Rising Shards

“Dr. Diast!” I basically yelled again pointlessly, as Diast was just a room away. 

“What’s up?” Diast asked, temporarily stopped from her kitchen to living room loop.

I held my phone out to her. “Dr. Diast, this is an emergency. Well, not an emergency. But it’s urgent. They’re doing a giveaway for a limited-edition Raina Starlight hair clip. Well, there’s other stuff too, but that’s obviously not what I care about. Can you take me to LE so we can get it? It’s at the Twin Wolves mall!”

Dr. Diast read the ad from my phone.

“Uh, this says it’s a Parent and Kid contest? Why is that trademarked?” Diast asked.

“Who knows?” I said. “You just have to pretend to be my guardian! You’re guardian-ing right now, yeah? It won’t even be pretend! Then we can win! I’ll split my winnings with you, Dr. Diast. I’m keeping the Raina hair clip, obviously, but you can get the other stuff! It’s a prize pack!”

“I wouldn’t be opposed,” Diast said. “Your sister did show me the quickest road to LE that I somehow hadn’t figured out the whole time I’ve lived in this area.”

“Alright, we should probably go soon. Like now soon, if we can.” I said. “They’re only giving away one hundred and fifty of these. So it’s either this or pay a super way-too-high rate online later.”

Diast laughed. “Sure, yeah, we can go now.”

The ride there I spent explaining why this hair clip giveaway was happening to the best of my research, as well as pried Diast for some info about her own Tower interests. She’d told me she watched before, but I wanted to make sure she was one of the good fans, mainly the ones whose tastes lined up with my own. She was focused on the road, but she did pass my initial Tower of Hate and Love taste test.

The last time I was at the Twin Wolves mall, I was with Oka and Kalei. That was in the midst of my realization I had a crush on Oka. The event was taking place in the same open space with the big fountain I sat by when Oka randomly said she thought I’d be a good kisser, and said it wasn’t fair that Jeans was the only person I’d kissed. Even now that we’re dating, what was THAT about? What would I have done if she kissed me back then? What would SHE have done after?

Like that day, this trip to the mall was also a bit surreal, although for different reasons. I spotted the line starting to form outside Shafey’s, a store chain that had lots of fun nerdy stuff. Our giveaway would be there. The video game store Kalei went to was right next to it. I took some pictures of it all and sent them to Oka, who still hadn’t responded, but it made sense if she was in the middle of doing a full rehearsal.

“I really thought a bigger crowd would have formed already,” I said. “This could work out greatly in our favor.”

“What do we have to do here?” Diast asked as we joined the line.

“We just have to get to the front and be parent and kid and we get two prize packs!” I said. “Oh, can I trade you the rest of my prize pack for the other Raina clip? I don’t want to sell it, I want Oka to have one, too.”

“Right, but, are they going to ask questions? Or something?” Diast asked. “Do they have to prove the whole parent thing? Like we're not gonna have to really prove that, are we?”

“Maybe?” I said. I clenched my fists to show my determination and hopefully pump Diast up. “We got this, though.”

Diast smirked. “Alright bud, let’s do this.”

“Say bud a lot, or buddy when we get up there!” I said. “That’s a total parent/guardian thing, right?”

“Sure.” Diast said.

“Sure, and?” I said, subtly testing Dr. Diast by putting emphasis on ‘and,’ putting my hands on my hips and leaning over and humming afterwards.

“Sure, buddy.” Diast said.

"Yes!"

After a few minutes, staffers from Shafey’s came out and handed us little tickets showing our place in line.

“Oh, great,” Diast said.

“Huh? What’s wrong? Is it bad to have the forty-seventh and forty-eighth spots?”

“Not that,” Diast said. “Crap, he saw me.”

“Huh? Huh? Huh?” I said as I spotted who Diast groaned at. A familiar short girl with yellow eyes and cat ears approached with her teacher? Wizard teacher? Wizard trainer? I wasn’t sure, but his name was Razmus Marne, and I had encountered him a few times. He was weird, even for the standards of Rising Shards faculty, of which his status was dubious outside of being the official “Wizard of the Weird Zone.” The two were wearing matching white t-shirts that had a cover from that video game Tyrant Rangers that Kalei liked on them. Razmus was wearing his over his robe.

“Guh, should’ve looked away, sorry.” Diast said as the two approached us. Roux was counting, and cheered when she got to us.

“Teacher, can you believe it?” Roux said.

“You did predict the numbers we needed would be familiar faces,” Razmus said. “Excellent use of your forseeing abilities, Arielle.”

Diast groaned again. I could tell she wanted to bail on this whole thing already, but she muscled through being near her enemy Razmus Marne for me.

“You have the forty-seventh and forty-eighth spots in line.” Roux said, pointing directly at me.

“Uh huh.” I said.

“Give it to me.” Roux said.

“Give what to you?” I said.

“Yeah, like we’re gonna give our spots up to you.” Diast said.

“There’s a Tyrant Rangers keychain in the prize pack.” Roux said.

“How does getting my spot in line affect you getting the keychain? Just go to the back?” I asked. “It’s the same thing for all of them, right?”

“Mayhaps,” Razmus said. “But Arielle’s predictive powers have pontificated that we need to pursue the particular places in pl—"

“God, stop.” Diast said.

“There’s also a Raina Starlight hair clip.” Roux said.

“You think I don’t know that?” I said. I wasn’t normally one to raise my nose as I talked down to someone, but this was about Raina Starlight. “Roux, do you even like Raina Starlight?”

“I tolerate her. She’s a mediocre actress but her books are good toilet reads.”

I’m not a violent person, but in that moment I did want to punch Roux in the face for such slander.