Rising Shards

I wanted to say something to Kalei. Well, OK, I talked to her, but we didn’t talk about anything in depth. Really, we all just wanted her to be alright. It was hard for Oka, Lillia, and I to just let it go after we had that talk, but Lillia was firm that we had to at least make it to after the prom.

I was worried before, but I felt a pit in my stomach like no other after Kalei talked around whatever the issue was, telling us there was something but it was something that she wasn’t ready to tell us. She gave us so few details that my mind went wild a bit, in spite of her telling us not to worry what else could I do after hearing her drop such ominous vagueness upon us? My mind kept going back to her having some serious illness, and I spent some unfortunate sleepless nights on 3WMB (What’s Wrong With My Body?), my health related website, the one that Oka spent plenty of time trying to get me to not check so regularly, but I wasn’t checking for myself that time so I gave myself a pass. And I didn’t find out anything that lined up with whatever was up with Kalei. She didn’t look any different, at least as far as I could tell. She just carried herself like things were heavy.

It didn’t really add up or explain any of the weirdness with her and those around her, but that was my biggest fear. I settled for just trying to be there for her the best I could. Though my worrying about my friend did make me kind of gloss over the dome unveiling, but according to Oka I didn’t miss much by half listening to speeches from Mr. Benta IV, some scientist lady, and Kitty. Kitty’s was the only one I kind of paid attention to, even though her star power had dwindled she still had natural performing energy.

I wasn’t exactly relieved by this, but worrying about Kalei distracted me from my mom being up on the stage in front of the new dome. Not great, but at least I didn’t freak out with her being in view. I was getting kind of better about that, but I didn’t feel like that was really something worth celebrating.

The only important detail wasn’t even in the speeches, but something in flyers we got afterwards for the dance.

”Wait, wait, wait,” I said, not quite believing what I was reading. ”They’re dividing the dance by grade?”

Apparently the big dance they were hyping up was being split up across multiple days. That maybe shouldn’t have bothered me as much as it did, but something about it did bug me, while I couldn’t exactly put into words why the division bothered me, the time felt easier to.

”And our dance starts at 2pm? That’s so...” I said. Well, OK, I couldn’t really put that into words either. But I was annoyed!

”Well, plus side we won’t be around a bunch of strangers, I guess?” Oka said. ”And I guess we can either dance a longer time then, or have a fun afterparty maybe? We could all go to like an ice cream place, chat a bit...”

Kalei yawned as she got up from her picnic blanket. Or, Marmalade’s as Marmalade rolled the blanket up as soon as Kalei was off of it. Oka and Lillia got theirs as well.

”Alright, Marms and I are gonna do some practice, so I will catch you all later,” Kalei said, giving us finger guns before she and Marmalade left. The three of us watched them go.

”I was totally ready for her to just vanish mid-conversation, her actually saying bye is a win, right?” I said.

”Not much of one, but we’ll take what we can get at this point,” Lillia said.

”I thought she was gonna take the afterparty idea and think like, ’oh, they’re gonna grill me about my whatever I’m keeping secret’ deal,” Oka said. ”I mean, I kind of was thinking that’d be a good place to ask...”

”Those two on the picnic blanket together though,” Oka said. ”I could totally see them being a thing.”

”Totally,” I said.

”Even if they are, I can’t shake the sense that...” Lillia held her chin as she trailed off. ”Never mind. She said to wait until after the dance, so we’ll wait.”

We decided to leave then, too, not really having a plan for the rest of our day off. As we left the devils passed us by, with Anastasia in the rear.

”Oh, hey, Ana!” I said only for my sister to dodge me. I kind of expected her to shoulder check me, but she just zipped around at the last second.

”Out of my way,” Anastasia said.

”I’m just saying hi,” I said, stubbornness pushing me to follow beside her. ”Hey, question, have you even seen Caeda since the shopping spree?”

”No,” Ana said. ”Now go away.”

When we were in the void during that whole thing, Anastasia and I actually talked, just a little bit. It was kind of nice to have an almost pleasant conversation with her, and I hoped it’d mean we could be on slightly better terms. It also would have been nice if we had any info about the mysterious situation Caeda and Chickadee were involved in with the imps.

Anastasia stopped in the center of the path we were on, grabbing the bridge of her nose. The other devils turned around, winced at me, but kept going save for Sai, who looked ready to pull Ana away.

”You act all high and mighty, thinking you can just waltz into my business, forgetting that I hate you,” Anastasia said. ”You egotistical, self-centered, infuriating—”

”I’ve heard this one before,” I said.

That set Ana off enough for Sai to act, grabbing her by her elbow and pulling her away before she could start shouting. They were too focused on that to say anything to us other than giving a slight nod.

I sighed as they left.

”Kinda thought we were getting somewhere,” I said.

”It’s like she has a version of you in her head that she refuses to look past,” Oka said. ”Even if the version of you in her head is like, completely different from the Zeta I know and love.”

”Aww,” I said.

I wondered about the me Anastasia thought I was. I liked to think I wasn’t super egotistical or anything. I didn’t try to act all high and mighty. I couldn’t help but wonder if I had some blind spots there, though. Nobody’s perfect, and I had my share of faults, but what I figured my issues were didn’t seem at all in line with the ones Anastasia thought I had.