Rising Shards

Our brunch-lunch type thing hit a bit of a snag. Well, it happened right after we finished eating at least, so I guess it wasn’t the worst time for it to happen.

I was giving Pippi a very spirited performance of a situation at Wildfire Hearts where I was in an argument with another teacher, a very stuck up stodgy old man who was trying to implement a timer on the water fountain by one of the staff offices, because he felt that I was taking way too long at the water fountain.

”And I tell him, I’m like, maybe I just like filling up my five water bottles with that drinking fountain, it tastes the best, and he’s all ’Simply filling one bottle up is fine, by the time you’ve finished they’re not even cold anymore, you’re storing up lukewarm water while you hold the rest of us thirsty folks back! But it’s not juuuust the water bottles Corinani,’ and I hold my hand up and say. ’Hey, you’re gonna make me cry. do you wanna make me cry?’ And I slam my fist down like—” I slammed my fists down on the table, accidentally landing on my fork, which flung a chunk of eggs and pancakes that I hadn’t finished yet across the restaurant.

I could sense it in my guts that my bit of food had landed on someone important, and that I was probably in trouble.

”Ack! My eye! Oh, that is syrup, I know what that’s like...” the voice of a pathetic sounding guy cried out.

”Hoo boy, another Alix induced lawsuit incoming,” Kitty said, shaking her head. Then she looked over a few tables where the food chunk had flown (an impressive distance I might add), then her eyes widened. ”Oh! Hahaha! Wait, yes!”

I was mildly surprised by Kitty’s sudden turn from worry to elation, but she did have a mean streak so if my accident had turned funny enough that reaction would make sense for her.

I finally looked over to see who I’d thrown food at, wondering if I was gonna end up in another situation like the Exoun State Zoo school trip where I caused a food fight that got Wildfire Hearts temporarily banned from going on field trips there. That one wasn’t my fault though, I still say. Anyways, I looked over to see Penteldtam Kilander wailing and clutching his eye, and across him were Berin, Reit, and Caya Kilander. For reference, that’s Kitty’s brothers and sister-in-law in Caya (I had to remind myself of that regularly because I kept forgetting what the deal was with all the Kilanders working at the school).

”Nice shot, Corinani,” Kitty said.

”Should we maybe go over there and apologize?” Pippi said.

”Er, yeah probably,” I said.

”Nah, it’s fine,” Kitty said, still giggling. ”Ugh, the others are with him though, maybe we should say something, I guess...”

Kitty got up first, and I sheepishly followed. Pippi was by my side quickly, though saying it wasn’t a big deal, just a mistake. By the time we got to the table, Berin had cleaned up Penteldtam, who was still a bit distraught by the situation.

”Er...my bad,” I said, laughing nervously. ”I was telling this great story and got a little too animated.”

They either didn’t hear me or were ignoring me, as all the Kilanders at the table were focused on Kitty.

”Surprised to see you here,” Berin said.

”Uh, why?” Kitty said.

”Because you didn’t respond to any of our messages about this,” Reit said. ”Our numerous messages.”

”Which were?” Kitty asked. ”I’m sorry, I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

”We were telling you for a while we were going to meet today,” Berin said. ”We just wanted to all meet up and have time together.”

”Pfft, OK,” Kitty said. ”Well, I’ve had this planned for longer.”

”Hi there,” Pippi said. ”We were just having brunch, we didn’t mean to interfere in anything you had going on.”

”Don’t apologize, they’re terrible at texting,” Kitty said. ”Reit probably sent the invite as a riddle, Berin was probably all passive aggressive about it while not saying anything, Penteldtam probably sent some weird meme...and I don’t know, Caya would’ve been direct so I’m kind of surprised I missed that. Was it always brunch at the breakfast place? Was that always the plan?”

”Yes,” Caya sighed. ”We told you about meeting here weeks ago.”

”Maybe that’s why I kept thinking about going to this place...” Kitty said. ”But I told you I was busy today!”

”No, you didn’t,” Caya said.

”Well, maybe I just thought it,” Kitty said.

I saw this as a potential opportunity. Pippi was curious about the other Kilanders, in particular Aki who was apparently married to Caya. Kitty wouldn’t tell us anything about that, but maybe they would? Maybe I could be an awesome girlfriend and get this information...

”So, hey, what’s the deal with Aki?” I asked, trying to make my voice louder to talk over Kitty arguing with her family.

Everyone at the table looked at me like I had just flung even more food directly at them.