Rising Shards

It felt like we’d taken out the main threat already by the time we reached Chumbler and Z.O.K., the duo wandering around the damn big table looking like cartoon henchmen.

“How do you even break a table?” Z.O.K. asked.

“Have you not seen one wrestling match? One bout of Haven grappling?” Chumbler asked. “You slam someone through it! So c’mere, let me slam you.”

“No! This plan is kind of awful Chumbler, even for you,” Z.O.K. said. “Honestly, I think we are at ‘broker a peace treaty with the love trio’ territory.”

“Never! We’ll win no matter how awful my plans get! Do you not know your gamble? You don’t quit when you’re horrifically behind or horrifically ahead!”

Alright, stepping in time, I didn’t need to hear an entire Chumbler routine on this day.

“I don’t think they’re gonna accept now after you almost killed their favorite…table,” I groaned. This quest sucked.

“I suppose that—ack! Who the hell are you?” Chumbler jolted so hard she went into her roll ball form, like a pill bug getting touched.

”Arielle Roux security crew,” Roux said, holding up their badge again. ”This is my junior deputy, Koridia.”

“You don’t have to keep saying that,” I said.

“Extra junior.”

I poked Chumbler with my foot. She stayed in her ball form, which looked like her scrunched up with a sphere of energy around her. Her friend didn’t do anything.

“Would you mind if I smacked her?” I asked.

“I think she has it coming,” Z.O.K. said. “Might knock some sense into her.”

“Cool, because I have an idea,” I said.

Since we were in a gym storage room, there were plenty of beam chasers supplies around. So naturally, taking care of an annoying Chumbler situation was easy when I had a beam chasers staff. I got into a swinging stance and hit her, not sure how much the energy ball thing would cushion the blow. She rocketed around like a pinball, squealing before plopping just about perfectly at my feet.

“That hurt so bad, you’re so mean,” Chumbler whined.

“Leave the stupid table alone and get out,” I said.

Z.O.K. peeled her friend off the ground and carried her away.

“Another successful job completed,” Roux said.

“Ugh, do we have to move the table back?” I said.

That concern was answered immediately by the high-pitched noises of the love trio’s glee at their table being rescued.

“You’re a hero!” Amara said, and the others agreed.

“It’s just a table, we didn’t do much,” I shrugged. Why was that so embarrassing to hear? It wasn’t like we beat up a Pyre Cani gang like that blue guy.

“She meant me,” Roux said. “Just me.”

“You barely did anything,” I stretched. I noticed the love trio staring, and Roux and eye had a silent understanding that if the trio thought only one of us helped, we weren’t getting paid. “I mean, we’re both just so modest it’s hard to say who accomplished the most.”

“But we both equally and sufficiently—” Roux blinked. “—more than sufficiently, exuberantly even, rescued big table. With violence and heroism.”

“Violence and heroism worthy of money, I’d say,” I said.

I couldn’t believe Roux wasn’t lying about the payout. I stared at the four hundred-dollar bills in my hand for a while, then had to brag to everyone, first sending Zates and Oka a text about them missing out, and of course asking why Oka’s rich family never gave me any money. I was joking, mostly, I knew the Kilanders were fake rich, or stupid rich in a way that didn’t help Oka financially much, especially in the most important way of giving me money. Then I texted my mom a pic of the cash.

“got called a hero today and got four hundo for it ma”

She called within seconds of me sending it.

“What did I tell you? No hero crap! What did you do?” Mom asked. “More importantly, what did you do to get that kind of money?”

“If you’d shut up for a second and let me talk, I can tell you all of it!” I said, barely holding back my laughter. It was tough getting my mom riled up about anything so I had to take the chances when I got them. She calmed down a bit once I’d explained it.

“OK, that’s not exactly what I was warning you against, that’s being a good friend and keeping it on campus,” Mom said. “Not going into the city and taking on dangerous baddies.”

“You’re gonna need to make a slideshow or something to explain it, Ma, cuz it’s still not making sense,” I said. “The baddies were plenty dangerous, otherwise Rain wouldn’t have paid me this much.”

“I’ll do just that, but keep asking your teachers too, they’re better at that,” Mom said. “Also, introduce me to your friend, I want to know Novu nobility, it’s good networking.”

“Nah, you’ll have to live vicariously through me being friends with a princess,” I said.

“Fine,” Mom said. “Well, I’m glad you weren’t getting into too much trouble. I suppose that warrants an ‘I’m proud of you.’ But you know I’m always proud of you, right?”

“Yeah, yeah, don’t get corny on me,” I said.

“Sincerity isn’t corny, and you could stand to learn that lesson too,” Mom said.

When Mom finally hung up, I noticed Roux was still around, standing still like I wouldn’t notice them if they didn’t move.

“What? You want a workout buddy now?” We hadn’t left the gym building yet, so maybe Roux wanted to train with a pro like me.

“I said I’d help you with what has you all spaced out, if you so desire,” Roux said, pointing directly at my face and walking toward me like they were gonna try and pick my nose.

I swatted their hand away. “Eh, why the hell not. Did you hear the riddle going around?”

“I hear many riddles,” Roux said.

“The one about crushes,” I said. “’What do you do if you have a crush on the wrong person’? It’s been bugging the hell out of me.”

“Pfft,” Roux said.

“Oh come on, I opened up a bit, don’t be an ass about it,” I said.

“No, no, I’m just surprised you have gained the emotional understanding to even be upset about—”

“That is still being an ass about it, I can just go if you’re gonna be like this,” I said.

“I’ll give you my advice,” Roux said. “For a price.”

“Kay, bye,”

“Of zero dollars,” Roux said. “My apologies. I was merely stalling for time while I pondered your query.”

I rolled my eyes. “What do you make of it, then?”

“I don’t know if a crush can be ‘wrong,’ exactly,” Roux said. “Obviously there are exceptions, but for someone our age having the ol’ fluttery feels for someone, you can’t really be incorrect in feeling those feelings. Even a crush that doesn’t work out isn’t wrong. I had a crush on Lillia and I handled that excellently I feel.”

“Really? Excellently?” I seemed to recall Roux and Latte riding a tandem bicycle to try and find Lillia to propose to her together or something.

“Yes! When I saw she wasn’t interested, I accepted the hurt and gradually moved on. But it wasn’t wrong to have the crush, and Lillia wasn’t the wrong person.”

It was weird to hear Roux talk about this. Maybe they were growing up a lot, too.

“One day Roux will find a pretty lady for smooch time,” Roux said. “And I guess you might as well.”

Maybe I was just still sad about my bad romantic luck, because that did make me feel better. I guess I might as well. It was a nice idea that I too could one day have pretty lady smooch time, though I’d never use Roux’s verbiage for it out loud with them nearby.

“I hate that you have even remotely decent advice,” I said.

“Why? Can’t handle my interpersonal prowess?” Roux asked.

“I don’t even know what that means, but…” I sighed. “Thanks, Roux.”

“Any time, junior deputy,” Roux said. “And if you need any further help with your dilemma, maybe ask teacher?”

Roux left abruptly shortly after that, as they usually did, though we did brainstorm what games to spend our newfound cash on. As luck would have it, I had an immediate opportunity to use their idea to ask a teacher, as I passed by Caya training in the punching bag room.