Rising Shards

Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila had been sitting at the R.S.R.S.N. recruiting booth, tasked by Ovie to recruit/make sure a specific list of people don’t join the club. Neither had seen anyone on the list, which ranged from Zeta Faleur to that hair gel girl. Mr. Soleri, the head of the school TV news club, was reading an old leather bound book as he oversaw the booth. Mikeila-Keila scanned their signup clipboard and scratched her head.

“Wait, Chellsi,” Mikeila-Keila said.

“What is it, Mikeila-Keila?”

“Like, there isn’t like, like space on the thing for our names.”

Chellsi scanned the clipboard. The list of names was filled up by the new club members, and some old ones like Ovie.

“Aren’t we, though, perhaps like already signed up like for the school news club or whatever already?” Chellsi asked.

They both stared for a moment, then whined in unison. “Mr. Soleriiiiiiiii…..”

Soleri jolted. “Uh, yes, what is it girls?” He looked around for a bookmark, but couldn’t find one. He winced as he folded a page of Beefcake Chefs From the Retribution Era dog ear style.

The duo held their clipboard up. “There’s no space for our like names on the thing.”

“Well,” Soleri pondered for a moment. “Why didn’t you sign up?”

“We thought we were in the club already.” Chellsi said.

“Right, we thought we were in the club,” Mikeila-Keila said. “Like, already.”

Soleri was quiet, staring past them as he thought for a long while. He raised his eyebrows as an idea seemed to hit him. “Well, unfortunately, even if you participate in a club, you are only officially a member once you sign up on club day.”

Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila stared past him blankly.

“So like,” Mikeila-Keila said.

“That like means…” Chellsi said. “What that means?”

“I’m so sorry girls,” Soleri said. “It appears you will need to find another club.”

“Oh no!” Chellsi said, slapping the sides of her face in a dramatic gesture.

“Chellsi Mikeila-Keila! What are we going to do!” Mikeila-Keila said.

“This is like for real uggo.”

“This is like, a pwoblem.”

“Right, I would recommend you begin your search for another club immediately, lest you be caught in the three-day rule thing.”

“Yeah, like, I guess that might be like, smart or whateverrrrr….” Chellsi said. “Chellsi Mikeila-Keila!”

Mikeila-Keila made a sad gurgling noise, then squeaky sound of agreement.

Soleri watched the girls wander off. He hoped neither of them would hear that there wasn’t a cap on member limits for the school news club before they signed up for another club.

“Thank every being that is holy,” Soleri muttered to himself as he went back to reading.

“Hey Chellsi,” Mikeila-Keila said.

“Yeah, Mikeila-Keila?” Chellsi said.

“I like, thought of something?”

“Yeah?”

“I miss being in the news club.”

“Yeah, me too!”

“I thought of something else, too.”

“Yeah, Mikeila-Keila?”

“This like, sucks.”

“Yeah, it does!”

The girls wandered for a while, not particularly looking for a club. They both realized at the same time that they wouldn’t be in the same club as Ovie and sat down in the sand and cried about that for a while.

“I thought of something else, like just now.” Mikeila-Keila said as she wiped her tears away.

“You’re thinking of so many things today, Mikeila-Keila!”

“This like, really sucks.”

“It does! You’re so right!”

They wailed together for a bit as they hugged and then rolled around in the sand sadly.

“Hey, are you guys…OK?”

“Huh?” The duo looked up to see the Matora sisters, Ko and Kai.

“It’s the clone sisters Mikeila-Keila!”

“The twins.” Kai said.

“That’s what I said!”

“I uh,” Mikeila-Keila whispered loudly. “Can’t ever tell them apart, Chellsi."

“Oh my god me too!”

“That’s why we're Chellsi Mikeila-Keila!"

Ko and Kai helped the duo to their feet.

“Easy way to tell us apart,” Ko said, pulling on her mouth. “I have a bigger left fang, and Kai has a bigger right fang.”

“Oh, wow!” Mikeila-Keila said.

“And Ko is always getting beat up and I’m better at not being a complete danger to myself.” Kai said, poking her sister on a bandage on her cheek. "And is really, really stupid."

“Right, whatever,” Ko said. “So why are you guys crying and rolling around?”

“We don’t have a clunben.” Chellsi said.

“A…what?” Kai asked.

“It means club,” Mikeila-Keila said. “That’s our word for club that we just made up.”

“Well, join our club then!” Kai said.

“What’s like, your club?” Chellsi asked.

“Sports prep,” Ko said. “Basically just like working out and stuff. We’re a few members short, so having you guys would be perfect.”

“Ew,” Chellsi said. “Sports are like, hard.”

“Yeah, sports are like, ew.”

“Have you even played a sport?” Kai asked.

“Noooo,” Mikeila-Keila asked.

“Ovie picked us for that stupid beam chasers game a while ago but for all you guys know you, you would have been better than us in it.” Kai said.

“You’ll never know unless you try.” Ko said.

“That’s truuuuuuue,” Chellsi said. “What do you think, Mikeila-Keila?

“That would solve like, all our problems?”

“That would, except for not being in a club with Ovie, frowny face.”

“Yeah, frowny face,” Mikeila-Keila said. “But we’d still be in a club together! Winky face!”

“That’s true! Winky face and then a kissy face!"

"Three winky faces, two kissy faces, six smiles, and then one more frowny face because that's still sad about Ovie. Let’s join then!”

“Yes, we’ll join Matora sisters!”

“Woo! Nice!” Ko said.

“Alright, let’s get you signed up real quick then.” Kai said.

Ko and Kai led Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila away to their club’s booth, as both duos suddenly felt a lot of relief about club day.

Two other girls watched the four walk past.

"Do you think those two would be good?" The taller of the two, a Kanibari, said.

"Hmm, they do seem weak willed, which wouled be good," the shorter of the two, a more gremlin-esque Cani girl said. "But I don't know about that sports club idea."

"Maybe we can convince them to join another group?" The taller girl asked.

"That's a surprisingly great idea for you!" The gremlin-esque girl said. "You run up in front of them and stop them from signing up for that club because I don't wanna run or be loud really. My throat's a lil scratchy and I'm out of cough drops, you see."

The taller girl nodded and ran off. The gremlin-like girl snickered to herself, as her fortunes at Rising Shards seemed to finally be reversing.

"If we get them...and a club with a flimsy premise filled with weak willed fools as members...then it'll only be a matter of time before I have my gambling club." Chumbler said, rubbing her hands together.