Rising Shards

We watched as Evy put a small slip of paper in the lake, taking it out and putting it into a vial. We were sitting on a dock listening to the water go by. Mahina was on her third lap, not finding the idea of taking a break for science research that appealing.

"And you're sure this is legal?" Stella asked. "The lake guards or whatever aren't gonna arrest you?"

Evy stared intently as the liquid in the vial turned a pale orange. "If anyone gives us grief just blame me. But I've checked tons of lakes for this and haven't run into any problems." She laughed as the pale orange color changed to more dark orange. "Fascinating! The acidic level really is three points lower in lakes with higher Cani populations."

"Dork," Stella said.

"It's interesting!" Evy said. She had a binder with little slots in it to hold the test paper and a notebook with scribbles on it.

Stella got her phone out, tapping out a quick text. "Hang on, Zeta wants to say hi. I'm gonna put this on video chat." She started filming as Evy took more samples. "We're up to some exciting business here, Zeta. Wanna say hi to everyone?"

I waved as Stella turned her camera toward us.

"Hi Pippi!" Zeta said. "And...?"

"You remember me, don'tcha?" Alix asked. "Ms. Corinani from your school?"

"I do, yeah?" Zeta asked. "I...thought Stella was kidding when she said you were coming. Sorry."

"I get that a lot," Alix said.

"To be fair, I also thought you were kidding when you said Kalei's mom was coming with, too."

"Why would we kid about that? She's cool." Stella said.

"Well...yeah," Zeta said.

"Are you trying to imply we're not cool enough to hang out with Mahina Koridia?" Stella asked.

"I mean..." Zeta said.

"Whatever. If you're wondering, she's doing laps around the lake." Stella said.

"That sounds about right," Zeta said.

"And Evy is..." Stella turned the camera to Evy, who was in her own little world as she wrote numbers down.

"Um...what am I looking at here?" Zeta asked.

"Evy's testing the water," Stella said, with a lot more reverence in her voice describing what Evy was doing versus her calling her girlfriend a dork for it moments earlier. "Something about Cani energy, I guess."

"Oh, I remember this from class," Zeta said. "Where the, like...Cani energy void junk makes the water a bit more acid-y."

"A bit less, actually," Evy said, holding up a single finger. "But I'm glad you remembered most of it!"

"So what happens if a bunch of Cani swim in it?" Zeta asked. "Does it get even less acidified and junk? Or if a bunch of Echela jump in does it get more acidic? Then there's like a huge war between the two sides trying to turn it into acid or not?"

"Doesn't exactly work like that," Evy said.

"Good imagination, though!" Stella said.

"Ehehehe..."

Once again, I found myself longing for what they had. I never had any expectations that I'd ever have a family of my own, being a friend of a family like this, an effective bystander was the best I could hope for being a shy dweeb.

I wondered if Alix ever had any thoughts about a family. Probably silly to think it about someone who I had only known a bit, just sharing some physical chemistry and making out at a dating event. But Stella and Evy dove right into their relationship and it worked out for them.

Would the same happen for me and Alix?

"It's nice, isn't it?" I said quietly as I nodded to Evy and Stella.

Alix smiled softly. "It is, yeah. This dock is made of some quality materials."

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