington's shoulder.
"Page eight."
Shellington flipper a few pages in the booklet. "Once adulthood is reached, a new brand of power is given over all at once to a person. This power can give them certain notions that can leave them in a state such as believing that they are standing higher than anyone else. It's a simple principal; children want to grow up so they don't have to be fussed at anymore. Now they're the ones in control. But, are all these children really ready or deserving of that control?"
As Shellington moved to continue, Ms. SoBotton stopped in front of a door, cutting him off. "Which means..."
"We're not going to tell." Barnacles assured her. "If people aren't ready to accept it, than..."
"It means," she corrected him gently. "That I am about to show you something that many people pretend not to see."
Barnacles and Inkling glanced at each other. The bear could tell Inkling truly believed that Peso could do this. He then turned to the rest of the crew. "I think Peso needs us just about as much as we need him. Maybe more."
Dashi smiled gently. "Well, we did say we were going to give him a chance."
Barnacles turned to Inkling, who smiled. Ms. SoBotton did too, heaving a sigh of relief. "It's so wonderful to meet people with all their moral values still intact. I'm very glad." She pushed open the doors. "They come and leave early to stay out of sight."
They entered what looked like a large preschool room. It was decorated similarly to Ms. SoBotton's office, despite being much more over-the-top childish. There were young penguins wandering about or sitting at a table, drawing and exploring and making the most of their time before they left home. They scanned the room for Peso and found many faces that seemed to have already accepted the program--as well as a few that hadn't. These were easy faces to find because they were not the ones that were peacefully content or serene.
Peso, with his button nose, big baby eyes, and chubby cheeks was easy to find. He was the only on in the room who looked like he truly belonged there. He practically blended into the background.
he was getting changed by Mark. The thing he'd been trying to cover with his skirt in the office was his diaper.
He didn't see them yet. He probably didn't need to. He was already humiliated from the day's earlier visit to the office.
Once more, curious eyes turned their way. But just as the teacher had said, no one seemed to notice anything to interesting about them. They were lamp posts, ordinary and dull.
Ms. SoBotton sat down at a pink, enlarged preschool table, and spoke for silence. "It's almost time for the big kid classes to let out. we need to get you children home. You all know the way to the bus stop, but you'll be having my special friends join you on your ride to the hospital. Behave for me, okay?" Now, if they hadn't been noticed already, they certainly were now. But not for longer than a moment.
In most cases.
Peso looked horrified to see them, as if a shadow monster had floated through the door. As Ms. SoBotton alternated between herding children out the door and tending to a grumpy newcomer, Peso wouldn't meet their eye.
Or move.
He stayed glued to his seat, as if afraid to move.
Barnacles was thinking about going over to talk to him when he felt a tug on his leg. He glanced down to see a little girl in a black dress that barely covered her bat-print diaper. A goth toddler. That was something he wouldn't be seeing everyday.
"Are you from the health department?" She asked innocently, holding a mangled teddy bear. Barnacles' brows furrowed. "No, why?"
"The neighbors complained about Aristotle getting out." She pointed toward a tank that held the class pet. Barnacles smiled gently. "What a nice name for a frog."
"Not for a gerbil."
"No...not for a gerbil, I suppose." he watched her leave, seemingly satisfied with their talk. When he looked up, Peso was gone.
Outside, there was a little crowd along the cubbies, chattering as a whole. Mark was there too, trying cheerfully to hurry them along.
"Hi Mark." Dashi greeted him, smiling as he tried to help an overexcited pair of girls into their jackets. He smiled up at her. "Hey."
Kwazii eyed to kids. There was only about a dozen of them so far. "Do you do this every day?"
"Yep." Mark seemed pretty happy with his job. "So long as I stay ahead in all my classes." He stood up and made quick wok of counting them all.
"I love helping out." He clapped his flippers. "Alright gang. Let's get out to the bus. Mrs. Woolsworth is probably out there waiting."
They flowed out the door, still jabbering. Mark went with, and informed the bus driver, a middle-aged lady with long hair that posed as sheep's wool, that she would be having guests to the hospital.
"You just sit wherever dearies." She invited them on easily. "But try to stay near the back half. I need to keep an eye on this bunch." She gestured to the students. "And the back half should have seatbelts instead of harness structures."
"Harnesses?" Kwazii asked.
"Well, we can't have oversized car seats. That's just silly!"
They decided not to comment.
They headed toward the back and sat behind a boy and a girl who were wrapped up in a heated discussion about homework. But before the bus took off, Mrs. Woolsworth went around and fitted every child into a harness and strapped them in. Peso was sitting towards the front, by the window, with a chatty girl next to him. He looked kind of happy. Maybe this program really did work for him.
As the bus got moving, some girl shouted above the noise. "Hey Randy! What do you call a new word?"
"What?" Randy called back.
"Plagiarism!"
The entire bus laughed at this. Barnacles chuckled. "Look's like they're a pretty tight knit bunch." The entire bus was chatting now. It was sweet how close they were.
The girl in front of them turned around. "I'm Lilly."
"Hello."
"And this is Christopher."
"It's nice to meet him to."
"Mister, can you please tell Christopher to stop bugging me?"
Kwazii leaned over. "Christopher, stop bugging her."
"Okay." The boy shrugged and went back to his sketchbook. Barnacles smiled at Kwazii. "Nice."
Kwazii seemed pretty proud of himself. "I feel like an avenger!"
"Where you folks going off too?" Another girl asked. They were all like little kids, open and carefree, trying anything, saying anything.
They had a good chat with the bus kids as they pulled into the hospital stop.
Mrs. Woolsworth unhooked Peso from his pink harness and helped him off the bus. The Octonauts followed, listening to the sing song goodbyes coming from behind them as the bus pulled away. Peso hurried into the building, as if he couldn't get away from them fast enough.
Kwazii sighed. "I guess you were right professor."
"What about?"
"He doesn't say much at all."
Barnacles nodded calmly. "I admit. This may take a little more work than I expected."
Inkling sighed. "I admit," he spoke, "I'm glad no one thinks I'm crazy for wanting to hire him."
Barnacles laughed. "We said we'd give him a chance and we will. Now, we just ned him to give us one."
"First," Dashi giggled, "We have to see if he's really as good as you say. Then we can hire him."
It was quite a different adventure.