Rising Shards

I groaned as we were dismissed with some more whistles by Mom.

”This freaking sucks,” I said.

”Well, we’ll get a game in at least?” Marmalade said. ”Unless you want to skip?”

”I dunno,” I said. ”I did really want to play today.” But playing against Risa, Nikki, and P.D.? That seemed almost stupidly sad. Like the universe was giving me in particular a huge cosmic middle finger for whatever I did to piss her off.

My groaning continued all the way back to the stands, where Zeta, Oka, and Lillia waited for us.

”Hey, what was all that about?” Oka asked.

”Risa challenged me to a game,” I said. ”Against her and Caeda and P.D. and Scrungy. And also Roux? My mom wants to ref the game. I have no idea why she’s here, don’t ask.”

”Oof.”

My three friends in the stands had some sour looks.

”You look like you have bad news,” I said. ”Just get it over with.”

”Well, while you were practicing, Aira asked us to help her,” Zeta said. ”She’s going to meet with Laenie and wants some backup. So...”

”Sorry that we can’t help you with this one.” Oka said.

I don’t think they even noticed this but since Oka got her own Cani tail, the two would get theirs like perfectly in sync, moving the exact same way. It was so weird but cute and on brand for those two. They did the sad tails in sync, which was too much for me to be remotely mad at them.

”You guys catch up with that, I’ll be fine,” I said. I grabbed Marmalade by her shoulder again and pulled her in. ”With Marms here, we can beat anybody.”

Marmalade and I retreated to our room to regroup and plan something out. And we were kind of rancid after our practice so we each took a shower break.

”We’re gonna have to shower again after this, so maybe we should’ve waited,” I said as Marmalade dried her hair.

”I dunno, I got some real ’you smell very bad’ stares from people on the way here,” Marmalade said. ”At least I hope those were about the smell. They were sniffing a lot, at least.”

”Yeah, they looked at me too, you’re probably right,” I said. ”Naomi’s always getting on my case for smelling bad in the halls. Not that I smell bad all the time, sometimes when I go back to my room after...you get it.”

”Uh huh, uh huh,” Marmalade said. ”So what are you thinking we do now?”

”Well,” I huffed, leaning back in my chair of contemplation (my gamer chair). ”Zates, Oaks, and Lils were summoned to that thing with Aira, so best case with them is they maybe make it back in time to watch the game. That said, not a total loss as playing beam chasers with them can be a bit much. Matora sisters are in on our team. So it’s you, me, and the Matora sisters against Scrungy’s team. We just need one more.”

”Hm...” Marmalade said.

”And my mom’s officiating, so there’s an added factor of me trying not to embarrass myself this whole time.”

”It’s kinda funny,” Marmalade said. ”This is a bit like the next chapter in TFIVN...”

TFIVN being a story based game Marmalade and I were playing through. Marms had seen it all already, but I hadn’t. It was a really cool retro game with a lot of insane twists.

”Oh, yeah?” I asked.

”Uh huh, we could load it up quick,” Marmalade said. ”But then we might get hooked and miss the whole thing.”

”Yeah, true,” I said. ”Gimme a preview, then?”

”OK, OK, it’s called Trouble in Paradis-A,” Marmalade said. ”It’s gonna be in one of the scientist stations, called Paradis-A, I won’t spoil why it’s called that, heh. Anyways, the battle lines are drawn between two factions squaring off. But the good guy side needs one more person. Kinda...similar to what we have going on.”

”We gotta play later today,” I said. ”What’d they do in the game?”

”They convinced one of the other team members to join them,” Marmalade said.

”How ironic!”

I nearly let out a Zeta tier yelp as Roux suddenly showed up, coming into our room from the closet.

”I will join your team,” Roux said. ”That solves about fifty-six percent of the problems in your life.”

”How did you get into our room?” I asked.

”I’m from the rival team, so it’s just like TFIVN,” Roux said. ”Another win for Marmalade’s taste by the way, fantastic game.”

”Thanks!” Marmalade said.

”No, seriously, how did you get in here?” I asked.

”Well...” Roux said. ”Industry secret.”

”While you were in the shower, Roux texted me and we were talking about TFIVIN,” Marmalade said. ”I didn’t think I should let them in but they were very persistent.”

”Ah,” I said.

”Sorry,” Marmalade said.

”Not your fault, I’m kind of impressed,” I said. ”I wouldn’t have thought anything of the coincidences there. Yeah, I guess you can play, Roux.”

”You won’t regret it! Unless I betray you...” Roux said.

”If you do, I’ll break your eGame for real,” I said. I wouldn’t actually, but threats like that worked on Roux sometimes.

”Fine, we’ll consider it a shaky truce for now,” Roux said.

We all shook on it, and somehow we had a team.