Rising Shards

The girls’ dorm was buzzling like it was a holiday. Everyone had this cheery, excited energy, like everyone was about to go Safe Silver shopping, even though Safe Silver was a while ago. Various groups of girls chatting passed by us at a brisk pace.

”What’s going on tonight?” Kalei said.

”Maybe everyone is excited about these batteries,” Oka said. ”I mean, we’re all wondering what happens when you fry those deals?”

”We could just look that up,” Marmalade said.

”But that’s different from seeing it in person!” Oka said.

”I’m a bit surprised you’re so into the batteries,” I said.

”I’m not gonna not watch someone microwave batteries,” Oka said.

”Fair,” I said.

”Where are these battery microwavers, anyways?” Kalei said. ”You said third years, yeah? Should we head up a floor or two?”

”I would hope they wouldn’t be burning them indoors,” Oka said. ”Then this whole place will probably burn down. But then we could track them with the noise and find out where they are! But dang, then we would have missed it if it already exploded and lit everything on fire!”

”Oka is in hyper mode tonight,” Kalei said. She elbowed me.

”I am, what the heck,” Oka said. ”I wanna do a cartwheel, or even a somersault!”

”I think a cartwheel should be after a somersault, somersaults are so easy,” Kalei said. ”I dare you to do it right now.”

”Cartwheel or somersault?” Oka said.

”I just said cartwheel’s more impressive, do that!” Kalei said.

Oka looked around to make sure she had enough space in the hallway.

”Are you really going to?” I asked.

She winked. ”Just for you!”

With a ”Hup!” Oka leaned forward, almost doing a picture perfect cartwheel until her tail got caught on something on the wall next to her, making her yelp and fall over. I handled it cool and collected as I rushed to her side, and definitely wasn’t also screaming.

”I’m alright,” Oka said once I had helped her get her tail free and checked her over for damage. ”I would have nailed that if I didn’t forget I have a tail,” She petted her tail. ”That’s not an insult to you, dear tail, it wasn’t your fault.”

”Well, that was almost a cartwheel,” Kalei said. ”At least you two are perfect for each other.”

”Aw, what the...!” Oka said, hiding her face with her hands.

”Don’t throw things like that without warning us first!” I said, doing a similar face hiding maneuver.

”I either just doused the hyperness or threw gas on the fire,” Kalei said. ”Either’s fine with me as long as I see some batteries exploding and this chess club rap battle or whatever.”

We didn’t have any luck finding anyone microwaving batteries on the floor where most of the third years lived on campus, but we did run into Aira, who we asked about our various rumors. She looked to be in a hurry, and kept inching past us like she wanted to take off running, or teleporting past us, I suppose.

”I haven’t heard about any of those,” Aira said. ”But I’m going to see the big fight on the roof!”

”The what now?” Kalei asked.

”Apparently there’s a big fight breaking out on the roof,” Aira said. ”All I know is one apparently has a quadruple bladed bloodsaber.”

”That’s so dumb that it turns around and becomes kinda badass,” Kalei said.

”The dorms have a roof?” I asked.

”No Zeta, it just has this big open space so you can see the pretty stars,” Kalei said.

”Shut up, I mean one we can actually go to?”

”They probably busted a lock to get out there,” Kalei said. ”Which means we can go see!”