Wherever You Are

Wherever You Are

Setting: Franky's Room in the Penguin Band's igloo
Date: February 14th, 2013
Time: 6:30 AM PST
(Point of View: Franky)


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I woke to my alarm clock going off. I rolled over, turned it off, and yawned. I knew I had to get up, so I sat up with a small grunt and rubbed my eyes. My little yellow puffle, Lily, was still asleep. I decided not to wake her up.

It was Valentine's Day, and today, Cadence and I had been dating for 6 years. It was a big deal, and I wanted to do something special. But she was already hard at work with the Hollywood Party.

This, of course, wasn't going to stop me. Every year on Valentine's Day, they have a Valentine's Dance in the Nightclub. I asked Cadence to it for the first time on Valentine's Day 2007 at 8 in the morning, and since then it's kinda of become a tradition that I find her wherever she is on the morning of the 14th and ask her to the dance.

How I was gonna find her I didn't know, but I was still gonna try.

I hopped out of bed and stretched, then put my blue PJ top and bottoms in my drawer. I threw on a clean white t-shirt, my green hoodie, and my jeans. Slipping on my gray-and-purple high tops, I made my bed and put my phone in my pocket. Lily was still sleeping in her little puffle-bed, so I let her be and slipped out of my room, quietly closing the door.

I made my way into the kitchen, where I found I was the first one up. I looked in the cabinet and got a bagel, popping it in the toaster while I put a pot of coffee on. I leaned against the counter and soon my bagel popped up. I put some cream cheese on it and started eating it while I waited for the coffee.

When the coffee was done, I poured myself a cup and started to drink it. I gotta move, I thought as I noticed the time. It was 6:48. I was gonna stop at the Gift Shop to get Cadence a little something, then I figured it might take a while to find her because of the party.

I gulped down the rest of my coffee, then grabbed a dry-erase marker and wrote a message on one of the boards stuck to our fridge. Our fridge is covered in stuff. There's a whiteboard for each of us to write a 'daily thought' on, magnets that hold up papers, a 'stuff to do' list board, and a bunch of other stuff, too.

On my board, I wrote:
"Franky has gone to do his V-day duties. Back at around 8:30."

They knew where I was going, so I didn't need to explain that much. I grabbed a blue winter jacket and headed out into the chilly-aired day.

The sun was rising but not fully up. Some of the igloo lights were off, others, on. As I went down the path, I occasionally saw another penguin, but rarely. Finally, I reached the Town.

It was bustling with penguins, even though it was only around 7 in the morning on a Thursday. It was also very Hollywood-ified. The party looked cool, but I had stuff to do. I could check it out in detail later.

"Oh, my God!" cried someone behind me. "It's Franky!"
Oh, Lord. And so it begins...

A crowd formed around me. I hadn't been expecting this many penguins to be here, so I was kinda caught off-guard.

"Franky!"
"Hi, Franky!"
"Why are you up so early?"
"Happy Valentine's Day!"
"Do you have a Valentine?"

It's too early for this, I thought as I wearily looked around. There isn't a way out of this one...

"Hi, guys," I said, trying to sound enthusiastic. I was happy to have fans and all, but there are certain times when it's just too early for the whole crowd thing.

More screams and questions.

"I've gotta be somewhere..." I nervously looked at the time on my phone. 7:03. "Guys, I really don't have that much time."

They were ignoring everything I said. I tried to waddle, but the crowd moved with me.

"Listen, guys... I've got to do some things..."

Still not listening to me.

"Guys, Franky's trying to talk," said a girl's voice from somewhere in the crowd. I looked around for the source of the sound, but couldn't find it.

Well, I couldn't find whoever had helped me out, but the crowd got quieter. I said,
"So guys, I'd really like to hang, but I have something really important to do. Can I come back later?"

The general buzz was "Awww!", but I wasn't about to give them a choice. I needed to find Cadence.

I checked the time again. 7:05. I gotta go.

"G-guys, I've really gotta go. It's important," I said.

Penguins kept asking me what was so important, but I'm not exactly a guy who tells everyone about his relationship. I couldn't come up with any other excuse, so I said,

"I've just got a personal thing to take care of. I've gotta go, guys."

I tried to break through the crowd. It wasn't exactly going well, but eventually, I got through the crowd. I went into the Gift Shop and closed the door.

Breathing heavily, I looked around. The Gift Shop wasn't very crowded. There was only the penguin working at the front desk, a few other employees, and two or three shoppers.

I'm gonna need a disguise.

Reaching into my pockets, I found some coins. I headed over to a shelf of shoes and picked up a pair of green-and-white sneakers. Carrying them, I headed over to the hat section and found a red baseball cap. I got a pair of blue aviator sunglasses and found a black scarf.

This will do. I headed over to the front of the store, bought the stuff, then went to the change rooms. I put on the green sneakers, the hat, the sunglasses, and the scarf. I took off my blue jacket, zipped up my green hoodie, and put my gray-and-purple sneakers + coat in the bag the stuff had come in. I looked in the mirror.

Not bad, Franky. Not bad at all.

I waddled out of the changing room, grinning. I look pretty cool.

Going to the front of the store again, I went to the Valentine's section and found a pink rose. It was big and pretty and smelled good. I bought that, too, then checked the time. 7:20. I've got 40 minutes to find her. I headed back outside.

The disguise worked. Nobody called me out or anything. There was a cluster of penguins who were talking about me, though. They kept saying 'I wonder where Franky went,' or 'Franky was here? When?'

I cleared my throat, ready to disguise my voice. In reality, my voice is really distinctive since it's really high and sounds young for my age, but I can change it if I need to. It hurts my throat, but I have to do it at times. Such as right now.

I tapped on the shoulder of the first penguin I saw, a yellow girl with brown hair and a gray shirt with a purple-and-yellow scarf-tie thing.

She turned. "Huh?"
"Have you seen Cadence?" I asked, with my disguised voice.
She looked around. "She was here?"
I shook my head. "No, I'm tracking her."
"Haven't seen her... sorry."
"Oh, that's okay."
"Isn't it weird that the Penguin Band aren't at this party?"
I shrugged. "They're busy. Er, I've heard they are."
"Did you see the 'Gotta Have a Wingman' video?"
I grinned. "Yeah."
"Wasn't it funny?"
"Yeah, it was..." I looked around. "I gotta run."
"Oh, okay! Bye." She waved.
I waved back and looked around again. Kay, fail number one. Lets try another penguin...

I tapped on a green guy with black hair and a blue-and-green plaid shirt's shoulder.

He turned to me. "Hi."
"Hi! I was wondering, have you seen Cadence?" I said, still keeping my voice disguised.
"N-no..."
"Oh, thanks anyway."
"Welcome..."

That was awkward. Next penguin...

I must've asked around for at least 20 minutes before I got something helpful. A girl told me she'd just seen her at the Cove, but she said the room was full. I thanked her and bolted, running as fast as I could. I checked the time again as I ran. 7:41. Still got nineteen minutes.

It took me about 7 minutes to get there, and I finally got to the Forest.  There were penguins crowded near the stairs, and the Cove was obviously full. Mascots can usually get into a full room, but this wasn't going to be easy.

I ran to the stairs, panting from running halfway across the island. There was a ton of penguins on the stairs, and it was hard to get through.

I pushed through the crowd, and everyone was looking at me like I was nuts since, well, usually someone doesn't just push through a crowd and get into a full room like that. Soon, though, I got to the Cove.

I looked around. There was a huge crowd, all of them screaming questions. I could tell where Cadence was but couldnt actually see her. She was down by the surf hut. I checked the time. 7:52. I still have eight minutes...

I stood around the back of the crowd. There she was, right in the middle. She had her boom box and was doing something with it. She looked a little winded, probably from dancing or something, but still her energetic self.

Her short purple-and-pink hair hung freely, looking untidy from her moving around so much. She wore her scarf, headphones, wristbands, sneakers... the normal items, but also a purple hoodie.

Suddenly, she spoke. "What song should I play?" she called to the crowd.
The crowd responded with calls for a bunch of songs. A lot of them said "The Party Starts Now", and she laughed.
"Which one?" she said.
"'For The Record'," I muttered softly, smiling to myself.
She obviously didn't hear me, but a couple penguins around me did, giving me weird looks. I shrugged.

"Here." Cadence turned on a random mix song, then started bouncing around. "I made this yesterday!"
I recognized the beat and realized Cadence had made this with me yesterday morning. I smiled.

Suddenly she widened her eyes and dug into her pocket, pulling out her phone. She looked at it and said something I couldn't make out, putting it back. She scanned the crowd and I realized she was wondering where I was. It was only 7:54... no, 7:55, though. I wasn't getting her attention until 8.

So I just danced around with the crowd for another 3 minutes. She kept yelling dance moves and answering questions, then at 7:58 I went around back of the crowd so her back was to me. Making my way through the huge mob of penguins, I finally reached the inside of the circle so I was pretty close to her and nobody was in front of me. She still had her back to me, and I checked the time.

7:58.

7:59.

I pulled up my texting conversation with her on my phone. I typed,
'Turn around.'

8:00. I sent it.

After about 10 seconds, she stopped dancing and pulled out her phone. She looked at it, tilted her head to the side, and put it away, looking around. She spun around and faced my side of the circle. She was right in front of me.

I took off my hat and my glasses, unzipping my sweatshirt. That's when she saw me. Her eyes got huge and she mouthed, 'Franky?'

I shrugged. "You really thought a party was gonna stop me?" I called.

She laughed out loud and cried,
"Holy fish!"

She ran over to me and purposefully slid on the ice into my flippers. We stood there for a second hugging. Everyone around us was really confused, and I grinned at all of them.

Cadence looked up. "You came."
"Of course I did." I paused, giving her the rose.
She beamed. "A-awww. Thank you," she said, holding it and putting the other flipper around my neck. I put one around her waist and lightly placed the other in her hair.
"You're welcome." I smiled, pausing. "How could I not come?" I continued.
"How did you find me?" she asked.
"A LOT of asking around," I replied.

She giggled. The crowd realized what was going on and who I was, and a hush fell.

"Happy anniversary," I said softly, pushing a strand of her hair out of her eyes.
She smiled. "Happy anniversary."
"Will you come to the dance with me tonight?"
"Of course."

She smiled at me, and I smiled back. Suddenly there was a call of,

"Well, what are you waiting for, Franky?! Kiss her!!"

I laughed. I didn't recognize the voice, but waved in the direction of the penguin. "Thanks for the advice!" I called, then kissed her, long and soft and in front of everyone. The whole crowd cheered, and the penguin said,

"Now that's more like it!"

I pulled away laughing. Cadence was, too, and winked at me. Then she turned to the crowd, holding my flipper with one flipper and holding the rose with the other.

"Make fun of me all you want, guys, but it's Valentine's Day!" she said.
I laughed. The crowd started cheering again, and Cadence pulled me into the clear spot they had made for her. She started dancing with me. The crowd egged us on, and as the song ended, I pulled her close and lifted one of her headphones.

"I love you," I said to her.
"I love you, too," she replied, squeezing my flipper and grinning. She reached into her pocket and pulled out her microphone. I raised my eyebrow, and she said,

"What? I always keep it in there."
"I don't judge," I said, pulling my own microphone out of the inside pocket in my sweatshirt. She laughed.

"Let's rock this Cove, Franky!" she said.
"Whatever you say," I replied, smiling.

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