Rising Shards

In spite of my good vibes, I was prepared for things to not go great when I got home just as an anxious precaution, but I wasn’t prepared for the sight that greeted me. Evy alone at the kitchen table, looking, suffice to say, like something had gone horrifically wrong.

“Um…” I said.

“Hey, Stel?” Evy said.

“What? What is it?” I asked. “What’s wrong?”

“Zeta kinda…figured it out.” Evy said.

“Wh…” I said. I knew Zeta was crafty. I knew she was smart. But I didn’t think she had any clue about Evy and I. Not only that, she wasn’t in the room. “Where is she?”

“She…ran off.” Evy said.

“What do you mean, she ran off?” I said. My protective guardian mode took over, a burning one ready to put aside my exhaustion to go run out to the streets, to scream at Evy and ask why she waited for me instead of looking for her. Just as my fear and anger were about to burst, someone grabbed me, which made me scream and fling my limbs around wildly. It felt like it took a few minutes for the adrenaline to chill a bit and realize that it was Zeta hugging me.

“Oh, Zeta! It’s you!” I said, relieved to see her bright smiling face. Then I pieced together that I’d just been had by a Zeta Faleur prank. “Oh. You were…kidding.”

“Yeppers,” Evy said. “Did we get you?”

“You…very much did.” I said, processing that Zeta was still hugging me. “Oh, Zeta, I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you.”

“It’s fine,” Zeta said, lifting a thousand burdens with just two words. “Congrats. We got Ultra Taco to celebrate!” She set a bag of food on the table then realized hers was still in there and dug for it.

We ended up having dinner in the living room, with Evy and I each taking a recliner as Zeta sat on the couch. I kept my eyes on her in case she actually did run off.

“I don’t know if I should be concerned that you two are joint pranking already.” I said.

“It was her idea,” Evy said.

I wasn’t sure what kind of pranks Evy would do, but this was definitely a Zeta style one, so any anger I felt at Evy was just in the moment. I was very relieved Evy wasn't the type to let Zeta go far out of her sight. “So your immediate reaction to learning about this was to prank me?”

“Uh huh.” Zeta said as she wolfed down her food. “It was funny, wasn’t it?”

Dinner was a touch awkward. Now that Zeta knew about us, I had a sudden urge to not be super lovey dovey with Evy, something she shared as well, leading to us having more professional talk than my new boss did with his poetry and stand-up comedy session earlier in the day. That said, it was hard to sound professional when Evy was eating her food as though she wanted to spill as much on herself as possible.

“Evy, you got a little…” I said, chucking a bundle of napkins at Evy. “It’s all over your shirt, dude.”

“The Big Boy gets kind of sloppy, alright?” Evy said. “Plus, I’m beat from going to Twin Wolves, my hand eye coordination is off.”

“You guys went to Twin Wolves?” I asked. “Wait, I didn’t even ask what you two did today!”

Evy grabbed a bag from Shafey’s and gave it to me. I searched through it, only getting more confused by this.

“What is…you guys got a bunch of random stuff at Shafey’s?” I said.

“There was a giveaway!” Zeta said proudly. “Exclusive Raina Starlight hair clips! I claimed those, but if there’s anything in there you want, you can have it!”

“It was some kind of weird, what was it called, ‘parent and kid giveaway’?” Evy said.

“Something like that,” Zeta said. “And they totally bought me and Diast as parent and kid!”

“Did they now?” I said, my tummy warm with glee at that. “Interesting.”

“We also won mat ball tickets,” Zeta said. “And saw a portion of mat ball.”

“You did not get Zeta to go to a mat ball game. Where, at the stadium?” I laughed, picturing the two of them at a stadium. “You’re joking.”

“We won the tickets, we had to try.” Zeta said.

We all watched some shows together as I told them about my day. Evy said I was off to a great start, as Penteldtam only gave poetry performances to new hires that the school had high esteem for. Zeta kicked back on the couch, looking relaxed.

“Is it cool if one night a week I stay here?” Zeta asked.

“Oh,” I said. “I don’t see why not? What brought this on?”

“Like, after Oka’s Friday play practice she’s been spending the nights at her family’s house, so. I think it’d be nice to do the same?” Zeta said.

“I’d like that a lot,” I said. “One of the reasons we’re doing all this is so I don’t have to be so far from you, so, yeah.”

Zeta sleepily looked my way.  “Stella, didn’t you say to never end a speech with ‘so, yeah’? You told me that’s a big no-no in any performance.”

Evy cackled at that one.

* * *

I dropped Zeta off alone, not wanting to burden Evy with any more driving that day. I also wanted to talk to her about Evy and I in my own words in a sister-to-sister way.

“I’m sorry again I didn’t tell you,” I said. “Like Evy said, we’re still both figuring this out. I was going to tell you, but…well, you’re pretty observant so you beat me to it.”

“And I had the help of a magic marble thing that tells when people are hiding something that a wizard gave me.” Zeta said.

“Right. That’s…let’s just say you’re observant, I like that better.” I said. “Evy’s told me enough about Marne that he’s basically my enemy too.”

“Yeah, yeah.” Zeta said.

“I know I trust you, but I do really want to make it clear to keep this quiet.” I said.

“I won’t say anything.” Zeta said.

“You can tell Oka only if you get her to promise not to tell her dad.” I said.

“Sure, sure.” Zeta said.

“I know you’re probably gonna tell her first chance you get, right?” I asked. Zeta shrugged in a bit of a bratty moment, but one she more than earned. “But please don’t tell Kalei. I’m sorry, but I don’t trust her with this knowledge. Her joke-per-minute ratio has me worried she'd let the info out almost immediately through her comedy or whatever.”

“I won’t…” Zeta said. She hugged me and said in a low voice, “I’m really happy for you, you know.”

The dams that I had been keeping up about telling Zeta all this burst at once, and I was overwhelmed that I had such an amazing little sister. I started heave-sobbing instantly. I couldn’t formulate any other words, but I managed some kind of goodbye before getting another hug. Zeta headed towards her dorms and I drove off, still crying. A relieved and joyous cry was what I needed after everything that day.