Rising Shards

Evy told me that orientations at Rising Shards were a lot, primarily because of the principal. I probably could have guessed that on my own, as everything I had heard about Principal Penteldtam prior was a lot just to listen to. The interview itself was a lot. It was kind of nice so far, as the first hour Penteldtam just talked about himself while his brother, co-principal Berin Kilander, sat in silence, apparently having given up trying to stop his brother.

“Welcome aboard, employee new, we sure as heck are glad…to have you!” Pentledtam said, pausing for applause. This was the third poem of his he read to me. “Oh, oh! You also have to listen to this! I have a great stand-up set I’ve been working on.”

It was at this moment that the novelty of having people I’d seen on TV as bosses wore off. After ten minutes of Penteldtam “comedy” (It wasn’t offensive or anything, just beyond uncomfortable and not even in a funny way) I was finally brought to the girls’ dorm at Rising Shards, which would be one of my main spaces, which I guess is obvious because I was hired as a librarian.

The girls’ dorm had been recently refurbished, as it had new shelves with big banners over each section.”

“You’ll notice that this wing of the library isn’t as big as the main one,” Berin explained. “But this one also has a small store for school supplies as needed that…wait, did I tell you about that one already? I think I did. Ah, well. Sometimes when working shifts here you may be working the register and selling notebooks and pens and pencils and what have you.”

I nodded.

“This is where the books go.” Penteldtam said. He smiled widely, leaning forward as though I would have a bajillion questions about his groundbreaking statement.

“Uh, wow!” I said.

“Oh!” Penteldtam said. He broke away from the group and sprinted to the student tables, grabbing a blue haired girl and bringing her over. She was a Clybrid Cani, which was to the best of my knowledge some kind of combination of android, clone, Cani, and/or person with cybernetic implants. Zeta told me that there was a clybrid kid at the school, so I assumed this was her. She looked like she did not want to be brought over.

“This is my daughter, 09.” Penteldtam said. “Please make sure she reads a lot! I try to tell her to read, but then she’s already reading, so she says stuff like ‘that’s redundant’ or ‘I don’t really want to read your autobiography manuscript, sorry pops.’”

“Hello,” 09 said. “Welcome to the school…” Her eyes glowed as she stared at me. “Stella Faleur. Former librarian at North Central, a LE college. Part time actor. Freelance actor as well? Not sure what the difference is…”

“09 can read people’s minds.” Penteldtam said.

“It’s more like I can see your social media really easily.” 09 said.

If 09 could read my mind, she might know about me and Evy, and that would be a ginormous can of worms. Hopefully there weren’t any Cani at Rising Shards that had a mind reading gift.

“Now I am in the middle of something, so…” 09 said. She casually broke away from her dad’s grip and went back to her table.

“Ahhh youth. Being a parent sure is tough.” Penteldtam said.

"Indeed it is," I said.

I hoped Zeta was doing alright. It felt unfair to drop all that on her and then bail. A lot of how I tried to protect her via my information giving/keeping from her was probably unfair. But she was doing so great so far, and Evy was as well. I was worried about them sure, but not that worried, which was a nice feeling for someone who constantly thinks of the worst scenarios for everything. I was exhausted from the lack of sleep, but I had a sudden “Everything’s gonna be OK” feeling that really calmed me down. Maybe it was a cosmic sense that Zeta and Evy were doing fine, or maybe my caffeine was wearing off and I was crashing into a dazed state. Either way, I was relieved for the break from intense anxiousness.