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Squiddo was an adventurous person for as long as she could remember. She went from being a little kid stumbling around the garden to an adult with quite a few interesting trips under her belt.
When she was little she used to stumble around the garden next to her house and check every nook and cranny. Walking around was nice, but she wondered what was beyond. She constantly tried to reach the handle on the gate separating her from what she knew well to what was new. Her parents sadly sabotaged those attempts all the time, one time she climbed a plastic bucket and was so close to opening it. Her dad saw her and stopped her, from then on she was only allowed in the garden if someone was there with her.
There was so much stuff to see! Things to explore!
She didn't understand why they kept stopping the adventure. Squiddo kept on trying to leave the garden anyway. There were a lot of cool things in the area she was allowed to explore too. So Squiddo picked up her toy binoculars and kept looking around.
Bugs were fun to look at and there were lots of them. None were the same and even those that were the same species looked a little different from each other.
Butterflies were the easiest example. Their wings were colourful and each of them had a different pattern. There were white ones who flew so fast and her dad said were good luck, yellow ones that her mama said were called little lemons and red ones that looked like royalty. Their faces were a little weird and her mom shivered at them. When Squiddo wanted to catch one she had to sit very still, much to her dismay. It was worth it though, she could look at their wings all day. They were so thin, how did they lift their tiny bodies with wings so fragile?
Squiddo had a small construction consisting of a swing and a slide where she kept the 'outdoor' toys. Ants crawled on the ground around it and she walked next to them, looking where they came from. They seemed so fast but she walked faster. Squiddo liked making them go on her hand, she could look at them with more ease. Ants were something nice, she could count on them to be around whenever she went outside. They were cool, but other bugs needed her attention too, so she never stayed long with them.
Squiddo took a plastic shovel in one hand and adjusted the binoculars in the other. She needed more hands. Or maybe she didn't. There was a ladybug on her shovel. Squiddo lifted the little pink shovel closer to her head. The ladybug was leaving a trail behind it. She put her hand on its path and giggled when she felt its little legs and the trail that felt a bit cold. Squiddo wondered why they left a trail. Maybe so they wouldn't get lost? Or maybe it was to let their parents know where they are? An idea struck her, if she also left a trail she could leave the garden and her parents wouldn't stop her. The ladybug flapped its wings so fast that they were a blur and it was gone. Squiddo thought that they were so fast they could reach the sun in a few minutes. That was cool!
Well, she had chalk to find and a garden to get out of, she could look at bugs later. She tossed her shovel on the ground. Squiddo walked towards the garage where she was pretty sure her parents kept her chalk. Technically she wasn't supposed to be there alone, but her parents were talking with a neighbour over the fence. They couldn't stop her, if they didn't see her. She ran as fast as she could and once she reached the garage, she looked around before trying to open the door. She was a bit too short to reach it. She tried standing on her tippy toes, a success!
Once she was in the garage Squiddo quickly jumped and waved at the lamp to make it turn on, she couldn't find the chalk if she couldn't see it. She went under her parents' bikes and was very careful when she crawled around the garden tools. She spotted her colourful chalk and cheered quietly. She grabbed the container and retraced her steps. As Squiddo was about to leave a sharp movement caught her eye. It was a bug! It was flying against the one window in the garage and bumping its head on it. Squiddo tried to grab it, but it flew away from her, to the otherside of the window. She wanted to help, she put down her chalk and put her binoculars around her neck. Then she climbed on a bucket, then on a table with garden tools. She was breaking so many rules that her parents haven't been able to set yet, it made her giggle so much she was worried they would come for her. Squiddo gently cupped the bug in her palms and looked at it closer. It was a nice looking bug, it had a long blue body and very thin wings. Later she would learn it was called a dragonfly, despite it not being a dragon. She quickly let it out through the door whispering a quick 'bye bye'. Then she grabbed her chalk and ran out of the garage not bothering to close the door.
Squiddo had to move quick now, she could see the Sun lowering and her parents would never be okay with her leaving, even if she set a trail, after dark. She looked around for her parents and they were sitting on a swing. Perfect! They weren't standing next to the gate and if she was fast they wouldn't notice her escape. She walked behind them and closer to the fence. There was a butterfly flying around the lamp they had in front of their house. That was odd, butterflies don't do that. She put down her chalk and put her binoculars to her eyes. Once she had a closer look at it she realised that it wasn't a butterfly, but a moth. It was fuzzy and its wings were grey with an interesting pattern. Squiddo only saw them when it was close to bedtime, which reminded her that she had a mission. She had to move quick.
Squiddo ran a little towards the gate before turning around and grabbing the chalk again. Maybe if there were less fun bugs to look at she wouldn't have to constantly put it down. She ran to the gate, not looking back at her parents and just hoping they were still sitting on the swing. She reached the gate and tried to open it. Once again she was too short so she jumped up to it and it was open. Finally! She was free to explore! Squiddo exclaimed in joy and as soon as she left the garden she felt herself get picked up. She shouted out a noise of protest.
Her parents foiled her plans once again. Curse them and curse Squiddo for not being super careful, while escaping. Well, she can try again another day.
Squiddo got their first bike recently and they were ecstatic. The bike was so cool! It was a pastel orange colour with glittery ribbons on the handle. It had bright orange training wheels too and while Squiddo wants to ride it without help they aren't bad. Well, their parents pacified them by letting them get a pink horn instead of a normal bell, but that wasn't important!
Their parents were walking next to them, ready to catch them if they fell or decided to do something 'stupid'. Squiddo's ideas weren't stupid! They were fun! Some people just couldn't understand fun, maybe adults lost the ability to be fun as they grew? They shivered at the thought, if that was the case Squiddo didn't want to grow up. Maybe they could find a way to avoid it? In movies they watched and books they read, with a lot of effort, people always found a solution to their problems. They went on an adventure, helped people and then the solution to whatever was bothering them appeared. Maybe if Squiddo did that too they could avoid growing up?
She was still learning so her path was quite wobbly and slow. She wanted to go fast! A bike with an adult on it zoomed past them and Squiddo watched in wonder, she wanted to go so fast too. Maybe she could, she saw how that the person on the bike moved. Squiddo started to move their little legs as quickly as she could. Her parents didn't notice at first, but when Squiddo's path became even more wobbly. She was laughing right up until the point when she fell of her bike onto the grass next to her. Squiddo scraped her knee and was under the bike, her lip wobbled and she burst into tears.
Their hands hurt, their hands hurt and they were wailing uncontrollably. Their mum lifted the bike up from their body and their dad took their hands in his and helped them get up. Squiddo wasn't hurt badly, mostly just spooked, but they were little and not used to getting bruises and scratches yet. They felt themself get picked up and when their dad asked them if they'd like a piggy back ride they sniffled out a soft 'yes'. She watched her mum take her bike and lead it next to them.
Squiddo felt something weird in her mouth so she went around her teeth with her tongue. Something fell on it and when she spit it out on her hand she noticed that it was her tooth. That's not good, her teeth are supposed to be in her mouth, not outside. She voiced her concern to her parents, but they just laughed and told her that it means the tooth fairy will come over. She didn't know what a tooth fairy was. So she asked and her parents explained, that was so cool! There was a fairy who wanted teeth! Compared to fairies she read about that was unusual and now she wanted to know more. Especially because her parents didn't have answers to all of her questions. That was enticing, a question that needed an answer, but didn't have one? Squiddo knew she wanted to find that answer.
During the short walk home, they devised a simple plan. They would try to catch it today when they went to sleep. So Squiddo would just pretend to sleep and catch it. Simple! The tooth fairy took teeth and left coins as a thank you. It seemed that it wasn't a complicated creature but Squiddo wanted to ask it a few questions. Could it even talk? Well, now there was one more question to ask. Once she was inside she ran to her room and surrounded herself with a lot of empty paper.
With colourful crayons she drew pictures of what she would ask the fairy once she caught it. Some of these questions were standard, others just a little outside the norm. Squiddo didn't think that standard questions applied to strange creatures so in her opinion those were in the norm. She would ask if it could talk first, if it couldn't she would give it paper to draw its answers. The second question would be: why is it collecting teeth? Why teeth specifically? What does it need them for? And other questions like that.
During dinner she relayed those plans to her parents and they looked at each other weirdly. They told her that the tooth fairy will only come over if it knows she's asleep. She said that she will catch it anyways. And when it was time to go to sleep she put her tooth under the pillow and waited. She pretended to be asleep for so long, so long that her pretending was close to stopping being pretending. Squiddo entertained herself by imagining stories in her head, but even her thoughts felt silent once she heard a soft noise.
They sprang up in their bed and locked eyes with a small creature whose hand was reaching under the pillow. It looked like it was in shock. It had light blue skin or maybe that was a trick of lighting, it had small wings that fluttered behind them and soft features. What felt like hours, but was a few minutes at most, passed and it tried to fly away. Not on Squiddo's watch, they had questions. They reached out and cupped the fairy in their hands.
"Hi" they whispered with a grin, they moved their hands in a way where the fairy could breathe and speak. It looked appreciative for about two seconds. It started thrashing around in their hands and yelling out something that sounded like a bunch of very small bells. A bunch of noisy small bells. Squiddo shushed it desperately if they were heard they would get in so much trouble.
"Would you answer some questions?" she asked and when the fairy huffed and crossed its arms she added: "I'll stop holding you if you do!"
That seemed like the right argument because the fairy looked at her directly. To show that she wasn't lying she opened her hands a little more than before. The fairy sat down on her hand criss-crossed and put its head in its hands.
"Okay, first question: why do you collect teeth?" She asked and when the fairy pointed at her hands, she apologised and released it from her hold. It stood on her palm, then flew up closer to her face. Squiddo leaned in eagerly and the fairy looked like it was going to tell her something. Maybe it got closer so she could understand the bell noise as words. It looked like it was about to say something and when Squiddo thought she was going to get answers she got bitten in the nose instead. She whispered a 'hey!' in protest, but the fairy flew away and was gone in seconds. She grumbled something and went back to sleep.
Once they woke up their parents asked them if they caught the tooth fairy. They sighed and told them that they couldn't catch it, their parents said something that it was because they weren't asleep. That confused them, they carefully explained that they did see the tooth fairy, they just couldn't catch it.
"It bit me," Squiddo pointed at her nose. "See?"
Her parents looked at eachother weirdly, but didn't say anything. The evidence was there, Squiddo had a scar like something small bit her, they said that she probably just hit her nose on the frame of the bed. She knew she didn't, why didn't they believe her?
From then on, Squiddo learned to be more careful when dealing with creatures she didn't know well. Maybe even with the ones she did know, it can't hurt to be careful. The scar she collected from the tooth fairy never went away.
She was a little older now, not a little kid anymore, but not a teenager either. Something in between. Squiddo's skills with a bike improved quite a lot over the years. She didn't need training wheels anymore, but she had a new bike now. Instead of being pale orange it was an extremely bright pink colour. The frame was full of stickers she got and the wheels had some beads in them, instead of just the little plastic things meant to reflect light. The bike had a little basket in front where her dog Skipper could go on bike rides with her.
She got Skipper a year ago and the puppy liked adventure as much as she did. He still wasn't fully grown and that was good for now, if he was he wouldn't fit in the basket of her bike. Squiddo took Skipper everywhere she could, he was her best friend! They explored new places together, looked for odd creatures and researched them. Well Squiddo researched them, Skipper tried to eat them most of the time.
At the moment though, her basket was mostly empty, it didn't have a dog in it, just a water bottle and some snacks. They were hanging out with some friends and only their bike had a basket so the responsibility of carrying around their snacks fell to them. The shopkeeper had enough of them, so they couldn't get more. Some of Squiddo's friends guessed that it was because the snacks they wanted were on the highest shelf and they were constantly asking the woman to get it down for them. Fair enough, Squiddo understood that they were annoying. That just meant they couldn't eat everything at once.
Some older kid drove by them and did a trick, which resulted in a lot of yells of amazement. One of Squiddo's friends knew it was called a wheelie and suggested for all of them to try. Most of them were on board, but a few said they will pass, it looks dangerous. Well, Squiddo wanted to try anyway. She volunteered to go first and when somebody asked her if she even knew how to do it her answer was simple.
"Of course not! That's the best part!"
She drove her bike a little further down the lane, before hopping off and turning it around to face their friends. She grinned towards them and started to ride her bike fast. Once she was near them she tried to lift the handle. She did it! She did a trick!
It was exciting, it was exciting to do something she saw someone do once. Maybe it was dumb, but it made her heart beat fast in delight. Half of her bike was up in the air and as soon as she went up, she felt herself go down. Fast. Squiddo was lucky that she attempted to do something everyone except her would say was stupid on the edge of the bike lane, right next to grass. Thank the earth for grass, she thought, before feeling like her knee was being torn apart. Dissected like a science experiment in a movie.
They started wailing, everything hurt, but their knee hurt so much. It was all they could focus on, the sharp pain in their right knee. Squiddo vaguely heard their friends panic and then she felt someone pulling her up. Through her tears she could see someone taking her bike, why were they taking it? Everyone present had a bike already, they didn't need another one.
She was led to the closest house, where after calming down a bit, she explained what happened to her. Her friend's mum lectured her a bit, but decided to help with Squiddo's hurt knee anyway. She made them sit down on a chair in the kitchen and grabbed a cotton swab. She told Squiddo 'it's going to sting a bit'. Squiddo wondered if all adults were liars, it didn't sting a bit. It stung a lot. It felt as if someone lit her knee on fire with a match. She started crying again.
One of their friends was there with her, because it was their house and their mum. They tried distracting her by making stupid faces and it worked, Squiddo wasn't focusing on her knee anymore. They didn't even notice when their friend's mum put a band-aid with colourful characters on their knee. They got told to be careful and they quickly nodded, before running out of the house with their friend. Maybe being careful would mean that she wouldn't get hurt so often, but being careful also meant not experiencing a lot of fun stuff. Yeah, she will regret them later, but in the moment it will be worth it. Telling people that she will be careful from then on was always a lie.
A very sweet lie, but still a lie.
Once they were outside, she realised that her bike was gone. That's not good, what will she tell her parents? Her friend took her hand and led her to the playground where the rest of their friends were waiting. Squiddo asked if one of them took their bike, someone said 'yeah' and pointed at it. It looked fine, just a bit dirty.
They sat next to their friends on the carousel and took some crisps. They ate them slowly, chatting with everyone present. Someone put their hand on her shoulder and when she turned to ask what they wanted they just shouted one word: 'Tag!' Immediately everyone scrambled away from her and she started to chase the closest person to her. It took a few minutes to chase someone in a corner and tag them, but once she did she was running away fast. Technically there were no take-backs, but sometimes it was hard to remember who you got tagged by. So running it is.
Most of their friends got tagged at least once already, but Squiddo didn't count themself as 'tagged.' They were just the start of the game, not properly tagged they reasoned. Their friends would disagree, they would say that it's not fair. Squiddo can agree with that, she just likes saying that she won. Right now she's running from the current tagged person, they're weaving around the swings and laughing so hard they're almost out of breath. Her friend's hand comes really close to her skin, but not close enough to tag her. The only reason why they weren't tagged was because they ducked. Squiddo realised that it was the same person she tagged in the beginning of the game and they were trying to do the same thing she did. They were trying to force her into a corner.
Unfortunately for them, but fortunately for Squiddo, the fence surrounding the playground was really short. She pretended to be chased into a corner next to a tree and when their friend was about to tag her, she jumped over the fence and ran towards the basketball court and the football field. Squiddo ran through the basketball court and was surprisingly careful not to fall there. For some reason there was always glass there. She didn't avoid being tagged, as soon as they stepped into the football field they were tackled. Squiddo and their friends played for a little longer, but it was nearing sunset and people had to go home. Including her.
During tag she scraped her knees, they only noticed when their parents pointed it out. They made her go to the bathroom and wash the dirt off before dinner. The water was cold and it stung a little. During dinner her parents asked about her day and she told them the tale of almost winning tag and how she hurt her knee. Squiddo may have omitted what trick they were attempting to do, they assured that they wouldn't try again and that it was a really simple one.
When their parents asked if they regret it and if she's going to do something like this again, her answer was simple. Yes, she regrets it and no, they won't do something like this again. Squiddo was of course lying. Where's the fun in not taking little risks like that? Skipper must have agreed with her, because he licked their fingers when she went to pet him. She gave him something from the table when her parents weren't looking.
She still has the scar as an adult, she still remembers how she got it. They don't remember their friends' names anymore though.
They were older now, a proper teenager if you will. When they said how old they were it always ended in teen and nobody was asking if they lost their parents and needed help finding them. So yeah, Squiddo was a teen. Skipper also grew and he no longer fit in the basket that was attached to her bike.
Speaking of Skipper, he was the reason Squiddo was at a bus stop and waiting for one to arrive. She looked at her phone again, just to make sure she didn't mess up the time. It was a little embarrassing, but Squiddo wasn't on a bus ever before. She just didn't need to, their school was a walking distance away and if she wanted some snacks she went to a convenience store. They actually got their bus ticket in one. Their mum took them and bought it for them, not because she couldn't manage to do it. Squiddo didn't even know that she could get bus tickets there!
She looked at it again, just a tiny piece of paper telling how long she was allowed to be a passenger. It wasn't something overly exciting, but it was still something new. They put the ticket behind their phone case so it wouldn't get lost. The bus was a few minutes late already and their classmates always complained about how none of the buses were ever on time. Squiddo checked the time on her phone again, it was ten minutes late the last time she checked, now it was almost fifteen. They heard a car drive by the bus stop and out of habit they turned towards the direction it came from. There was finally a bus coming. She put her hand above her eyes in a makeshift shield from the sun and squinted to read what bus was coming. If she got on the wrong one, she would have to wait even more time.
Luckily it was the right one. As soon as she could Squiddo stepped inside and looked around for the thing that her friends told her she would need to put her ticket into. Once she admitted to never being on a bus before her friends quickly decided to give her a crash course. It was pretty nice of them, even if Squiddo was sure she could manage just fine. They found one and tried to scan their ticket. It didn't work. Squiddo tried a few more times, before straightening it a bit with her phone. They tried to put it in again, still no success. Well that was annoying. She decided she might as well not scan it at all, not her fault that the stupid machine won't scan it. An older man walked over to her and asked if she needed some help and she quickly agreed. Doing stuff you're not supposed to is only fun if it's on purpose. Taking a bus without a ticket while having a ticket isn't fun, it's stressful. She watched him scan it on first try. She justified it in her head that it was just because he had experience taking buses unlike her.
Totally not because she was trying to scan it the wrong way the whole time.
Squiddo noticed the bus driver talking with someone, if she could see correctly they were buying a ticket from him. Good to know she has the option to buy one in the bus when she forgets to buy one. The person in front took their ticket, scanned it and took a seat in the front. There were no free seats, but that was fine, Squiddo didn't mind standing. The bus started and she nearly fell over.
It felt as if she had been standing on a carpet and someone pulled it out from under her. Their friends hadn't told them that during the crash course. Squiddo managed to grab onto a pole next to her and when they arrived at the next stop she didn't lose her balance. She just looked out the window and watched as everything outside became a blur. It was nice. Their parents didn't allow them to go much further than the town they lived in before, they claimed that she could go when she was a bit older. Even now they weren't fully onboard of her going alone, but she really wanted to see more. It was a little embarrassing to admit that just taking the bus was something exciting. Once she grew some more she would stop thinking that being excited about something simple was embarrassing. But right now, it was just pure wonder.
At the next stop a few people left and Squiddo managed to take a seat next to the window. She put her backpack on her lap and held it close. They messed around with the pins on it for a few moments. They went over all of them and pressed them more into the backpack, just so they wouldn't fall off as easily. She didn't have a lot of them, but they were pretty cool in her opinion. She even made some herself, those ones were the coolest in her opinion.
They looked out the window again and watched as buildings passed by. They saw one of their friends and waved to them, but they didn't notice Squiddo. Once they arrived at the mall a lot of people got off the bus and she checked again what she was meant to buy. In her notes app between something called 'being dumb turist' and 'spooky stuff' was a note that read: buy a new leash for Skipper! And a toy, Skipper's birthday soon.
They walked to the mall and looked around for a map of the place. Yes, she was there before, but she had a weird talent for getting lost in places. Once they found it they quickly snapped a picture on their phone, they checked it and realised that their phone charm was obstructing the camera. The picture was incredibly blurry. Squiddo moved it so it was obstructing the screen instead of the camera and took the picture again. It wasn't blurry this time.
It took around an hour to get everything she needed, even though it was just two things. She bought herself something sweet too and a treat for Skipper too. She put everything in her backpack and walked outside, after checking the photo of the map. Getting lost is a skill, a skill that is very rarely useful. They walked to the bus stop and checked again when the bus was going to leave. It said that it was leaving... now? Squiddo looked up from their phone and saw the bus they had to take leaving. She sadly watched it leave and sat on a bench. She checked when the next bus going the correct way was going to arrive. It was around an hour. Well, she had something sweet and could entertain herself.
Squiddo started to check the time more often, waiting for an hour wasn't a fun experience.
Squiddo was now freshly adult, she could do quite a few things she couldn't before. She was happy for some new options, even if most of them didn't sound appealing to her. They had two birthday parties, one for family and one for friends. The next day they didn't feel good, probably because of the amount of sweets they ate, the taste of alcohol wasn't for her. So she ate too many sweets and drank too much soda. During breakfast their parents asked what they were planning to do with the newly acquired adulthood. Squiddo didn't feel like an adult, she liked being a kid. Her answer was short: 'I don't know'.
Her parents suggested getting a driver's license. It was a pretty good idea, it would allow Squiddo to explore more. Skipper still liked exploring with her and while he was still an energetic dog, she understood that he was getting older and soon walking for hours daily wouldn't be good for him. So with their parents' help they signed up for a course.
A few months later she was twirling the little plastic thing in her hands with a wide smile. It took a lot of effort and two practical exams, but she did it. She had a driver's license and couldn't wait to show her parents. Squiddo took a selfie with it and sent it to some of their friends, was she showing off? Totally, but they couldn't get mad at them. They got a few messages congratulating her and one asking if that meant they would drive people places. She jokingly messaged back asking if they trusted her behind a wheel and put their phone back in their backpack.
They took the bus, which should have stopped very close to the street she lived on, but they were so excited they didn't realise when they missed it. She thankfully didn't realise it too soon, but now she had to walk the length of two bus stops. She fished out her headphones from the bottom of her backpack and put on some music. They walked on the sidewalk and sang along to the songs that played. A few people passed by them and looked at them strangely, Squiddo just gave them a wide grin. She didn't stop singing even though she was most likely out of tune and probably looked strange singing songs nobody else could hear.
She continued to sing and walk until her headphones died, she sighed with the realisation that she forgot to charge them earlier. Squiddo jumped out of the way of a bike driving past her and put their headphones back in their backpack. If they remembered the path home correctly they were halfway there. They waved at some dogs they passed and gave the one cat she saw a finger salute. She saw some kids racing down the street and if she hadn't already texted her parents she was coming home, she might have asked to join them. Maybe another day.
Squiddo finally arrived at the street she lived on and when she could finally see her house she ran the rest of the way. Skipper was in the garden and started happily barking at them once he saw them. He was obstructing the gate in a way where Squiddo couldn't open it without shoving it against him. She decided to climb the fence and while her climbing skills were amazing her landing skills were not. They fell and braced themself with their hands. Skipper took the occasion to jump on them and start licking their face. She shoved him a bit away before properly sitting down on the path. Squiddo pretended to throw something for Skipper to fetch and once he wasn't sitting on her anymore she ran to the front door.
They shoved the door open and stopped it just before it hit the wall. If they damaged one more wall in their house their parents would get extremely upset. There was a big dent in the wall next to her bed, but it was covered with one of her drawings. Once she moved out they would probably be surprised. Once she moved out, wasn't that a weird thought? She would move out from the house she lived in her whole life one day. And what then? Her room wouldn't stay the same, the drawings covering the walls wouldn't be there one day. The guitar she couldn't play would be gone, her plushies wouldn't be there, the photos above her bed would have a new place. It was weird, Squiddo didn't want to think about it. She yelled out 'I'm home!' and ran up the stairs.
They were an adult now, but they still threw themself on the back of the couch where their parents were sitting. They got shoved off the couch and onto the floor in mere seconds, their parents saying something about how they would ruin the couch. She laughed even though she was a bit dizzy from suddenly switching where she was. Squiddo complained about how rude she was treated for a good few minutes before getting a cushion thrown at her face. Being a nuisance was a skill, a skill she carefully honed over most of her life. There was a thin line between not being enough of a nuisance and being genuinely unpleasant to be around and Squiddo had as much practice balancing on it as a real acrobat walking the tightrope. They laid on the floor for a bit longer before remembering the main reason for throwing themself on the couch. She fished the little plastic thing out from her backpack without getting up and shoved it in her mum's hands. The woman showed it to Squiddo's dad and both of them congratulated her with something weird in their voice. Well, that's not good, Squiddo is meant to be the scheming one in this family.
She was about to voice those concerns to her parents, but both of them got off the couch and Squiddo's dad picked them up like a cat. Even if they were a little short, that was just rude so their dad got bitten. It was completely deserved, you can't just pick up a person like that! They were led outside into the garden and Skipper immediately ran over to them, happily circling everyone around. Her parents led her to the garage and told her to close her eyes. She put her hand over them, leaving a small gap between fingers to sneak a look at whatever her parents wanted to keep hidden. Her mum noticed and put her own hand over theirs. What a shame...
They were in front of the garage door and their parent's gave them a little speech about how proud they were. Squiddo thanked them with a laugh and did a little bow, with her mum's hand still covering their eyes. Her parents were getting better at stopping her weird tactics. That wasn't good, but on the other hand it would be fun to learn even weirder ones.
She heard her dad struggle with the door for a few seconds and the door was open, it should have been. Squiddo couldn't tell with her mum's hand still covering her eyes. She asked if she was allowed the gift of sight again or was she cursed to suffer for eternity. Their parents didn't answer, but their mum stopped covering their eyes. Squiddo blinked a few times to adjust to the light.
"This is yours Squid! We knew you could do it" her dad said motioning towards the now open garage doors. Inside there was a small car. It was painted light orange and you could tell it was secondhand. Squiddo sputtered for a bit, she didn't need a car, it was probably expensive. Her parents just laughed at her reaction and told her to consider it a birthday gift. They tried to convince their parents to give the car back for a few minutes before their parents told them to at least do a test drive.
They relented and carefully drove out into the road. The car was pretty nice, but it didn't mean Squiddo wasn't stressed. Yes, she passed, but somehow driving a lap around the empty street she lived on was a lot more stressful than the test where she had to do a bunch of stuff on a busy road with the instructor judging her. The drive took maybe five minutes, but it felt like eternity before she was finally back with her parents. They got out of the car with shaky legs and hugged their parents.
In the end they kept the car, modifying it just slightly over the years.
Squiddo was older now, not wiser, they couldn't truly say that they got wiser with age. They were just a little older. They didn't live with their parents anymore, it was nice to have somewhere to go at the end of the day, but Squiddo was always an adventurous person. Living with their parents meant a lot of nice things that made her feel warm, but it also limited their ability to travel. Besides it wasn't like she never visited, she tried to make time to visit in between her travels. She bought souvenirs for them, sent them postcards and photos if she knew it wouldn't be possible to visit for a while and when asked told them everything that happened. Well almost everything, there were some things not meant for anybody to see. Even Squiddo, but they weren't someone who backed down from a challenge just because someone or something said they couldn't.
Their car also changed, on the outside some of the paint was coming off and in other places it was poorly covered with any orange paint Squiddo could find. There were a few small dents and some claw marks that when her parents asked she just told them it was a wild animal. It was wild and it was probably an animal, just not a normal one. The inside was almost homely, there was a mattress in the trunk with some pillows and blankets, Skipper liked laying there during the long drives. Squiddo's things and Skipper's toys were also there, but they always put everything in the backseat for the night. After the first few times she slept there, she learned her lesson. There were glow in the dark stars on almost every surface and a bunch of stickers on the steering wheel. Under the passenger seat there were at least four photo albums, all of them claiming to be 'Squiddo's adventures!' in bright pink ink. Some of them had photos of travels she could show people and some had photos even she had trouble looking back at.
It was nice, it was nice to try to get her car documents from her glove box when it was full of random trinkets. It was nice when she was running as fast as her legs allowed her to, from some strange creature. It was nice to try attempting summoning something the book they found the ritual in claimed to 'NEVER ATTEMPT, UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE' with bold letters. It was nice and it was something Squiddo felt she was always meant to do. She started as a toddler trying to understand the world around her. Now they were an adult and they still didn't understand most of the world, and wasn't that just wonderful? It felt as if Squiddo would never run out of things to explore, there was always something new.
They couldn't say which trip they liked the most, all of them had their own charm. The farlands felt like a second home to them and chasing 'Herobrine' was second nature to them, so it was getting difficult to call those trips 'dumb tourism'. It was just something Squiddo did.
She messed around for a short while, but never stuck around. She didn't like stopping.
She met new people, made new friends and sometimes texted them. They rarely got answers anymore, but there were a few people that texted Squiddo consistently. They tried to visit them whenever the GPS led them close to the cities they lived in. It was like an anchor who never held her back, just there to lead her back on the correct path before allowing them to do stupid things again. Sometimes they send her weird pictures, in return she sends them back weirder ones.
At the moment she was staying on the outskirts of a town in the middle of her route. It was getting dark and the journey would take a few days no matter what she did, so even though they didn't mind driving at night, getting some sleep would be a better option. It was honestly kind of a shame, there was something about the empty roads, the radio playing almost as quiet as a whisper and singing along, trying their best not to wake up Skipper as he slept in the trunk. But now she was covering her windows and putting the stuff usually in the trunk in the backseats. Skipper was walking around the car and sniffing at anything mildly interesting, while Squiddo was fighting a war against mosquitoes. Summer was both an amazing season to travel in and one of the more annoying ones to do so.
They looked around the car for around half an hour before giving up and going outside to stretch. They were driving almost the whole day with just a few breaks along the way, they could have more, but it would mean the possibility of getting stuck in traffic would be higher and as much as Squiddo liked driving, that didn't include being stuck in traffic. They had a post it note stuck somewhere in the car detailing for how long they were stuck in traffic, the current record was three hours. She shook her head as if waving away those thoughts like annoying bugs.
Squiddo whistled in the direction she saw Skipper last and moved to open the trunk. It wasn't opening so something was probably blocking it. She remembered complaining about it to one of her friends during a visit and when they asked to take a look, she let them. Instead of advice she got laughter, she yelled at them even though she was laughing herself when they showed her one of her blankets blocking the opening. She went inside the car and with some difficulty crawled over the seats into the trunk lo and behold the blanket was blocking the opening. Squiddo wrestled it away from the back of the trunk and something shot out at her, hitting her in the head. They rubbed the spot it hit and looked around for the projectile. It was the stupid mosquito repellent she could find before. They went outside, sprayed themself with it and opened the trunk just in time for Skipper to jump inside.
The sky was clear enough to see the stars so they laid inside and looked at them. Skipper must have been more tired than them because his breathing evened out and he was asleep. Squiddo wanted to look at the stars for a little longer so the trunk remained open. They looked around for the north star and once they found one that might have been it, they tried to make out constellations. They tried their best, but it was hard to guess where something you don't even know the look of is. They decided to make up their own, those two look like eyes, it's Herobrine they thought and giggled to themself. It was almost like playing pretend, arranging the stars in their head so they fit their story. Could stars feel the way humans arranged them in a way they saw fit? If they could, would they mind it?
Squiddo felt herself get more tired as she watched the stars and arranged them in her own way. She was half asleep when she saw a shooting star and she had a wish ready for a long time. Shooting stars were rare so the wish waited for a few years and now she could finally say it.
"I wish for as many adventures as I can" she whispered and closed the trunk properly. She took her car keys and made sure the car was locked.
It didn't matter that they weren't exactly the same, the changes were worth the adventure. She was still Squiddo no matter what.