Rising Shards

Ms. Letoh had a few simple questions for us all that we had to write about quietly for a few minutes, then discuss with the class.

“What do you want for the end of this semester? What are your goals for the spring semester?”

I had a lot of immediate thoughts. The end of semester one was pretty easy; Letoh had to know all of us were going to answer ‘pass our classes’ for that one, right? What the heck else could we answer? So I mostly thought further ahead. Obviously, I wanted things to continue going well with Zeta. I wanted our budding video project to be fun. As well as having a good time once the theater club was up and running again. There was the Wildfire Hearts competition looming, I wanted that to not be a huge pain.

“Alright class!” Letoh said. “I’ll share mine first. I’d love to have all my students pass the final, and all their classes, and to see lots of you next semester as well!” She smiled brightly at us. Letoh could be a bit spacy, but she was mostly a sweetheart when she wasn’t telling my friends and I to stop talking in class. To be fair to her, sometimes we can get very loud.

Now it was our turn, and unsurprisingly for the first question about 95% of us said something like “pass finals,” save for Roux, who almost got in trouble when they said “Make my enemies suffer.”

“Well, it seems like we’re mostly in unison for this semester, so let’s all do our best to end it on a good note!” Letoh said. “After that comes the spring semester! Who’d like to share some hopes and goals for that?”

Lillia raised her hand first, like she usually did. “I’d like to continue a stellar academic performance, as well as furthering my creative and artistic endeavors, and further my social relationships.”

Ko cheered for that.

“Wow, how studious!” Letoh said. “Who’s next? If nobody else volunteers, we’ll just go around to everyone clockwise. Unless you’d prefer counterclockwise?”

Some of the girls in class had goals like Lillia, mainly focused on classwork, but others had ones like getting better with their powers, better at using a bloodsaber, reading a hundred books in the new year, keeping up with shows and movies, making new friends, or having a partner for the spring dance.

“I want so much time with Rain, to make up for all the time I missed,” KJ said.

“You stole my answer!” Amara snapped. “Fine, in addition to wanting time with Rain, I’d love to visit Novu.”

“Ahh, that’s a good one,” KJ said. “Rain, would you take us?”

“Perhaps,” Rain winked. “My goal would be to have lots of tea parties.”

“Novu is a beautiful place,” Letoh said. “I visited once in college.”

“I want lots and lots of B.F.S.!” Iris said to everyone’s confusion. Everyone except Maia that is, who buried her face in her hands. “Oh, what, like that’s not your goal too?”

“Y-yeah, but.” Maia said. “I don’t wanna just announce it to everyone.”

“Well, I’ll do it for you, MaiMai wants the same thing as me,” Iris blushed and giggled to herself.

The more gossip-y folks in class immediately started whispering about what that meant.

“I’m not sure what B.F.S. is,” Letoh said. “But as long as it’s not dangerous or illegal, or something that could harm you or others, I offer my fullest support that your goal is fulfilled this year.”

“Hell yeah, thanks Letoh!” Iris said.

“Letoh, can I say that I want my enemies to suffer in the new year?” Roux asked as they raised their hand.

“I’d prefer you didn’t…do you have any less aggressive goals?”

Roux shrugged. “Lots of gaming, I suppose.”

“As long as your video gaming doesn’t interfere with class time!” Letoh said.

“Heh, little does she know one of my main avenues to make my enemies suffer is through games,” Roux muttered, loud enough that everyone heard them anyways.

“I want my spring to be happier than my fall,” Aira said. “And I think I’d like this Wildfire Hearts thing to go well without any big stupid incidents.”

“I just want the Wildfire Hearts business over with quickly.” Kit said.

“Now I’m the opposite,” Tay said. “The influx of new students is going to be terrific for my studies. It’s already been fantastic.”

“Do you write about Falling Shards too?” Kit asked. “That would be three schools unless you count Rising and Falling as one school.”

“I have appendices in my documents for the fellas’ school, but I have a companion over there who I let handle the nitty gritty of tallying the boy drama.” Tay said.

“Right…I’m not sure about the document business,” Letoh said. “But I too would like a fun time with the Wildfire Hearts games, even if they’re not happening under the best circumstances.”

“I’d like to be more confident in myself,” Marmalade said. “To not be a bummer and be more cool with myself.”

“Wonderful goals!” Letoh said.

“I would also, like to…have a nice date to the spring dance.” Marmalade blurted out, her eyes darting around as her cheeks got very red.

I wondered if Zeta would want to go to the spring dance. I remembered us talking about it, but Zeta did have some baggage about dances, partially accidentally caused by me, but she told me plenty that my contribution to the dance where we first met wasn’t the source of her dance baggage. I stared at her as the next few girls talked about the dance. Zeta caught me staring and beamed at me. She was up next, and was a bit flustered starting her answer, accidentally knocking her notebook and pens over to start.

“I, er…one sec,” Zeta said as she picked up her belongings. “I think I just want a peaceful time.”

“A very good desire to have,” Letoh said. “I think we could all use some peace time, right?”

“Oh, and I also want…the new Arlit figure with dragon wings they revealed at the latest Tower Hobby Festival…” Zeta said wistfully.

I was next. I almost asked Zeta to the dance right there in front of everyone, but decided I could do that better and more romantically if I planned it out more.

“I want to better myself, I think,” I said, thinking about how I swapped from my sheltered/pretty much abusive boarding school to here, with me still not understanding everything about the world outside my old home’s walls. “There are lots of things about me I think I can do better at.”

“I want to get to the Big Seven for beam chasers,” Kalei said. “And get a trophy.”

“Yeah!” Kai said. “What she said. And to visit Haven and see some fights live.”

“Heh, well I want those too,” Ko said. “But someone else knows what I’d really like next semester.” Ko very blatantly made eyes at Lillia, who reacted to getting flirted with in front of the whole class like she had just had the most romantic gesture ever conceived by anyone thrown her way. I still didn’t get it, but I did want to support my bestie Lillia even if I found Ko to be a jerk about half the time.

“I want nonstop coffee,” Latte unsurprisingly said.

“I’m going to change the world,” Caeda said.

After class, Zeta and I met by a vending machine, a rare one in the school that had Zeta’s favorite, ColaBlu. We each got a can as a midday treat.

“I had a bunch of stuff I wanted to say, but it felt too private to say in front of everyone,” I said.

“That didn’t seem to stop some of the others,” Zeta said.

“Yeah, Ko was a bit much there,” I said. “But if you said that to me, I probably would have reacted just like Lillia.”

“Aw, well…” Zeta said. She raised her can to mine. “Here’s one, then. I know we haven’t even finished one semester yet, but here’s to another great semester with you, Oka.”

I got all giddy, which maybe wasn’t the best move as I excitedly clanged a pop can against another, but the fizzy overflowing beverage was worth it to express all my mushy gushy feelings for Zeta.

“May this spring be filled with lots of lovely time with you, lots of euphoria and gay stuff!” I said.

“Yeah!” We giggled together about it. I wished we weren’t in such a public space because I wanted to kiss her very badly there, but I settled for hand holding on the way to our next class.

“Heh, lots of people were talking about that dance, too…” I said.

“Yeah…” Zeta blushed, looking at her shoes. “Ha…”

We shared some nervous looks, only to be interrupted by more giggles. Neither of us worked up the nerve to say anything more than that but asking Zeta more officially to the spring dance shot way up in my goals for the new year.