Rising Shards

“There you are,” Latte said, appearing nearly as quickly as Aira did when she teleported, making Iris and I scream. She took a sip of coffee from a mug she had with her now. “I’ve been waiting by the signup booth for a while. Also, is it cool if Nikki joins?” Latte pointed her mug to a tall girl with orange hair that had her back turned to us. Latte elbowed her and she turned around and smiled. "This is Nikki, did I say that? She's Nikki. This person right here. Nikki."

“Hey,” Nikki said. “Latte told me you’re starting a blank club.”

“What’s a blank club?” Iris asked.

“You know, like a nothing club so people who don’t want a club have something to join.”

“Oh yeah! Join us!” I said.

“Holy crap, that’s eight!” Iris said. “Maia, eight!”

Maia stopped biting her claws. “We actually did it…”

“You got any ideas for what to tell Mrs. Junea what our club is?” I asked.

“I heard if you just name it something like vaguely motivational, they let you do whatever,” Nikki said. “Like Limitless Dream Obstacle Overcoming Initiative or something.”

“Let’s just go with that!” I said.

We returned to Mrs. Junea and told her we were going to do the Limitless Dream Obstacle Overcoming Initiative club.

“Well, we’re not going to do that,” Junea said. “That isn’t on the list of applicable clubs.”

“Oh.” I really really wanted to say, “And boys club is!?” but I held my tongue.

“But we do have a few blank clubs you could do,” Junea said. “You could take the Cramped Spaces Club, where you climb into cramped spaces, that’s for people afraid of cramped spaces to overcome their fear of cramped spaces. There’s also the Rising Shards Spirit Betterment Club, they would need to put together a project to promote the school, like a commercial or something.”

“Oh, that!” I said. “We could do that!”

I turned to the group. “We could do that, right?” They all nodded.

“The Cramped Spaces Club?” Junea asked.

“No, the Betterment one!”

We all had the excitement of the love trio as we celebrated on the way to the sandwich robot. Well, except Nikki, she just put her headphones back on. But she seemed happy, so I counted it as the same excitement level as the rest of us.

“We did it!” Iris said. “Whatever-she-just-said club is a go!”

“Provided we can actually make a commercial or something before the end of the semester.”

“Yeah, but we don’t have to do that today. Bask in this victory, Maia!” When Maia didn’t promptly bask in the victory the way Iris wanted, she added. “Bask in it, Maia.”

The sandwich making robot was actually very cool. And I savored the robo sandwich (robot made sandwich, not like a sandwich made of nuts and bolts and metal bread for robots) as my trophy for successfully making a club before the registration time limit. I sat down at a table with Iris and Maia, while the love trio at a table near us and Latte and Nikki taking one a bit further away.

“I’d say we did pretty good on the friend to annoying people ratio for this club.” Iris said.

“Yeah, I’m glad we got you at least.” Maia said.

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, you’re cool dude.” Maia said. “You’ll help balance out the…” At their table, KJ and Amara got into a loud “who can eat the most sandwiches” contest to impress Rain. “…others.”

“Thanks,” I said. “You two are cool, too. I kinda thought Ovie always making fun of me like I dunno, turned people away from me a bit maybe?”

“Ovie’s really annoying and unpleasant though,” Maia said. “I’ll take you at your quietest over her. I’d take Iris at her ultra-annoying mode over Ovie.”

“Aw, you do care.” Iris said.

“In fact, I bet the rest of the club feels the same.” Maia said. “See, Zeta, watch this.”

KJ, Amara, and Rain walked past us, having gotten new cups of lemonade to wash down the numerous sandwiches that didn’t seem to yield a winner between KJ and Amara.

“Yo, Amara, would you say Zeta’s your friend?” Maia asked.

“Since when was that in question?” Amara asked. “If we’re all not friends after forming the Rising Shards Spirit Betterment club, then I don’t know anything.”

“Yes, we love Zeta!” Rain said.

“Not as much as we love you, Rain.” KJ said.

“And some of us love Rain the most, much more than others!” Amara said.

While KJ and Amara kept escalating saying who loved Rain more, I felt hands on my shoulders.

“…Zeta.” Kalei said, keeping her head down. “Let me join your club.”

She looked like she somehow missed twelve nights of sleep within the last few hours somehow.

“Whoa, Kalei, you alright?” I asked. “Did you have a bad sandwich or something?”

“You have to let me join.”

“Weren’t you all ‘you gotta meet new people, Zeta. You can’t hang out with me and Oka all the time.’ Now you wanna join my club miss…err…boss. Boss pants?”

“Nailed it.” Iris said.

Kalei only nodded.

“Wow, what did happen to you?” I asked. “Bombing an insult like that usually gives you hours of material.”

“Please let me join your club.” Kalei said.

I turned to Iris and Maia. “Can Kalei join?”

“Can she cool it with the insults?” Maia asked.

“Yeah, she can be a lot.” Iris said.

“I don’t know,” I said, leaning over to Kalei. “Can she?”

“For this. Yes.” Kalei said.

I had no idea what had gotten into Kalei, but the majesty of the robot sandwich maker seemed to get her out of her funk at least.

* * *

Oka stretched as she flopped onto her bed.

“Well, we each got clubs that should make sure we don’t spend all of our time together and get tired of each other,” Oka said. “Are you satisfied, Kalei?”

“Mrrmrhph.” Kalei said from her position face down on the floor.

“Kalei’s been weird since the thing.” I said.

“I see,” Oka said.

“Though I am still uncertain as to why.”

“Zeta, squeeze me,” Kalei said.

“Why?”

“I’m bloated and I need to be squeezed.”

“I don’t trust this,” I said. Are you gonna like fart or something if I squeeze you?”

“Yes! That’s the point! I’m bloated! I need it squeezed outta me!”

“I’m not doing that.”

“…Oka, squeeze me.”

“No.” Oka said.

“It hurts,” Kalei said, nearly in tears. “I made a mistake. I ate a hoagie that a robot made. I ate it too fast. I ate a hoagie that a robot made too fast. I actually ate three of the hoagies. One I ate normal speed, two I ate too fast. Then I had a fourth hoagie.”

“I think I figured out why Kalei’s being weird,” Oka said. “I believe it’s called ‘trapped wind.’”

“Or she overate to try and not think about whatever happened to her at the thing that made her all weird and needing to join my club.” I said. “Kalei, did you overeat to try and not think about whatever happened to you at the thing that made you all weird and needing to join my club?”

“No,” Kalei said. “...but yeah.”

“Well Kalei, you’ve probably earned some privacy.” Oka said.

“Yeah, I’m not gonna pry,” I said. “We’re here for you if you need to talk about this, obviously.”

Kalei nodded, still keeping her prone position.

“I really liked the sandwich robot, at least.”

There would be time to help out with Kalei’s issues later. Just having a bit of time away from my roommates that day did make me feel all warm inside when we were all back together, so I begrudgingly admitted to myself that Kalei was right to push me to find my own path for the club thing.

“Me too, Kalei. Me too.”