Rising Shards

On a weekend I really wanted and was planning on sleeping in on after a long night on a Raina Starlight forum, I woke up to screaming. Oka, Kalei, and I gave a quick glance, all of us trying to see if one of us was the screamer. We heard it again, a high-pitched shriek, outside our room. All of us ran out in our pajamas to the hallway, where a group of groggy girls gathered around one of the doors.

“Whose room is that?” Kalei asked.

“That’s…Aira and Laenie’s.” Oka said.

Both still had their sleepy voices but seemed more ready for danger than I was, so I tactically stood behind/hid behind them.

“She didn’t like, die, did she?” A girl with dyed green hair said. “We didn’t just hear someone get murdered, did we?”

“No way,” her roommate, a cat Kanibari, said. “I-I mean, probably not, right?”

Oka, proving braver than all of us, knocked on their door, prompting a few yelps from the girls in the group. And from me because I yelp at shocks ranging from terror inducing surprises to mild ‘seeing your own shadow’ level stuff.

The door creaked open, and Oka stepped inside. A few moments later, Oka came back out.

“What happened?”

“She’s totally dead, isn’t she?” The green haired girl said, her voice shaking.

Oka scratched the back of her head.

“Well…she…” Oka said. “She got this?”

Oka held out a box of chocolates, to which all of us reacted like she just pulled out a bomb before we registered what it was.

“She was screaming in terror…because of chocolates?” Kalei asked. “I’m going back to bed.”

Kalei stomped back to our room.

Laenie sheepishly stepped out and looked immediately super embarrassed that we were all looking at her.

“It was on my nightstand when I woke up,” Laenie said. “But I don’t know how anyone got in there, it was just me. Aira’s been on vacation, and I didn’t hear anyone knock or open the door.”

It would take an incredible tactician to sneak up on Laenie. I didn’t like the idea of our rooms being that easy to get inside of, either.

“But i-it’s not just the chocolates,” Laenie said. “Th-there’s…also…”

Laenie pointed at a note attached to the plain looking box of chocolates.

“Laenie, you are super cute,” Oka read. “I think you are a very wonderful person. From, your secret admirer.”

A chorus of “AWWW!” broke out in the group, making Laenie retreat back into her room with the chocolates.

Laenie’s secret admirer became a hot subject almost immediately. A group started to debate who it could be right there in the hall, which prompted our floor’s prefect, Naomi, to yell at us.

“If you’re going to be a loud fire hazard,” she said. “You’re going to be in quiet detention.”

So we fractured into smaller groups, some of us heading back to our rooms and others heading to the common area to speculate. I ended up at a table with Oka and the green haired girl.

“I’m Iris by the way,” she said. “I don’t know if we’ve formally been introduced. We have like…every class together. And I’m pretty sure your room is next to mine or one over?”

Iris shook my hand upon introduction, so she was a trustable. She was also big into secret admirer mystery solving, apparently.

“Do you think it was a boy from Falling Shards?” Iris asked.

“They aren’t allowed in the Rising Shards dorms, are they?” I said.

“Maybe they asked a girl here to leave the chocolates,” Oka suggested. “But I don’t know…that handwriting was pretty girly.”

“Oh, that’s good Oka!” I said. “We can compare the handwriting and figure out who wrote it that way!”

“It’s like a fairy tale…” Oka said wistfully. “Oh, but Laenie still has the chocolates, and she’s probably not coming out of her room for the rest of the weekend after being part of a big scene like that.”

“I got a picture of it on my phone, one sec,” Iris said. She quickly cropped the picture so just the note was visible.

We naturally each checked each other’s handwriting. I felt kinda relieved Oka’s handwriting didn’t look anything like the note writer’s.

“Alright, so it’s none of us.” Iris said. “And I’m ruling out Maia too. This isn’t her handwriting, and lovey dovey chocolate giving isn’t her style. And Maia’s my roommate, by the way.”

Kalei joined us then, hair still messy from sleep and wrapped up in a blanket. She groaned a greeting. After having some cereal, she sleepily attempted to write the note, ruling her out as well. The mystery of Laenie’s secret admirer seemed to wake her up a bit.

“I’m guessing Lillia Cadence,” Kalei said. “The word choice seems very fancy like her.”

“Guessing me for what?” Lillia asked, her sudden appearance power rivaling Aira’s actual teleportation powers.

“Lillia, did you hear about Laenie’s secret admirer?” I said.

“…I did not.” Lillia said. “When was all this?”

I was surprised she didn’t have a response like telling us to focus on our studies or something.

“This morning,” Oka said.

“Didn’t the screaming wake you up?” Iris asked.

“I’m a heavy sleeper,” Lillia said.

“They were pretty loud screams.”

We somehow got Lillia to try to write the note as well. I was stunned by how professional and perfect her penmanship was.

“Holy crap Lillia, your handwriting is so cute!” Iris said.

Lillia only glared in response. I hoped she wasn’t taking that as an insult, her handwriting was really nice.

“I suddenly feel the need to practice writing more,” Oka said. “I just lost all confidence in my own handwriting.”

“Same here.” I said.

“Like either of you had any confidence in yours before.” Kalei said. “Unless you both secretly have a subscription to like ‘Writing by Pen Monthly,’ which is a real magazine by the way. It always has this chick on the cover that like has this screaming face as she holds up a pen, it’s weird.”

Lillia continued to glare, then something really weird happened.

“Pfftt,” She said before trying to hold in a snorting laugh. She quickly caught herself.

“…did I just make Lillia Cadence laugh?” Kalei asked.

“I…will see you all later.” Lillia said, then left without another word.

We talked a bit more, with Iris getting a few more girls to try to recreate the note but had no luck.

While gossip continued, no one had any leads, and nobody stepped forward as Laenie’s secret admirer, bringing the weekend to a close with no answers.

I was poking around my breakfast, not really feeling the eggs that morning.

“Hello, Zeta Faleur,” Aira asked, joining me at the table. “Did you have a good weekend?”

“It was interesting, for sure,” I said. “How was your trip?”

“Some waterfalls you have to see to believe,” Aira said. “And some it’s better if you don’t see or believe in them. I got to see both on this trip.”

“Right,” I said, not understanding at all. “Is Laenie doing OK? No surprises since you got back?”

“Why would there be any surprises?” Aira asked.

“Did she not tell you about all the stuff?”

“Oh, the secret admirer stuff?” Aira asked. “No, nothing there.”

Aira took a bite of her eggs.

“Unrelated, but you’re not supposed to tell the person when you’re the secret admirer then, right?”

“…Aira.” I said.

“I am not confirming one way or the other that I bought those chocolates and tactically left a few days after I left on vacation via teleportation.”

“Aw,” I said. “That’s sweet, though. And not just because of the chocolates.”

Aira smiled.

“So you’re not supposed to tell them, right?” Aira asked again.

“I’d say…if they don’t figure out who the secret admirer was, then you tell them when the time is right. And if you don’t want them to find it out from outside gossip, don’t tell anyone else about this.”

“Hmm,” Aira said. “So you’re pretty good with classified information then?”

“I still owe you for helping with the cube thing,” I said.

“Then it’s a deal,” Aira said, right as Laenie got to the table.

“What a weekend,” Laenie said with a sigh.

“What a weekend indeed,” Aira said, smiling at Laenie. “You will never believe these waterfall stories I have for you...it all started when I got on the plane. Now I know what you’re thinking right? Waterfall on a plane? When you have a pilot this bad, it’s not as hard to imagine…”