Rising Shards

I hadn’t been to the Twin Wolves mall with Oka since the time she, Kalei, and I went so Kalei could get her new game console. Oka was waiting at the big fountain in the center area of the mall for us, waving brightly at me as we approached. She had a fuzzy sweater on that I very much wanted to reach out and touch but I held back as I didn't wanna immediately get handsy with Stella there.

“Greetings, Stella!” Oka said as she saluted. I don’t know why she saluted my big sister, and I don’t think she knew why she saluted.

“Greetings yourself, Oka!” Stella said, saluting back. “How’s the play going?”

“Oh,” Oka said. “It’s only been a few days since I stopped, but—”

“Stopped? What do you mean, you quit?” Stella asked.

“Oh, not theater! Theater’s just on break because of all the Wildfire Hearts stuff. 

"Ahh, right right." Stella said.

"I did quit choir, though," Oka said. "I hope when it’s back that jerk Clover quits theater club, though. But I don’t have to talk to her as much as I did in choir.”

“What’s with Clover?”

“Stella, you don’t need the beat by beat of all our drama.” I said.

“I work at the school now; I might run into this Clover!” Stella said. “I want to be prepared if she’s a jerk.”

“She’s a big jerk,” Oka said. “She hyped up my ship in Teensly Street, but it turned out they immediately had a tragic deal as soon as they got together. It messed me up real good.”

“Ohhhh, she’s that one, Zeta mentioned a bit about this.” Stella said. “I’ll give you the same advice I gave Zeta. If this girl’s so pathetic that she has to spread rumors and try to ruin your happiness, it means that she’s jealous of your radiance, and if you keep smiling despite whatever she tries, your sunny demeanor will shine through their rain clouds. Also, I’m sorry you’re in Teensly Street’s misery porn clutches.”

“Was in their clutches! I gave that up after they wrecked my ship!” Oka said.

“That’s what I like to hear.” Stella said.

“Did Zeta tell you how she stood up to Clover?” Oka asked.

“She…didn’t?” Stella asked, head tilting at me like a confused puppy.

Oka eagerly told Stella about how I went up to Clover and told her to leave my girlfriend alone, leaving out about how Kalei showed up to flip off Clover and how I was basically crying the whole time, making me sound much braver and cooler.

“Atta girl.” Stella said. “So, did Zeta give you the itinerary?”

“Mhm, and I printed it out.” Oka said. She pulled out a folded-up sheet of paper and waved it. “First up is…pizza! Because I suggested pizza!”

“Right, the tradition states that as the one being questioned, you get to pick your preferred eating establishment.” Stella nodded to herself, as if she were reciting it from some ancient tome listing all the Faleur family traditions.

I wasn’t sure if there was actually a longstanding family tradition where the guardian has to judge the other family member’s new romantic partner, or if it was just something Stella wanted to start. Since everything I knew about the rest of the family outside of our little bubble really sucked, I didn’t mind if Stella wanted a blank slate for the Faleurs.

The Twin Wolves mall had two food courts; one was just cheapo fast food type stuff (the only one I had ever been to previously), while the other one was more like a miniature street inside the mall, filled with bustling restaurants of a higher quality level. Stella led us to a pizza place in there. As we headed to our booth seat, I took a look around. The walls gave an aesthetic that we had entered a place carved into a cave or a mountain or something. There was a bar on the far end that had I sat next to Oka at a shiny marble table (I think it was marble? I am not an expert on stones and tables made of stones), and Stella took a spot across from us.

“Stella…this place is really fancy.” I said.

“Not to tip my hand early pre-questionnaire here,” Stella said. “But I say Oka deserves a fancy place. You do too, you know?”

“Aw.” Oka said.

“I know I asked before, but now that we’re here, what is the this tradition exactly?” I asked.

“Well, I have to grill you guys a bit, but another part is to test the new partner,” Stella said, sipping from her cola. “Usually we don’t say that last part out loud, but you’ve passed my tests so far.”

“Thanks for the warning, at least.” Oka said.

Even the menus were fancier than I was used to, the prices didn’t have dollar signs and seemed very intimidating even if I wasn’t paying.

“I have a feeling this is gonna be different than the pizza we got at Kalei’s place.” I said. “We have a lot of pizza lately, huh?”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing.” Oka said. “I, my dear Zeta, am open to trying all kinds of ‘za.”

We each ordered an individual pan pizza with our preferred toppings. After the waiter left with our menus, Stella cracked her knuckles.

“So what do we do next here?” I asked.

“I’m…waiting for something…” Stella said, her voice suggesting she was more distant than her determined knuckle cracking would suggest. “Ah!”

Stella stood up suddenly, excitedly waving over towards the bar. Someone there waved back. I didn’t remember another guest being part of our plans here, but I understood as Dr. Diast approached us.

“Hey…funny running into you guys here.” Dr. Diast said.

“I’m gonna have to update the itinerary.” Oka said, adding Dr. Diast’s name to the list of attendees for the evening.

“Hi, Dr. Diast,” I said. “I didn’t think you’d be part of this?”

“I told Evy that as a part of the family, I would prefer that she joins me for this important family tradition,” Stella said. “But since Oka’s dad was her ride, Evy didn’t want to get spotted on the off chance he showed up here.”

“Are you guys like that secret?” I asked.

“We aren’t, just.” Dr. Diast sighed. “I just don’t want rumors to start about Stella. Like let her be a newbie at Rising Shards without us being a thing being whispered about it, you know? If we were really secret, I wouldn’t even want to meet up here.”

“Are you going to be alright here?” I asked.

“Oh yeah, I did the whole like ‘fancy running into you here’ entrance scene there, I covered my bases.” Dr. Diast said.

“Alright…” I said. I hoped they wouldn’t have to keep this up forever, I couldn’t imagine how stressful it would be to have to think about people watching you all the time while with your partner.

“And I wouldn’t have waved her over like that if we were super-duper top secret.” Stella said. “Thank you for being understanding about this, Oka.”

“And for not telling Berin,” Dr. Diast said.

“I’ve kept my lips sealed.” Oka said.

“With all our guests seated, I think we can begin,” Stella said.

“Don’t you wanna wait for the food?” I whined.

“We can start now, it’s fine.” Stella said. “It’ll help pass the time.”

Almost to the second after she said that, a waitress brought over our baskets of breadsticks.

“Well, while we wait for the main course.” Stella said as I promptly grabbed one of the delicious, greasy, parmesan-y breadsticks, realizing as I wolfed it down and moved onto my second that I was hungrier than I thought.

“Also, I hope this is an informal dinner questioning, and not…and you’re getting the notebook out.” I said.

“It’s not ‘the’ notebook, I have lots of notebooks,” Stella said.

“I said I didn’t want you to like interrogate Oka…” I said.

“I can take it.” Oka said, flexing. “Bring on whatever questions you got for me, Stella! And you too, Dr. Diast!” Oka flexed herder. She gave me an eager look. I didn’t know what to do, so I flexed too, which seemed to please her.

“Question one,” Stella said. “Tell me a bit about yourself, Oka.”

I groaned. “You’re making it sound like this is a job interview.”

“Zeta, I got this,” Oka said. “Something about like proving to Stella that I’m good for you is like…” Her eyes sparkled. “I dunno. It’s. I wanna win this questionnaire deal for you.”

That sparkling look won me over, and I told myself not to be little sister whiny to my big sister’s whatever this was. Instead, I wanted to be supportive to my girlfriend, and supportive in whatever way I could to maintain Oka’s gleam.