Rising Shards

Stella had been warned by Evy that Principal Penteldtam’s new worker orientations were a lot. Berin was there and was more of a typical employer, but Penteldtam had made her listen to his poetry and work-in-progress stand-up comedy routine already. After that mercifully finished, the two showed her around the small library in the girls’ dorm, as well as the main library in one of the school buildings, complete with a newly finished wing that looked a touch sleeker than the rest of the shelves.

“This is where the books go.” Penteldtam said. He smiled and raised his eyebrows like he had just said something really complicated that would cause Stella to have lots of questions.

“Uh, wow!” Stella said.

“Oh!” Penteldtam said and sprinted to the tables where students were seated. He brought back a blue haired girl, a clybrid Cani. Stella had rarely seen one before, but Zeta mentioned a clybrid student attending the school. She did not look pleased that Penteldtam had brought her over.

“This is my daughter, 09.” Penteldtam said. “Please make sure she reads a lot! I try to tell her to read, but then she’s already reading, so she says stuff like ‘that’s redundant’ or ‘I don’t really want to read your autobiography manuscript, sorry pops.’”

“Hello,” 09 said. “Welcome to the school…” Her eyes lit up for a second. “Stella Faleur. Former librarian at North Central, a LE college. Part time actor. Freelance actor as well? Not sure what the difference is…”

“09 can read people’s minds.” Penteldtam said.

“It’s more like I can see your social media really easily.” 09 said.

Stella sighed in relief that 09 couldn’t read minds. She didn’t need a random student finding out about her and Evy and telling Penteldtam and Berin immediately during her orientation.

“Now I am in the middle of something, so…” 09 said and slipped out of her dad’s grasp to return to her table.

“Ahhh youth. Being a parent sure is tough.” Penteldtam said.

"Indeed it is," Stella said.

Stella thought about how Zeta was doing. She hated dropping all that she had dropped on her so rapidly, but Zeta was taking it well. She knew Evy would be fine as well, but she still had worries for the both of them. They were normal ‘Stella Faleur dramatically overthinking’ worries, and mentally acknowledging that made her feel a lot better.

* * *

It was a bit of a melancholy feeling as Kalei got back on the beam chasers court. While it always put her in a spiritually good place when she played, she’d been hoping Nikki would have been at this tryout pre the whole Wildfire Hearts thing. Kalei didn’t even get to teach her any basics.

While she’d been stressing a great deal about the tryout itself, it wasn’t as scary as she expected. She knew the coach, Ms. Gireau, from her preseason practicing. Gireau was basically a stoic, blank board when outside of the field, mostly the type to be quiet and keep to herself, but when she was watching beam chasers her flip switched to something closer to an amped up ultra beam chasers fan.

“Hell yes, Koridia!” Gireau screamed as Kalei slid forward and hit the ball with a perfect swing of her staff. “Get it! That is what I want to see! Scrungy, you know how to play, what are you doing? Better Scrungy, you know too! Cheese-Chip, show me something! Matora! Which one is that, turn my way! Bandage on that cheek or no? OK! Kai! Good hit, Kai! That’s what I want too!”

Kalei felt like she was one of the standouts. Ko and Kai were obviously very talented as well, and had good showings. The girls who were in over their heads showed it pretty quickly, including one who twisted her ankle slightly as she first jumped onto one of the rails, causing her to run off crying. Kalei wondered where Nikki would have ended up. With some training, she could have at least avoided being a run away and cry type, but what if she still got embarrassed?

“Koridia, looking distant, focus!” Gireau yelled and chucked a ball her way. Kalei caught it in her hands and shook the thoughts away.

Right. No time to be wondering about a hypothetical Nikki. When the real Nikki texts me now.

On a skating drill, effectively just doing laps around the rails on the court with their magnetized boots to test how well they could leap from rail to rail, as well as their endurance, Kalei let the air rush past her, rushing around like she was floating. In this beam chasers moment of spiritual and mental clarity, she decided to ask herself some questions.

But this might be a good time for some introspection or whatever, right?

This is like the me-iest me, after all. Beam chasers zen and whatnot.

So, me.

No judgment here, but…

So we like a girl, huh? Not like as in friends, got a lot of those.

But like.

So we’re probably gay, right? Or like a lesbian? Or bi? Or all these other ones Zates told us about?

Are you cool with that?

This is me-iest me. So…

I think…I think I’m cool with it. It’s like, a lot though.

I always thought I was…

‘Normal’?

That isn’t right.

I thought I’d just eventually fall for a guy, I guess.

But I never felt anything like how I do for Nikki. Except.

Even as she wrestled with heavy thoughts, more laps around the court kept her feeling stable, despite her having to balance on rails at pretty high speeds.

Risa. I probably liked her like that too, yeah? That’s what I was thinking at least.

Kalei thought about her longtime friend Risa. She was goofy, kind of the same way Zeta and Oka were. But she kept it hidden that she had a rich family, the Taramins, and randomly bolted with them, never to be heard from again.

So her and Nikki both left.

I better not be doomed to falling for a girl only for them to leave.

Though Risa leaving was a lot different than Nikki. Risa unfriended me and everything. Nikki’s still talking to me. And she left to help me not have to be around Terina freaks. Maybe we can ask Nikki to hang out at like a specific concrete day soon.

I really wanna kiss her.

Oh, OK me! That’s new! I mean…kinda new. I mean, beam chasers clarity, but we did think a lot of things we want to…yeah. With Nikki. Kissing’s a newer thought, but.

She imagined what it’d feel like to kiss Nikki. It’d be soft, probably, right? That’s what all the comics and stuff always said about kissing girls, that their lips were soft.

As a test, she thought about kissing a boy. She tried to imagine her ideal guy, but they just morphed around aimlessly in her head until they turned into Nikki, who was a lot more exciting to think about kissing.

It’s kinda nice, like knowing. Like the knowing I like girls. It’s weird, but being a Cani is weird.

I was always kinda weird, but in like a badass way.

So maybe this is kinda badass.

Am I even doing this right?

"Alright, great work everyone. Survivors of the tryout, on me!"

Kalei skidded to a stop and safely got down, as Gireau high fived all the girls who’d made it through the whole tryout, screaming how proud she was at them. It was during this praise that Kalei realized something about her self-realization that could be a potentially huge problem.

Crap, we gotta tell mom.