Rising Shards

The two minutes or so of yoga I did had me very hungry, so I filled my plate with the little meats and cheeses and such.

The big event was pretty much just a lunch break. I took one look at the rows of tables and had a flashback.

"This is feeling very high school," I said. "I hope I don't fret about where to sit as much as I did then."

Stella mostly grabbed fruits for her lunch. "You're dating a cute girl who'll sit by you, so no fretting necessary."

"And you're both friends with someone very popular and outgoing, so wherever we sit will be the cool kids' table," Mahina said.

"I've never really been a cool kids' table type," Pippi said.

I made sure my wingman sticker was visible as we sat down. Not that I thought anyone was gonna swoop in and ask me out, but the thought did linger and I wanted to avoid that awkward conversation. I sat across from Stella. Pippi and Mahina sat on Stella's side so there would be open seats across from them.

Just as I tried to picture who would join us, I heard some familiar clicks and beeps.

"Scanning complete. And oh yeah, we got a grade A hottie here." Corinani sat across from Pippi.

"You already used that line," Pippi laughed.

"And it succeeded the most with you, sexy sugar kiss," Corinani said.

"Sexy sugar kiss?" Pippi said as Stella tried to not spray lemonade out of her nose.

"Yes indeedy," Corinani said. "What's going on, Evy? Or should I say, Dr. Diast? Whichever you prefer I guess. What's good? What's happening?"

"Evy's fine—" I started as Corinani set her plate down way too hard, sending her food flying everywhere. She tried to scoop everything back onto the plate while still holding onto her plastic cup with fruit punch in it and ended up spilling it everywhere.

After doing our best to clean that up, our table was still very sticky so we moved somewhere else. Pippi helped Corinani set her food down this time so she didn't make a mess.

"Well, where were we?" Corinani said. "Is anyone else really horny after all those dates? Hubba hubba!"

I heard plastic crunching as Stella bit her cup to not laugh.

"Because I know I am," Corinani looked right at Pippi, then tried to wink, but just blinked both eyes.

Stella found this hilarious, and Mahina was perplexed. I was fairly annoyed, but was I just being too tense because I was afraid someone would ask Stella or I out? Maybe I needed to loosen up too like Mahina and I talked about.

"Stella, you wanna answer this one?" I asked.

Stella's lip quivered, gut laugh brewing. "Well, I'm just a wingman so I'm off limits, but I did see this chick doing yoga that has me all steamed."

"That's so radical," Corinani said.

"Oh yeah, what a butt on that one," Stella barely got the words out before her laugh took over. But the look she gave me said she meant it at least. I was very much looking forward to whatever we'd get to after this shindig.

"I had five dates and only two said to never speak to them again," Corinani said. "This is a great day for me. But I think my favorite is right here."

Pippi smiled, then reached over. I thought she was going to take Corinani's hand but she just was making sure Corinani didn't knock her punch over again.

We noticed some groups were headed towards tents set up inside the giant one we were in, bringing their food with them. They looked big enough to hold about six or seven people.

"That might be fun," Mahina said. "Maybe we can do some truth or dare, or tell spooky stories."

"I'm so in," Corinani said. "As long as the stories aren't too scary, because I will wet myself, try as I might, I can't prevent it when I hear a scary story."

"...right. Maybe just truth or dare," Mahina said.

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