Rising Shards

Class was normal-ish at least. Our teachers seemed either tense, anxious, or both, and none of them could give us much info about what was going on. None of the much-hyped new students seemed to be in class, either. Oka and I thought someone was new, but it was just Kyre Krista with a new way of styling her gloppy hair gel. I of course immediately worried that Dr. Diast teaching us while clearly being agitated was because of something between her and Stella, so I rushed to the library during lunch since Oka was at an appointment. 

”Hi Stella,” I said. ”So um. I just wanted to check in...?”

”Uh huh, I figured,” Stella said, checking in books and placing them on a cart. ”Lot going on here today, huh?”

”Um, yeah,” I said. ”Dr. Diast was mad so I just wanted to make sure it was because of whatever’s going on at school and not a like...” I looked around to make sure nobody was close by who could hear me. ”Like a you guys thing.”

”Awww, Zeta!” Stella said. She dashed around the desk to hug me. “What a sweetheart, worrying about us. It’s not that, we’re good, we’re great, it’s a school thing. Evy told me the details. You’ll find out in a bit. It sounds like a pain, but I’ve got your back, she’s got your back, and you and your friends are bright and talented. You got this.”

“That…makes me scared in a new way,” I said. I was glad this wasn’t Stella and Dr. Diast having a fight at least.

“It’ll be fine.” Stella said. “Evy will probably tell you more later, but she doesn’t want to drop a lot of info for this outside of class, something about being unprofessional? But I don’t care about that stuff so I can give you the quick version. And first off, if I’m not worried, you shouldn’t be worried. It’s a big Cani school thing that I guess is apparently fairly normal, especially with one run like Wildfire Hearts.”

“A-alright…” I said.

“Wildfire Hearts apparently gets sued, a lot,” Stella said. “And when the lawsuits pile up enough, they scramble and do a bunch of dumb competition-y things with their partner schools to try and smooth things over.”

“Competition-y things?”

“It sounds like a lot of different styles, and it’s all entirely optional if you want to opt out of it.” Stella said. “But with all the lawsuits, Wildfire Hearts has to play this really by the books, so I’m not as worried as I’d normally be.”

“OK…” I said. I didn’t really want to do any competition with Wildfire Hearts. Especially if that meant anything to do with Ovie, Aira, Laenie, or 09. Because they were, as far as I knew, still in contact with my parents. I didn’t even know if they were back from their void trip, though.

“Like I said, by the books.” Stella said. “It won’t have anything to do with them.” She checked the time. “You better get back though, don’t waste your whole lunch in the library. Feel free to drop by if that whole spiel I gave you just made you more worried. But you’re gonna have a good day today, I can feel it.”

“Right,” I said. “I think this is gonna be my winter.” I blushed verbalizing my stupid little goal that I hadn’t even fully thought through.

“I like the sound of that.” Stella said. “Let’s make this a Faleur winter.”

* * *

The rest of our classes went fairly normally despite our teachers collectively being in a bad mood. Krangel warned us he was going to take us “to the next violent level” to really show Wildfire Hearts up.

Void studies class was where things really felt different. All of the pod leading teachers were with us as we went to the void entry building right away. The snack table set up for Fang Moon Web had become a regular fixture. Dr. Diast stood there, stirring a plastic spoon in a bowl of fruit punch. Caya leaned on the table, fidgeting with her arms crossed.

“I’m gonna let Caya handle explaining this one,” Diast said, some salt in her tone. “But help yourself to some of this punch, I was hoping we could have a nice fun class celebrating and welcoming our new students, then us faculty all had a real lovely group chat last night, didn’t we, Caya?”

I wasn’t sure how to read Caya’s expression, but by Diast’s tone it seems like Caya had something to do with the mess going on this morning.

Most of our class had arrived, seated around the various chairs of the void waiting room, murmurs and whispers all around.

“Oh my god!” Amara yelled, standing up abruptly. She took a deep breath, inhaling through her nose.

“Hey, Amara? You good there?” Diast asked.

Amara looked confused as her nose twitched. I worried she was about to faint or something as she stared at KJ sitting next to her. She looked conflicted for a moment before grabbing her and rushing through the classroom. She shouted all the way from dash from her seat to the hallways. “It’s an emergency, sorry! Bathroom emergency! That I need KJ’s help with!”

When they were gone, the three teachers present gave each other looks.

“Not it for going after whatever that was,” Diast said.

“They have a few minutes before class starts,” Ms. Letoh said. “Let’s just pretend we didn’t...hear any of that!”

“Agreed.” Caya said.

During the awkward silence that followed, Kalei took the opportunity to try her line she workshopped at the assembly with us again. “You all getting that ‘things are about to get a lot stupider’ feeling—uh…” Her eyes widened and she stood up suddenly. “Holy crap!”

I flinched as Kalei gestured towards the entrance to the waiting room, where some more students arrived. At the front of the group was a girl with orange hair with a guitar on her back, who nodded at Kalei with a sly smile on her face.

“Nikki?”