Rising Shards

Caya approached me in my office, grimacing. A quick panic daydream struck me about her getting mad at me for not telling her about me and Stella sooner, but she was firmly in mat ball mode.

"I have bad news and good news," Caya said. "Which do you want to hear first?"

"I'm fine with whatever," I said.

"Bad news, then," Caya said. "Kitty got wind of the faculty appreciation week, and wants to include Wildfire Hearts staff in the festivities."

I figured that was coming. Rising and Falling Shards' main rival school Wildfire Hearts was currently involved in a inter school competition called the Recreant Protocol. Some of their students and staff were visiting ours, making for a bit of a tense start to the spring semester.

"Meaning we're playing mat ball against Kitty?" I asked.

Caya nodded. "The good news is I made a phone call and got us another great player." She wouldn't tell me who exactly she'd contacted, but she started talking mat ball tactics she'd like to employ in our big game. I zoned out a bit as she talked, wondering if it would be a good time to talk about me and Stella. I chickened out, though, which made me feel a bit guilty.

Shortly after I found out about Wildfire Hearts' involvement in our upcoming game, a staff meeting was called, gathering us together to remind us what foods we could bring for staff week, letting us know about some other team building activities like seeing a movie together (Stella shot me a sneaky glance when that came up, clearly thinking about our last visit to the movies), and finally, Caya and Kitty declared themselves captains of the mat ball game and wanted to finalize teams.

"Ah, mat ball," Mr. Krangel said. "This fine nation's second greatest sport. After haven fighting/wrestling, of course. Actually, maybe third best, beam chasers is pretty spectacular. We should play beam chasers!"

"I don't think my ankles could handle even one quarter of a beam chasers game," I said.

Krangel and I were joined Stella and Pippi to stand on Caya's side. The way we were sorting ourselves out like this felt like everyone involved was back in high school.

Penteldtam looked between the two teams.

"Well, dang, I got family on either side of this one," Penteldtam said. "I think I'm gonna go with Kitty's!"

"I don't want to be on the same team as you," Kitty said. "But I also have to be on the opposite team as Caya."

"But I have to be on the same team as my main man Mantorvel!" Penteldtam said.

"Who said I'm letting that weird dude on my team?" Kitty asked. "Although he is pretty jacked, yeah he can stay."

Kitty was building up quite a team. Just with herself and

Her assistant, Ms. Corinani, one of the teachers from Wildfire Hearts who was just kind of sad, tried to join Kitty's team as well, powerwalking over, but Kitty shooed her away.

"I don't want you on my team! You probably suck at mat ball!" Kitty said. "Go join the loser team."

"Alright I'd like to plead my case," Corinani said.

"Don't care, go." Kitty said.

"What if I could make you care...with...money?" Corinani pulled her wallet out. "I have three dollars, but I can give you more later when I get paid."

"I'm not taking a bribe, oh my god, just go away!" Kitty said.

As Corinani sulked all the way to our side, sadly power walking to us, Caya stepped forward.

"I have one other player I'd like to introduce," She said. "You can come on in!"

We all turned to see a very unexpected face. A muscular woman with long, wavy hair who I knew a bit mainly from teaching her daughter during the last semester.

"Glad you saved the best for last," Mahina Koridia said.

I had to admire the planning that had to have gone into such an entrance, at the very least I appreciated the time Mahina was willing to stand outside the door waiting for the boring part of the meeting to be over.

"How is that at all fair? She doesn't teach here, nor does she work here." Kitty said. "Does she? Who is this?"

"Mahina Koridia, pleasure to meet you," Mahina said. "And I can't wait to face off against a former champion."

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