Rising Shards

Stella got to work immediately setting up the living room for their scenario. Evy thought about questioning why she needed to move the table in the center of the room, but role playing the two meeting in high school at Rising Shards made Stella’s eyes sparkle before they even started.

“Alright, that should be enough space.” Stella said, nodding to herself. She held her hand out to Evy to help her up. “I think a good meeting place would be…after school. Where did you hang out after school usually?”

“I hung out behind the dorms a lot.” Evy shrugged, hoping Stella wouldn’t press further there.

“Doing what?” Stella asked, immediately pressing further there. “Not dealing drugs or something right? Not doing drugs? Not in some kind of bully group? Some kind of bully groups that sells and does drugs?”

“No…” Evy scratched the back of her head. “When it was warm out at least we’d uh…play that Chunkyobon card game.”

Stella suddenly kissed Evy.

“OK, that did not earn me a kiss.” Evy said. Collecting the card game line loosely based on an anime did not feel ‘I must kiss you now’ worthy to Evy.

“No, it did, that’s so cute,” Stella said. “I always wanted the blank ones with the green borders and the…was it clay in the center?”

“It was something like clay but when you drew on it, whatever you drew was a different color than the rest in that like rainbow etching way, so it popped out more visually.” Evy said, speaking from experience from having a large collection of the special Draw Your Own Chunkyobon™ cards.

“Oh, wait, yes!” Stella said. “I did have one of the blank ones, I drew myself on it, I thought it turned out pretty darn good, if you ask me. I gave myself little Chunkyobon ears.”

“That’s…precious.” Evy said.

“I wanted to collect more, but my parents said no.” Stella winced.

“Maybe we should…” Evy calculated a way to say it that would ruin the good vibes of their day the least. “For the purposes of making this a self-care day, let’s skip your parents…and probably Caya too here? Like a world where we don’t have to deal with various traumas related to them.”

“I love that!” Stella said, back to peppy again. “Alright, alright, come here, come here…” She led Evy over to a wall and had her lean against it. “When I picture you hanging out behind the dorms after school, I picture you leaning against a wall like this.”

“Alright,” Evy said, game for whatever Stella wanted here.

“Now, I think it’d be cute if I was wandering after class and ran into you…” Stella said, looking around the apartment. “So I think I’ll come in from the living room. Now…” She put her hands on her hips. “Are you going to be able to stay in character?”

“And my character is high school me, right?” Evy asked.

“Yeppers,” Stella said. “So no talking about current stuff, being a doctor, that sort of thing.”

“I think I can do that.” Evy said. “Anything else we need to square away before we start the scene?”

“Um…” Stella said. “Thank you for humoring me here? I always…wanted someone to do this sort of thing with…”

Stella blushed, and Evy felt her heart almost do a flippy deal. There were a few looks that Stella could make that trigged that sort of reaction, and the bashful fang biting lip and eyes glancing downward combo was one of them.

“Alright, when I come back in the scene starts! Unless you have any last-minute concerns…” Stella said. Evy just gave a thumbs up. Stella darted off, and Evy tried to do her best at portraying a troubled teen leaning on the outside wall of the dorms. She tried to really picture how she felt in those days as she put her hands in her pocket, sighing dramatically. Stella returned to the room, carrying herself in such a manner that Evy was caught off guard immediately. Her posture and demeanor had only changed slightly, but it felt like a different Stella walked into the room. It helped Evy picture a bright spring day where a cute girl suddenly ran into her.

“Oh, excuse me!” Stella said. “I didn’t know anyone was back here.”

Evy quickly calculated a response, finding this tougher than she expected. OK, don’t screw this up. You’ve never had a partner that wanted to do anything like this, and look how freaking happy Stella is right now. This is already fun too. Don’t be all science-y Dr. Diast-y about this. In fact, stop listening to me and just be in character already! The character being you so this should be super easy!

“Uh, hey.” Evy said.

“It’s a little warm for a leather jacket, isn’t it?” Stella asked.

Evy shrugged, patting the arms of the imaginary jacket. The real thing lost in a bin somewhere. “It’s a cold spring, so…”

“It looks good on you!” Stella said. She kicked at the ground. “Can I be weird with you for a second?”

“Uh, sure.” Evy squinted, trying to convey ‘what is this girl who’s never spoken to me up to?’

“I erm…have been working up the courage to say this.” Stella said.

“Are you gonna tell me to get lost or something?” Evy asked. “We’re not doing anything bad out here. Just playing cards. And the others left already, so…”

“No, no, nothing like that!” Stella waved her hands in front of herself, gesturing so wildly that the back rows could see her if she was waving that hard on a stage. “We have science together, right?”

“Uh, I think,” Evy said. “I dunno. I don’t really talk to anyone in class.”

“Yeah, that’s kind of why I’ve been trying to find you.” Stella said.

“H-huh?” Evy maybe put a bit too much cartoonish “Whoaaaa!” energy into it, but Stella was receptive.

“It’s just, I know you’re a bit quiet, and the other students say you’re scary, but you know science better than anyone in class, so I was. I don’t know. Curious?”

“About me?” Evy tried to picture how she’d react if a girl as cute as Stella talked to her like this in high school. She had Caya, sure, but Caya was always around and never talked to her like this. And Caya isn’t part of this scenario. Evy decided that she likely would have reacted awkwardly, so she repeated herself, forcing some voice cracks as much as possible.

“Yes…” Stella said. “Evy, right? I mean, I know that. I hear it on roll call every day. I like that name.”

“Do you want something from me?” Stella asked. “Is this like a con or something?”

“What do you mean?” Stella asked.

“It’s just…” Evy shut her eyes for a second. “Cute girls like you don’t talk to losers like me.”

“You’re not a loser, Evy.” Stella said. “But…” She twirled her hair around her fingertips. “Thank you for saying I’m cute.”

“Well, you are.” Evy said. “So…a cute girl. Is here. Talking to me. For some reason.”

“I guess I was just curious to get to know you better.” Stella took a step forward, and Evy actually flinched. “You don’t have to be scared of me.”

“I’m…really not used to this.” Evy said.

“I won’t bite,” Stella said.

“That’s a shame.” Evy said.

“Ha! You’re funny, Evy,” Stella said. “That makes me happy. I was hoping you’d be funny.”

Evy gulped. “You know, I’ve been…curious about you, too.”

“Really?” Stella beamed. “I thought you were, golly, too cool to notice me.”

Stella’s use of ‘golly’ almost took her out of the scene because Evy had never heard her say that and couldn’t picture her saying it in high school, but she couldn’t break character now.

“I notice you lots,” Evy said. “I like the way you pout when the teacher brings up a topic that’s too hard for you. How your hair looks when you lazily tie it up instead of brushing it. I really liked you in that play.”

“You saw me in the play?” Stella asked.

“Uh huh,” Evy said. “To tell you the truth, I went just to see you.”

“Golly.” Stella said. “And here I was thinking it’d be a lot harder to ask this next question.”

“And…what is that?”

“Have you ever been kissed before, Evy?” Stella asked.

“W-what?” Evy asked, forcing another voice crack.

“Kissed by a cute girl?” Stella asked, taking another step forward.

“I…er…” Evy said.

“When I was staring at you in class today, like I usually do, I had a sudden thought. I thought to myself, ‘I wonder if this girl has ever been kissed before?’ Do you know what the next thing I thought was?”

Evy gulped. “I don’t.”

Stella was close now. She almost felt too close. Evy’s heart was pounding. “I thought…I thought it would be nice if you hadn’t been kissed before. You’re a loner, so it’s possible. But you’re so cool, so maybe you have been kissed before. But if you haven’t. I wondered if you’d be OK with me giving you your first kiss.”

“I…er…wow…” Evy said. “No, I’ve never kissed anyone.”

“Would you like me to kiss you, Evy?” Stella asked. “I won’t be mad if you say no.”

“I’d…I’d like that, Stella.” Evy said.

Stella leaned in close, the two shutting their eyes as their lips met. In the dark, Evy felt like she was really at the dorms again, in a different timeline where she was in high school and wasn’t with Caya, and suddenly Stella Faleur was making out with her.

“I’d love to do this again sometime,” Stella said.

“Meet me here tomorrow?” Evy asked.

“I think I’d like that very much, Evy.” Stella said. She began to walk away, then spun around on her heels. “And scene!” Stella said triumphantly. “Thank you, what a wonderful scene partner!” Stella clapped for Evy and grabbed her hand so they could bow together for a nonexistent crowd.

“That was…really awesome, Stel.” Evy said.

“You think? Yay!” Stella said. “If you liked that, I can try to think of some more stories we could roleplay like that. Or continue this one.”

“I’m good with both,” Evy said.

”Would you be also good with roleplays being a bit more...bedroom-y?” Stella asked.

”Would you like that?” Evy asked.

”Maybe.” Stella said.

”I’d be happy to try all kinds of this with you then, Stel.” Evy said. Stella excitedly wiggled in place, barely able to hide how excited that made her. “OK, for real, if that happened to me in high school, I might’ve actually just imploded.” Evy said. “Were you that flirty back then?”

“No, I was a lot more awkward in anything resembling dating,” Stella said. “But I couldn’t help it once I saw you leaning like that.”

Evy grabbed Stella around her waist and the two fell into a sort of slow dance.

“It’s better that you’re all over me now when I can handle you.” Evy said.

“You want me all over you right now?” Stella asked.

“I’d love that.” Evy said.