Rising Shards

“Alright team!” Dr. Diast said.

“Team Starlight!” I said, pumping my fist in the air.

“No.” Lillia said.

“That was real subtle, Zates.” Kalei said. 

“Moving on from team names—” Diast began.

“Actually, before you start,” Kalei said. “Can I just say I’m impressed you actually cleaned this mess up? I was embarrassed sitting in your dump of an office before.”

Since we had some extra meeting time with the Wildfire Hearts crew mostly no showing, we used some of that to relocate to Dr. Diast’s office, as we didn’t want to be interrupted by any more spy-maids. Diast asked us if we wanted to wait it out and see if we could meet any more of our rivals for next semester, but we all decided Chickadee was enough for today. 

“Yeah…” Diast said. “I maybe had some help with that.”

Kalei was correct in that Diast’s office was a lot better than I’d ever seen it. Usually there were at least three pretty nasty piles of garbage. I assumed Stella was the culprit for the help there, and my suspicions were all but confirmed when I saw a Stella signature cleanliness thing in the way she spread out smaller piles of magazines like they were playing cards.

“Back to the matter at hand,” Diast said. “How are we feeling about finals?”

“Eh, so-so,” Kalei said, waving her hand. “Can we skip them? They’re supposed to go baby easy on us because of all the raiding and such, right?”

“Baby easy doesn’t mean you get to skip the regular school requirements.” Diast said.

“That sucks.” Kalei said.

“You all mostly have the same classes, so I’d recommend sticking together and helping each other out. If someone’s slacking or falling behind, help em keep up, alright?”

“You all didn’t have to look at me.” Iris said.

I was a bit anxious about finals. Diast’s class would be a big lab, lit class would have a big book report, Letoh’s would focus on the big group presentations for the eighteenth era (we had ended up with the Jecruible Islands Renaissance as our topic), gym would be some kind of big obstacle course, Caya’s classes would have our various big power tests, and just about all of them would have big exams on top of all that. For the Benta scholarship exclusive requirements that fell outside of finals business, I mainly just had monster hunting in the void to wrap up and assumed the others were in the same boat.

“Are the pods gonna stay the same next semester?” Oka asked.

“Barring any other giant raid-like incidents from Wildfire Hearts, it should be.” Diast said. “And honestly if they tried anything again now when they’re on the thinnest of thin ice, it’d probably get reversed pretty quickly.”

I had my doubts Wildfire Hearts would back off, especially considering the spy girl just a few minutes earlier. But Dr. Diast wasn’t at all worried about her, so at least Chickadee (hopefully) wouldn’t be a Jeans or Ovie level issue.

“When are we getting our schedules for next semester?” I asked.

“Should be…soon. You got that survey, right?” Diast asked.

“Uh huh!” I said. We had tried to synchronize our schedules as much as we could per Oka’s request. Now that she wasn’t going to be in choir, she wanted us to be together for as many classes as we could.

Diast’s pep talk continued, with all of us going over the big requirements once more. She stressed checking in with her if we were concerned about anything with the last few weeks of the semester.

Our pod stuck together through lunch, where the looming finals were still on my mind.

“I can’t believe the semester’s almost over already,” I said.

“Real thrilling observation there, Zeta.” Kalei said. “Surprised you didn’t lead with ‘Can’t believe the holidays are over already!'”

“Why would I lead with that? Was that you just trying to brag about your Safe Silver presents again?” I asked.

“Maybe…” Kalei said.

“I forgot to even ask,” Oka said “How was everyone’s Safe Silver? I know how Zeta’s went, but…”

My Safe Silver was pretty low key. It was kind of surreal having someone else there, as I was so used to Safe Silver just being a thing for me and Stella. Dr. Diast got me a Raina Starlight figure, a variant of one of her Arlit costumes from Tower of Hate and Love, which made me very happy. The coffee mug I got for her at Stella’s suggestion seemed to go over well,

After all that, I called Oka while in my room, as she wanted to talk to me as I opened her present since we couldn’t be together in person. She got me a wintry outfit that was so adorable I started bawling immediately.

“You said you wanted cute clothes,” Oka said as I was basically heaved on the other line. “I hope I got the right size.”

I managed to heave out a yes, and we had a very bubbly call after I calmed down. I had gotten her the phone already earlier in that big Lil Haven sale, but I did get her an elegant looking bracelet that she seemed happy about.

We had a few days off for Safe Silver, and then it was back to class for the last leg of the semester. I remember in elementary school and junior high we wouldn’t have any more classes for the rest of the year after the big holiday, which I kind of missed. There was a lot about my childhood I didn’t miss though, so I could take a few more weeks of class to avoid those.

“Mine was adequate,” Lillia said. “I had told my parents I wanted an updated lexicon of Cani terminology, but they got me last year’s edition. They also got me the ‘game of the century’ edition of Talon: Bravery of the Warriors, which has a very ugly cover compared to the standard edition.”

“Ah, we should get some rounds of Talon in soon!” Kalei said. “Bravery’s single player though, isn’t it?”

Lillia nodded.

“As for me, I got everything on my list,” Kalei said.

“She’s been bragging nonstop about this alien invasion game,” I said.

“Yeah, because it’s sick! We all gotta watch this one together.” Kalei said.

“Mine went fine,” Oka said. “But nobody told me that silver gunk tastes gross as heck! I embarrassed myself in front of everyone when I almost gagged drinking it.” Those of us at the table took a few seconds to respond, sending Oka into an anxious moment. “I hope nobody gets mad that I didn’t like it. If you liked it, I’m not saying you’re bad for liking it, just that I didn’t—”

“Dude, chill.” Kalei said.

“I’d say it’s about an even split between like and dislike for most people.” I said.

“What side do you fall on?” Oka asked.

“Some years we get a good batch and it tastes...okayish. Some years we get a gag batch.” I said.

“Well at least we align somewhat on this.” Oka crossed her arms.

“Would you be really mad if I said I super liked it?” I asked.

“Maybe.” Oka pouted.

“It all depends where they get the berries from what I understand.” Kalei said.

“Right,” Lillia said. “From my experience, the ones gathered from ‘closer’ void nodes are a lot more palatable.”

“Well, wherever the Kilanders get em sucks.” Oka said.