Rising Shards

A silvery ball shot up from the center, and Ovie wildly swung for it. Kalei had better form, and immediately smacked it towards the point wall with a precise hit. The ball bounced off and hurtled back towards us. Krangel groaned while Soleri clapped politely.

I looked at the giant timer, which said we had 15 minutes of play time. In turning to look at it, I made my sphere thing tilt and sped way too fast towards Oka, who tried to move the other way. We bumped into each other, and I had a moment of doubt that we could actually win. Ovie laughed at us, missing a clear shot at the ball that Kalei swiped from her. Kalei swung her staff, and the ball arced into one of the goal squares.

“Hey!” Ovie said. “That’s not fair!”

Kalei smirked as the ball zoomed back to the center. She skated backwards while I focused on not feeling like I was gonna throw up. Ovie darted forward and smashed the ball towards me. I ducked as the ball zoomed past me. I heard the point buzzer go off.

“Sorry,” I said.

Kalei was in game mode and didn’t respond. She scanned the court in front of her, and it looked like she was calculating her next move as Ovie did an annoying dance while Chellsi and Mikeila-Keila cheered wildly in the crowd.

“3-1! That was 3 whole points!” Ovie said.

“Ovie!” Ko snapped.

“What?” Ovie asked.

While she was distracted, Kalei skated to the ball and hit it with the lower side of her staff. The ball spun and nearly hit Ovie head on. It slammed against the wall, too fast for Ko and Kai to try and control it. Kalei smacked the ball again, scoring again.

I could see Ovie’s carefully constructed persona break a little when she saw the score of 3-4. She let me see her bullying side the last few weeks, but she usually tried to keep it away from others. Instead she just made a weird smile and emitted a hum of a stressful note as Ko and Kai told her to focus.

The game continued that way for a bit, with Ovie easily scoring points on me and Oka, and Kalei’s skill overcoming Ovie. I could tell Ko and Kai had played before; they blocked plenty of Kalei’s shots. To her credit, Kalei never criticized us. She stayed completely focused.

Ovie on the other hand lacked the focus needed for the game, especially as a runner. She kept zoning out watching the ball float in front of her. Kai tapped her on her head with her staff.

“Ovie! What’s going on? Kai asked.

“Ow! Don’t do that!” Ovie said. “It’s just…my shoes! They’re broken!” Ovie said.

“NOTHEY’RENOTICHECKEDTHEY’REREGULATIONANDUPTOSTANDARDGRAVBOOTS!” Krangel bellowed so loud and so suddenly I nearly jumped off my sphere.

A time out was called by Soleri, who determined through gritted teeth that her shoes were fine. Krangel verified it with a bellow and the game was back on.

With about two minutes left, the score was 12-10. I was getting worried, because I continued letting Kalei down. I wanted to do something besides flinching and dodging (and getting hit by the ball). I wanted to not be the friend that takes from her without giving anything back.

Right as I was in my moment of reflection, the ball rushed on a direct path to my forehead. It stopped right before hitting me, spinning in place for a second. I didn’t even see Kalei move her staff to block it.

“You alright?” Kalei asked.

It was the only thing she had said the whole game.

“We got this, don’t worry,” Kalei said.

I nodded. The fire in Kalei’s eyes lit a spark of something in me. If I could just score one point for her, I would feel better about how much of a pain I had been.

Kalei swung her staff, and the ball made a loud twang sound when it bounced off of Ko’s staff. It spun too far for Kalei to skate to it in time. It bounced once towards Oka, who blocked it from getting into our goals, and it headed straight for me.

It was half reflex and half determination. I flung my arms up and wildly swung at the ball.

In what would maybe be the greatest sports achievement of my life, the ball flew from my staff all the way to the top point square. I imagined gasps in the crowd, but I don’t think anyone really reacted. The ball bounced off the side of the point square, but I still felt proud for almost scoring a point. 

A stunned Ovie once again missed the ball as Kalei skated forward, sliding into a perfect swing. The ball once again glided towards the top point square. Kalei had better aim than me, and we cheered as she got five points, bringing the score to 15-12.

The crowd actually cheered for that, and Oka and I joined in as Kalei skated back to us with a soft smile. She looked almost embarrassed by her skill, and it didn’t help that we basically screamed to her how great she was. Ko and Kai turned off their shoes and climbed down from their platforms.

“Wait, but we have a minute still,” Ovie said as they started taking off their gear. “We can still win!”

“No we can’t,” Ko said. “Maybe next time!”

Ovie didn’t like that answer and pouted while Krangel sobbed loudly. Kalei went over to Ovie, Ko, and Kai ad held her hand out. Ko and Kai shook her hands first, but Ovie was more reluctant. As soon as she shook Kalei’s hands, she stomped off.

The class filed out, and Soleri promised he would move the set, as long as Krangel offered his help and the help of his class.

“It’ll be a workout! It’s perfect!” Krangel said. “And you can keep doing your dumb news club.”

“Yes,” Soleri said. “I feel as though I’ll look back on this day and wonder why I agreed to any of this.”

“Because you love competition,” Krangel said. “Anytime you want a one on one Havena fight I’l always be ready.”

Soleri winced before leaving.

“Kalei, you’re amazing!” Oka said. “I was gonna say we should try the jump, but I couldn’t leave the thing I was magnetized to.”

“Yeah! I could barely stand on my thing and you were like flying!” I said.

Kalei brushed us off.

“You helped too,” Kalei said. “And I’m just happy I got to play. Even if we didn’t win, I would have been happy.”

Krangel likely wouldn’t have been happy if we lost, and I couldn’t imagine his reaction with how much he cried for us winning.

“I don’t know how to repay you,” Krangel said. “This is like coming back from a serious injury, only the injury is all in my head and caused entirely by Mr. Soleri.”

Once more, I thought of how much Kalei had been there for me without asking anything of me in return. I didn’t know if Krangel would agree, but I had to ask.

“I have a way!” I said.

I collapsed on my bed as soon as we got back. All my muscles felt like they were rebelling on me and packing up to move to a less active body.

“Why didn’t you say how sore beam chasers makes you?” I asked.

Kalei bounded in after me and looked like she could run two marathons as she vaulted to her bed in a single leap.

“Sore is good! That means you did well.” Kalei said.

Oka dragged her feet behind us and plopped onto her bed as well.

“I’m like all sore,” Oka said. “Hey, I can’t believe you got Krangel to open the beam chasers court. I thought they wouldn’t let you!”

Kalei seemed happy enough about winning the game, but being able to get into the beam chasers court once a week on off season made her giddy. I couldn’t help feeling proud about that.

“Thanks for helping, guys,” Kalei said. “It really means a lot.”

“You’re my friend, I know you’d do the same for me,” I said. “And I was feeling bad about messing with all your schedules and stuff.”

“Yeah, me too.” Oka said.

“Don’t worry about that,” Kalei said. “Just growing pains. I’ve never had two roommates before. I’m really glad I got you two though.”

Oka weakly held a thumb up, the most she could muster.

Kalei climbed onto her bed and despite the energy she had just showed, she was snoring after about two minutes.

“Good work, Zeta,” Oka said groggily as she started to nod off as well.

“You…too…” I said, feeling my eyes get heavy. “Hey wait, did we let your dad out of the freezer?”