Rising Shards

A dour mood was cast over the bleacher our class sat at. Kitty was parading around the winners, mostly Wildfire Hearts students who had outlasted the ones from Rising Shards. Lillia had gone to sit by Ko, and Aira went behind the bleachers, still staring at the jacket Laenie’s biker gang had given her.

”Like half our class is gone,” Kalei said. ”Marmalade, Roux, Iris, Maia...”

”I don’t see Michi either.” I said.

”Right, them too,” Kalei said. ”Not that Iris and Maia would have helped much, but we lost this from the numbers game alone.”

”Yeah...” I said.

Also tense: me sitting between Zeta and Kalei, shortly after Kalei had gotten heated at Zeta. The plus side was that Zeta’s tail angrily flicking around was really stinking cute and I had to bite the inside of my cheek not to giggle every time she whapped it near my new tail.

”Hey, sorry about...” Kalei said. ”Yeah.”

”Uh huh,” Zeta said, her arms crossed.

”I’ll make it up to you,” Kalei said.

Zeta nodded. Whenever any of the three of us had fights, we generally got over it pretty quickly, and this situation wasn’t much different. I could tell we were in cooldown mode once Zeta’s tail hit me about thirty percent less.

”Are you good after...?” Zeta said. ”I couldn’t hear what she said, but I saw that girl...”

”I’m alright,” Kalei said.

Kalei had waded into a ton of drama, and the worst of it wasn’t her fault at all. Nikki’s new girlfriend telling her to stay away made me question Nikki’s judgment even more so than when we found out she started dating someone without mentioning it to Kalei while still being all flirty and junk. I knew this was all a lot for Kalei, and I hoped she wasn’t just bottling everything up to not deal with it outwardly.

”Diast, what’s the point situation like on this Recreant game thing?” Kalei asked when Dr. Diast passed by.

”I had a big spreadsheet ready to track points,” Diast sighed deeply. ”I had organized my curriculum to line up with this whole deal, and I’m feeling like that spreadsheet’s gonna be gathering dust pretty soon with Kitty in charge.”

”So it’s gonna be another typical fly by the seat of our pants barely makes sense thing?” Kalei asked.

Diast sighed again, somehow even deeper this time.

”It’s weird, but that kinda makes me feel better.” Kalei said, stretching her arms up towards the sky. ”If I can’t understand the points, I can’t stress about em.”

”And this is just the first round, after all,” I said.

”And let’s all give a big round of applause to a beloved returning student, Ovie!” Kitty shouted. ”Wow, the last time I saw you, you were fifty feet tall!”

Ovie grinned, soaking in the praise as 09 waved to Kitty, presumably asking her to remember that one of her nieces had also made a big return.

”You’d think getting turned into a big monster would like, mess her up a bit.” Zeta said, huffing as she propped her head up in her hands. ”It messed me up. And yet...”

”And yet she’s just back to regular Ovie,” I said. ”Crap, are they coming over to us?”

Sure enough, once Kitty was done talking about them, she shooed the winners to the stands and started hyping up her big surprise.

I wasn’t exactly nostalgic for an Ovie bullying session, but seeing her with short hair again standing around with Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila did bring me back to the start of the semester. Except now 09 was part of that clique too.

I was hurt that after visiting 09 every day, she didn’t even bother telling me she was back to normal. The last time I saw her it didn’t seem like she was any closer to being her old self again. I thought maybe she was coming to thank us for that, but instead the group just stood in front of us, a smug aura almost visible around them.

”Like, that was sooooo cool when we won the game!” Chellsi said.

”You’re so right, I missed having Ovie tell us what to do!” Mikeila-Keila said.

“Ovie,” 09 said, tapping Ovie on her shoulder.

“What?”

The two stared at each other silently for a few seconds. An intense stare too, it was odd.

“What’s that about?” I asked.

“It’s nothing,” 09 said.

”Welcome back, by the way.” I said, some bitterness accidentally seeping out.

”Thanks,” 09 said.

Was that all? Just a thanks? At least I knew how to handle fights with my friends, fighting with a family member was new and alien to me.

”It must be pretty depressing see your family’s worth go up in flames.” Ovie said.

”I dunno,” I said. ”Maybe that’s what I wanted since they adopted me.”

”I know it’ll be rough for 09,” Ovie said. ”Luckily, she ditched the loser squad for some true support.”

”We’re not in the mood for this,” Kalei said. ”Can you go sit somewhere else, or do you need me to remind you how I beat your ass when you were like a hundred times bigger than you are right now?”

That threat worked, as Ovie backed off with her sneer starting to twitch and sat with her group far away from us. I kept glaring at 09, but she wouldn’t even look my way.

”Hm?” I noticed Zeta’s hand starting to reach toward me.

”It really helps me when you hold my hand when things are tough, so, um...” The incredible power level of her blushing about something we did daily was heartwarming and made me feel better before we even initiated the hand hold process. Luckily nobody bugged us because we got the giggles, only half listening to Kitty now.

”The thrilling, stupendous, spectacular bonus is...!” Kitty did a backflip. ”A sparring match between me and Rising Shards’ grumpiest teacher, Caya Kilander!”

”Finally.” Caya said, somehow managing to stomp loudly on grass as she approached Kitty.