Rising Shards

Stella tried to be polite to people as often as she could, but some of the Wildfire Hearts faculty were testing her will in that regard. She hadn’t run into Kitty Kilander yet, who she knew from Kilander show drama was a huge jerk (it was still fairly surreal that the school she worked at happened to be the same one the Kilanders had latched themselves onto, even if their celebrity status was rapidly deteriorating), but plenty of the others were rude in their own unique way. At the moment, she was very bothered by Ms. Corinani pulling her aside while shelving to ask for something.

“So I’m wondering if I can ‘borrow’ Zeta for this little mission, it’s not even a big deal in the slightest.” Corinani said.

“Absolutely not,” Stella said, nearly slamming a book on the metal cart.

“It wouldn’t even be that big a deal!” Corinani said. “I have this favor I need. And I need a few students to help out!”

“Surely you can find someone else for it,” Stella said.

Zeta had been through enough as of late, and going on some strange trip with a Wildfire Hearts teacher probably wouldn't help.

“Heh, this book sure is interesting,” Corinani said, picking a book up off of Stella’s cart. “The title is ‘Parsnips,’ which if you say in kind of an odd way, it sounds like ‘permission,’ which is what I’m hoping to get from you. For Zeta. Who’s…your daughter?”

“My sister,” Stella said, not sure why she even bothered to give this lady that much info.

“Can you give me your parental contact info, then?” Corinani asked.

“No,” Stella said. “And you wouldn’t need it, I’m Zeta’s guardian.”

“So you are the one I need parsnips from! Hee hee…” Corinani said.

“Well, you’re not getting it.”

“I did get parsnips from Prncipal Penteldtam himself.”

“Can you just say permission?” Stella asked, taking the book from her hands and putting it back on the cart. Do I have permission to kick a teacher out of the library? To ban them too, hopefully?

"I even got permission from Principal Penteldtam himself.”

“I would really appreciate it if you let me finish my work,” Stella said, hoping Corinani would take the hint. Instead, she started looking something up on her phone.

“Do you like Workplace Pals?” Corinani asked. “There’s this clip I gotta show you.”

“The first few seasons were amazing, but that showrunner duo ruined it,” Stella said.

Corinani snickered, obnoxiously laughing at a clip compilation of the sitcom.

“Right, I really need to get back to work."

“No, hold on, trust me, this will convince you,” Corinani said, scanning through the video. “I know it’s in the middle somewhere.”

“Is there something I can help you with?”

Evy stood behind Stella, the latter blushing at the sight of her knight in shining armor (well, less shining armor and more science-y jumpsuit) coming to the rescue at just the right moment.

“Ha, nothing, nothing,” Corinani said.

“I need to ask Stella something, so if you don’t mind.” Evy said.

Corinani took a few seconds before finally getting the hint and leaving.

“You alright?” Evy asked softly as Stella gave her a big hug as soon as they were sure they were alone.

“Yeah,” Stella said. “Thank goodness you showed up when you did, though. She was getting really annoying."

“I was looking for you at the front desk, for some reason my gut said to check the second floor first, but then I decided against it. Then I saw Ms. Corinani cornering you.”

“I was just about to go to the second floor before she started talking to me!” Stella said. “Maybe we have a psychic link. Here, guess what I’m beaming to you.” Stella pressed two fingers to her temples.

“Heh, I love you too.” Evy said. Stella was trying to beam something about what to make for dinner that night, but that answer was so much better that she was suddenly glad the two didn’t have a psychic link. Stella explained what Corinani had asked of her, and Evy’s revulsion confirmed she made the right choice in saying no.

“I know we got in trouble last time we were snuggly while at work,” Stella said, still incredibly embarrassed that Kalei of all people had stumbled upon them (nothing that bad, just Evy kissing Stella on the cheek, but still). “But you rescuing me makes me kinda…wanna…”

“You could stop by my office again,” Evy said. “Maybe with a less ‘clean up my disaster’ objective.”

“I’ll have to take you up on that sometime,” Stella said. A chill ran down her spine.

“You good?” Evy asked.

“Yeah,” Stella said. “I just had a feeling like that woman didn’t leave yet, like her awkward presence is still around, kind of hurts the mood a bit. Maybe we can have some extra fun when we’re home to make up for it?”

“I like the sound of that,” Evy said. “In the meantime, if that woman shows up again just text me, I’ll make some excuse if I’m in class.”

“Alright,” Stella said. “You do the same, I’ll protect you from the awkward too. I’ll storm into your class if I have to.”

“Hopefully you won’t have to go that far,” Evy said. “What would you do to rescue me?”

“I’d run a distraction, burst in like ‘somebody has a very overdue book!’ And then while everyone’s panicking, you can sneak away. I’m imagining Ms. Corinani bothering your whole class in this scenario.”

“OK, really hope things don’t go that far,” Evy said.

“Aw, but then once we’re all safe and sound, I’d give you a big smooch.” Stella said.

“You could still do that without the whole Corinani invading my class and the classroom disruption parts.”

“I suppose,” Stella looked around one more time to make sure they were still in the clear before giving Evy her well-deserved big smooch.

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