Rising Shards

“Greetings. I am finished with my rehearsal, and currently sitting in the cafeteria. Are you done with your practice and would you still like to meet up?”

It took Lillia thirty-seven minutes and approximately forty-nine drafts to generate that text message to send to Ko Matora. Between having a one-on-one talk with Naomi, and now meeting up with Ko, this would surely be an easy two page minimum diary day for Lillia. She had a plate of dinner in front of her that she’d barely touched.

It didn’t take long for Ko to find her. She jogged towards her with her own dinner, looking like she just stepped out of the shower. Her hair wasn't tied up, and itw as a lot longer than Lillia had imagined. Though she still had her trademark face bandage. Does she take it off to shower and put it back on after?

“How did your tryout go?” Lillia asked as soon as Ko sat down to avoid thinking any more about Ko in the showers.

“Oh you know, I kicked ass, the usual,” Ko said. “I’m starving though, hold on a sec.”

Ko tore into her food. She had very little in the way of manners while eating. Lillia ate a bit of her meal as well, trying not to stare too much at Ko, and how she ate her food fairly sloppily, how she picked at her fangs every few seconds, when she scratched at the bandage on her cheek…

I wonder, does she have a new bandage each time? Are they always for a wound in that same spot? Or is it entirely for aesthetic and to give an easy indicator that she’s not her sister? Surely a haircut or something would be easier?

Ko belched and pushed her plate forward. “Team’s pretty good, I’ve played on more consistent teams before though? Scrungy might be a weak link, but me and Kai can make up for it, and of course we got Koridia.”

Lillia giggled. “’Scrungy’?”

“Yeah, we all have nicknames, what of it?” Ko said. “Scrungy’s new here, I don’t think she’s even started classes yet. There was one other like that but I forget her name. Scrungy’s a Kanibari girl, no brains outside the court but who needs them if you’ve got em inside the court?”

“And this…Scrungy…is the weak link?” Lillia asked.

“Yeah, she’s a bit like…fight-y dumb. And not cool fights like me and Kai. Like she has a short fuse, so we’ll have to keep an eye on her.”

“Right…” Lillia said. “What’s your nickname?”

Ko looked smug. “When I’m playing beam chasers, I’m known as…Wolfcrusher.”

Lillia wanted to giggle at that too, but Ko looked incredibly proud of her nickname, so she smiled and nodded.

“But enough about me, how did your play thing go?” Ko asked. “Can I see you perform soon?”

Lillia got flutters in her tummy from both Naomi and Ko. The difference between the two was that Naomi gave them to Lillia unintentionally, just talking to Naomi made her feel like floating, while Ko was seemingly able to intentionally induce the internal butterflies.

“The real performances won’t be until spring,” Lillia said. “So if you could wait until then...”

“Ahh, guess I’ll play beam chasers to keep me going while I wait,” Ko said. “But how did today’s go?”

“It went fine,” Lillia said. “The lead actor got yelled at by the director, but he was putting in a weak performance.”

“Damn, you’re cold,” Ko said. “That’s pretty sweet though, I’m the same way when someone screws up on the team and coach chews em out. Actions have consequences and stuff.”

Lillia nodded. “I suppose theater and team sports are similar in a way. A group with shared goals and a shared expectation of what everyone needs to bring to be successful.”

“Huh.” Ko said. She looked like she either never considered that before or that she only understood about half of what Lillia just said. “That’s a good point…”

Lillia mentally confirmed something when Ko said that. For some reason, Ko really was easier to talk to than Naomi. At least just comparing this conversation with the one with Naomi earlier in the day. While her crush on Naomi had her stumbling over her words, with Ko she felt like she could speak freely.

“I’ve been looking up like theater stuff lately,” Ko said. “Not in like a nerdy way, but I was just thinking about it.”

“Oh, really?” Lillia asked. “Like what?”

“I just looked up like cool plays online. But all I get are these crappy fancams that have just the most crap video quality.” Ko said.

 “The rights owners pull the ones with better quality for the big events,” Lillia said. Wait, am I encouraging piracy here?

“Ohhh that makes sense,” Ko said. “That happens when footage leaks of the new beam chasers game each year. They take down the good ones but keep the ones filmed from like my grandma’s phone camera.”

“I can help you find some good ones in better quality, if you’d like.” Lillia said. Wait, did I just admit I’ve pirated plays before and would do so again? “I can think of a few I think you’d enjoy.”

“Oh, yeah?” Ko said. “Would you wanna plan a day for that? I don’t wanna keep you long if you’re beat from your day.”

“I’m not doing anything right now,” Lillia said. “If you’re available, would you like to go somewhere and watch?”

I’m making plans to watch a pirated video of a theatrical production with Ko Matora. What is going on with me? Seriously!

Ko’s eyes lit up. “I’m down if you’re down. I know we talked about going to a movie, but a free play sounds good to me too.”

On the other hand, there is that musical biography of that beam chasers player that I think she’d like. I think in this case, I can take the moral hit.

So Lillia brought Ko back to the lounge in the girls’ dorm, where after some searching they loaded up a fairly decent quality feed of “Blood on the Beam: The Journey of Sino “Egg” Dironis.”

Ko didn’t push to sit too close to her, which was nice, but they were sitting close enough to share the same pair of headphones, which was also nice. Lillia had never shared headphones with anyone before. She hummed along to all the songs, hoping Ko wasn’t the type to get bored of musicals. Fortunately, she was engaged throughout the whole musical. She was impressed with the stage setup and how they captured beam chasers in a theater format, and she said they adapted Sino Dironis’ history fairly accurately.

When it finished, she looked over as Ko pulled her earbud out and handed it to Lillia.

“I should probably get going, I still have to do some stretches before bed.” Ko said.

“Right, I should as well…” Lillia said.

“Hey, thanks for this,” Ko said.

Lillia felt flutters again. Ko was looking away from her, which made her feel them even more for some reason.

“No problem…” Lillia said.

“Let’s do it again sometime soon!” Ko said. “I’ll pick the movie.”

Lillia nodded. “I look forward to it.”

As Ko jogged off, Lillia tried to analyze her feelings a bit more. Her feelings for Naomi were the same as they always were. But she could feel some stirring deep within her, as different emotions brewed as she thought about how Ko Matora made her feel.