Rising Shards

Fall leaves were on the ground as I waited at a park bench for Jeans. It was my second fall with her. Our schools weren’t close, but there was a bus stop by this park that we both met at after school. Jeans’ Cani school went a bit later than mine did.

“Zeta!” Jeans said as she surprised me with a sneak attack hug from behind. She dropped something on my lap.

“Hi Jeans!” I said. “What…did you just hand me?”

It was a booklet with thick, glossy paper. There were pictures of cheesecake, computers, and cigars on the cover. Its title was “Cani Courtesy AB-814”.

“This company sends out coupon books to all the Cani schools every year around this time,” Jeans said. “And I’m not talking like thirty-five cents off or something, these are incredible deals. The company covers it all.”

“They send cigar deals to schools?” I asked, paging through the booklet. The deals were pretty absurdly good for lots of expensive stuff.

“Well, that’s more for parents, right? Lots of Cani kids get these taken right away by their families.”

Jeans grabbed my hands and made me start folding the thing.

“And then if you fold it like this,” Jeans said. “Or wait, let me do it.”

“Yeah, I’m not handy enough for this,” I said, wishing Jeans could just keep holding my hands. Still, I watched her quickly fold the booklet.

“They always make these the same way, so every year you make a cute little bird!” Jeans presented the bird to me. “And its wings flap if you pull on its tail.”

“Aw, it’s cute!”

We giggled about the bird for a while, each of us making it talk. My face hurt from laughing so much that day.

A year later, the same booklet slid under my door while I was doing homework at my desk. Oka and Kalei were both out, which was good because I didn’t want them to see me get emotional about a coupon book. I grabbed the copy of Cani Courtesy AB-815 and sat down on my bed.

I folded the little coupon sheet the way Jeans did. It wasn’t as neat as the one Jeans made, but it turned out better than I expected.

I gave a moment’s pause to my next move. I had a box under my bed that I really didn’t want Oka and Kalei to know I had. I got it in front of me and took the lid off, making sure it was close enough to quickly slam on if either of them showed up.

There were only a few things inside. Photos, notes, a bag of ash, and a folded booklet bird. All from Jeans. She told me she cared more about me having that bird than using the absurd coupons. I placed my bird next to it.

“Now you have a little friend.” I said.

I hid the box back under my bed and went back to homework, humming a melancholy tune to myself.

“Zeta!” Kalei said as she practically destroyed the door hinges as she burst into the room. She had the unfortunate habit of arriving loudly at the worst times.

“Ah!” I said, flinching off my chair. I needed to breathe for a bit to get my spiked heart rate to slow down. “Why…”

“I nearly got you to the ceiling that time,” Kalei said. “Oh, I brought the Matora sisters with me.”

Great, the Matora sisters saw me jump. I didn’t know the two very well, they were definitely more Kalei’s friends than mine. I also couldn’t tell them apart. They told me they weren’t completely identical, but both had the same ponytail and gym wear fashion sense.

“We’re gonna go play BCAB15.” Kalei said.

“And that is?” I asked.

“It’s the beam chasers game, dude,” Kalei said. “You can join if you want, but the Matoras get pretty competitive when we do tournament nights.”

“It’s true,” Ko said. “I’m better than Kai, but she cheats. Once we hit the tipping point, all bets are off.”

“Oh, that’s crap!” Kai said, tackling her sister. The two tussled on the ground as I looked to Kalei.

“They do that,” Kalei said calmly as I considered escaping through the window as the sisters wrestled.

“Yeah, I think I’m gonna go,” I said.

“Suit yourself,” Kalei said. “Don’t worry, we’re careful not to break stuff. It’s all safe here.”

“Right,” I said as Kai got her sister in a painful looking leg lock.

Homework in hand, I stepped around them by climbing on and off my bed and power walked to the door.

“Oh, Zeta!” Kalei yelled over the sisters.

“Y-yeah?” I asked, really hoping she wasn’t about to invite me to wrestle her.

“It’s right after Cubicle Days, so we’re probably gonna get that coupon booklet from the Haven people,” Kalei said. “We’re all going out after we play so I might miss it, but we’ll be back later. Let me know if it pops up today, alright?”

I didn’t want to get the box out in front of them, so I just nodded.

“I just know they’re only gonna let people use the game deals like, the day we get em,” Kalei said. ”And they make you send in the barcode from the actual page in the coupon too to prove it’s legit.”

I was maybe feeling selfish in addition to my defensiveness. Part of me was like, it was my memento, not some coupon to be torn up. Imagining my poor little coupon bird being ripped apart made me sad, too.