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“Did you guys hear about Squid Squad?”
On a day like no other, Shiver, Frye, and Mantaro were gathered on the rooftop of their school building during their lunch period.
Shiver had one earphone in, and was only half listening to the ongoing conversation.
“Ay? Ay! (About Ikkan, right? I can’t believe he’d do such a thing!)”
“I know, right?” Frye threw a piece of popcorn into the air, smiling to herself when it landed in her mouth. “I mean, how selfish do you have to be?”
“Wait, what happened?” Shiver asked.
“Ay! (Squid Squad is disbanding!)” Mantaro cried.
“Yeah, something about a huge fight between Ikkan and Ichiya,” Frye added. “The whole band’s breaking up because of it.”
“Oh,” Shiver mused. “Well, that’s disappointing.” This is what they verbalize at least; but they’d never cared much about bands from Inkopolis.
Except for the Squid Sisters, of course. But they’d never admit that out loud.
(Frye already knew. Shiver knowing all of the words to Calamari Inkantation was telling enough.)
“Ay… Ay. (It’s such a shame… I really enjoyed their music.)”
“Hey, you never know what could happen!” Frye reassured. “They could just make a new band or something.”
“Ay…” Mantaro muttered wistfully, before returning to the book he’d been reading beforehand.
Frye turned to Shiver then, holding out her bag of popcorn in silent question. Shiver shook their head. “Too sweet for me.”
“Oh, c’mon. Live a little.”
“Absolutely not. I don’t know how that stuff doesn’t give you a toothache.”
“It does! But that’s part of the fun,” Frye said with a wink. Shiver found themself flushing slightly, and reached for their fan as they replied, “don’t blame me when you lose all your teeth in your 20s.”
Mantaro perked up again at this. “Ay! (Actually, popcorn is one of the healthiest snacks you can eat!)” he corrects.
Shiver narrowed their eyes at him. “Are you sure? I’m pretty sure any candy can be bad for you…” They turned to look at Frye, who was attempting to land another piece of popcorn into her mouth. “Well, it is if you consume as much as Frye does.”
“Ay… (Well, technically popcorn isn’t a candy…)”
Shiver raised an eyebrow. “It literally is, but alright.”
“Ay! (Really, it’s not! I read about this once, and most people agreed that–)"
“Alright, whatever you say, big man,” Shiver murmured. This caught Frye off guard as she failed to hold in a fit of giggles, falling to lean against Shiver. “Hey, don’t be mean!”
“Ay… (Not cool, Shiver…)” the manta ray replied self-consciously, curling in on himself.
“Hey, I was just kidding,” Shiver soothed. “I’m sorry, Mantaro, I didn’t mean to embarrass you.”
“You could’ve picked literally any other nickname–” Frye managed, still laughing over the octoling’s absurd choice of words.
“Okay, okay, I’m sorry! It just slipped out, I guess.” Shiver seemed apologetic, but the growing smile on their face as they swatted at Frye’s shoulder was undeniable. “Stop laughing! You’re making him feel worse!”
Mantaro had buried his face so far into his book at this point that he almost certainly couldn’t read the words on the page, and was instead trying to hide from the two inkfish who were still laughing at him. “Ay, ay… (I thought I could trust you two, people make jokes like this all the time…)”
“You can trust us! It was a lighthearted joke, I promise.” Despite the seemingly genuine display of apology written on Shiver’s face, Frye was quick to shut it down. “Yeah, right! You only said it because you’re embarrassed about your own height.”
Shiver stiffened at this. “Am not!”
“Are too! Don’t think I haven’t noticed you wearing high heels whenever we hang out,” Frye poked at their cheek, “you’re not subtle.”
“Well high heels are stylish! It’s not like you would know anything about fashion. You don’t even wear shoes unless you have to!”
“Pfft, you think I actually care about being fashionable? I’d rather dress comfortably! And if wearing high heels makes you feel more comfortable about your height, keep–”
“I’m perfectly fine with my height, thank you!”
Frye cackled at the indignant interruption, but let down on her teasing. “Alright, sharky.”
The rest of their lunch break passed by in comfortable silence, before the trio parted to go to their respective classes for the rest of the day.
The next time they would meet would be the following Monday morning; a mere three days away. However, nothing could have prepared Shiver for the sight that greeted them upon arriving at school that morning.
“Hey, Shiv!” Frye waved her arm in the air to catch their attention among the growing crowd of students hanging around outside the school building. Shiver weaved between them all to make their way towards Frye, giving her a small smile in greeting. “Hey, where’s Mantaro?”
“Oh, he texted me earlier to say he came to school early to get some extra practice in the music room.”
“Ah, should we go and meet him, then? We have a few minutes until classes start.”
“Yeah! Lemme stop at my locker real quick and we can go.”
So that’s exactly what they did, before making their way towards the music room. Luckily for Mantaro, not many other students used the room during the school day, opting to practice after school instead. And luckily for Shiver and Frye, it meant they could hang out in there too when they weren’t in class (read: when they were skipping class).
Frye pushed the door open and started to walk in, only to pause and exclaim, “Oh! I’m sorry, I thought you were– wait.”
Shiver leaned closer to see who was inside, before their eyes widened in surprise. No way.
It was Mantaro – the same Mantaro both themself and Frye knew and loved – but… bigger?
“Ay… (Hey, guys…)” the manta ray smiled sheepishly. “Ay! (Turns out I finally had my growth spurt!)”
Shiver slowly entered the room and walked to stand in front of Mantaro. He was now towering over them; a complete height switch between the two.
Frye had also stepped inside, and Shiver was even more horrified to discover that she was only just short of being at eye level with him.
Shiver couldn’t allow this. This was humiliating! What about their dignity?
“Hey, I guess Shiver was right!” Frye exclaimed in awe. “You really are a big man!”
“Ay… ay? (Haha, yeah… No hard feelings, right Shiver?)”
And all Shiver could do was quietly seethe to themself as they gritted out, “no, of course not.”
“Huh, maybe that should be your new nickname!” Frye nudged Mantaro with her elbow, “you cool with being called that, Biggs?”
“Ay! (Sure!)” Big Man replied bashfully.
Shiver had never regretted making such an offhanded joke in their life. Even years later, after Big Man had grown even more in height, the nickname just wouldn’t go away. Every time they heard it, whether it be from Frye herself, or from the thousands of fans chanting their names out in the streets of Splatsville, it haunted them.
However, despite how much Shiver had come to despise the nickname, they couldn’t help but pat themself on the back for coming up with it. It had a nice ring to it, after all.
That, and they enjoyed the prideful look on Big Man’s face whenever someone referred to him with the nickname rather than his real name. Shiver knew how much Big Man hated being taunted in middle school for his shorter-than-average height, and so if using the nickname made him so happy, Shiver would put their own pride aside.
Not enthusiastically, of course, but they’d do it regardless. The happiness of their friends was what mattered to them the most at the end of the day.