Rising Shards

Alix saying this was like a sitcom was pretty spot on. Running into new friends almost to the minute we go out somewhere? It felt silly, but I guess it wasn't too out of the realm of possibility, there were plenty of store trips where I didn't run into Pippi or someone else I knew.

I wasn't really concerned about it or anything, I just thought it was funny. Pippi had babysat for Zeta plenty so she wasn't someone Zeta got anxious around for the most part. Alix, maybe a bit more, but I think that was more her surprise seeing a teacher outside of school.

Unsurprisingly, Pippi and Alix joined us for our mall trip, but I still made sure we were going to stores Zeta wanted first.

"Zeta drove us all the way here for the first time, after all," I said.

Pippi whistled. "Go Zeta, that's awesome!"

"Ehehe..." Zeta fidgeted with her pockets.

"I remember when I got my license," Alix said. "Took me about fifteen...no, seventeen tries. Kept getting paired with this witch that hated me, so unfair."

"I might give up if it takes that many times..." Zeta said.

"I thought so too, I told myself more than ten and I'm just gonna learn to run everywhere, but that just burned through shoes so quickly, so I told myself: Alix, listen up. You gotta. And it worked a few times later!" Alix said.

"Wow..." I said, not very enthused by that advice.

I figured we'd spread out and look around when we got to the book store, but Alix and Pips stayed right by us.

"Aaaand..." Alix said as she scrolled through her phone, then she pumped her fist. "All good!"

"What's this about?" Evy asked.

"I get banned from stores a lot," Alix said. "Just checking my list to make sure this one's cool. And it is!"

"Why do you get banned from stores?" Zeta asked.

"Usually strange circumstances," Alix said.

"What...kind of strange circumstances?" Zeta asked.

"Haha! I think most of them aren't my fault!" Alix said.

"Maybe let's...not worry about that?" I suggested, shrugging. "What are you looking for here, Zates?"

"There's a new edition of Book 13.5 of Raina's Fantastamoir that I need to get," Zeta said. "That's part one of my reward."

"Part one, huh?" Evy asked.

"Uh huh! Part two and beyond is...not yet determined," Zeta said.

She had absolutely earned multiple gifts so I didn't mind. With everything we'd been through as of late, it was nice to just watch her shop. I couldn't quite take my mind off of stressors like our father lurking, our mother being around at school now, our new sister Anastasia...but I hoped Zeta could, even for a moment. She didn't seem like she was lost in worry mode as she crouched down in front of a shelf paging through a Raina Starlight book.

"I didn't even ask why you two are here," I said.

Pippi and Alix shared a glance, then giggled.

"Well, just hanging out, but if we find something to do we might upgrade it to a date," Pippi said, raising her eyebrows.

"Whoa! You're dating Corinani?" Zeta asked, almost dropping her Raina book.

"Heh, got a problem with that?" Pippi asked, playfully sticking her tongue out.

"She won't actually have a problem with that, right?" Alix asked, backing away like Zeta would beat her up after learning this information.

"Naw, it's cool," Zeta said. "Pippi's pretty cool. Ms. Corinani, ask her to make you cinnamon muffins!"

"Oh, now I'm gonna ask you for those, too, it's been way too long," I said.

Once we paid for Zeta's book, I wasn't sure where we'd head next. I couldn't really think of a place here that was super romantic to turn Pippi and Alix's hangout into a full-fledged date, but it'd be fine if they hung around us too.

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