Rising Shards

After Kalei was strangely absent the morning after our dates, Lillia called us together for an emergency friend meeting. We checked out a study room in the main library to discuss the situation, where Lillia showed us something she found. On one of Nikki’s social media pages, she posted pictures of a date she had the night before…with a girl that definitely wasn’t Kalei.

“How did we miss this?” I asked. “Nikki said she was single on Friendliest! I checked! I was creeping!”

“We were all creeping, Zeta,” Lillia said. “We were rooting for Kalei here, after all.”

“I wasn’t creeping.” Oka said. “I don’t particularly know how to, but still.”

“You were looking over Zeta’s shoulder while we investigated, you were creeping right along with us.” Lillia said.

“Supportive creeping.” I said, hoping that’d make Oka feel better about it.

“You can only creep on me from now on.” Oka pouted. I patted her arms, hoping that conveyed me agreeing.

“Our issue was our supportive creeping didn’t include every social media website and app Nikki uses,” Lillia said. “On all her others, she talks plenty about her current girlfriend.”

“So what do we do?” I asked. “I mean, past just being supportive obviously.”

“Obviously,” Lillia said. “I think it’s important we don’t rub our own successes in while she’s in a time of need.”

“What do you mean?” Oka asked.

“I mean…” Lillia said. “All of us are having some kind of success in a field Kalei just had a sudden heartbreaking defeat in.”

“Eh?” Ko asked. “Oh, wait.” She grinned. “I getcha.”

“I am so confused.” Iris said. “Why are we even here, anyways?”

“Because Kalei’s our friend,” I said. “And she’s in our class group, so like I wanna be there for her as a friend, and then we can all make sure she’s OK in class too.”

“But like…what do you mean with the success thing?” Iris asked. “Ohhh, wait. You mean like a buddy system when we’re in class since everyone else pairs up so easily?”

“Right, since we have Zeta and Oka, Ko and Lillia, you and me…” Maia said.

“I…are you two serious?” Ko asked.

“I’ll…talk to you both later, perhaps.” Lillia said. 

“Or we can just go with buddy system and move on?” I suggested.

After some awkward dancing around the topic, Iris and Maia fortunately left, either genuinely having other plans or just subconsciously sensing the awkward tension they accidentally brought in. The rest of us were able to have a conversation without trying to explain things to them. We all made sure we’d do something for Kalei to support her and let her know we had her back.

Despite our plotting, we didn’t get a chance to do any of it outside of sending supportive messages, as Kalei hadn’t returned by the evening. I assumed she went home, until her mom showed up in the girls’ dorm, talking to some security workers in the main lobby.

“It’s been more than a day, and my daughter does not go more than a day without using her phone,” Mahina said.

As soon as we saw her, we rushed over. I learned very quickly that a tense Mahina Koridia didn’t go full anxious when a family member was missing like this, like say the worry that came naturally to people like Stella and me. Not wanting to keep anything from her, Oka, Lillia, and I showed her what Lillia had found on Nikki’s page, unsure if it was a clue or not.

“Oh…that poor thing.” Mahina said. “Thank you for showing me this.”

Instead of losing herself to worries, she took matters into her own hands, confidently and unfazed to the point that a missing best friend seemed like a problem we could all fix. Especially when we learned that Kalei wasn’t the only student missing. Because of that, all of the students on campus were summoned to the cafeteria. We stuck behind Mahina, my mouth dry. I didn’t know how she kept it together, still smiling and cracking jokes while the rest of us were terrified.

“I traced her signal on her wristband,” Diast said, approaching Mahina while she frantically swiped on a tablet. “She’s in the void.”

“Terrific, my daughter had her heart broken and went to the void,” Mahina said. “Is it one of those emotional outburst trips?”

“Maybe,” Diast squinted. “There are a few other students that made the jump around the same time, so I can't say for sure."

“If we know where she is, should be an easy extraction, correct?” Mahina said. “I’m coming with on that, by the way.”

“I am too!” I said.

“Right, we’re not gonna sit here while Kalei’s in trouble!” Oka said.

Before Diast could answer, a series of whistles from the front of the cafeteria drew everyone’s attention. It was Principal Penteldtam, who put his whistle down and replaced it with a megaphone. “Alrighty, I’m gonna need all the students who go to Falling Shards to go to the library in their dorm, and the Rising Shards ones to go to their dorm’s library, as soon as possible, please!”

The prefects helped Penteldtam guide everyone to the proper library.

“Why are we here?” Ko asked.

“Lockdown procedures for this kind of situation.” Diast said. “If it’s a situation where the missing kids were brought into the void by someone, we bring everyone who’s staying to the libraries.”

“Is this what happened to everyone who didn’t get all,” I gestured around. “Fang Moon Web…taken? You know what I mean?”

“Yep, they had to hang out here until things calmed down,” Diast said.

“That’s nasty,” Ko said. “I’d rather get back in the nightmare pods than be trapped here. So I’m coming with for whatever’s going on, Diast.”

We all got with our pods, so our pod leaders could get attendance. Since the pod situation was weird, we had a bunch of people at our table that weren’t technically in our pod. The Matora sisters looked ready for action, Lillia was still studying social media pages for clues, and Oka was jotting notes down in her notebook that she talked over with me, both of us admitting they were vague plans for something we had very little idea on what we’d even be doing or if we’d get to come with.

“So do we get to go?” I asked Diast.

“And if so, when?” Oka asked. “As soon as possible, right?”

Before I could get an answer from Diast, I got sneak attack hugged from behind, which made me scream some frantic pleas about being captured until I realized it was Stella.

“Don’t hug me in front of everyone!” I said.

“Shush.” Stella said.

“Also, now’s not the time for a prank…” I said. “We’re all on edge here…”

“Uh huh, uh huh.” Stella just hugged me tighter.

I really needed a Stella hug, so I’m glad she was there.

“Hi Stella,” Oka said. “Why are you here on a Sunday, anyways?”

“I was scheduled today, just a short shift so I was shelving,” Stella said, gesturing to the cart beside her. “Then a bunch of stuff happened apparently.”

“Yeah, but I don’t wanna just stay here,” I said. “We know where Kalei is, so we’re gonna go get her.”

Diast winced as Stella put her hands on her hips. Stella didn’t look mad though, that was her ‘let me think about this for a second’ stance. Oka and I attempted our best puppy eyes.

“Ah ha!” Penteldtam said, wheeling up on a skateboard for some reason. “There’s my newest hire!”

“Hello, yes?” Stella said. “Is there…something you need from me, Principal Penteldtam?”

“When we go on lockdown, the newbie gets the honors!” Penteldtam said.

“The honors…to do what, exactly?” Stella asked.

“Lockdown duty! The dorm libraries are each a designated safe areas. When the lockdown is activated, it’s totally safe from any void shenanigans!”

“So I’m…” Stella said.

“Yep! You get to keep them occupied, make sure nobody else goes missing, that sort of thing!” Penteldtam nodded maybe a few toom any times.

“Wait, is it just gonna be me in here?” Stella asked.

“Gosh, no, I’ll be here, too!” Penteldtam said. “Berin and Soleri are off doing official legal business about the whole missing dealie. Well, I’m gonna go look at the video section and get my best picks, we can get a screen up and have a big ol slumber party! I think we have Snifdflers 2 in the collection, what a classic! Only 93 minutes so we could maybe watch it twice!”

“That’s…right.” Stella said as Penteldtam skated away. “I do remember getting ‘void incident lockdown’ training, but I didn’t think this…I guess I forgot.”

“I’m sure you’ll rock it.” Diast said.

“And we’re gonna rock it too, going into the void while you’re rocking it here!” I said optimistically.

Stella sighed. “C’mere really quick.”

She brought me to a section of bookshelves that weren’t currently occupied. Dr. Diast came along, trying to look like she wasn’t following directly.

“Alright, is Penteldtam not around?” Stella asked.

“I think you’re good.” Diast said.

“Right.” Stella said. She held Diast and I by our shoulders. “I trust you. But this seems really scary. But I also know Zeta’s going to be a brat and either annoy us so bad you’ll bring her along or try to sneak into the void.”

“I wouldn’t sneak in,” I said, withering under Stella’s rightfully judgmental stare. “Well, I wouldn’t try that again.”

“So I’m going to say it’ll be OK if Zeta comes with you,” Stella said. “Don’t get in any trouble, got it?”

“Keeping her and the others safe will be priority, just like any void trip.” Dr. Diast said.

“Good answer,” Stella said.

“Oh, and now that you work here, you can be on our voice channel, so we can contact you with updates to ease your mind.” Diast said.

“I would greatly appreciate that,” Stella said. “There are also rules I want you to follow.”

She let go of us and ran a finger along the nearest metal shelf, which had more dust than she was expecting it to. “Might be dusting later—anyways! The rules are!” Stella started. “Evy, you protect Zeta and the others, obviously, like you said. If things get hairy, get them out of there right away. And for Zeta. You listen to Evy no matter what in there. Don’t do anything reckless. Don’t go off on your own.”

I nodded.

“Just get Kalei back home safe quickly,” Stella said.

I think that while part of her ease of letting me go was me going with Dr. Diast, a more urgent part was that she somehow got assigned lockdown duty with a library full of students she would have to keep occupied while the searches were going on. She took one more look around for anyone nearby then gave us both another bearhug.

“And when you’re back, we’re gonna start vacation planning.” Stella said.

“Ooh.” Diast said.

“I decided today that we deserve it!” Stella said. Penteldtam’s whistle interrupted our hug, but he was skating on the other side of the library.

“Crap, I better go.” Stella said. “I don’t want him to think he can skate on the second floor.”

“We better head out, too.” Diast said. “Talk to you soon, Stel.”

“I look forward to it,” Stella said. “Love you two.”

“We love ya too!” I said.

Diast had a goofy grin as Stella left.

“Are we…still leaving?” I asked. “You alright there, Dr. Diast?”

“Oh, yeah,” Diast said, still smiling. “I just really like when she says she loves me is all.”

“Aww,” I said. “Well get that lovey dovey look out of your system now, you don’t want to look all like that when we get back to the table or the others will, ya know…start their speculating about you and Stella and junk.”

“Right, right, and I have to show some semblance of leadership here, too.” Diast said. “You go first, I need a few more seconds of lovey dovey smirking here.”