Rising Shards

Dr. Diast quickly got to work scanning the shelves for a book that matched the rare damaged one. She didn’t give us much instruction for what to do while she did that, so I aimlessly scanned shelves until I found some Raina Starlight books in a corner of the store. I had most of them already, but one caught my eye, so I yanked it off the shelf and intently studied it. Kalei had said something about looking for some ‘specific’ books that she wouldn’t explain further. There was also a chunky cat in the bookstore, sitting comfortably on a chair with a pillow and a blanket on it as they cleaned themselves.

“Hang on,” I said. “What’s with this cover?” It was one of the earlier Raina books, but it didn’t look right. “Zevolenth edition? What? That’s not a number or a word.” I shook the book, as if that would verify its legitimacy. “Is this a bootleg? Did I stumble upon a Raina Starlight bootleg?”

“Is a bootleg book a bookleg? Eh?” Oka said.

“No.” Lillia aid.

“But why’d they draw Raina looking like a jacked-up Haven fighter?” I asked, referring to the book’s bizarre cover. “Like, I’m in on that, very in. But it isn’t canon to Raina’s in-book appearance, you see. She’s definitely strong, sure, but she’s more lithe and fights more with her brains than her brawns.”

“Zeta, we really need to get moving.” Lillia said.

“No, but listen—” I started.

“Alternatively, I’ll go assist Dr. Diast.” Lillia said, leaving Oka and I alone next to the cat. Being alone with Oka in the back corner of a bookstore distracted me from the Raina book, which had distracted me from my panic about ruining Stella’s job.

I pictured Oka saying “Zeta, it’s just us in a corner of this bookstore all by ourselves. Let’s make out with our mouths.”

Oka didn’t say that though, so I took the lead.

“Hey, so Oka. Question.” I said suavely.

“Uh huh.” Oka said.

“What are your thoughts on kissing in the back corner of this bookstore? Us. Kissing, I mean.” I said, even more suavely.

“O-oh!” Oka yelped, matching my suave levels with her own incredible suave-itude. “That’s. That’d be…terrific! If you’d…want to.” Oka stammered. “Kiss, that is. With…our mou—"

“Do not kiss in my presence.” The cat said in a very deep voice.

We both looked at the cat, then to each other, then back to the cat, repeating that loop a bunch of times to confirm what we just heard.

“Did that cat just talk?” I asked.

“The cat sees all,” The cat said. “And demands scritches and a treat. Inform the shopkeep.”

“Frick, that’s kind of a mood killer.” Oka said.

My potential kissing with Oka thwarted, we obeyed the cat and went to the front where a lone cashier waited. I of course immediately bought that bootleg Raina book first.

“Hey also, your cat told us they need food. Your talking cat.” I said after the cashier bagged my new Raina collectable.

“And scritches.” Oka added.

“Oh no, not again,” The cashier said frantically and ran to the back corner.

While that was going on, Diast was comparing the damaged book from the library with a similar looking one.

“So did you get the book, Dr. Diast?” I asked. I pretty much shoved my book between the two Diast held so she’d pay attention to me. “I got this Raina Starlight bootleg. I’m pretty sure it’s a bootleg, at least. I’m going to compare the text to the original when we’re back at school.”

Diast proudly held up the other book, gently nudging mine aside.  It was a near perfect match of the rare damaged one.

“Same edition, same general wear and tear.” She said. “Easy peasy. Now we just pull off the old barcode, and—” Diast pulled on the barcode of the library copy, ripping it in half as well as the rest of the mangled cover. “Ah.”

“Well, I got the Raina book.” I said.

“Yep, I remember you telling me, bud.” Diast said.

“I already posted a pic on my Raina chat and asked if people there thought it was a bootleg.” I said.

“Alright Zeta, we kind of have to figure out this barcode situation first.”

“I haven’t heard from anyone there yet, but you can bet I’m gonna keep an eye on it.” I said.

“I’m just gonna do this barcode thing when we’re back at school, I haven’t even paid for this yet.” Diast said.

“How’d you find that book through all this?” Oka asked.

“Your teacher has some tricks up her sleeves when it comes to finding books.” Diast said. Oka didn’t get to ask a follow up question, as Lillia had snuck up behind her and got her with a quiet hup-killshot.

A shaken cashier returned, allowing Diast to buy the book. It seemed like we were finally getting somewhere with fixing the mess Diast had caused probably a decade or more earlier. Kalei bought a book as well, that she suspiciously wouldn’t let us look at.

“So, shopping time?” I asked as we left the bookstore.

“We’re really prepping for a sleepover during the weekend on the Monday before?” Kalei asked.

“Hey, if we get this done now, we’ll have the whole week to our shelves.” Oka said.

“Oh my god, booooooo.” Kalei said, giving Oka’s pun two thumbs down. “Penalty kill shot for that.”

“Accepted.” Lillia said. “Twelve points to Kalei. Minus five for Oka.”

“That seems like a lot…” Oka said.

“Then catch up.” Lillia said.

“Can we go already?” Diast asked.

“Yeah, let’s go.” Ema Kari said.

“Right, what she—wait.” I said, confused at the sudden presence of Ema Kari and Snake Riley behind us. They each had a bundle of books in their arms as they snickered to each other.

“How did you…?” I asked.

“You didn’t sneak in my trunk again, did you?” Diast asked.

“We walked here.” Snake said.

“I don’t like the sound of any of this, and I’d like to get out of here before you two do whatever you’re thinking of doing before it’s my problem.” Diast said.

“We’re thinking of lighting these books on fire.” Ema said.

“And you made it my problem, perfect.” Dr. Diast said.

“Do you need me to threaten them again, Dr. Diast?” Lillia asked.

“No, I got—again? You’ve gotten them before? Hmm…” Diast shook her head. “Nah, I should really handle this."

Ema and Snake wandered out into the street and dropped their books in a big pile.

“Hey, girls?” The cashier said as they ran out of the store. “You can’t…just leave…oh no…”

As Diast and the cashier tried to stop Ema and Snake from starting a fire, a bicycle’s bell rang. A tandem bike approached with two unexpected riders. Roux and Latte biked past me and stopped right in front of Lillia.

“Great, Roux now too?” I said. I realized that sounded really mean. “Sorry, Roux. That was mean of me. I’m under a lot of stress currently.”

“No, she deserves it, don’t take it back.” Kalei said. “I’ll say it and not take it back: Great, Roux now too?”

“Quiet, Koridia, I’m not here for you,” Roux said. She scrambled off the bike and dropped to one knee in front of Lillia, who accidentally burped fire from the shock. Latte approached more casually, but in all honesty her way of approaching casually was far creepier than Roux practically groveling at Lillia’s feet for some reason. Her whole body’s movement was like a painting that had eyes that followed whoever was watching it around the room.

“Lillia, I have to…tell you something!” Roux said.

Latte threw coffee in Roux’s face. “AAAGH!” I screamed too, as I thought I’d just witnessed a heinous assault via scalding coffee as Latte just ‘tsk tsk’d Roux.

“It’s just ice coffee, you baby.” Latte said as Roux writhed around on the floor and continued squealing. “Now, Lillia. I have to tell you something. Much more important than what Roux had to say.”

“I…er…what?” Lillia said.

Roux got up and swatted at Latte as she refilled her coffee cup from her thermos. She yelped as the thermos tipped over, spilling her precious drink on the sidewalk. Now it was Latte’s turn to writhe around and squeal as she tried to scoop the coffee from the concrete back into her thermos.

“So. Anyways.” Roux nervously laughed. “I just wanna—"

“You’re such a weirdo, Roux!” Lillia yelled as Kalei immediately started laughing. “An unpleasant weirdo!” She pointed at Latte, who resorted to slurping up the ground coffee, something none of us really wanted to be aware of. “You too, Latte! Don’t bother us when we’re not in class! And especially don’t bother us when we’re in class!”

“Lillia called me a weirdo…and she knows my name…” Roux said, gently holding near her heart. “We need to evaluate and regroup! Latte, to me!”

Roux got back on the tandem bike and took off without Latte, who just stood up and gave an open mouth smile to Lillia before slinking away in the direction Roux biked.

“What was that about?” Oka asked. Lillia had no answer for her.

“I’m surprised Lillia said ‘weirdo,’ honestly,” Kalei said. “With her vocabulary I’d figure it’d be like. I dunno. A big kid word.”

“A big kid word? What are you, five?” I said.

“Are we not big kids ourselves? What is a teenager if not a big kid?” Oka speculated.

“I say whatever I want when I’m heated.” Lillia said.