Rising Shards

I had never been near the choir room before. I held a bit of a grudge against the school choir; once Oka joined, she had to switch out of my second period literature class with Soleri. I had to rush over after class, but I miscalculated my rushing as I ended up in the music area a few minutes before their practice ended, and was left staring at a big, deep green curtain that the choir was nestled within.

By the sound of their singing, it kinda sounded like they were maybe wrapping up. I mean, they had to be, there was another class soon. As I looked around, not seeing anyone I recognized in the room, the thought hit me over and over.

I have a girlfriend. I am seriously actually dating Oka Ohri.

Things had changed a lot since we officially started dating. We told Kalei right away that night.

“You guys are finally officially a thing?” Kalei asked. “Just don’t be making out when I show up in our room, kay?”
As Oka and I blushed, she just laughed. “But seriously,” Kalei said. “it’s really about time.”

The others were happy about it as well. Aira and Laenie hugged us both right away, and Lillia even offered me a supportive fist bump. I wasn’t sure anyone would be upset about Oka and I dating, but I still worried since it was something so new. I’d never dated someone who went to the same school as me.

“Zeta?” Oka asked, surprising me by showing up from a hallway that was not the choir room. “What are you doing here?”

I don’t know if it was a haze of my hormones, but every time I saw Oka was different now. I knew she was cute before, but now I saw it even clearer; even down to small things like the way she brushed her hair back or how she carried her class books around.

"I...thought this was the choir...room?" I said, putting my phone away.

"It is, we just go out through the back hallway," Oka said. "I'm surprised you're here."

“I just…wanted to see you.” I said.

“Aw, something up?” Oka asked.

“I just want to make sure it’s still real,” I said.

“It is,” Oka said and we shared a nice hug. Even hugs felt nicer now that we were dating.

“Can I walk you…back to…somewhere?” I said.

“Well, we do have the next class together,” Oka said, smiling as she bit her lip.

One downside that weirdly didn’t hit me as hard when the pre-dating crush was raging the hardest was how shaky I was around Oka once we officially were dating. But at least Oka was in the same boat. We walked together to Atrax’s social studies class holding hands, and while I was elated, I was also very sweaty. Kalei was already sitting in our regular spot, and we sat down by her. I made sure I had finished the worksheet we had to do, then started paging through my notebook.

“Man, where’s Atrax already?” Kalei said a few minutes later. “I wanna get roll call over with so I can nap.”

I had been doodling in my notebook for a while and hadn’t even noticed social studies class had been going on for a few minutes already with no Mr. Atrax.

“Usually he’s pretty timely,” Oka said. “I hope he’s alright.”

“Well, wake me up if he does show up, I’m making an executive decision that I’m not gonna wait for him,” Kalei said, getting her space ready for napping.

Atrax’s social studies class didn’t have desks, so we were all seated at tables. Oka, Kalei and I usually grabbed seats in the back row. Other back row students in social studies were Latte (who needed to be close to a plug in for her coffee maker that she hauled around everywhere when she didn’t have a thermos), Iris, Maia, and the Matora sisters.

Rain and KJ were seated in the row in front of us, but there was curiously no Amara. Elisa Burwell, the dragon Kanibari obsessed with a pop singer named Osiris, took the last seat next to the two and got to work looking up Osiris fan sites and social media feeds on her tablet.

“Should we tell someone?” Oka asked.

“Don’t ruin this, Oka,” Iris said. “This could be a freebie class!”

“We’ll probably be in more trouble if we don’t tell the faculty,” Oka said.

“Yeah, but that forty-five minutes of bliss will be worth it.”

Amara suddenly burst into the room, almost out of breath.

“Sorry I’m late, bathroom emergency!” Amara said, then looked around. “Oh…no teacher. Hm.”

Amara went to the row KJ and Rain were sitting at but froze seeing Elisa. Iris started poking Maia to get her to pay attention to the scene in front of them.

“Elisa, can you please move?” Amara asked. “I’d like to sit next to Rain.”

“No,” Elisa said. “I get the best reception in this spot.”

“But…I always sit next to Rain,” Amara said.

“And I always look up Osiris during third period,” Elisa said. She poked her horns towards Amara. “So scoot.”

“Those horns could have jabbed at me!” Amara said.

“I was just pointing, leave me alone,” Elisa said. “You’re distracting from Osiris time!”

I noticed some others in the class were watching the argument as well, and a lot of whispers and pointing were had. Neither KJ nor Rain stepped in to cool her down either, which I thought was pretty crummy of them. But I guess I didn’t do anything either so I was implicit in the crumminess.

“Poor Amara,” I said.

“I think she can go without sitting next to Rain for one class period,” Maia said.

“Still,” I said.

“Why’s Letoh here?” Oka asked.

“Huh?” I said. Ms. Letoh, one of the teachers at Rising Shards, was standing at the front of class unpacking her stuff. Once she had finished, she smiled softly and stood still.

“She’s just…standing there.” Oka said.

“Yeah, this happens with her,” Maia said. “If nobody says anything, an entire class period can pass not getting anything done.”

“Freebie class!” Iris said, pumping her arms. Her wish was not granted however, as her exclamation led to Letoh snapping out of whatever haze she was in.

“Oh!” Ms. Letoh said. “Welcome, class. Usually you have Mr. Atrax, but he has suffered a serious accident."

Several in the class gasped.

"W-well, he’s not dead at least!” Letoh said, prompting even more murmurs. “I-I mean, oops, that’s probably…not the best way to phrase it. It was a seriously embarrassing accident involving a pair of overalls and a water well, and that’s probably…more detail than I should be giving. A-anyways, he will be on leave for the rest of this semester, so I will be taking over social studies. So, let’s begin, shall we? Um, Amara…?”

Amara still hadn’t sat down, and Elisa still hadn’t moved.

“Ms. Letoh, could you please tell Elisa to move?” Amara asked. “She’s in my spot.”

“Amara, I think it would be in your best interests to settle down a little,” Ms. Letoh said.

“Wh-ME?” Amara squeaked. “I’m the victim here!”

“Amara, please quiet down,” Ms. Letoh said. “There are plenty of seats you can take.”

“I…” Amara suddenly seemed to recognize all eyes in the class were on her and sulked off to a seat in the front corner and put her head down. It was almost heartbreaking to watch. For me at least, there were others in class snickering at the scene. Kalei wasn’t one of them, but she did look very upset her nap had been interrupted.