Rising Shards

Back at the table, my brow was still firmly furrowed as I continued to calculate what Maia had asked of me. It got especially more furrowed when Oka appeared, and the thought of me biting her intensified. To distract myself from staring at Oka and trying to think of where to bite her, I forced myself back into weekend outfit analysis. Oka had sweatpants and a t-shirt on, which she had told me was her official 'want to be comfy during play practice' outfit. Her shirt had a poster of an old musical on it.

Kalei currently wore sporty shorts and a jersey, which was different from her usual weekend wear. Like Maia, she seemed to have a lot weighing on her mind, as she stared into a bag of chips for about fifteen minutes straight. She finally moved, only to take a single chip out and gaze into it as well.

“You’re…really intensely staring at that chip, Kalei.” I said.

“Today’s the day,” Kalei said.

“What’s that? Some kind of chip day?” I asked, hoping she wasn’t about to ask me to bite Oka as well.

Kalei held up the chip with her head tilted. “Looks just like the Dulcet Purview logo.” Like she was holding up an icon, a symbol of great significance. She had a really weird look on her face.

“The what now?” Oka asked.

“Biggest arena for beam chasers.” Kalei said. “The Dulcet Purview logo. Logo’s not really part of the name, but the logo’s really famous so the arena gets called 'the logo' sometimes, or the 'Dulcet Purview logo.'”

“I don’t know any of that, so I’m just going to have to take your word on it.” I said. “Are you…good?”

Kalei turned to me looking almost like a zombie. “Tryout’s today. If I mess this up, I don’t get to play beam chasers next semester.”

“You’re great at beam chasers, though!” I said. “They’d be stupid not to let you in.”

“Why are you eating potato chips before your big tryout?” Oka asked, not one for whatever profound things Kalei was feeling. “I couldn’t eat anything before my play tryout, I was a mess.”

“I need calories for energy,” Kalei said.

“Maybe like an energy bar instead? Veggies? Anything healthy?” Oka asked. Kalei stared at her, the chips in her hand slowly falling out from her loose grip, some landing in the bag while others landed on the table.

“Well, anyways, today’s a big day for us too.” Oka said. “Lillia and I have play practice.”

“A big practice.” Lillia said.

“A weekend practice?” I asked.

“Uh huh,” Oka said.

“A big weekend practice.” Lillia said.

“Reit wants us to run through everything today,” Oka said. “Not like a dress rehearsal since it’s not for months, and we all can hold our scripts, but we’re gonna run through everything today.”

“Are you nervous?” I asked.

“Very!” Oka said.

“How about you, Lillia?” I asked.

“I use my fear as motivation to not only strike fear into any rivals, but to enhance my own performance by utilizing raw emotions.”

“Right, cool.” I said, trying and failing to hide how scared that made me of her.

“What are you gonna be up to while we have our business, Zeta?” Oka asked.

“Well, Stella’s going to finally show me our new apartment in Sky Clay.” I said.

“That’s right I am!” Stella said, springing up behind me. Once I picked myself up off the ground, it started to sink in that she had somehow snuck up on me and waited until I brought her up to introduce herself.

“Hi Stella!” Oka said. “Impressive sneaking, if I do say so myself. And congratulations on your new job! I’m already waiting to check some books out I’ve had my eye on so I can check them out from you.”

“Sucking up to the family already, huh?” Kalei asked.

“Shut up, go back to being weird about chips or go to your tryout already.” Oka said, blushing.

Stella didn’t respond to that, because she was apparently in the middle of a stare down with Lillia. Or the two were transmitting data to each other, I couldn’t tell. They each just had blank expressions as they studied each other.

“Have we met yet?” Stella finally asked, holding out a hand for Lillia to shake.

“I don’t believe so,” Lillia said, shaking it. “Lillia Cadence.”

“Oh, yes, I know you. Thank you for helping to keep this one’s grades passable.” Stella said, gently bonking me on the head. “You ready to go?”

“You forgot to say your name,” I said, catching Stella in a rare moment of not getting her handshake-introduction deal done perfectly to her own standards.

“I—er, well I’m sure Miss Cadence could surmise who I am based on appearance, you probably talked about me to her, that sort of thing.” Stella said. “Right, Lillia?”

“I could, yes.” Lillia said.

“Well. Still.” I said, watching my potential win wither into dust.

“Where are you headed, Zeta?” Oka asked.

“To the new apartment!” I said.

“Ooh, text me pictures, alright?” Oka said.

“Definitely! I’ll—"

“Raaagh!” Kalei yelled, crumpling her chip bag and standing with her fists in the air. “It’s…time.” She marched off, leaving us all unsure what we just witnessed.

“What the hell was that?” Stella asked, breaking the silence.

“She has a tryout today,” I said.

“I don’t know if that explains whatever that was, but Lillia and I should get going to ours too.” Oka said. “Any last-minute tips before a kind of practice dress rehearsal, Stella?”

“Like not a full dress rehearsal? Just running everything through?”

Oka nodded. “The real deal’s not for a few months.”

“Well, if you flub stuff here, don’t sweat it,” Stella said. “Basically, just don’t overthink it. If anyone gets heated about it, just find a corner to watch it from and don’t join in.”

“What do you mean by heated?” Lillia asked.

“From my experience, the big rehearsals are where the big emotions come out. I had directors get way too harsh on them and make everyone mad, people storm off, shout at each other, that kind of thing.”

“Huh…” Oka said. “Thanks! I hope things don’t get like that, but I appreciate hearing from an expert about what to expect.”

Stella looked at me smugly for some reason, like she was showing me up for saying she wasn’t an expert at theater, despite me never saying that.

“Well, I guess we should go.” Oka said.

Oka got a good luck hug from me before leaving, and I gave Lillia a good luck fist bump that she almost completely missed until Oka noticed and made her go back to not leave me hanging.

Stella seemed a bit stiffer as I walked with her back to her car. Or at least, that’s where I thought we were headed. She brought me to a different lot than the public one she usually picked me up at. Connected to that one was a smaller, more exclusive looking lot just for teachers and staff.

“Oh, you can park in the faculty lot now?” I said. “Hey, where’s your car?”

“I uh,” Stella said. I thought she was gonna say she sold it or something weird, but just as I started to worry that Stella had been in a terrible car accident and walked the rest of the way to the school, someone else’s car pulled up right by us. The driver’s side window rolled down.

“Hey!” Dr. Diast said.

“Uh, hi Dr. Diast,” I said. “Fancy…running into you here? Or I guess not since this is your parking lot.”

Dr. Diast stayed idling right in front of us, and Stella wasn’t moving either.

“So are we going or…?” I asked.

“Actually, Zeta.” Stella said, putting both hands on my shoulders. Now I started to worry that the Stella I was with was an impostor, as was the Dr. Diast, and I was about to be kidnapped. “Dr. Diast is…”

“I’m…your ride.” Diast said.

“Huh?” I asked. Stella took her hands off me, so if this was a kidnapping it was a bad one as I could easily escape.

“We’re carpooling!” Diast said. “Saves a lot of gas.”

“Alright…?” I said, not following.

“We’ll explain on the way.” Stella said.