Rising Shards

Iris was dramatically acting out her temporary skateboard theft adventure in the garden while Maia and I watched, having our own dinner party of sorts in the cafeteria, mercifully not at a sought-after table.

“So I climb up a tree, right? Then Ema thinks I’m gonna do a trick off a tree and climbs up a tree herself. And then she gets caught by one of the teachers in the garden, but the teacher doesn’t see me and they don’t believe when Ema says I’m up in a tree! So, long story short, green hair has advantages.”

“Did you give Ema her skateboard back?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I gave it to Snake,” Iris said. “I don’t know if she realized it was Ema’s board.”

“For all the hype about those two, they weren’t that scary.” Maia said.

“Weren’t that scary?” I said. “They chased us like all around the garden and Snake stepped on my tail really hard. My tail still really freaking hurts.”

I had a bandage wrapped around the spot on my tail Snake stepped on, I don’t think it really helped at all other than to remind me how much it hurt.

“We’ve all had our tails stepped on,” Maia said.

“I haven’t,” Iris said. “Well, I don’t have a tail, so. Lesson learned, I guess."

"What lesson?" I asked. "I don't feel like I learned anything."

"Yeah, that's true," Iris said. "Huh. I dunno."

"Freaking Rain," I said, looking at my poor, hurt tail. "I can't believe she suggested the tail stomping..."

"I did warn you about the love trio." Maia said. "That could count as a lesson."

"That could, yeah," Iris said. "But I say their unpredictability is an asset."

"I dunno..." I said.

"No, trust me," Iris said. "I can go way in depth about this. Right, Maia? Let me explain!"

"I mean, if you really want to—" I said.

"I totally can," Iris said. She blinked, seemingly distracted by her own voice. "I can. C-A-N. Caaaaan. That's kind of a funny word, isn't it? Can. It's a letter away from Cani! That's what we are."

"Uh huh..." I said.

"Yeah, Cani can do anything. Can. Cani. Caaaaaaan."

"R-right." I said.

"You better just stop here or she'll keep going about nothing for hours," Maia said. "And you seem too nice to tell her to stop."

Oka passed by, so I left Iris and Maia to check on her. She didn’t look too shaken, but I couldn’t gauge how her play tryout went. She hadn’t spotted me, so I decided to try and surprise her.

“Oka!” I said from behind her. Luckily, Oka wasn’t a me level jolter.

“Zeta!” She said as she turned around. “You won’t believe it!”

“How did it go?” I asked.

Oka blinked in disbelief.

“I…got a part!” She said. “A real part in a real play!”

“That’s awesome, congratulations!” I said. "They gave you a character already?"

“Yeah, the theater department works fast!" Oka said. "I don’t think it’s a like main main role but that’s good in its own way, so I don’t have to stress as much about lines. And it gets even better! Reit wasn’t even doing the auditions so I don’t feel like I got in just because of Kilander stuff! I feel like I really earned this!”

“I can’t wait to see you on stage then!” I said.

“Yes, I want you front and center in the audience when the play happens! Although I will have to make sure I don’t wave to you, that would probably break immersion, right? Ah, who cares, I can worry about that later, I’m gonna be in a real play!”

Oka surprised me with another snap hug.

“I’m so glad we practiced beforehand,” Oka said. “I really would have been a mess up there if we hadn’t.”

“I’m glad I could help,” I said.

“Oh, and tell Stella thanks, too! Her tips were really good!”

Selfishly, I was glad Oka gave credit to my help before Stella, even if Stella’s experience with legitimate theater probably helped more. 

"Hey, I'm kind of pumped up now," Oka said, shifting on her feet. "Would you mind watching me do another scene? I promise it won't be the air balloon guy one."

"Sure!" I said. "Want to go back to that one spot?"

Oka and I went back to the spot where we'd practiced earlier. With the anxious pressure of the tryout released, Oka was now filled with excited, hyper energy, which was always fantastic to be around. When she got so excited she could barely sit still, it was adorable on a scale I'm not sure is measurable. I sat down in front of Oka and she swung her binder with her script around like it was a weapon, making laser sword noises for some reason.

"So what scene do you want to start with?" I asked.

"Alright, so here's one I kinda wanna try," Oka said. "So technically I'm actually playing two characters."

"Oh, wow!" I said. "Double congrats then!"

"Aw, thanks!" Oka said. "They're kind of also technically one character too, though."

"Huh?"

"Right, that's what I was saying!" Oka said. "I'm playing like my past self, where I get like reincarnated a thousand years later into my future self."

"And this is a high school play?" I asked again.

"Uh huh," Oka said. 

I supposed it wasn't that much more complicated than Tower of Hate and Love, but I could at least figure out what genre Tower was.

"So I want to do a scene from the old me, because it's like really interesting the era they did, and it's so old it weirdly kind of reminds me of Tesata." Oka said. "Am I asking too much? I feel like I might be." Oka said.

"You're fine, don't worry!" I said. My tail throbbed in pain, not liking how I was sitting kind of on it, reminding me of that stupid table and stupid Ema Kari and Snake Riley's stupid stomping. "You'd have to ask a lot to be asking too much of me today."

"OK, cool!" Oka said. She kind of froze then with a big smile. She put up the binder halfway over her face, giggling as she looked my way. A pretty loud voice in my head told me to ask her to marry me immediately, but I didn't. Ever since the realization of how I felt about her, my internal debates dealing with this crush were escalated. I daydreamed about just straight up asking her out, but there was also a side of me that was still so afraid. It didn't just bring up all the potential ways just asking her could go wrong, it brought back memories of Jeans. So I kept ending up just playing it safe and keeping it internalized. When I decided that, the loud voice in my head usually yelled at me about it, but this time my internal strife luckily went unnoticed.

"Sorry," Oka said. "I'm just so excited."

"It's fine," I said. "I really like seeing you so happy."

Oka didn't react as much as I hoped she would to that, but it was fine.

"Alright, here's the scene!" Oka said. "And be honest, remember? If I suck, tell me. Remember?"

"I remember," I said.

Oka began her scene, her excited happy energy turning back into nervous as soon as she started reading her lines. Even nervous scene reading Oka was adorable.

"I...uhh...am the discoverer...of. Uh. Huh?" Oka squinted at the script, then held a fist up. "Of. Fire." 

Oka read her lines very stiffly. It was a lot worse than even the really quick one. Oka read my face before I could even debate lying about if I should say if she sucked or not.

"Yeah, I know I suck," Oka said.

"Well you don't suck," I said. "That scene just needs...some work."

"A lot of work." Oka said.

"A lot of work..." I said, nodding. 

"A lot of work." Oka said.

"But that's what practice is for!" I said, giving Oka a thumbs up. "I'm sure you'll get it."

"Right!" Oka said.

After another quick scene, we were pretty beat and headed back for our room.

"Thanks again," Oka said. "How about I help you with that tail paper to make it even?"

"That would be amazing," I said, shocked she even noticed my paper with all the play worries she had going on. I didn't even remember that assignment.

Oka suddenly had a quizzical look on her face.

"Something up?" I was worried I was maybe too harsh with my critiques.

“Yeah," Oka said, leaning back as she looked at me. "What happened to your tail?”