Rising Shards

“Alright, at least we get someone new for math,” Kalei said. She had an ankle resting on the opposite knee and wagged her foot in with some agitation or nervous energy.

I had plenty of nervous energy too and expressed that by murmuring some panicked noises as I looked at my phone.

“You wanna try that again with words?” Kalei said.

“Sorry,” I said. “I messaged Zeta, and then her sister Stella texted me that things were weird, but everything was probably alright. How am I supposed to pay attention to class now? Maybe I should just leave. How far is it to walk to Zeta’s place, I wonder…”

“Doesn’t she live in the city?” Kalei asked.

“She moved, actually.” I said.

“Oh, right,” Kalei smirked for some reason. “Oh, riiiight.”

“What are you on about?” I said.

“Nothing much,” Kalei said. “Last period’s gonna be fun.”

Kalei’s grin at whatever she was excited about faded moments later, as our regular math teacher, Ms. Poppi, arrived and began setting up.

“Take your seats, everyone.” Ms. Poppi said.

“What…” Kalei hissed.

“Is it that surprising that we have the same teacher?” I asked.

“It was TBD! TBD means someone new!” Kalei asked.

“TBD simply means to be determined.” Lillia said.

Kalei had plenty of issues with Mrs. Poppi. I found her to be just an average teacher, maybe a bit annoying. But she liked musicals so I kind of had a soft spot for her.

After a perfectly average math class that Kalei pouted all the way through, we were off to Letoh’s for social studies. Having some familiar teachers helped the new semester feel not as dramatic a shift. I was still not feeling great about whatever was going on with Zeta, as I hadn’t heard back from Stella. I thought about checking in with Dr. Diast as well, but I worried that might seem a little too intrusive. I decided that if I hadn’t heard anything by the time we had Diast’s class at the end of the day that I’d say something.

“To be honest, I kinda missed Poppi.” Aira said as we traversed through hallways of students looking like they wanted to be anywhere else, whether they were in the typical green hues of Rising Shards uniforms or the wizard looking robes of Wildfire Hearts, with a smattering of some boys from Falling Shards in their black and red suits.

“Are you serious?” Kalei hissed before she thought about it. “Were they that bad at Wildfire Hearts?”

Aira nodded.

“Are all the teachers like Corinani?” I asked.

“Some of em, definitely,” Aira said. “They’re either disasters of the Corinani variety, or disasters of a more sinister variety.”

“That sucks,” Kalei said.

“My teachers were pretty bad at Staverius, too,” Marmalade said. “Sorry if that’s rude to erm, say my school problems while you were talking about…” She coughed.

“No, you’re fine, I almost went there, so it’s nice to feel like I dodged some bad decisions, you know?” Aira said.

“Right, I get you,” Marmalade said. “This school’s got issues, but there are plenty worse, I guess. Right, Kalei?”

“Huh?” Kalei asked. “Sorry, I wasn’t listening.”

“Oh,” Marmalade laughed, a somewhat forced sound. “I was just saying, that, uh—"

“Well hello there,” Risa Taramin appeared almost out of nowhere, smirking at Kalei. “One of my favorite people, glad to see you haven’t dropped out yet.”

“Yeah, I thought about quitting when I saw Poppi again, but here I am,” Kalei said.

“And Aira, another favorite,” Risa said.

I didn’t like how she talked to them. She sounded like someone blatantly scheming, and it was very off-putting.

“Hi, Narkissa,” Aira said.

“It’s Risa when Kalei’s around,” Risa grinned.

Marmalade looked almost panicked when she saw our group stop in place with Risa blocking our way, as she was a few steps ahead. She sighed and continued on.

“Hey, what are you doing after class today?” Risa asked.

“Me? I dunno, gaming?” Kalei asked. “Hopefully not homework.”

“Yeah, I get that…” Risa said. “Maybe I can join you for something.”

“Maybe, sure…” Kalei scratched her head.

I wasn’t sure what Kalei thought about Risa post reunion. Her former best friend who dropped her when she found out she had a rich family, but now was back in her life. Kalei had enough drama on her plate with the Nikki situation, but I wasn’t sure how I could help with this. Especially when Kalei and Risa started to break away from the group to chat.

“I’ll see you next class,” Kalei said.

“You sure?” I asked.

“Mhm,” Kalei said. “All good, don’t worry.”

Kalei saying that sounded…not right. Like things were very not good and that I should worry. And that ‘mhm’ did not sound very Kalei Koridia to me. But I kept my mouth shut about it until we had some social time during social studies class, where Lillia and I were partnered up.

“I know our gossip sessions are usually more us focused,” I said. “But I’m getting a bit worried.”

“I’m sure Zeta’s fine,” Lillia said, drawing a picture-perfect map of one of the countries south of us.

“Not Zeta,” I said. “Well, I am worried about that, but…Kalei’s got a lot going on right now. That Risa girl is…troubling.”

“Troubling puts it mildly,” Lillia said. “She seems to embody the standards Wildfire Hearts strives for.”

“What do you think we should do about this one?” I asked.

“Just let it play out for now, I suppose,” Lillia said. “Kalei might get upset if we try to keep them apart.”

“The weird thing is, I dunno if Kalei wants to be around her, either,” I said. “Maybe she’s just doing it out of some old friend obligation.”

“Maybe,” Lillia said. “But either way, she’d get mad at us if we did anything.”

“Truuuue that,” I said, thinking of many times where we tried to act in Kalei’s best interests and had her blow up at us. Still, as I watched Kalei across the room, I got the sense that she was still rattled up about everything she’d been through. Understandably, because it had been a lot. But I wished I could do something for her while she was going through it all, because it felt like the strong face she was putting on was starting to crack.

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