Rising Shards

The Faculty and Staff Era. What could be my era at Rising Shards and/or Wildfire Hearts (none of us were sure what the name of the school was at this point, if it was just one of the merging schools or both). Banners were up everywhere, which made me motivated to...do something. They even had them hung up in a faculty break room, where I found my new pal Evy staring at one while she sipped coffee. I poured myself a cup, thankfully avoiding a situation like the last time I was in this break room where I missed the cup and spilled hot coffee on my foot. I stood by Evy and went ”Mhm” for a while, hoping she took the hint and invited me into a conversation.

”It’s kind of...shouldn’t we have something about the students?” Evy said. ”Feels weird to make a branding thing about the teachers.”

”I think it’s both epic and badass,” I said. ”It shows that we teach our students.”

”I mean...” Evy scratched her head. ”Sure, I guess. But isn’t there a way to phrase this that’s about us actually teaching?”

”Maybe,” I said. ”But I am no poet, so no better phrasing is coming to mind.”

”Aren’t you an author?” Evy asked.

I didn’t have an answer for that. I mean, yes, I’m an author, but an author being unable to come up with a better phrase is some kind of sin or whatever, so I was silent until I decided enough time had passed.

”Hey, we’re pals now, right?” I asked.

”As long as you don’t hit on my partner anymore, yeah,” Evy said. ”Like, we went on vacation together, of course we’re friends.”

”Heh, alright,” I said. ”And I won’t try any funny business with Stella, I promise. I was just casting a wide flirting net when I got here, seeing what kinds of fishies I’d end up catching.”

”Sure, sure,” Evy said. I must’ve waited a while before responding because she added, ”Did you have a follow up question to that?”

”Er, well,” I stammered. ”No. Not really.” I paused. ”But hypothetically, if I did—”

”Dude, just ask, it’s fine,” Evy said.

”Right, right,” I said. ”What do you know about throuples?”

”Kay, if you’re asking to join me and Stella, I can let you down easy this time,” Evy said. ”But if you try flirting right after I just said to not flirt with us, you will be let down not so easily.”

”No, no, not about you!” I said. ”I get where you’re coming from, and I probably should have set that up better. More just...me and Pippi are wondering if we could potentially court someone.”

”Oh, yeah?” Evy said. ”My advice with no experience in the throuple field is just to make sure everyone knows what’s going on, if you’re all on the same page that’d be good.”

”Definitely! And totally!” I said. ”It was Pippi’s idea, even. And get this, we were thinking...did I tell you this already? I feel like I did.”

”I’m like buried in classwork right now so I genuinely cannot remember either way, so you might as well just tell me again,” Evy said.

”OK, OK! So...” I snickered, glad it was just us in the break room. ”Pippi and I were thinking of asking—”

Before I could finish that sentence, the door burst open, with Kitty Kilander of all people proudly marching in. That would have been awkward if I was one further word in, but also awkward was seeing who was with her.