Rising Shards

Principal Penteldtam didn't notice us as he approached, just wandering in a random path around the grounds, moaning and groaning and making weird noises. We were a bit concerned about what had him down, but admittedly we were more interested in what he had on his back.

"Why's he carrying a microwave?" I asked under my breath. "You don't think he caught the ones blowing up batteries, do you?"

"I don't know, but we're taking that, that's ours," Oka said. "And we're putting batteries in it and we're gonna watch what happens."

Oka called for Penteldtam in her fake buttery sweet voice that I'd only heard her use on teachers and faculty.

"Oh, hello students," Penteldtam said. "Isn't it past curfew?"

"I don't think it is?" Oka said. "But more importantly, what's got you all...sad?"

"Gosh, where to begin?" Penteldtam sighed dramatically. "Well, I got this coupon for a buy three, get four free deal on microwaves at the ol' Electric Needs and Such. And I donated five to the school, and one went to my main man Mantorvel, but they gave me a really crappy one for the fourth freebie, and I don't know what to do with it. I was going to toss it, but then I couldn't find the dumpster. Then I remembered the big faculty party is tonight, and that maybe Berin told me to throw this microwave out in a dumpster was his way of getting me to leave the party before I embarrassed him."

"That's a whole lot," Oka said. "Would it help if we threw that microwave out for you? I know the perfect dumpster for it. Then you can get back to the party!"

Oka's tactical fake voice was kind of scary, but she was an actor, so at least I was impressed by her range. And grateful she hadn't used that voice on me ever.

Penteldtam wailed again.

"You'd really do that?" He asked. "Because I really wanted to do a little show for the rest of the staff. I was going to do..." His voice cracked, barely squeaking out the rest, tears and snot streaking down his face. "...I was gonna do impressions. They were gonna be really funny!"

"There, there," Oka said as Penteldtam sobbed, moving to pat his back and also undo the cords wrapped around that held the microwave to him. "Not were gonna be funny, they are gonna be funny! Because you're going to go back there and do an impression of everyone that works here! Because you're that kind of dedicated principal!"

Oka's sweet manipulator voice almost broke when she got the microwave in her hands.

"You know what? You're right!" Penteldtam said. "Thanks for handling this, students, I really appreciate it."

With a joyful squeal, Penteldtam clicked his heels together and ran off.

"Was it just me, or did he completely forget Oka was his niece there?" Kalei said. "Was I the only one getting that vibe?"

"It wouldn't be the first time," Oka said. "But more importantly, look!" She triumphantly held up her treasure. "Now we don't have to hunt for anyone with a microwave, we are the ones who will be microwaving!"

"Now we just need some batteries," I said.

"I have some in my room that I don't need!" Aira said. "I'll be right back!" She teleported away.

As we waited, we looked in awe at our finding. It was just a microwave, but for some reason it felt like the culmination of some grand journey.

"This is a win for us," Kalei said.

"A win for Team Starlight!" I said.

"Well, I wouldn't go that far," Kalei said. "I only begrudgingly agree to calling our little unit Team Starlight, and that's only in select circumstances."

"And stumbling upon a perfectly good thrown out microwave while we have batteries isn't a select circumstance?" I said.

"Why would this count as Team Starlight, anyways?" Kalei said. "No offense to everyone here, but I'm pretty sure Team Starlight is just you, me Oka, and Lillia."

"We can add members!" I said. "Team Starlight is everyone we're friends with, I think."

"Why are we getting all sentimental about this?" Marmalade asked.

"Really, I'm only sticking around for the explosions," Michi said.

"I would have left after everyone was really rude about my super cool rumor hunting," Roux said. "But I also need to protect us when our microwaving inevitably summons a demon from the umpteenth underworld of the void."

Oka was ready to dance around or maybe even attempt another cartwheel but with the microwave in hand; her excitement about this was really cute. "Regardless of why we're here or what our team is called, we can all agree that this is our win."

"Actually, it's a win for me,"

I didn't know where the voice came from, until a pile of snow erupted. Oka looked like she was fighting with an invisible person, or a particularly aggressive burst of wind. The microwave slipped from her grasp and seemed to float in the air, until Chickadee turned off her camouflage powers as she ran off.

"Can we go one single day without you doing something incredibly obnoxious?" Kalei said.

"Seriously, wasn't the Kris Krag enough?" Marmalade asked.

"Not nearly enough!" Chickadee said, turning around and jogging backwards as we chased after her.

"Damn it, just stop!" Kalei said. "Why did Aira have to leave now?"

Chickadee managed to evade us, and despite our best efforts spreading out to find her, our recent gain was taken from us before we could even really celebrate. We all sat down on a row of benches waiting for Aira to get back.

"Do we wanna just call it a night?" I asked. "It's cold, and none of these rumors have really panned out."

"If we do that, she wins," Kalei said. "And I'm not letting her win anymore."

"Right," Oka said. "We can't stop here."

"I mean, we could," Michi said.

"It is really cold," Marmalade said.

"Fine, we can stop, but we shouldn't!" Oka said. She stood up, looking like she had statements of incredible importance to impart onto us as she marched in front of the group, "You know why? It's not just about chasing all these weird rumors, or the batteries, or exploding them. It's about dreams. Dreams dashed for far too long. It's about taking a glimmer of hope in this sea of annoyances that is the feud with Wildfire Hearts. It's about taking something, a little slice of something, that's just for us. And sure, that thing may be exploding a bunch of batteries in a microwave, but each spark of blown up metal and acid and whatever else they're made of is us seizing our dreams, and taking a chance on our future."

"Wow!" I applauded right away, but the rest of our group wasn't as impressed.

"You're such a freaking theater kid," Kalei said. "But whatever, that did get me fired up."

"You know," Roux said. "I did mayhaps overhear some intel that the Wildfire Hearts students are hanging out with the Falling Shards dudes and they're doing a big barbecue or something. That might be where Chickadee is headed."

"Dang, now that's a better rumor, Roux," Kalei said. "You're not making that up, are you?"

Roux didn't answer.

"Ugh, well even if you are, we're not letting Chickadee take our dreams away tonight." Kalei said.

"Yeah!" Oka said.

"Team Starlight!" I said as quickly as a sneeze.

"After this, I am genuinely gonna get some meetings together to brainstorm better team names than Team Starlight," Kalei said.

"Team Starlight, go!" I said, pumping my fist in the air.

"I'm gonna have a thinktank," Kalei continued. "And we're gonna have so many cool names for our group, and we'll all vote, and it'll be a cooler name than Team Starlight."

"The coolest name for us will always be Team Starlight!" I said.

"Go!" Oka said.

We started to march away, hoping to lead the group with our rousing battle cry.

"We should probably still wait for Aira," Marmalade said.

"Right, yeah," I said, Oka and I sitting back down sheepishly.

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