Rising Shards

We followed closely behind Mr. Krangel, who radiated immense pride and intense energy as he marched straight towards the group of students.

“Hey, dorks!” Krangel yelled.

Soleri scowled, and in a few long strides faced Krangel.

“I thought I had informed you to stay out of this.” Soleri said.

“You did, but I don’t care.” Krangel said. He furiously pointed at Soleri. “Here’s the breaking news, Soleri. One round of beam chasers.”

“What?” Soleri asked.

“It’s not fair that you just get my space, and I’m making the challenge to take it back.” Krangel said. “Just take three of your girls and they’ll fight these three.”

Kalei cracked her knuckles. She looked ready to kill. Soleri crossed his arms, gripping the elbow patches on his suit jacket.

“I suppose I could spare three, as most of today’s session will be for the Falling Shards boys.” Soleri said. “But what would be in this for me?”

I was shocked he actually considered this.

“If your team wins, you can make your stupid news crap take up this whole track as long as you want,” Krangel said.

Soleri rubbed his chin.

“But if my team wins, you move your set over,” Krangel said. “And I get you one on one in a proper Haven fight.”

“Definitely not the latter,” Soleri said. “But the former…a competition does sound rather enjoyable. That said…I can’t imagine the school board will approve such a sudden change.”

Krangel proudly held out a paper with a sloppy signature on it.

“I just got signed permission from Principal Penteldtam,” Krangel said.

Penteldtam waved from the bleachers.

“Principal Penteldtam, a thorn in my side once more,” Soleri said. “Very well. I assume an hour is adequate time to prepare?”

After grabbing our gym clothes, we found Krangel at the beam chasers court. It was a building on the far end of the gym area. Kalei looked giddy when Krangel unlocked the doors. 

The court had its own locker rooms, and my nerves started to set in when Kalei gave us our beam chaser shoes, with strong magnets in the soles so we would have a harder time falling.

“Kalei, while I’m totally down to help, I hope you know I suck at sports and have only played beam chasers for five minutes, and when I did play I fell down immediately and they sent me home from school because falling really hurt my ankles. Also, can we name our team? Team Starlight, right?”

“And I’m still not entirely sure what beam chasers is,” Oka said. “Is that going to be a problem?”

“Leave it to me,” Kalei said. “You guys can take the defender positions. 3 on 3 beam chasers with one round is mostly going to be between the two runners anyways. And no, we’re not calling us Team Starlight.”

Kalei took us to the court and quickly explained the rules. We would be on defense, where we’d stand on circular platforms that were attached to a horizontal beam.

“All you have to do is stand on these,” Kalei said. “Lean to either side to move and try not to bump into each other. If the ball gets close to you, just try and hit it to me. With the grav systems below us the ball won’t get any lower than our waists.”

Kalei was a runner, so she would be in charge of getting the ball to the end of the court and hitting it into one of the holes in the wall. They looked really high up and small, and I couldn’t imagine how she could even do it. She’d be almost skating on the beams that crisscrossed from the front end of the court to our side.

“Basically, I go forward and backward, you two move side to side.” Kalei said.

Kalei gave us each our defender staffs, which were a little heavier than I would have liked. She twirled her staff and took a deep breath.

“There’s something about the air that just feels like home,” Kalei said.

“It is pretty nice,” Oka said.

I could tell Oka was a little nervous too. Our magnet boots felt pretty clunky. The helmet and pads made me feel constricted.

“Hey, uh, Oka?” A man said.

“Oh no,” Oka said.

We looked to the edge of the court where Oka’s adoptive father Berin Kilander stood, looking concerned.

“Is he gonna be a problem?” Kalei asked quietly as Mr. Kilander approached us.

“Probably,” Oka said.

“We’ve come too far to stop now!” I hissed through a fake full teeth smile.

“Right,” Kalei said. “I’ve got a plan, follow me.”

We followed Kalei’s lead and awkwardly waddled behind her as Berin caught up with us.

“You guys…playing, hi, Berin Kilander, we’ve met. You’re Oka’s friends? Yes?”

“Yep, that’s us,” Kalei said. “We’re in the middle of practice, do you mind stepping back?”

“Well, yes, I mean, if that’s,” Berin said. “Listen, are you playing beam chasers?”

“Yep,” Oka said. “It’s for a thing for our teachers. Is that alright with you, Mr. Kilander?”

Oka didn’t quite have the fake kiss up to adults voice down, so it came out more condescending. Mr. Kilander didn’t seem to notice.

“You know the ankle injuries, muscle tears, you know that come from beam chasers?” Berin said. “I don’t know, I think I’m not feeling this one. I think I’m gonna use my parental...yeah...my parental guardianing to...not...let you.”

“Mr. Kilander, let’s all take a walk,” Kalei said. “It’s pretty hot in here so I need to cool off.”

Kalei winked at us. We followed her to the outside area of the arena. We stopped at twin doors outside of a room labeled “LOWTEMP CHAMBER”.

“What is this thing?” I asked.

Kalei jabbed me with the beam chaser staff she brought with her.

“Ow! Wh…oh?” I said.

“You ever try one of these out, Mr. Kilander? They’re cutting edge sports technology, able to cool off someone overheating. It doesn’t even have to be sports, it can just be a hot day!”

Kalei’s fake suck up voice was like a car salesperson’s and I didn’t think I liked it very much.

“Yeah, I have because these are made by a Kilander subsidiary,” Berin said. “To be honest, standing here by the oddly massive industrial freezer, I think you three are up to something. Does this have something to do with Oka playing beam chasers?”

“Listen, Mr. Kilander, I’m a big fan,” Kalei said. “That season of your show in the cruise ship? Classic.”

Mr. Kliander actually blushed.

“Oh, why thank you.” He said. “That one was pretty rough in the moment, but the audience was very receptive, which—"

“Buuuut,” Kalei said, holding a finger up. “I believe I saw your brother say he was going to recreate that bit with the frozen pole in the iceberg observatory you guys stopped at for that iceberg rager.”

“Ohhh oh no.” Berin said.

“Yeah,” Kalei said. “We were actually just talking to him and he said he was gonna go in the Lowtemp Chamber to try it.”

Kalei pulled out her phone and loaded up a video. For some reason she had a video of Principal Penteldtam walking into the freezer thing, and it must’ve been from the last half hour because I saw myself looking really stupid trying to walk onto the beam chasers thing.

“Why am I making that face?” I said.

“That’s your straining face,” Oka said. “I only see you make it in gym class when we have to make at least a moderate effort at something.”

“What, really? Oh, that’s so bad.” I said.

“This was from just a few minutes ago,” Kalei said. “I was gonna go in after him, but students don’t have permission to open the door to it.”

“That’s not good,” Berin said. “He’s gonna get his tongue stuck again. And that would not look good now that he’s principal.”

“Yeah, very much not good. It’s been a while…”

“So you better…” I said.

“Yeah yep,” Berin said, scanning his wristband on the door’s lock. “Oka, this may take a bit. So while I’m doing this, don’t leave to go play that dangerous sport, OK? OK Oka. That’s what I’m gonna call you now, for today. Or from now on, if you like, or even don't mind. OK, OK Oka?”

Oka nodded.

“Yes, father,” Oka said.

“Wow that’s…the first time you called me that.” Berin said. “Are you…feeling alright? Or should I say OK? That’s my girl, OK Oka!”

“You should really get in there,” Oka said.

“Yep, yes,” Berin said. “I will be right back.”

Berin stepped into the freezer room, and Oka slammed the doors shut behind him. Kalei slid the staff she was holding in the twin door handle.

“And that takes care of that!” Kalei said.

“That was particularly devious,” I said.

“Eh, he’ll be fine,” Kalei said. “‘It’s made by a Kilander subsidiary nyeehhh.' He deserves it for that one. Sorry, Oka.”

“No, I completely agree,” Oka said.

“Why do you have a video of Penteldtam walking in there?” I asked.

“Pure luck,” Kalei said. “Ever since I saw Penteldtam kiss that poster of Risey the Rising Shards Kanibari, I knew I needed to have my camera ready around him. I didn’t see him leave so he really might have got his tongue stuck in there.”

“Wow,” I said. “Hey, do I really make that face in gym?”

After getting back into position with our full gear and staffs, we didn’t have time to go over much strategy before Soleri and Krangel came onto the court. Krangel looked sweaty and solemn, like he didn’t think we could win, which was a real morale booster.

“Mr. Krangel, I’d like to introduce you to the team that will crush your musclebound dreams.” Soleri said. “Ovie Chirhart, and Ko and Kai Matora!”

Ovie turned up her fake sweetness to maximum levels in Soleri’s class, and he fell for it easily. She was far and away his favorite student now, so it didn’t surprise me that she was one of his picks. Ko and Kai were twins that I hadn’t talked to much, but if they were friends with Ovie being their friend was a lost cause already.

“I also invited some students to watch.” Soleri said.

The seats around the court started to fill up with students from the news club, as well as some not in the club. I spotted Aira, Laenie, and Lillia in the crowd. 

“Don’t die!” Aira said and gave us a thumbs-up. 

I waddled up onto my sphere and shot Kalei a nervous smile as she gracefully walked on the beams towards the middle. It was hopefully all up to her now. She looked ready for the challenge as she stared down, Ovie and readied her staff. No matter how this goes, I can at least say I cheered her up a bit, I thought as the starting whistle blew.