Rising Shards

Esther was hoping the ping pong club would be a good way to spend an afternoon, but as soon as she and Charmaine arrived, the place was deserted.

”Did...we have the wrong day?” Esther asked.

After waiting fifteen minutes or so, it seemed like they had. There were some paddles and a bucket of ping pong balls, so they decided to play anyways, but after a few rounds Esther was worried Charmaine was getting bored.

”Do you think the others would pick us up?” Esther said. ”Movie night sounds more fun than this, even if it’s that strange show.”

”Maybe,” Charmaine said. ”I don’t know if that’s really my scene, though.”

”You think? We could use some goodwill after the whole Penteldtam thing.” Esther said.

”I feel like that Penteldtam thing put too much goodwill on us,” Charmaine said. ”How many prom asks are you at again?”

”Twenty-seven,” Esther said.

”Dang, I thought I had the most at twenty-five,” Charmaine said.

”Still, I’d like a reputation at this school that isn’t so...” Esther said. ”Predicated on us attacking a staffer?”

”You’d think after they found out we were basically ordered to by the school board that we’d drop some cool points,” Charmaine said.

”Right...” Esther said. Not that the attention was bad, it just felt...dishonest. She was still adjusting from the shift from near constant strife in her old world to one of the bigger issues at this school being too many people asking her to a dance.

”Kay, wait, that’s weird,” Charmaine said. She pointed at a poster for the ping pong club on the wall with a whiteboard under it with the day’s date written on it. ”It says they are meeting today.”

”Maybe they finished?” Esther said. ”Or we’re super early?”

”Or...”

Esther and Charmaine whirled to see Chickadee entering, with Caeda and P.D. with her.

”We heard some boring nerds would be here,” Chickadee said. ”So we politely asked them to leave so we could spend time with the fun nerds instead.”

”Were you just waiting outside for us to notice the date, or...?” Esther said.

Chickadee sat down on the table Esther and Charmaine were playing on, so the two moved one over and kept going. Caeda looked like she wanted to be spoken to like usual, and Esther didn’t feel like indulging her desire. P.D. was...texting. Barely even acknowledging that anyone was around her.

”Seems like you three were busy during the trip,” Charmaine said. ”Didn’t hear from you at all after the test of power thing. What’d y’all get up to?”

”Oh, this and that,” Caeda said.

Esther suppressed the urge to roll her eyes.

If Caeda wants the attention so badly, she could actually respond instead of just being vague.

”If it’s something secret, you can tell us, right?” Charmaine said. ”We’re a team, after all.”

”I...wanna, but...” Caeda winced. ”Octa kinda told us not to.”

”So something secret with the boss, huh?” Charmaine said.

”I’m the boss,” Caeda said, her tone gravely serious.

”Fine, whatever,” Charmaine said. ”You’re not even gonna give us a hint, though?”

”We maybe...had a scuffle or two after the power exhibit,” Caeda said. ”That we totally crushed. But we cannot say who we fought.”

”Interesting,” Charmaine said.

Chickadee got eerily quiet during this chat, and P.D. kept texting, leaving a few minutes later without explaining why. 

While Charmaine tried to pry more details out of Chickadee, Caeda remained vague. While that was annoying, at least eventually Esther managed to convince the two to join in on the ping pong.