Rising Shards

While officially dating Oka changed a lot, some things stayed the same. Lunches were the same when the regular crew was at the table.

“Zeta, hurry up,” Kalei said. “Don’t take forever to eat today, alright?”

Kalei was the same, especially when she didn’t get enough sleep.

“Why? We’re not waiting for anything,” I said. “Unless you’re making me sign up for another thing.”

“No, I’m just tired of sitting here watching you eat pancakes.” Kalei said.

“You can always do something else,” I said. “Utilize that free will.”

“Don’t worry Zeta, I don’t mind watching you eat pancakes,” Oka said, resting her chin on her hands. “Wait, that came out weird. That came out weird, didn’t it?”

“You’re fine,” I said. “We’re dating, it’s fine! You should...want to see me eat pancakes…?”

“I think it came out a little weird from both of you,” Kalei said. “But worse, it slowed Zeta’s already slow eating down.”

I rolled my eyes and finished my food.

“Finally,” Kalei said.

“What’s got you so steamed today, Kalei?” Oka asked as we got up. Kalei obviously wanted us to go somewhere other than the table, but I’m not sure even she knew where exactly.

“People taking too long to eat pancakes, Void Raiders getting delayed, I slept kinda funny and now my neck hurts, my nap got interrupted by that psycho Amara…”

“So the usual, I guess?” I said.

“Usually Void Raiders doesn’t get delayed so that’s definitely not usual,” Kalei said.

A bit past the cafeteria, we stopped at a classroom that was open. It was a small theater type classroom for bigger classes, so it was weird to see it unoccupied.

“There’s no one in here,” Oka said. “Usually the third years in theater club take this during lunch.”

“Yeah, duh, that was obvious just looking at it,” Kalei said. “Oh, we got time too, let’s watch some Tower on the big screen!”

“Do you think we’d get in trouble doing that?” I asked.

“What are they gonna say, ‘stop watching the most popular show in the world nyehhh,’ come on.” Kalei said.

“What are you guys doing?” Aira asked as she teleported right in front of me, causing me to scream and fall over.

“Wow Zeta, it’s only like the hundredth time she’s done that, how shocking.” Kalei said.

“Alright, ease it up there, Koridia,” Oka said after she helped me up. Kalei scoffed in response.

“Laenie spotted you guys over here and pointed it out, so I wanted to see if it was something interesting before I got her,” Aira said.

“We’re gonna watch some Tower, you in?” Kalei asked.

“Oh, yeah for sure!” Aira said. “One second.”

Aira teleported away, and a few moments later booped back in with Laenie at her side.

“Are you sure we wouldn’t get in trouble for this?” Laenie asked. I was surprised that she wasn’t at all shaken by the sudden teleport. I figured Aira must zip her around a lot.

“I think we’ll be alright,” Aira said. “Worst case scenario, I’ll throw up and be a diversion while you all run away.”

“You’re a true friend, Aira,” I said.

“A truly gross friend,” Kalei said.

I looked around the small theater classroom. There didn’t seem to be any way to get inside the control room that housed the projector.

“I’ve had practice in this room once or twice, but I don’t actually know how to get over there,” Oka said. “I don’t see any doors or anything either.”

“Here, I got this,” Aira said. She teleported into the room. She teleported back after a few seconds.

“I actually borrow my Watchthis account from Laenie,” Aira said. “But I don’t know her login. do one of you guys want to use yours?”

“We can use mine,” I said. “But I’ll just walk around instead of, I think I saw the hallway that goes there earlier…”

“C’mon Zeta, just let her teleport you,” Kalei said.

After some convincing, Aira zipped me over, got me logged in to my streaming account, and we were rolling. After another quick teleport, I wanted to claim my spot by Oka, not wanting a situation like Amara had a few class periods ago.

“Zeta, check this out,” Oka said, flipping up the little desk part of the seats. “I wish the auditorium had these! Pretty fancy, right?”

I glared at Kalei to try and make sure she wouldn't goof on Oka for that, but she wasn't looking my way. I flipped my desk up too. It would be good if I had any notes to take during the episode that I wanted to check in with Oka on after to see her reaction. I got my trusty pen out and clicked it open.

"Hey, Zates," Kalei said. "Don't do that thing where you click a pen a hundred times. It's really annoying."

I set my pen down and sighed.

“Whatcha guys doing?” Maia asked. Her and Iris poked their heads in the doorway of the classroom.

“There was no one in this little auditorium, so we decided to get some Tower watching in.” I said.

“In case you couldn’t tell by the giant screen with Tower of Hate and Love on it,” Kalei said.

“…right.” Maia said, squinting.

“Can we join in?” Iris asked.

“Yeah, sure!” I said. As long as I was sitting by Oka, I didn't care if we filled the whole auditorium. “Oka’s not fully caught up though, so no spoilers.”

“Obviously.” Maia said.

I didn’t check what the episode we were at next was, and I winced when I saw it.

“Oh, great, it’s a Teylet episode.” I said.

We all groaned.

“Seriously, does anyone like her?” Oka asked. “They gave her like no redeemable character traits.”

“Just wait for this one.” Maia said as she grinned.

“Hey, we said no spoilers for Oka!” Kalei said.

“That’s barely a spoiler,” Maia said. “If you’d even consider that a spoiler."

“It technically is,” Kalei said. “Saying anything about what’s going to happen is a spoiler, honestly.”

“Whatever,” Maia said.

We finished the whole episode with just a bit of time to spare to leave the theater room before anyone bugged us. Oka sat stunned at what she just watched, though. Aira teleported back to the control room and got me logged out as Laenie got the lights on.

“Hold on.” Oka said.

“I know,” I said.

“Hold on,” Oka said.

“I. Know.” I said.

Oka rubbed her forehead as she tried to work out maybe the worst Tower episode in her head.

“Let me get this straight,” Oka said. “So Teylet breaks up the wedding of Adriene and Kalan, immediately drives off a cliff with Kalan in the car, then, with Kalan in a coma, pulls the plug on him for literally no reason and kills him, and we’re supposed to feel sorry for her?”

“I KNOW!” I said. “Luckily the showrunner for that season got fired, but Teylet is still pretty inherently broken.”

“Broken is an understatement!” Oka said. “What…just what the!”

We all laughed at Oka’s reaction, which matched up with how most of the fandom felt about Teylet.

“My problem with her,” I said. “Or at least, my take on her, is that the writers never truly got a grasp on what she was supposed to be. In the first season, or the first season of the third reboot where her character started, lasting until the fifth reboot—"

“Zeta, skip the meta talk,” Oka said.

“Oh, right, thank you,” I said. “My problem with her is that at first she’s like the villain, messing everything up with that awful backstory that just makes her more unlikable the more you learn about her, then she’s the generic girl in a love triangle with two guys for the next few seasons, then they just don’t have any good ideas for her but she’s still really important, then the love triangle turns into that tetrahedron, and the show never really punishes her for her ultra-jerkiness and seems to think she’s purely heroic all the way through.”

“That is like the best summation of why Teylet sucks I’ve ever heard,” Iris said. “And I watched a like three-hour video called ‘Why Teylet Sucks,’ which was just the worst. That video made me actually want to join the #TeyletIsGood apologist crew.”

“Is any ‘Why blank sucks’ video any good? I don’t think so,” I said. “And kind of spoilers for where she ends up where the show is now, sorry Oka.”

“It’s fine, I figured they’d never figure her out.” Oka said.

“Hey, there’s plenty of good ‘Why blank sucks’ videos!” Kalei said. “You just don’t watch any good ones.”

“Yeah, whatever,” I said.

“I’m sorry, I can’t get over this,” Oka said. “She finds her old boyfriend, who has a family and everything, and then murders him! Then we’re supposed to feel all bad? She reminds me of someone at Rising Shards. That one second year girl…with the…uh, she has…freckles?”

“Yep, that gives me a super clear picture, thanks Oka.” Kalei said.

“I know who you’re talking about,” Iris said. “That one uh…she has one big freckly on her left cheek.”

“More like left butt cheek,” Kalei said, looking very proud of her joke. “Because you’re both describing this as badly. As a, uh, a butt cheek.”

“Oh my god Kalei, just SHUT UP!” Maia said, slamming her fist down on the desk part of her chair. “Do you EVER let up with this crap?”

Maia flipped her desk thing back down and stormed off. It felt like someone in the room had just exploded as we all froze.

“I should probably…go…follow her…” Iris said.

It was quiet for a few moments.

“I think I’m gonna go too,” Aira said. “I have…to water…a plant? Presumably?”

“We…do have class,” Laenie said.

“Right, that!”

Aira grabbed Laenie and teleported away. Leaving us with a stunned Kalei.

“You alright there, Kalei?” Oka asked.

Oka rubbed Kalei on her back as she waited for an answer. I felt bad, but Kalei also was being a turd and pretty much brought Maia’s wrath on herself there so I wasn’t sure how sympathetic I should really be.

“We should probably get to class too,” I said.

“Yeah…” Oka said. “Come on, Kalei.”

She didn’t say anything, which was even more concerning. She didn’t say anything for the rest of class that day, which was pretty unfeasible for Kalei unless she was doing one of her nap-a-class marathons.

We were back at the cafeteria for an after class meal when she finally spoke up, her voice soft and fragile.

“Guys…”

Kalei cleared her throat.

“Am I…too mean?” Kalei asked.

Oka and I shared a quick glance.

“Noooo,” I said. “I mean…”

“I mean…” Oka said. “Not…necessarily…in some…instances?”

“If you look at it from like a quadruple reverse negative point of view?” I said.

Kalei groaned and put her head down on the table. She was gonna land right in her mashed potatoes, but Oka slid her tray out of the way just in time.