Chapter Text
The early morning sky was an ombre of pink and blue; a view Frank admired as he jogged along the beach, feeling the telltale warmth of summer and the salt in the air. He was due for work pretty soon — another half hour, to be precise — but he relished this early morning routine, especially knowing that they were about to head into the busiest period of the year with it being the first official day of summer.
Frank wrapped up his jog as he found his way back to his old red pickup truck parked along the curb — Christine, he’d called her, no thanks to his love for the twisted Stephen King novel. The drive to work was a relatively short one as well, with his usual jogging spot marking a halfway point between his apartment and work. He took in the glow of golden hour as he did on every commute, seeing the sunlight dance on the ocean waves as he cruised along the 913 to Virginia Key, sipping his still warm coffee from his thermos along the way.
Pulling up to his usual parking spot in the open-air lot, he stepped out of his pickup and stretched out for a moment before grabbing his duffel and heading into work — another day at Ocean Park aquarium.
Frank clocked in and made his way through the park, being sure to greet his fellow employees as he walked — Don the janitor, Rita the ticket booth assistant, and Joan the cafeteria lady. It had been nearly 10 years since he first started out here as a wide-eyed 18-year-old, but he loved every single day of it. It felt like home. Like family.
Soon, Frank made his way to the fish sorting room — the telltale briney scent enveloped the large tiled space, which had two massive stainless steel tables at the centre of it — one table had two weighing scales, shared between himself and another to his fellow trainer, Lilly. His colleague and supervisor, Pete, had his own table next to theirs since his Orca was the largest out of the three, which meant he had a lot more fish to sort through. At the other end of the room sat a large industrial-sized sink located right next to stacks of black plastic buckets where the fish were meant to be sorted into. It was a space that Frank and his colleagues knew all too well — a space that marked the start of another day.
“Morning, Frankie!” Lilly’s voice bounced a little off of the tiled walls. “Morning!” Frank replied as he made his way over to their table where she was standing. It looked like she had just gotten started on sorting out the mackerel — having three buckets filled up already. Frank made his way over to the stack of buckets, grabbing six to start off with, making sure to slip on his gloves in an attempt to prevent the fishy stench from sticking to his hands.
“I still don’t know how you get up at the ass crack of dawn to jog and then come to work. I can’t even roll outta bed ‘till 5.30. You sure your coffee doesn’t have crack in it or somethin’?” Lilly jabbed.
Frank rolled his eyes at the remark. Lilly had only become a full-fledged Orca trainer for 6 months but they already struck up the sort of familiarity you’d get from 6 years worth of friendship. He wasn’t complaining though, She was easy to talk to and loved the Orcas just as much as he did. “I’m tellin’ ya, it’s not that hard to do, Lilly. You should join me sometime, I can give you a wake up call and everything!”
“How ‘bout I savour the extra hour of sleep before work instead? That’s always more tempting to me,” she giggled out, giving him a playful nudge with her elbow as they sorted the fish.
“Yo, Frank!” Pete’s voice echoed shortly after, the man having just walked into the room from the back entrance carrying a huge crate filled to the brim with more fish. This wasn’t the most glamorous part of the job, for sure, but it had to be done. Trainers were responsible for making sure their assigned animals were always well-fed. After a decade of this, Frank could do this shit in his sleep now — get the weighing scale ready, line up the buckets, fill them with fish after checking each one for freshness, and repeatedly lift the buckets on and off the scale to make sure each one had equal portions that would last his Orca through the day. It was a repetitive task they had to do every single morning, but Frank thought the routine was almost meditative, helping him mentally prepare for a physically strenuous day of training and shows.
"So what's everyone doin' this weekend?" Pete piped up after a while as they worked.
Lilly and Frank exchanged a knowing look before Frank snorted, "Lemme guess. Someone's got another date and wants to brag?"
Pete was notorious for his dating misadventures and looked for any opportunity to bring that shit up. Not that Frank was complaining, though. He gave up on the apps a long time ago and was resigned to a life of solitude.
"Who's it this time?" Lilly asked.
"Damn, I was actually curious what you guys were up to...like don't get me wrong, I wanted to talk about the guy but like...after you guys had your turns," Pete replied with a grin on his face as he chucked some fish into his fifth bucket.
"Okay, well if you insist," Lilly replied, "I have a thrilling weekend of sorting out the shit in my mom's attic. We're ordering pizza and my sister's compiling a cleaning playlist for the occasion."
"Fuckin' riveting stuff, Lils," Frank deadpanned, earning a sharp jab in the rib courtesy of Lilly's right elbow.
"Not gonna lie, that's wholesome as fuck. What 'bout you, Frankie boy?" Pete piped up.
Frank shrugged, "The usual. Surfing, jamming with Ray, groceries, and meal prep." If you would have told teenage Frank what he'd be doing at 28, it certainly wouldn't be this. But present Frank had no complaints. He was genuinely fulfilled and content knowing he was working his dream job.
"Incredible as always," Pete remarked, pausing for a beat as if to anticipate Lilly and Frank to ask him.
Lilly sighed out, rolling her eyes, "So what's your weekend looking like, Pete?"
Frank snickered as he chucked a particularly gnarly-looking mackerel into the trash.
"I'm glad you asked, Lilly! I matched with this guy — he normally wouldn't be the type I'd go for, but the back and forth is...interesting."
"Uh-huh," Lilly half-heartedly replied as she moved to grab more buckets.
"What even is your type though, Pete?" Frank replied, genuinely wondering out loud. Every person he had seen the guy with was widely different from the other. He was hard to figure out.
Pete laughed out, "Well, certainly not scrawny-looking nerds, that's for sure. Honestly, I don't think it's even gonna go anywhere, but I said yes to dinner for the plot."
"Alright, what's your bet they're gonna bang?" Lilly cut in.
"I don't think they will, though," Frank replied.
"50 bucks says you're wrong," Lilly replied.
Frank paused to give it some thought before he reached out to shake Lilly's gloved hand, "Deal."
He could feel Pete rolling his eyes behind them.
"I'm expecting details, Pete!" Lilly continued. That seemed to have shut him up for now.
They spent the next hour and a half weighing out and sorting their fish before they scrubbed the space clean and took out the trash, keeping it ready for the next morning, when they would have to do this all over again.
The team then beelined for the showers — each of them having timed their routines with maximum efficiency in mind. Pete was always the fastest, though — getting showered and changed in a mind-boggling 3 minutes. Frank reckoned it was due to his fifteen years of experience. Frank would follow soon after, taking him a decent 5 minutes to clean up and slip into his wetsuit for the day. Lilly wasn’t too bad, but 7 minutes was still bordering on slacking, according to Pete. Frank was confident she would get there in no time, though, considering she hadn’t even been a trainer for a year yet.
***
They gathered outside next to the orca tanks, where the resident vets and dolphin trainers arrived at around the same time — the group stood in a circle as they began their morning check-in. It was routine, of course. The training director, Brian, usually led these morning meetings, going around the circle and asking each trainer-vet duo about their animals.
“Alright, on to the orca team. How’s Lani doing, Iero and Toro?” Brian asked, staring down at his clipboard.
“Behaviour’s as usual — playful as always but nothing out of the ordinary,” Frank reported.
“Health wise, all good. Full body exam’s clear, blowhole’s unobstructed, and diet’s as insatiable as ever,” Ray piped up with a smile on his face. His last comment elicited a small chuckle from Frank. It was true. Lani — Frank’s orca — was notorious for her appetite, but she loved to share, making sure to gift Frank a mackerel of his own at least once every training session. He loved that girl to bits. She was the first and only orca ever assigned to Frank the moment he joined Ocean Park.
As if on cue, there she was, swimming by to greet everyone as they stood next to the glass. Lani glided by, showing off her white belly as if to give the group a good morning wave before swimming back to the other end of the tank. Frank smiled warmly at the sight as Brian moved on to Pete’s orca, Eska — who also exhibited healthy behaviour alongside a clean bill of health, as reported by Pete and his vet.
“Okay, on to Kenai. What’s the status with him?” Brian turned to glance at Lilly and Kenai’s vet.
“He’s been floating lately — but nothing out of the ordinary with his usual rebel energy. He takes a couple seconds before registering the instructions I give him, thought, but he follows through,” Lilly commented, eliciting an eyebrow raise from Brian.
“Alright, so long as he’s still following your commands. Doc, anything to note?” Brian turned to Kenai’s vet, who reported nothing out of the ordinary, “Clean as a whistle,” she noted.
“Alright then, that wraps up today’s check-in. Let’s get to work, folks! TGIF!” Brian clicked his pen as he finished the last of his notes, signalling the start of the morning’s training.
“Oh wait, I almost forgot. Wentz, can you stay on for a quick second?” Brian spoke to Pete as the group dispersed. “Oh, sure. I’ll catch up with you guys in a sec, then!” Pete called out to Frank and Lilly, who were heading up the stairs to the platform above the orca tanks so they could start their morning training session. Frank and Lilly replied with their thumbs up before making their way up, hauling their fish buckets along as they went.
“What d’ya think that’s about?” Lilly whispered to Frank as they walked up the stairs, eliciting a shrug from the man behind her.
“Beats me. Maybe it’s some new training regulation,” Frank replied.
Lilly gave a slight frown as they finally reached the platform, setting their buckets down beside them.
“What’s up?” Frank couldn’t help but notice the brief look of concern on her face.
Lilly seemed a little hesitant at first, giving Frank a concerned look before she finally spoke again.
“I don’t know…I have a feeling it might have somethin’ to do with Kenai,” she said as she pulled her strawberry blonde hair back, retying it in a sort of nervous tick.
“You think? But he seems to take a liking to you, though!” Frank replied reassuringly.
“Yeah, but I don’t know. What if they’re not confident in me and assign Kenai to a more experienced trainer?”
“Look Lilly, he’s like 20 years old. I know that's just like, 3 years younger than you, but he's like...a full-fledged adult in orca years," he chuckled out, eliciting a small smile from Lilly.
"It’ll take time for him to warm up compared to calfs, but Kenai’s always been a gentle guy. Sure, it takes him a few seconds before he reacts to your commands sometimes, but he still does what he’s told right? Like Brian said?” he continued.
Lilly’s concern seemed to ease at that, “Yeah…yeah, you’re right. I just have to keep training him and reinforcing the right behaviour.”
Frank gave Lilly a pat on the back, “Alright, let’s get the kids up for breakfast,” he joked. The pair whistled before grabbing a fish from their buckets and stuffing them with their daily vitamins before dangling them over the water, immediately prompting Kenai and Lani to surface, who were ready to start their morning of training.
Pete joined in after a while, calling Eska to the surface as he began training him as well.
Morning training went on as it usually did — the trio went over their gestures and movements with their orcas. They were working on a new individual stunt called the kicker, where they would get a giant white pole (that looked like a comically large, 15-foot long q-tip) and dangle it over the water. This helped the orcas with positioning so they knew where they needed to be during the shows. For this trick, the trainers had to tap the tip of their poles at the surface of the water before lifting them upright, indicating to the orcas that they had to dive down to the bottom of the tank first before jumping up to touch the target pole with their snouts, and kick their tails towards the crowd so they could get a little splash during the shows. It was a move that Lani and Eska had mastered within a few days of learning it earlier that week, but Kenai was still...getting the hang of it.
“Alright Kenai, my man! Let’s try that again! I know you can do this!” Lilly chirped as she gently rubbed the orca on his head. They had been trying to nail this trick for the last 45 minutes, but Kenai just couldn’t make the jump as high as the other two.
Walking over to the other end of the pool once again, she tapped the tip of the pole to the surface before moving it to stand upright. Kenai swam over to the bottom of the pool and rose to the surface, but went belly-up for a moment before half-heartedly flopping back and nodding his head up, not even attempting to jump out of the water this time. Frank could tell Lilly was getting frustrated, even as he watched from the opposite end of the pool.
“I think we can wrap it up. It’s alright, Lils. We’ll get Lani to do the kicker today. Kenai can do his usual beaching. Eska can do his flips,” Pete declared, with no irritation laced in his words.
Lilly sighed in exasperation, but went with Pete’s suggestion, “Sure, Pete.”
“C’mon, it’s almost showtime. We can try again during afternoon training, alright?” Pete continued encouragingly.
***
It was finally time for their first show of the day — as Frank had predicted, it was a full house of families and tourists, spending a day at the park now that school was officially out for the summer. Pete, Lilly and himself walked up to the main stage. The pool stood between the stage and the bleachers where the crowd was seated. On the end of the pool closest to the crowd was a platform, where the orcas would normally do their beaching stunt for the crowd to get an up-close look at the animals.
Pete led the show, as he usually did, speaking to the crowd via his headset, “Good morning everyone and welcome to Ocean Park’s Orca World Show! I’m the head orca trainer, Pete, and over here I have my colleagues Frank and Lilly, who work with our incredible orcas here day and night. Let’s make some noise for ‘em!” The crowd applauded and cheered.
“Alright, now, without further ado, say hi to our orcas!” Pete walked up to join Frank and Lilly as they stood in a row on stage before he continued, “Up first is Kenai!” On cue, Kenai was released from his tank into the main pool, where he swam in a lap for the crowd to see him.
Kenai swam up to Lilly, staying still as he waited for her to toss him a fish to reward him for hitting his mark.
“Up next, we have Eska!”
Eska soon swam into the pool, doing a lap and jumping out to splash the audience — a tried and true trick he usually pulled to hook the crowd. Eska then swam up to stop in front of Pete, who tossed him a fish as well, before he continued, “And last but not least, our baby of the Ocean Park orca fam, Lani!”
Lani was up next, swimming around the pool, she turned to the side to flap her pectoral fin as if to wave to the crowd, earning a round of cheers and “awws” as she did so. She was a bit of a show-woman, doing another flip on her way to Frank, who tossed her a fish as she finally came to a stop in front of him. He gave Lani an affectionate head rub for good measure.
Pete continued, starting off with his usual script about orcas being the ocean’s apex predators, how they weren't actually whales but were part of the dolphin family, their average heights and weights, how fast they swim and how they communicate before moving into what everyone was there for — the stunts.
“These aren’t just silly tricks we make them do for the fun of it, folks. It’s so much more than that — they’re synchronised movements that help them move in unison and strengthen their social bonds, like they would in the wild,” Pete prefaced to the crowd before the stunts began.
The three orcas pleased the crowd with a few synchronised flips before they moved on to their individual stunts. In between, facts about Ocean Park's conservation and rescue efforts flashed on the screen above them for the audience to see.
Lani stole everyone’s hearts as she usually did, debuting her newly-learned kicker stunt in front of the ecstatic crowd. Eska’ acrobatics were always sure to wow any audience too.
Next, it was time for Kenai’s beaching stunt, which was the part of the show where the orca would slide up to the platform at the end closest to the audience on their belly, lifting their tail up off the ground as the host educates the crowd about their anatomy and colouring. Kenai stayed in the water, missing Lilly’s cue for a beat, instead choosing to flop over and expose the white of his belly again. This of course, elicited some lighthearted laughs to the crowd, “Aww, as you can see, Kenai over here’s a little bit of a rascal! No worries, we know the drill with this one!” Pete joked to the crowd.
Lilly looked up for a moment as she stood on the platform, catching Frank’s eyes on her as he stood on the stage on the other end of the pool. He gave her a discreet, but encouraging nod, urging her to give the cue again. This time, luckily, Kenai obliged and he propped himself up on the stage like a pro, preening in front of the crowd as they awed at the orca’s physique.
Frank felt a wave of relief, pausing to quickly glance at the crowd, scanning the enamoured faces that filled the space. Well, that was until he noticed one particularly disapproving frown in the crowd. It was a (admittedly pretty cute) guy, who seemed like he was in his late 20s, more or less the same age as Frank. His yellowish bleach blonde hair was pushed back by his black sunglasses that sat on his head. He seemed to have a horrific fashion sense, though, if his bright blue Hawaiian print shirt was anything to go by. He looked like he was there alone, too. Weird. People don’t usually go to these kinds of places on their own. Maybe he was just a loner who needed to get out of the house or something. Whatever. He didn’t linger his gaze for too long, because they had a show to wrap up after Kenai’s stunt was done.
Frank turned his attention back to the show, following Pete’s cue as he prompted Lani to join everyone back to the centre of the pool for their finale, the three orcas jumped out to wave to the crowd before swimming back to their holding tanks, concluding their morning show.
***
The rest of the day went on as usual, Frank had a quick lunch with Lilly before continuing with their afternoon training. Kenai managed to successfully jump out and give a slight twitch of his tail at least once, so that was sort of a success, he thought. Lilly seemed a little bummed out about it, though. It didn’t deter their energy as they proceeded to the second show of the day, which thankfully went off relatively smoothly, with Kenai seeming to behave himself and relish in the attention from the crowd. Frank noticed the bleach blonde guy with the ugly shirt was back with the same disapproving look on his face. Hm.
Soon, they had reached the end of their shift, leaving Frank, Lilly and Pete to carry out their end of day duties, which involved opening up the barriers to the orca’s holding tanks and allowing them to swim freely between the show pool and their own enclosures…save for Kenai.
Frank had a little moment alone sitting criss-cross on the stage by the pool and taking a beat as he gathered his thoughts. He loved it when the park got quiet at this time of day. Soon, a familiar orca swam up to him, resting her chin on the edge of the stage as she gazed up at him.
Frank smiled at her, giving her head a gentle rub, “Hey, Lani girl. You did good today.”
Lani seemed to melt into Frank’s touch. Her energy seemed to calm him a lot. He always thought back to the first time they met all those years ago when he visited the pool for the first time. She was the reason Frank found his calling. She saved him.
He threw her the last bit of mackerel from his bucket, rubbing her head again as she gladly accepted the treat.
“I’ll see you next week, sweet thing. Be good to the keepers and the weekend trainers like I know you will,” his words elicited a few squeaks from the orca. Frank smiled at her as he got up, watching her swim away to explore the other enclosures.
***
Frank was in the midst of packing his duffel with his laundry for the day after he had a quick shower, still in his towel when he heard Pete rapping a knuckle at the locker in front of him, causing Frank to nearly jump out of his skin.
“Y’know, normally people say, ‘Hey, Frank! What’s up?’ instead of scaring the shit outta me,” Frank shot a glare at Pete, who was fully dressed with his own duffel on him.
He let out a laugh as Frank started getting dressed, “My bad. Anyway, I’m heading out to the bar with Lilly and Ray right now. My treat. You comin’?”
Frank knew by Pete’s tone that it was more of a notice than an invitation. This might have something to do with whatever Brian pulled him aside for after their morning check-in. He knew bar invites on Pete normally meant something the team had to brace themselves for. He raised an eyebrow for a moment in a silent question.
“Don’t worry, it’s nothin’ serious,” Pete replied, clocking the suspicious glance Frank was giving him.
He simply nodded at his supervisor, hiking his jeans up, “Alright, gimme a couple minutes, I’ll meet you guys out front.”
***
“So we’re getting a marine biologist?” Lilly quirked an eyebrow as she asked, trying to digest what Pete had just told the group in the crowded bar.
“Nah, nah. So, Brian told me this guy’s from the University of Miami, doin’ his PhD or some shit about orcas. So he’ll kinda…be around all of us just observing how we train them and everything. Brian gave me a heads up, but he'll introduce the guy to the team during Monday's morning meeting,” Pete clarified before taking another sip of his beer.
Ray nodded, digesting the information before asking, “So, how long will this guy be…’observing’ for exactly?” he raised his fingers in air quotes.
“And what’s his study actually about?’ Frank piped up.
“Look, I know as much as you guys do at this point. You can ask the guy when he starts next week. And Frank,” Pete said as he turned to him, “This dude will be asking us a bunch of questions. I know how much you hate that shit especially when you’re working, but please don’t be a snappy asshole. The guy’s just doing his work just like you, alright?”
Frank raised his arms in defence, “Hey! Since when did I ever lose my patience with students asking me questions?”
“A couple months ago when you made that vet student cry because she asked you how old Lani was?” Ray brought up as he raised an eyebrow.
“Okay, only because it was like the 5th fucking time she asked me that, and it was while I was in the middle of holding Lani down for her fucking blood test!” Frank retorted.
“So you thought saying ‘Shut the fuck up, Hellen Keller, didn’t you hear me the first time?’ was an appropriate response?” Lilly responded, cackling away at her colleague. Frank just rolled his eyes as Pete and Ray chuckled alongside her.
Okay, so Frank was known for his short fuse with students, but only because he felt so crowded and…judged by them with their weird air of superiority. He didn’t need them hovering around like that all the time as he worked.
“Look, all I’m sayin’ is. Just…just bite your tongue around the guy. He’ll be around for just a month, just getting data for whatever his study’s about. If he makes any comments, just let ‘em slide. It’s not worth losing your temper over,” Pete said after everyone calmed down for a beat.
“Fuckin’...fine,” Frank relented, taking another sip of his beer, the bitter feeling sitting in his mouth as he thought about what the next month could hold in store for them all.