Rising Shards

Maia packed her bags slowly as class wrapped up, hoping she could bail once everyone else had left. The class was chattering, so she figured she might have to slow it down even more.

“Shouldn’t freakin’ call it a pretest if it actually like counts for our grades or whatever.”

Maia looked up to see the girl in the desk in front of her had turned around and was now resting her arms and her head on Maia’s desk.

“…huh?”

Maia wasn’t used to anyone really paying attention to her at all at school. The girl looked up at her and pouted.

“The pretest! I’m sunk, I just know it. I don’t know how science works, I’m the daughter of a literature teacher! My blood is all books.”

“Paper blood sounds…flammable.” Maia said.

The girl snorted.

“You’re funny! I’m Iris, I sit in front of you. But I guess you know that, right?”

“I’m Maia,”

Iris looked uncomfortable all of a sudden.

“OK, I have weird thing I have to say. But I’m sure you get it a lot.”

“…what is it?” Maia asked, bracing for the “can I pet you?” question.

“The fur…how much shampoo are you going through regularly?” Iris asked.

“Oh uh,” Maia asked. She felt a blushing spell come on. “Probably a lot, I guess?”

Iris handed Maia a few slips of paper.

“My aunt is an executive at some shampoo company,” Iris said. “She doesn’t send like free bottles or anything, but she sends tons of coupons, so here!”

“Th-thanks,” Maia said.

Maia expected the conversation to just end there, but the girl kept talking.

“Hey, do you walk home?” Iris asked.

“I get a ride sometimes…” Maia asked. “Once I get my license, my mom says I can borrow our van to go to school.”

“Whoa, cool! I haven’t even taken the permit test yet,” Iris said. “Do you live close? I wanna get ice cream bars at the gas station."

Maia squinted. Was she suddenly being invited to hang out? What was going on here?

“Hey, this isn’t like a pyramid scheme, is it?” Maia asked.

“What are you talking about?” Iris giggled. “C’mon, let’s go!”

Maia stuttered for a bit. She wasn’t prepared for this. “I gotta…call my mom first to let her know." She braced herself for Iris to laugh and make fun of her for it, but Iris didn’t.

“Alrighty!”

After a quick call, Maia followed Iris out of the school.

“If you go past the tennis courts, there’s a little tree path that goes right to the gas station!" Iris said, excitedly pointing around. "So if you ever need to sneak off and get snacks or something while class is going, you take this way!”

Maia still didn’t trust this. Why was this girl even talking to her, let alone hanging out? Iris picked out a few peanut butter ice cream sandwiches and stopped Maia when she reached for the frozen glass window thing.

“Oh, what?” Maia asked. Here we go. This is where this turns stupid.

“Let me pay for you!” Iris said. “Wait, I should let you pick what you want then, right?”

Maia picked out a cookie ice cream sandwich.

“An excellent pick,” Iris said, taking the sandwich from Maia.

Iris quickly paid, leaving her change in the donation bin, before leading Maia outside.

“Are we gonna eat here?” Maia asked.

“There’s this bench behind the little mall here that’s a better spot, a lot quieter.” Iris said.

“You sure know your way around here.” Maia said. “I don’t really wander around much.”

Iris showed Maia the quickest way around the small mall that bordered the gas station by their school.

“I worked at that computer place there last semester,” Iris said. “Boringest job ever. I just stood there and nobody told me to do anything so I got paid to literally stand and move microchips around or whatever.”

Iris sighed as she plopped down on the bench, digging into her ice cream sandwiches immediately.

“Better eat yours before they melt,” Iris said.

“Right,” Maia said and sat down by Iris. Her own ice cream sandwich was delicious, and the cookies got just enough meltiness from the ice cream to taste perfect.

“We should go every day!” Iris said as she finished her fourth ice cream sandwich in approximately two minutes. “But maybe not ice cream every day. That could pose a problem with like health and such.”

“Sure,” Maia said. What was also not making sense was that Maia was going along with all of this.

“Oh, this is hitting quicker than I expected,” Iris said, grabbing her stomach.

“Are you alright?” Maia asked.

“I’m fine, I’m just gonna have a combo sugar crash/bloatfest stomach session in a sec here.” Iris said.

“Do you need me to do anything?” Maia said as Iris burped.

“That helped a bit,” Iris said. “I should maybe go home and nap this off, though.”

Maia followed Iris for a few blocks and a few burps past the mall.

“Oh wow,” Maia said as they reached Iris’ house.

“What, my house?” Iris asked. “It’s really not impressive, it’s like barely a one story.”

“No, I mean like we’re almost neighbors," Maia said. "I live on Pine Cove Drive, like right behind your house almost.”

“Whoa,” Iris said. “It’s like destiny.”

“That’s a bit much,” Maia said.

“Yeah maybe, but still cool!” Iris said as her stomach gurgled. “Sorry, but I really should go. Let’s do this tomorrow! I won’t eat so much so maybe I can see your house!”

“A-alright.” Maia said. She watched Iris head inside and answered her wave with one of her own. She mindlessly wandered for a bit, somehow reaching her house without realizing it.

What the hell just happened?