Rising Shards

”Remind me why we’re down here again?” I asked. ”Not judging if this is what we wanna do, just kinda thought we’d get to the rides right away.”

Alix, Kitty, and I were at a theme park, ColaBLU World, with Kitty’s family. But Caya, Berin, and Penteldtam were on a roller coaster at the moment while we were down on the ground playing a water gun game.

”Because the rides Penty likes are boring as hell,” Kitty said, taking aim with her water gun and hitting a target almost perfectly. ”Also, I gotta get prizes first, that’s the tradition.”

”And the rest of the family doesn’t follow that tradition?” I asked.

”They’re not part of it, they go on boring rides first, I win plushies first, simple,” Kitty said.

”OK, so, problem,” Alix said, holding her water gun up, which she’d somehow simultaneously cracked on the side of the plastic gun and tore it off the stand it was attached to.

”Idiot,” Kitty said.

”Don’t call her an idiot,” I said.

”I didn’t say anything!” Kitty said.

”You said idiot, that’s literally something,” I said.

”Fine, whatever,” Kitty said. ”Hey, uh water gun dude?”

A teenager working at the water gun stand yelped.

”Put the damage for this on my tab, OK?” Kitty said, pointing at Alix’s mangled water gun.

”U-uh...?” the guy didn’t seem to know what to do here and had to call his manager.

Once that awkward conversation was done and the destroyed water gun was paid for, Kitty played again and won a big stuffed bear, one that was a mix of lilac and sky blue. She hugged it close as we moved on, and I had to admit that was pretty cute.

”That’s a nice bear...” Alix said.

”You don’t get the bear, this is my bear,” Kitty said. ”You get to say thank you to Kitty Kilander for saving your ass there.”

”Ah, right, thanks, heh,” Alix said. ”Usually I end up breaking something else and have to work it off, so that clears up my afternoon nicely.”

I was still trying to figure out what was going on, but the more I spent time with Kitty, the more I felt...something. Not saying romance yet necessarily, but...I kind of liked the dynamic the three of us had. Well, aside from Kitty being rude as hell to my Alix. It also rattled around in the back of my mind that I was sleeping with Alix, and that Alix had slept with Kitty. There was something going on, and I was curious to see where it’d go.

As I ruminated on that, I heard voices in the crowd of people around us, not quite making out the words but the tones were familiar. The more we walked, the clearer they became, and the familiarity of them made the voices much clearer.

”If you could pick one, just one ride to go on, what would it be?”

”I...dunno...I just haven’t seen a good one yet is all,”

”Because these tickets were like sixty bucks each, so I just want to make sure we get our money’s worth...”

”I just haven’t seen a good one yet, I don’t know!”

I couldn’t believe it took until seeing them to realize who it was, Stella was talking to her sister Zeta, who unsurprisingly didn’t look super enthused about going on roller coaster rides.

”Probably should have figured it’d go this way,” Stella sighed, worn out with Zeta’s anxiousness at the moment.

”We’ll go on a ride, seriously! But it’s gotta be one I pick, alright?”

”I’m not worried about me going on rides, I just want you to have fun, too,” Stella said. ”I think maybe three rides and I’ll feel like we got our money’s worth.”

”I’m fine just walking around, too,” Zeta said.

”But that defeats the whole point of going!”

”I thought we were just here to keep an eye on Pippi,” Zeta said.

”Don’t...say that out loud! We haven’t even found her yet...” Stella said, shushing Zeta. She got her phone out and started texting. ”Evy’s not back yet from the bathrooms, she said she’d call if she...spotted...”

Stella trailed off as she realized I was right by her.

”Heh, hey Pips...” Stella said, embarrassed she was caught red-handed.

”Howdy Stella,” I said, not quite mad but not wanting to fully give that away yet. ”What was that you were keeping an eye on?”