Rising Shards

"Are you sure you haven't played much before?" I asked. "You're a natural."

"I really haven't," Marmalade said as she swung her staff, knocking the ball directly to one of the goals.

I held my arms up, partially from being impressed and partially in disbelief.

"I mean it, I've only played a bit!" Marmalade said.

We took a break to hydrate on the sidelines. For all my issues with Rising Shards, I did really dig that the sporty facilities on campus were really high end. In this case, it was the 'liquids and hydration refill station,' which they probably thought sounded really cool when they got it laser emblazoned into a hunk of plastic over the coolers and water fountains. Like lucking into a super expensive gym membership without having to pay for it. Well, I had to do all that Benta scholarship crap, but that was better than paying for it, I guess.

"You really think I was good out there?" Marmalade asked. "You're not just trying to make me feel better?"

"No way," I said. "I mean, no way to the second thing. You were awesome, our team is gonna be great this season with you and me on it."

"Heh," Marmalade looked into her sports drink for a while.

I wasn't sure what to say, but I wanted to say something. I just couldn't think of anything, so we both stood around for a bit drinking stuff. Even awkward quiet time like this was nice with Marms, something I figured I only had happen with really cool friends.

"Hey, Kalei,"

"Hm?" I looked up, not realizing it wasn't Marmalade that said that for a few seconds.

It was Risa. My old friend, who as I mentioned bailed on me for a while, then recently came back as someone in the rival school. She used to be a huge dork in a fun, cute sort of way, but now she had a mean streak after going to Wildfire Hearts, or maybe she always had that and just kept it hidden from me. Lots more rude comments to people who didn't deserve them. Not even funny ones either. But we were trying to patch things up. 

Also, she asked me out, which I had barely begun to process.

"Hey..." I said, sounding very enthusiastic to see her and not at all bummed out my chill time with Marmalade was interrupted.

Risa had an odd group of folks with her. There was Caeda Firae, a purple haired girl with a big squirrel tail who was really awkward and constantly craved attention, getting it through speeches that gave us all intense secondhand embarrassment. Scrungy, a Kanibari girl who I was stunned wasn't expelled yet for constantly getting into fights. And Roux, who was the least strange to see, as Roux, Risa, and I were all kind of a friend group in our hometown.

"We were going to get a practice game going, you wanna play us?" Risa asked.

"You don't play," I laughed.

"I've played enough, I think it'd be fun," Risa said. She winked. "I wanna see how good you've gotten since I last saw you play."

I did the math of everyone around us. "Sorry, two of us and four of you isn't fair."

"Well, six," Risa said. "I asked Nikki and P.D. if they want to play, too."

The hell? 

"When did they get here?" I asked. I spotted Nikki and P.D. hanging out on the other side of the courts. My chill afternoon had turned into stupid drama almost immediately. Not only was my ex-best friend who just asked me out here, but my former crush and my crush's girlfriend who had been giving me grief, too? This really sucked.

"You wanna go?" Marmalade asked.

"No, but..."

Another cool thing about Marmalade: she was really good at sensing when my drama BS was about to get overwhelming. She'd gotten me out of some jams with Nikki and P.D. before. 

Before I could decide if I wanted a quick getaway, someone whistled as they approached us.

I braced for Penteldtam, or worse, someone like Corinani. Either way, this was about to get even more obnoxious. I didn't realize how right I was when I realized the person whistling was my own mom, who was on campus for some reason.

"What's going on here, then?" My mom asked. She was in her typical gym wear, and had a whistle around her neck.

"Hello, Ms. Koridia, lovely to see you," Risa said.

"Risa, charming as always," Mom said. "Try not to sell me anything this time, I'm on official duty."

"Official duty?" I asked. "Ma, why are you here?"

"To keep the peace," Mom said.

"Are you trying to get a job here or something?" I asked.

My mom turned away, her textbook "I'm not gonna answer that" maneuver.

"And who is this?" Mom said when she spotted Marmalade. "I believe I saw her during our little 'you got kidnapped' misadventure, but I don't think we were introduced."

"W-well, I'm Marmalade,"

"Mom, just go, you're being so annoying," I said, not wanting my mom to scare off my friend.

"It's my duty as a mother to be annoying as all hell to my precious daughter," Mom said. "So did I hear a challenge? Are we going to play a round of beam chasers?"

I didn't know if Mom could sense my aversion to this particular game, but she did come up with a compromise that bought us some time. My team needed time to find more players, so we would take an hour to do so.

"I've officiated plenty of games," Mom said. "I'll ensure you lot play by the rules and have a nice, fair game."

I knew we could get the Matora sisters at least, but past that I wasn't sure how we were going to fill the other slots.

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