Rising Shards

Principal Penteldtam’s office was pretty much the same as the last time I was there; there was something orange dripping from the ceiling into a kid’s beach bucket toy, but I didn’t dare ask for an explanation. Oka and Lillia took the two chairs in front of Penteldtam’s desk, while Kalei and I stood behind them.

“So what’d you think of that whole deal?” Penteldtam asked. “Mainly the song. The song’s what I want feedback on.”

Kalei started to say something, but Oka stopped her.

“Honestly, your vibrato is really good,” Oka said. “Lyrics…eh…less so.”

“Yeah, I had Mantorvel do a lyrics pass on this one and I think he goofed it a bit.” Penteldtam said. 

"Oh, you had Mantorvel do a lyrics pass, huh?" Kalei said, her voice light with the crackling energy of imminent laughter.

"Uh huh," Penteldtam said. “I just sent him to the music store to get some new piano…strings? They have strings, right? He’ll figure it out. It sounded a bit out of tune.”

Pentedtam drummed on his desk for a second.

“Alright, time for the big business, the real bacon of this meeting.” Penteldtam said. “I have a request for you. It’s mainly for Oka, but you three seem to be the sort that would be Oka’s friends, so I extend the offer to you.” He sighed. “Being a parent is hard. Harder than I thought it’d be. You guys get it. Or actually, I hope you don’t get it. That’d be a lot of paperwork. And you know all the difficulties you’d be going through as teenage parents. The strain of the physical labor is one thing, but on top of that going through it at a young age, straining to find the resources and such needed to prepare for—"

“What’s your request, Principal Penteldtam?” Oka asked, showing a remarkable amount of restraint.

“It’s about 09,” Penteldtam said. “I’m sure everyone’s a little rattled from the Wildfire Hearts thing. I am, I get it. Biggest one in years. The raid, I mean. But since it…09’s been…”

“She’s quiet since the thing.” Oka said.

“Yes!” Penteldtam said. “I’d like for you to keep an eye on her during this trying time. Two eyes, if you want. Ideally, all eight of your eyes on her. I worry she’s going to fall in with a bad crowd. And with a portion of our students ending up at a bad crowd school, I want to be extra cautious. And you lot seem like a good crowd! If you do it well, I’ll uh. Pay you?”

“You don’t need to pay us,” Oka said. “It’s a family thing!”

“Uh, you can pay me though.” Kalei said. Lillia glared at her. “What? Don’t tell me you don’t want some extra cash for the Tyrant Rangers DLC coming next week.”

We were told no regular classes that day to acclimate us back to school, so we had some time to ourselves after lunch. Kalei stared into her orange soda. Usually the school gave us just milk, water, juice, like healthy stuff for lunch, but that we got orange juice which was a decent morale booster after everything.

“I wonder if that’s what was dripping from Penteldtam’s ceiling…” I said.

“Yeah…I dunno.” Kalei stood up and sniffed. “I gotta. Take care of something. I dunno.”

Kalei took her food and left, leaving the orange soda fizzling near us. It only hit me after she left what the color orange would remind her of, but Oka and Lillia seemed to know right away.

“It’s hitting her too, huh…” Oka said.

“She called me yesterday, and she never calls me.” I said. “She had that Terina experience too, so losing Nikki to them is…a lot. I think she might need time.”

“I think she needs a bit more than that,” Lillia said.

“Huh?” I said.

Lillia cleared her throat, somehow in a polite and dignified way. “Given everything that’s happened, and our general distance to said events, it’s up to us to help the others recover so that our school life can return to normalcy.”

“What do you mean?” I asked. “Since none of us had anybody super close to us go to Wildfire Hearts?”

“Precisely.” Lillia said. “I believe a return to normalcy will be the best way for us all to heal.”

“You can’t force people to cope with a big life change.” I said.

“Don’t underestimate me.” Lillia said.

“Well, to say that in a less threating way, it’d be nice to do something for them.” Oka said. “And it doesn’t have to be something we do right this second.”

“Well, I’d at least like us to do some reconnaissance today.” Lillia said. “And it is part of Principal Penteldtam’s request. I’m extending his request from just 09 to the others as well.”

“So, where should we start—" I said.

“I’ve drawn up some plans,” Lillia said, getting out her notebook.

“When did you do that? Just now?” I asked.

“Oka, I think you should be the one mainly handling 09,” Lillia said. “As you said, it’s a family situation there. Do you have any ideas for a good starter mission there?”

“I’ll get her ice cream!” Oka said. “That’ll cheer her up, maybe? It’ll cheer me up, at least.”

“Zeta. I’m assigning you to Amara.” Lillia said. “From what I understand, she’s been pestering Naomi while she’s on prefect business. Start there with stopping her from doing that.”

“I don’t get to pick a fun thing like get ice cream?” I whined.

"Nobody's stopping you from getting her ice cream." Lillia said.

“I’m surprised you didn’t pick Amara, so you could help out Naomi.” Oka said, drawing a circle on the notebook paper around Naomi’s name with her pointer finger. Lillia pinched her hand. “Hey, ouch!”

“Zeta, get her feeling better so she stops following Naomi around.” Lillia said. "Find some way to help her cope without Rain around."

“So wait, you’re helping Kalei, then?” Oka asked.

“Yes,” Lillia said.

“Are you sure?” I asked. “I can take Kalei if you want to help Naomi. I think you could maybe reach through to her better.” Amara’s fiery glares versus Lillia’s ice-cold ones would be a spectacle at least. 

But Lillia didn’t budge. She simply rose, gripped her fists, and said in a deathly serious voice, “It’s a gamer thing, you wouldn’t understand.”