Rising Shards

Whatever Kalei wanted to talk about, I assumed it had to be pretty important if she wanted to have a whole sleepover for it. I was surprised she’d consider bringing Oka and Lillia over for that as well. I could pretty much guess what was on her mind, but figured it’d be better to not push her to say anything she wasn’t ready for. As I was mid-agreeing to it, Oka and Lillia returned with their books.

Oka watched eagerly as Stella scanned her books.

“Do you have any tricks for checking books out?” Oka asked. “Like a cool spin of the scanner?”

“Sorry, the cord on the scanner makes it hard to move it around,” Stella said. She printed a receipt and handed it to Oka. “That’ll be due Silvember 6th.”

“Wow,” Oka said.

“She checked that out pretty normally,” Kalei said. “Unless you’re trying real hard to suck up to the girlfriend’s family; in which case I’d say you’re coming on a little strong.”

“Oka’s a performer, it’s in her blood,” Stella said.

Kalei relayed her idea for a sleepover to Oka and Lillia, who were fortunately free this weekend. Oka suggested Saturday night, so her dad wouldn’t be upset she was missing her usual Friday night at the Kilander house. That worked for me as well; I told Stella and Diast I wanted to spend my Fridays at the new apartment so I wouldn’t have to miss my first full night there.

“Sweet!” Kalei said. “My place is in Anesville so I can see if my mom can drive everyone.”

“I can help with rides if needed now that I’m closer,” Stella said.

“So, Stella, you’re cool with it?” I asked.

“Hmm, should I not be?” Stella asked. “I’m kidding. I’ll let you go to Kalei’s house, if you do me a favor.”

“What do you need?” I asked.

“It’s supposed to be my break, but I’m the only one scheduled tonight.” Stella said.

“On your first day?” Kalei asked. “This place is run like a dump. Like, a bad garbage dump.”

“Or a lot of people called in sick.” Stella said.

“And your break is at dinner time?” Oka asked.

“In the library game, you get to sleep in and stay up late. Depending on the shift.” Stella said. “Anyways, just hang out here for an hour, please? Make sure nothing stupid happens.”

“I can, yeah!” I said.

“I’m in too!” Oka said, way too loudly. She shrunk down as she felt eyes from people around the library turning her way.

Lillia gave her a sympathy stealthy kill strike (the phantom martial art game kind her and Oka were apparently doing now, not like literally killing her), with a whispered “Hup!” Oka brightened up from that at least.

“I’ll help as well.” Lillia said.

“I know you’re faculty now, Miss Faleur,” Kalei said, giving an exaggerated stretch and yawn. “So I’m gonna have to do an exception for my personal rule of never doing something a teacher or staffer here tells me to do outside of school hours. Think of it as a little Koridia thank you card for allowing your sister over for this sleepover this weekend.”

“Terrific,” Stella said. “Alright, here’s what you have to do. If anyone wants to check out, just point them to the self-checkout computer. If they don’t know their password, tell them to leave or kiss your ass or whatever.”

“You’re pretty cool, Miss Faleur.” Kalei said.

“Damn straight,” Stella said. She got her purse out, getting ready to leave. “And make sure no one messes with the star projector controls, that glass case over there with the old books, the big hanging mobile on the other talky area, anything behind the desk, and the staff room. And don’t you guys go behind the desk or the staff rooms.” Stella pointed out each of the sacred library objects we were now tasked with protecting. 

The star projector was on the desk; it looked like a scrolly ball for a fancy computer mouse and had a clear plastic box on it, and it controlled which star maps were shown on the ceiling. “Lots of kids apparently really wanna go spin the star map deal. Really wanna see the constellation with the big boobs up on the big ceiling to giggle at it.” 

The glass case was on the far end of the main study area of the library and seemed to hold incredibly old books that looked like they’d turn to sand if they were exposed to the air of the modern world. “The books in there are all very old, very rare, and very delicate. And very expensive. Many were donated from bigwigs over the years who are very protective of the legacies of the books they donated.” None of the books were by Raina Starlight if they were old, so I wasn’t enticed with it. Not that I was planning on messing with any of this stuff. 

The desk was obviously just right in front of us, with doors to the back rooms behind it. “I’ve also heard a lot of stories of kids trying to pull off heists to get due dates extended and fines removed. But we don’t really do fines so that one shouldn’t be an issue. Hopefully.” I’d been to library back rooms plenty with Stella’s other jobs so that wasn’t too enticing for me.

“Oh, and if you get really bored you can help me with this,” Stella said, pulling a musty box out and giving it to me. I started sneezing right away from all the dust just the handoff put into the air. “There are a bunch of old supplies left by the retiring librarian so I’m looking through if any of it is worth using. If you could just try out the pens and see if they’re dried up that would be a big help to me. I don’t care about the compasses or whatever.”

“I will note that another Koridia thank you card is me not asking to be paid for doing your job for you.” Kalei said.

“That loses some of its effect when you just say it anyways, Kalei.” Oka said. She saluted Stella. “We’re on it! Leave it to us!”

“I have full confidence in you,” Stella said, which I swore made Oka’s eyes literally sparkle. “Alright, I’m starving. Later.”

“Bye Stella! Have a nice break!” I said.

After Stella left, I set the box on a table near the front desk and sat down. The others joined me.

“I’d suggest we get to some homework, but I’m unfortunately caught up…” Lillia said. “And today’s a non-study day for me on my alternating study days, but I could get some light studying in if that’s what the group decides.”

“I…don’t have your diligence for planning out studying,” I said. “Or homework. But I think I’m actually caught up too!”

“If we’re being asked to work, I’m not gonna study or do homework on top of that.” Kalei said. “Except for this pen thing, that sounds fun.”

The box was mostly filled with ancient looking metal pens. There were some compasses like Stella mentioned, but Kalei quickly snatched those and started building a mock weapon (at least I hoped it was a mock weapon) with the pointy parts.

“Check this out,” Kalei said. “Zates, we tie some of these to your tail and you become 30% more deadly in battle.”

“I don’t know if my tail could lift them.” I said.

“Hmm,” Kalei said. “Then we need to start some strength training for your tail first. I’ll get a regimen in order.”

“I’d rather not.” I said, picturing having a super muscular tail. I did not like that mental image. I doled out scratch paper for all of us for the pens and got to work.

Kalei decided it’d be best if we dumped all the pens on the table, then chucked the empty ones in a garbage can she brought over and the ones that still had ink back in the box.

We got to work testing out the pens, without much incident save for telling students about the self-checkout computer, Oka and I sneaking blushed glances at each other, and Oka and Lillia continuing their kill shot game, which eventually roped Kalei in as well. Just as Oka was in the middle of a whispered “Hup! Killshot!” attempt on Lillia, I spotted two students who gave me an immediate bad vibe. Two students who I never would have guessed would enter a library unless it was for a bad reason.

“Ema Kari and Snake Riley alert.” I said, as the two delinquent skaters approached the front desk.