Rising Shards

Our brainstorming session had hit a slightly difficult point. We were all excited about it and had lots of ideas, but our ideas were going a bit off the block.

“Did you know…” Iris said.

“What?” Maia asked.

“That if you take some of the letters out of Rising Shards, you can spell ‘sing hard’?”

“Sing hard…” Marmalade said.

“What I’m saying is this: musical.” Iris said.

“Yes!” Oka said, slapping the table excitedly. “I’m so down for musical! More musical! I can tell you guys about my favorite musicals! We can watch them for ideas!”

“A musical would be significantly harder to plan,” Lillia said.

“And I…can’t sing very well. At all.” I said.

“Nothing a little practice can’t fix!” Oka said. “What do you think, Kalei? …Kalei?”

Kalei wasn’t paying any attention to us, she was looking out of the study room windows. I thought she saw Risa again, but I didn’t see her out there.

“Hey, the love trio were in the spirit club, yeah?” Kalei asked.

“Huh?” I asked. “Yeah, they were, why?”

“I think they noticed us all hanging out…” Kalei said, pointing behind us.

Sure enough, Amara, KJ, and Rain were headed our way.

“KJ does have a fancy camera.” I said. “Maybe they’ll want to join.”

“That she’s a total snob about,” Kalei said.

“I feel my directorial style may clash with hers,” Lillia said. “Them wanting to be a part of this could be an issue.”

“I am not doing this if they’re involved,” Maia said.

“It would be funny to have them, but I vote with Maia.” Iris said.

“And I vote we lie about what we're doing.” Oka said, sneaking frantic glances to Rain. “We were all just...homework.”

"We were all just homework." Kalei repeated.

"It's a good excuse!" Oka said.

The mood of the room got very tense. I kept hoping the love trio would turn away, but it was clear they were headed for our study room, frustratingly taking their time getting to us. Marmalade looked to me in confusion about why we were all making such a big deal out of this.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have minded having the love trio involved. They were fine during commercial making for the spirit betterment club, and Amara’s cool laser power could make for great shots whenever she used it. KJ and her camera would probably improve our production as well. Rain…well, she was also there. Combined though, they might take away the feeling of close friends working on something for fun, and make things too tense to those they (mostly Rain) had angered over the semester.

“If we truly don’t want them in on it, we should act now.” Lillia said.

“What do you suggest, director?” Oka asked.

“You could just tell them you’re full if they ask,” Marmalade said. “We could also probably just leave now, they’re taking forever approaching us.”

“Retreat could work.” Lillia said.

“So we all just walk away and ignore them?” I asked. “That’s kinda mean.”

“Then we send someone ahead to keep them occupied,” Kalei suggested. “Zeta knows them the best, so she can distract them.”

“Distract them how?” I asked. “I don’t know if—“

“We can do it,” Oka volunteered. “I’ll go with, too.”

“You just have to talk to them for like five minutes.” Kalei said. “We’ll be super casual leaving.”

“And we were doing homework if they ask,” Oka said. “Everyone get their story straight: it was homework.”

“Complicated story to follow.” Kalei said.

“It is! What kind of homework?” Iris asked.

“We’re just gonna bail now, they’re probably used to me reacting to them like that.” Maia said. She stood, grabbing Iris by her arm and dragging her along.

“We should all get up and leave with them,” Lillia said. “Oka, Zeta, it’s up to you.”

As the others quickly left/abandoned us, Oka looked as though the head of the disciplinary committee was coming to sentence her to a lifetime of slaps. I knew why; Oka was taking the whole slapping Rain during the Sharai Daggers trip pretty hard. I didn’t think she deserved to feel guilty, she did it free everyone (including Rain herself) from a big hypnosis spell in the void, and maybe put a bit more oomph on the slap because Rain had been a jerk forever ago and let bullies stomp on my tail. Oka being scared of a situation but determined to muscle through was really endearing though (and super cute, the way she bit her lip and kept looking to me for support had me wanting to be the best girlfriend I could be).

We accidentally timed it out really well, so we approached the love trio as everyone else was safely out of discussion range. If we did manage to just talk for a few minutes, this plan might actually work.

“And whatever is going on in this study area?” Rain asked.

“Homework,” Oka said.

“What...ever are you three...up to?” I asked, trying and failing to match Rain's proper verbiage.

“We were just going on a little outing and were looking for some companions,” Amara said.

“Heading to the garden for a tea party?” I asked.

“Ohohoho, no, this is a very special occasion,” Rain said. “It’s one of my favorite times of the year. I’ve booked five tickets!”

“To…what?” I asked.

“The Carousel of Claws!” Amara said. “It’s one of the most joyous celebrations of terror and fear around.”

“Is it like…a haunted house?” I asked.

“Is it like a haunted house’ she says!” KJ said.

“It is like a haunted house, yes.” Rain said.

“Isn’t it a bit late for Fang Moon Web stuff?” I asked.

“No, no, this isn’t Fang Moon Web related.” Rain said.

“Yeah, dummy!” KJ said.

“She doesn’t even know that the Carousel of Claws isn’t even Fang Moon Web related.” KJ said.

“All the more reason it’d be lovely to have you along!” Rain said.

“I uh…” Oka and I tried very hard to not make expressions like we’d just tasted lemons dipped in the most sour flavoring possible.

“Y-yeah!” I said. “We don’t have anything going on today.”

“Or ever, really,” Oka said. “Outside of homework. Which we were all just doing. If you were curious!”

“Excellent!” Rain said as the trio clapped in unison. “We’re leaving now, come along!”

“Like now now?” I asked.

“Yes, Zeta, now now.” Rain said. “I won’t have dawdling on the way. We mustn’t be late.”

Oka started to retort, and I could guess she had to hold back a comment about how they wouldn’t have to worry about being late if they weren’t slowly wandering around the study room area. I didn’t like the sound of a haunted house type place, and I debated subtly texting Stella to ask her to tell me I couldn’t go to this, but with Rain commanding and KJ and Amara shooing us forward, there wasn’t a chance to turn back.