Rising Shards

The void challenge for our math final was the biggest room so far. It looked like a warehouse with rows and rows of dark rectangular blocks that were kind of wiggling around. Rows of carts were stationed at the front, each with a big screen on it. Some other groups in our class had reached this area before us, already in their carts, which rose and entered the maze of shapes.

“This is a shared room, so you may run into others here, but try to keep the class work within your group,” Diast said. “If you could step right up and enter the cart in front of you, that’d be swell.”

“This kinda reminds me of when we saw the Safe Silver lights,” Oka said once we were in position.

“We did?” Iris asked.

“Oh, sorry! The four of us went.” Oka said.

“When was that?” Iris asked. “I don’t remember…”

“She means the four of them,” Maia said. “You didn’t go this year.”

“I didn’t?” Iris pouted.

“We’ll, uh,” Maia cleared her throat. “Go next year. If you want.”

Iris pumped her fists, her mood changed instantly. “Yay!”

“It does remind me of that ride,” I said. “But with a lot more...up-ness."

"Verticality." Lillia said.

"Yeah!" I said.

“I was gonna say it looks like a Super Farlet 720 level,” Kalei said. She tapped wildly at the screen, but it had no effect.

“Indeed…” Lillia said.

“If that’s the same Farlet as from Farlet Kart, I bet I’d do great at it.” Oka said.

“Congrats, you proudly announced you could win a baby game…” Iris said.

“I dunno, the secret levels are pretty tough.” Kalei said.

The screen lit up, and after the text “KIDS' ZONE VOID ADVENTURES” scrolled past, a cartoon character that looked like an orange triangle with some green blobs on it flew forward.

“Aw, I know this little critter!” I said. “That’s Super Carrot! Since when is he part of Kids' Zone?”

“Howdy fanged friends!” Super Carrot said, waving to us. “Today, we got a little math journey for the group.”

“Oh my god, speaking of baby games.” Iris said.

“She’s just mad that she’s gonna have to do math,” Maia told me when I had an immediate reaction to Iris making fun of Super Carrot.

“Math questions will pop up on the screen, and around you, numbers will be written on each panel. If you pick the right answers, we can get through the maze!”

A diagram onscreen explained this further. Each correct answer would make a darker cube fade away, giving us a path forward.

The cart rose upwards.

“Hoo boy,” I said, feeling a panic surge. “We’re really high up already.”

“Try not to look down,” Oka said, gently patting my arm.

“What are the copyright rules in the void?” Kalei asked, poking at a trademark symbol on the screen. “Did you just swipe this guy illegally? That’d be kinda cool.”

“Simultaneously strict and lenient,” Diast said. “If a Super Carrot wandered in from an imagination node, Kids' Zone likely wouldn’t have a leg to stand on if they tried to sue or whatever. But companies like them do license out characters and learning scenarios to schools, which is helpful for bigger class structures like this.”

“Oh my god, I’m so sick of hearing about legal things in class, who caaaares?” Iris crossed her arms.

“I do, I wanna make sure I don’t get sued!” Kalei said.

Despite Iris’ claims that this would be a baby game (though admittedly I had only seen Super Carrot on a cartoon and comic strip that were decidedly for a very young audience), the math was about as tough here as it was on the exam. And Diast informed us that we each had to answer at least four questions solo, so we couldn’t rely on Lillia to pull us through this one. The big screen had a calculator on it at least. For example, I had to solve an algebraic equation, where I had to figure out what “y” was. By my mental calculations, it was 13, so I looked to my left where the number 13 was embossed onto it. I selected that via an arrow on the screen…and got a buzzer.

“Sorry, that’s not the right answer.” Super Carrot said in his cheerful voice. “Try again!”

“Nice one,” Iris said.

“Lay off me already!” I said.

“Iris, we all get that you suck ass at math, you don’t need to take it out on Zates,” Kalei said.

“You’re one to talk, you’re always ragging on your besties.” Iris said.

“Kalei’s always ragging on everyone.” Maia said.

“Enough.” Lillia said. “Zeta, try again, and try to tune out the noise.”

“Right, thanks…” I said.

I eventually figured it out the answer, pushing us forward. We bumped into a cart which made me scream, but then I realized it was another class group, with the Matora sisters, Marmalade, Michi, Roux, and Latte on it.

“Hey Kalei!” Marmalade said. “And, er, everyone else!”

“How’s it going for y’all?” Kai called over, leaning on the rail on the side of her group’s cart.

“Bad.” Iris said. “Math is hard! And this friggin’ carrot won’t shut up!”

“The questions aren’t very difficult,” Lillia said. “But Super Carrot is a bit of a chatterbox.”

“And Iris won’t shut up, either.” Kalei muttered.

“I knew this would be easy for you,” Ko said.

Lillia giggled.

“Did Zeta get excited about Super Carrot?” Marmalade asked.

“She did!” Iris said.

“Why is everyone roasting me?” I said.

“It’s not a roast, I just saw Super Carrot and figured that’d get you all amped up.” Marmalade said. "I figured you'd be the type that grew up with Super Carrot since that was a good show for sheltered kids."

“OK, that's kind of a roast…” I said.

“I think it’s adorable when you’re excited about anything.” Oka said. Her glances toward Iris told me that the green haired girl had been added to her revenge list, but I didn’t want to get into any kind of rivalry with Iris, I just wanted her to back off.

“Super Carrot is a cultural icon,” Michi said. “Just like the weird computers Super Carrot Blasts Math Away from AB-803 was only available on. They looked like globs of melted candy.”

“Yeah!” I said, kind of remembering the odd looking computers from my elementary school days.

“You know who else is a cultural icon?" Ko said. “Rising Shards’ own Lillia Cadence.”

“Oh, stop…” Lillia giggled more than I’d ever heard her laugh. The two went back and forth for a bit as our groups took a break to chat. 

“Normally I’d tell them to break it up,” Oka said, referring to Ko and Lillia continuing to flirt with each other. “But after Lillia’s phone went off, I think she could use this.”

Visit and read more novel to help us update chapter quickly. Thank you so much!