Rising Shards

I wasn’t thinking much as I fell. Well, lots of swearing in my head, but actively moving my body was not in the equation. Luckily, my reflexes saved me from breaking a bone literally right as the beam chasers season started. I landed on my ass pretty hard but didn’t break anything.

Probably more importantly, my reflexes also helped me catch Marmalade in mid air, also protecting her from breaking anything. Thanks, reflexes!

It was kinda awkward when I realized how we landed as I sat up. Marmalade was pretty much sitting on my lap with my arms around her. She looked stunned, which was understandable if she hadn’t played much. One of the hardest parts for new beam chasers playing is the falling. Ideally you don’t want it to happen at all, but it does. My years of falling off rails while playing probably helped in this situation.

”You alright?” I asked.

I got a bit freaked when Marmalade didn’t answer me immediately. Just I started to ask again, a bit more panic in my voice, she quickly said, ”So good.”

That was a bit of a weird thing to say, but I wasn’t one to judge, especially not for cool people like Marmalade.

”So...” I said, wondering how long Marmalade and I were going to sit here. ”You need a few, or...?”

Marmalade blinked. ”Oh! Yeah, sorry.”

”You’re good, I’m just glad you didn’t get hurt there,” I said.

Marmalade finally got off my lap. She offered her hand to help me up. I didn’t even realize my mom called a time out so nobody kept playing and fell on top of us. Everyone took a few to gather themselves, while my mom just stared at me smugly.

”What?” I asked.

Her smug smirk turned to a smug grin.

”Seriously, what? Don’t make fun of me for falling, you would have fallen there, too.”

Mom raised a finger. ”I could’ve made a lot of jokes there,” she said. ”You should be proud of me for holding back.”

”So proud,” I said. ”It’s so great having a parent that announces how many jokes she wanted to make about her kid.”

”It’s only fair with your constant attempts at comedy!” Mom said.

”Eh, my jokes are way better,” I said.

”Debatable,” Mom said. ”Need I remind you of the standup contest?”

”I still say you edited that image, it looks so fake.”

Chickadee loudly cleared her throat, clapping annoyingly since she didn’t have a whistle.

”Can we get back to the game, please?” She asked.

”No, I want them to keep going!” Roux said. ”Koridia vs. Koridia, the verbal war we’ve all been craving.”

”I’d rather get back to it,” I said.

With the game still at 0-0, it felt like we’d barely started. That score didn’t last long though, as both Matora sisters got a point within a few minutes after that, and P.D. and Scrungy retaliated by getting two points between them. Right as I was reeling from another aggressive play from those two, Risa blocked the ball and flung it across the court from her defensive spot, scoring another point, surprising me again with really good form. She was good enough that she was throwing in little flourishes, extra little skips in her jumps, spins as she slid around, a few twirls of her staff.

I was impressed as my contribution to the game turned into a duel between myself and Risa. All of my strikes sent the ball to her somehow, and she tried to block every hit I had. The points racked up but stayed fairly even. In spite of everything, it was a really good game.

We were tied toward the end of the game, with my mom whistling every minute to let us know how much time we had left (the timer on the court’s scoreboard stopped working for whatever reason, leaving us at the mercy of my mom’s stopwatch). Chickadee was screeching, Caeda had skated to the side and it looked like she was having a crisis of confidence we’d all have to hear about at the most inopportune time. Scrungy and Kai looked like they were getting ready to brawl. Roux was still doing that weird old timey character, leaving us at risk of the enemy team scoring while Roux was distracted. It was effectively me and Ko against P.D., Nikki, and Risa. Nikki and P.D. bounced the ball back and forth between each other.

”Just like we practiced!” P.D. said.

Now I was pissed. As the two juggled the ball, I skated between them, smacking the ball right smack dab in the center of its arc between the duo.

There’s something about the makeup of the balls used for beam chasers that makes it so when they’re smacked very hard in a specific way, they make this amazing cannonball sound. I’m not sure on the exact mechanics of it (most science-y stuff is boring as hell to me, but beam chasers science is awesome), but I was glad for that noise, because it got everyone’s eyes on my move as the ball rocketed toward one of our opponent’s goals. It bounced off the wall, not going through any of the holes.

”Ha! You missed! Wow, that sucked!” Chickadee shouted.

”I don’t think so,” I said.

The ball went right to Ko, who expertly swung her staff, sending the ball back to the goal.

Risa leapt, trying to get the ball. I still couldn’t get over how good her form was. She wasn’t able to get it though, and Ko scored, winning us the game, but at the end my eyes were on Risa. She was disappointed she lost, but she still winked at me.

It felt like she was showing off just for me.

Well, she probably was. If I asked someone out then was playing against them, I’d want them to see me at my best, too. Did it make me want to drop everything and immediately accept Risa’s offer? Not really. I just wanted to talk to her and take things slowly, I was sure of that.