Rising Shards

The announcement didn’t make any sense when it came over the intercoms.

“It’s your favorite popstar, Haven president/champion, and NEEWWWWW principal of your school, Kitty Kilander! If for some reason you aren’t in the auditorium right now, get your butts over here!”

Caya was out of the room immediately.

“Hoo boy,” Dr. Diast said.

“What the heck?” Zeta said. “Is she kidding?”

“Maybe we should check it out, too,” I suggested.

“Is it safe to leave the bunker?” Stella asked.

“We should be over the worst of it,” Diast said.

Tik, Kara, and Mars elected to stay behind, but we still had Dr. Diast and Stella, so I was glad we weren’t alone at least. Roux joined us, but decided to give their new slime friend a tour of the school instead of seeing what was going on in the auditorium.

”This is probably like pretty abnormal even for this school, right?” Zeta asked.

”Probably,” Diast said. ”But there is also that Kilander beef that mostly revolves around them trading who’s in power.”

”Huh. Really?” I asked. ”Didn’t they take over this school fairly recently?”

”Right, but they did this at other school districts too before they ended up at ours,” Diast said.

”I didn’t know that,” I said. Even though I’d lived with them for almost a year, I felt like I barely knew anything about the family that adopted me. Berin usually sighed and said he’d tell me later when I asked about this junk.

”The plus side, I get the impression that while they’re embroiled in their feuds, everything else stays...” Diast sighed and leaned to the nearest wall and tapped it with her fist. ”Knock on wood, stays relatively untouched.”

Shortly after Dr. Diast did her best to kind of explain the power dynamics of the school, we ran into Lillia, who was also headed to the auditorium.

”Were you not watching the talent show?” I asked.

“I had read in official school documents that it was an optional event,” Lillia said. “I was studying in our room.”

“Studying, heh,” I said.

“Yes,” Lillia said. “Just studying.”

I figured that Lillia had probably been getting some Ko time in, I didn’t blame her.

“Have either of you seen Kalei?” Lillia asked.

”She went off to...” Zeta trailed off, possibly not wanting Diast and Stella to hear that Kalei snuck off following Aira and Syval. ”I don’t know where.” At least I got to see Zeta show off her adorable lack of lying ability. ”Golly, I can’t remember...”

Dr. Diast and Stella weren’t paying much attention though, so whatever Kalei was up to was safe.

When we got to the auditorium, Kitty was on stage rambling about nothing. Beside her was Caeda, P.D., and a bunch of students with horns.

“Chickadee is…red now,” Zeta said.

”That’s Chickadee?” I asked, squinting.

Our new-ish nemesis Chickadee, who’d been constantly spying on us, pranking us, and being an all around annoyance, was indeed red now. She had horns and a pointed tail to boot. Aside from P.D. and Caeda, all of the students on stage sported similar tails and horns.

”Now I know what you’re asking yourselves,” Kitty said. ”Are my horns like theirs? Nah.” She pulled her headband with horns attached off and put it back on a few times, making a honking sound each time. ”See? But maybe we aren’t so different...”

What exactly was going on? Kitty was the principal now, sure, but who were the students with her? Why was Chickadee suddenly all demon-y?

”I think I’d like to go first and really introduce myself,” Caeda said.

”I think we’ve heard enough from you,” Kitty said, holding her microphone out of Caeda’s reach. She approached one of the other students with horns, a girl with long, light blue hair. Kitty tried to put her arm around the girls’ shoulders, but she pushed her away.

”Don’t touch me,” she snapped.

”Feisty! That’s the energy we want around here.” Kitty said.

Without realizing it, I had walked about halfway down the steps by the seats. Zeta and Lillia were close behind, but Diast and Stella were in the back with the other teachers, all looking as baffled as I felt. Down in front of the stage, I spotted my dad hunched over someone.

“Berin!” I said. I ran to him, not realizing he was kneeling over Penteldtam, who was sprawled out on the ground.

“I’m alright,” Berin said. ”Just…processing this. Penteldtam’s the one who’s…”

Penteldtam groaned, then started singing, clearly loopy from whatever happened. ”I’m the peanut butter guy, and you’re the peanut butter guy, and if you’re the peanut butter guy, and I’m the peanut butter guy, then I’m the peanut butter guy, and you’re the...”

“Oh he’s fine, get over it,” Kitty said, moving across the stage so her shadow loomed over us. “Remember when I hit him with that golf club?” She knocked on the top of her head as she did a raspy voice. “The boy’s got a skull thicker than a brick wall dipped in melted brick wall, as ol’ pappy said.”

“Who’s old pappy?” I asked.

“Her imaginary friend,” Berin said.

”Ah.”

“Can we get some medical attention for Penteldtam?” Berin asked. ”And these students on stage are definitely expelled for this, so cut this show short, Kitty.”

“Nope,” Kitty said. “Because they’re not expelled, not even suspended! They’re the new golden children at this school, wanna say hi? We were in the middle of introductions before you rudely interrupted us.”

Kitty went to each of the new students and asked for their names.

”Myles,” the long, blue haired girl said.

After her was a girl with the same color hair and skin tone that must have been a relative. ”Ash.”

After her was a girl with dark skin and emerald hair. ”My name’s Esther.”

Another girl had red skin and horns matching Chickadee’s, but her demeanor was very different. ”Hi y’all. I’m Charmaine.”

The last member of the group had purple-ish hair and striking green eyes. They were a few steps away from the group, and looked a bit out of sorts. Maybe they weren’t the type to be on stage? Or sleepy perhaps? Whatever the case, they didn’t have the energy the others did.

”I’m Sai,” they said.

”Right, that’s the newbies,” Kitty said. ”Woohoo! There are other groups coming too in the coming days or weeks or whatever, so second years through fourth years, don’t let these first years get big heads or main character syndrome or anything. Penty, you want to meet the other groups, too?”

Penteldtam’s rendition of that peanut butter guy song turned more frantic and concerned.

“Nobody else is beating up Penteldtam.” Berin said.

”You’re so little fun it’s almost maddening,” Kitty said. ”But speaking of beating up, that brings me to my next point—”

A set of doors burst open to my right. With fire in her eyes, Caya entered, barely acknowledging our presence before she leapt onto the stage with ease.

“There she is!” Kitty said. “Was wondering when you’d show up.”

Caya promptly decked Kitty with a punch.