Rising Shards

Maia watched as Iris yawned thirteen seconds into the first Spirit Betterment Club meeting since the Fang Moon Web deal, which made Maia yawn fifteen seconds into the first Spirit Betterment Club meeting since the Fang Moon Web deal. The group, slightly smaller without Rain or Nikki there, met in their usual room, which mercifully wasn’t all inked up by the calligraphy club like usual.

“I—I’ve prepared an agenda for today’s meeting.” Zeta said before gulping. She had a stack of papers that she nervously sorted through. “About the leaving club members and the raid and stuff and what we should do about it. And stuff.”

“I should also note as we get started that I’m gonna be here way less because of beam chasers,” Kalei said. “I’m not a quitter so I’m not quitting or anything. But you might wanna look for an extra to fill the work I’m not doing already.”

“I’m not sure how our club can go on without its god emperor Rain but…” Amara trailed off.

“I was thinking we could do some kind of recruitment drive?” Zeta suggested. “Otherwise, we’re gonna have to join another club…”

“They keep saying new people are gonna start here soon,” Iris said. “Maybe we get some of them in? Oooh, what if we get someone who’s like, kinda motivated and trick them into doing all the work?”

“I like that idea,” Maia said. Iris grinned at her, and like every time Iris grinned at her lately, Maia looked down to her teeth, particularly her fangs, and thought again about how Iris bit her.

Their friendship hadn’t really changed since then. Iris hadn’t even brought it up once Maia got over the Shearing Infection Iris bit into her. But Maia couldn’t stop thinking about the bite. How Iris pushed her back on the bed, the way Iris’ fangs dug into her shoulder, how it felt to hold Iris as they were on Iris’ bed together. How much she wanted Iris to bite her again. Or for her to bite Iris. She had stupidly told Zeta about the whole thing and asked her to bite her girlfriend to see if it was anything like what Iris and Maia experienced, but she hadn’t heard anything back yet.

“Maybe we can make a poster or something too.” Kalei suggested.

“Posters are for the weak.” KJ said.

“Give them free coffee, and the people will come.” Latte said.

“Petition to not listen to what Latte and KJ have to say here?” Kalei asked.

“Signed.” Amara said.

“M-maybe something for the next meeting.” Zeta cleared her throat. “The next point…the videos we still have to make. How far are we on that second video?”

Everyone in the group shrugged.

“Did we…film anything for it?” Zeta asked.

“We definitely filmed stuff,” Kalei said. “Nikki made enough music for like twelve commercials since they’re only like thirty seconds long.”

“Hmm,” Zeta said. She sorted through her papers. “I thought this would take a lot longer to read. Does anyone in the group have any questions or something? Do you wanna see the cute little banner I put on the agenda? There was a cute template that has art of these little puppies on them and—”

“Now hold on there, gang,” an unfortunately familiar voice said, forcing the group to suppress groans as Principal Penteldtam’s new friend/bodyguard-type-fellow Mantorvel entered the room. “Principal Penteldtam would like a word.”

Penteldtam approached next to Mantorvel. Maia forgot that Penteldtam was the club’s official staff person or whatever. That had mostly consisted of him showing up to gush over footage they filmed and reveal he had no idea how to use computers. “My main man Mantorvel will be handling this one.” He said.

“What do you mean?” Zeta asked.

“He’s not gonna be our advisor or whatever, is he?” Kalei asked.

“Oh, no, no,” Penteldtam said. “Mantorvel’s just gonna do all these commercials now. You guys are free! Or whatever preferred nomenclature you have about not doing commercials for your school now.”

“Wait, so we’re not doing any commercials anymore?” Zeta asked.

“Not a chance.” Mantorvel said. “I have plenty of experience putting professional grade commercials together. I mainly made them for a muscle-based, video game focused energy drink company, but I also did a masculine perfume commercial that you may or may not know.”

Nobody in the group had any idea what he was talking about.

“So, what’s our club going to be, then?” Iris asked.

Penteldtam shrugged. “Maybe go make a new club? Or join another? We’ll figure something out. For now, for this week, for this meeting, I’d like to ask you all….to leave.” Penteldtam yawned. “I’m getting sleepy so I’m getting out of here too. Good work, everyone!” Mantorvel picked him up like a child and slung him over his shoulder and walked away. Before he left, he turned back to the disappointed looks from the club members.

“Don’t fret, kiddos,” Mantorvel said. “Remember, you can’t say Cani without asking yourself, ‘Can I’?”

Because Penteldtam told them to leave, everyone decided to be rebellious and stay.

“Well, this royally blows,” Maia said.

“I’m not surprised this was taken from us,” KJ said. “Everything I love is taken from me by the cruelty of the Cani school system.”

“Perhaps we should start looking at other clubs…” Amara said.

“What do we do in the meantime?” Iris asked.

“We got pretty good at slacking off and doing nothing,” Maia said. “Until they tell us otherwise, let’s just keep doing that.”

“Good idea, MaiMai!” Iris said. “I could nap here…”

The rest of the ‘meeting’ involved everyone sharing the best places they’d found to take a nap (except Latte, who claimed she never slept anymore due to her high caffeine intake). Afterwards, as everyone went their separate ways, only Maia, Zeta, and a sleeping Iris were left in the club room.

“Hey, before you wake her up,” Zeta said quietly as Maia reached out for Iris’ shoulders.

“What’s up?” Maia asked.

“I er. Did as you requested.” Zeta said.

Maia’s eyes widened. She gestured for Zeta to follow her out of the room. They both made sure the hallway was empty so no one would bug them. Their club was in one of the later timeslots of the days it was held, so they didn’t have to exert much effort checking. Zeta clasped her hands behind her back, already blushing thinking about what she claimed she did as she rocked against the wall. Maia held her own tail and poked at it, just something to keep her hands busy.

“Will she hear us out here?” Zeta asked.

“Iris could probably sleep through it even if we were talking in there.” Maia said. “So…you…did a…? You bit your girlfriend?”

Zeta nodded as she looked toward the ceiling. “It was awesome! It was super…I dunno, romantic? It felt…really cool? I think? Oka liked it too! I…” She looked around despite the fact that they’d already confirmed the hallway was empty. “I gave her a hickey, even.”

Maia nodded as well. “Cool. That’s. Alright.” Her nodding didn’t hide the fact that a rush of emotions hit her then. So Zeta doing that with her girlfriend worked for them…so what the hell does that mean for what Iris did?

“Can I ask you something?” Zeta said. “So you and Iris…are…?”

“I don’t know…” Maia answered honestly. “I mean, duh, we’re friends. But this bite thing is kind of driving me insane. Why the hell would she…? Like that, I mean?”

“I wish I had some good advice here,” Zeta said. “When I figured out I had feelings for Oka, it was a lot to navigate. So if what you’re going through is similar I could maybe help and talk about what got me through that time?”

“It’s not like that,” Maia said. I didn’t just figure this out. I’ve known for a long-ass time. But she didn’t want to be rude to Zeta and say that out loud, especially when Zeta already looked like Maia smacked her with just that brief response. “But thanks, though. If I ever…wanna talk this out. Can I talk with you about it?”

“Oh, yeah!” Zeta said. “Anytime!” She checked her phone. “Oh, I should probably go, though. I promised Oka I’d give her the agenda after her play practice because she really wanted to read what I wrote for some reason. Anyways, good luck!”

“Yeah…thanks…” Maia said as Zeta’s footsteps echoed around the hall as she left.

Iris was still asleep when Maia returned to the club room. The two had different methods for waking the other up. Iris would just be really loud when Maia was the one asleep, and Maia usually gave her a light scratch on her arm or something to jolt her up. As Iris snored, her head resting on her arms on a desk, Maia realized she didn’t want to scratch her awake this time.

What would she do if I bit her?

Maia shook her head.

She’s asleep, you weirdo. Weirdo creep. Don’t be a weirdo creep to your best friend.

“Hey. Iris.” Maia said. “Get up.” She patted Iris’ shoulders, freezing for a second as she thought more about what it would feel like to bite Iris.

Iris flailed upwards, drool on her face as she frantically yet dopily looked around the room.

“Wuzza?” Iris said. “Where’s everybody?”

“You’ve been asleep all week,” Maia said. “They’re gonna expel you now, sorry.”

“Not funny…” Iris said. “How long was I really out?”

“Just like twenty minutes.” Maia said.

“Aw,” Iris said. “Well, thanks for waiting for me.” She got a devious look on her face. “Hey, MaiMai. I just had a great idea.”

“Y-yeah?” Maia asked, her heart pounding immediately.

“You wanna carry me back to our room like that Mantorvel guy carried Penteldtam?” Iris giggled.

“Hell no.” Maia said.