Rising Shards

The beam chasers court was pretty lively when we got there. It was in its own little gym space on campus with its own locker room.

"Alright, get changed," I said, patting Zeta and Oka on their backs.

"What? No!" Zeta let out a trademark squeaky noise.

"I thought we were just watching!" Oka said, flailing her arms around like that would convince anyone of anything.

"Watching me change? That is quite inappropriate, Oka." I said.

"You know full well that is not what I meant!" Oka said.

"I'm just kidding," I said. "You guys can head to the seats while I get dressed. You better watch me play, though. And take notes."

"Why should we take notes?" Zeta asked. "I said you should take notes for your essay, don't turn that around on me."

"I'll watch you play, and am an experience note taker," Lillia said. "But my attention may be...elsewhere." She looked over to Ko Matora, who was currently sipping from a drinking fountain.

Ko's on the beam chasers team too, along with her twin sister Kai. They both have incredible beam chaser skills, but are also kinda dopes (I mean that affectionately!) in different ways. Ko's the kind of dope who gets into romantic drama a lot, so it's a miracle that she and Lillia hadn't hit any rough patches yet in whatever they had going on. Kai doesn't have any of the romance drama her twin has, but she's the type of dope who thinks she can climb up a flight of stairs while doing a handstand.

I got dressed and felt a rush of calm even though the courts were loud with the sounds of players skating across the rails, swinging staffs to smack the balls towards goals. I took any brief instance of calm feelings that I could, because I had really been going through it lately. I got a crush on a girl and found out I was gay, I thought we had a chance, she turned out to be a total airhead that was dating someone the whole time and neglected to tell me, then I got kidnapped and dragged into the void by a school bully who was trying to find her toxic girlfriend that probably dumped her already (don't ask how I helped locate the toxic girlie, I have no idea). And that's not to count my former best friend Risa popping out of my life and back into it, and this really dumb school versus school event Rising Shards was doing with Wildfire Hearts (conveniently enough where most of the people causing me stress went to, so I had to see them way more than I'd like). Listing it all out like that makes me wonder how I didn't lose my mind after all of that, or break as much school property as I could have.

My friends were at the front of the stands, so I sat by them as I got my magnetized boots on.

"So what kind of beam chasing will we be doing today, hm?" Zeta asked. I really wanted to make fun of her for how she said that, and the part of me that's total gremlin came up with a really funny bit to do, but I held my tongue. I was really glad she made the effort to even come out here when she wasn't into sports at all.

"I think I'm gonna do some laps to start, then I'll see who's around and maybe get a game going," I said.

"Do you want us to count how many laps you do?" Oka asked, completely earnestly.

"I'm...good," I said. "Thanks though, dude."

"Oh," Lillia said, leaning past me.

"Huh?" I thought she was just gonna be staring at Ko again, but to my surprise Marmalade was already at the court, walking around in her boots looking like she wasn't sure what to do or where to stand. Without thinking, I was over to her in a few moments. "Hey!"

My newest roommate Marmalade had won a ton of points with me already. Big into gaming, very funny, can keep up with my banter, all that good stuff. She's tall and got long dark hair. She's transgender too, like Zeta. I dunno how I ended up with two trans roommates, but I learned about a textbook's worth about trans stuff just from knowing them.

"Oh, hey!" Marmalade said, rocking on her heels. "You've...caught me at an awkward time. In that I'm really awkward."

"You're fine, are you gonna practice?" I said. "I guess I knew that already."

"I..." Marmalade said. "Would it be stupid to admit that I have no idea where to start?"

"Nah, that's great news," I grinned.

"How is that at all good news?" Marmalade asked.

"Because, my friend," I grabbed her by the shoulders. I dunno why, I liked doing that. She's got very holdable shoulders. "I will gladly teach you whatever you wanna know about this fantastic sport."

"Dang, alright," Marmalade said. Her face got so red. I worried I was maybe embarrassing her or something when I busted out the ol' shoulder grab with her, but when I asked she said she liked it. And Kalei Koridia aims to please.

"Let's get going then, come on!" I said, immediately very excited to show her the ropes.

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