Rising Shards

”You’re not gonna believe this,” Roux said. In pursuit of another rumor, they led us across the grounds to a familiar building on campus that I had spent way too much time in over the last few months. ”There was a whole casino in here. Well, it still is in there.”

”Oh, gosh, wait,” I said.

”The biker gang has made this their base of operations,” Roux said.” Chumbler and her companion have been somewhat added to the gang as ancillary members.”

”...and?” I said.

”And what! That’s a pretty big deal!” Roux said.

”Is there more to it?” Oka asked.

”We already knew about this,” Kalei said.

Roux’s ears twitched. ”You did?”

”Like, everyone knows about the casino.” Kalei said.

”They made me gamble there when it was running,” I said.

”Didn’t I tell you the whole deal with the void casino Chumbler made?” Kalei asked.

”Yes, but I thought that was different than this!” They pouted, clearly disappointed.

”Sorry,” I said. ”That’s technically the first rumor to be accurate tonight, so you get points for that.”

”Heh,” Roux rubbed their nose. ”Well, I have better rumors I could tell you next, but I’m withholding them given how you reacted to this one.”

”I didn’t know about any of that,” Aira said.

”What?” Oka said. ”Yes you do, we were all there for the...to help you talk to Laenie...”

”I know, I was just trying to make Roux feel better,” Aira said. ”I’m not great at lying to make people feel better, OK?”

”Let’s just move on to something more fruitful,” Kalei said. ”So what do we do now?”

We had a bit of time before my sparkly snow rumor, where I was hoping to ask Oka to the winter dance.

”I’m thinking we check out Falling Shards,” Kalei said, not waiting for an answer. ”I bet they have some crazy rumors tonight.”

”When are we gonna see the microwaved batteries?” Oka whined.

”When we find them!” Kalei said. ”We haven’t found any trace of anyone even microwaving anything, so we might have to add it to the made up rumor list.”

”No!” Oka said.

”Zates, can you make your girlfriend chill out a bit?” Kalei said.

”How? She’s pretty unstoppable when she’s hyper.” I said.

”Yeah!” Oka looked ready to attempt another cartwheel, this time into the snow.

”I dunno, go behind a wall and go make out with her or something,” Kalei said.

I stammered as Oka looked like she had just been shocked with a lightning bolt. ”Well, I certainly...would enjoy that, but it would be a bit awkward with everyone around.”

”Go behind a wall?” Roux said.

”Yeah, like behind a wall,” Kalei said.

”You don’t go behind walls, you go next to them,” Roux chuckled to themselves.

”Don’t try to act all cool like you won this to feel better after your rumor sucked,” Kalei said.

”I bet you won’t like my next rumor,” Roux said. ”My next Roux-mor. It involves you and a sleepover when you were twelve.”

”Nothing from that sleepover happened, you made it all up,” Kalei said. ”And if it did happen, there was an iron clad agreement not to bring it up forever.”

”Maybe let’s settle down a bit,” Marmalade said.

”That’s what I’m trying to do!” Kalei said. ”It’s hard when you got hyper Oka and Roux being Roux around.”

”I know just what we need to get us back on track,” Oka said.

”Does it involve you and I stepping away from the group for a bit to go behind or next to a wall?” I asked.

”Maybe later!” Oka pointed eagerly at me which had me all giggly. ”But first, let’s think of the group, who don’t need the details of our romantic encounters.”

”Honestly,” Kalei said.

”You’re the one who suggested the wall thing!” I said.

”Jokingly! I was trying to lighten the mood!” Kalei said.

”Maybe we just need to get Kalei out of here for a bit, she’s clearly heated,” Aira said. ”I can teleport her to a colder spot on campus until she cools off.”

”No, hey!” Kalei said.

”Yeah, Kalei’s fine!” Marmalade said.

”That won’t be necessary,” Oka said. She puffed her chest out. ”Because...I think...it’s time...to...go. Or maybe to...” She trailed off, and coughed.

”Oh my god,” Kalei said. ”Do you really not have anything? Are you just saying things to fill the air?”

”I thought I was going to come up with a good solution if I kept talking,” Oka said. ”I really just wanna microwave some batteries and then go kiss Zeta.”

”Then let’s hunt this microwave down,” Michi said. ”There can’t be that many microwaves on this campus.”

Before we could even speculate on a spot to check first, we were interrupted by an odd warbly sound.

”Wait, I know that sound,” Kalei said.

We listened to the groaning noises, and they did sound familiar. It only hit me seeing Principal Penteldtam sulking about that I realized what Kalei had figured out before me.

”Penteldtam’s in noise making mode, everyone act cool,” Kalei said.

”Noise making mode?” Marmalade asked.

”Oh yeah, you’re not around Penteldtam as much as we’ve been,” Kalei said. She nodded toward our principal, who was wailing and making noises as he walked around with his arms hanging forward and his head down. ”When he gets mopey he wants attention so he just starts making noises, it’s really annoying and he’ll probably try to talk to us.”

”What’s he sad about?” Marmalade asked.

”We’ll probably find out in a second,” Kalei said. ”Unless anyone wants to make a break for it?”

Oka and I instinctively looked to Aira, expecting her to teleport away. ”I’m kind of curious as to why he’s so down, maybe we can cheer him up.”

So we waited for Penteldtam to make it to us. He was taking his sweet time with this sulk, making me wonder why I didn’t take Kalei’s suggestion and just run off with Oka, but by the time I was in the middle of a very nice daydream about that, he was too close for me to run away.

”Wait, holy crap,” Oka said, her words coming out like steam hissing from a machine. ”Look at what’s on his back.”

”Huh?” I squinted, and realized the reason for her reaction. I thought he had a backpack on, but as he got closer, I realized that he had a microwave strapped to himself for some reason.