Oka looked down to the ground, thinking about something, and I let her deal with whatever she was dealing with instead until she told me. Because even if she k or not, she was letting me deal with whatever I was dealing with because I wasn’t about to tell her a few days into Phase Two.

  “So Zeta.” Oka said.

  My heart bathumped. Stupid heart. I was not ready for a bathump right then. I kept my cool, at least.

  “So, Oka.” Keeping my cool did not necessarily mean I was any good at clever responses.

  “While Kalei’s gone, I have a question.”

  “…which is…?” I said. My heart did a like double bathump which was not pleasant and even less pleasant to try and hide. “If it’s about the game thing I probably ’t help.”

  “It’s of the Jeans-y nature.”

  “Oh?” I said. That wasn't what I was expeg her to say. I really had no idea what I was expeg her to say. “Really? What is it?”

  “Well…”

  Oka pressed her fiips together.

  “How far…did you two…go?” Oka asked.

  Every mental arm went off at once, f all my mental fortitude to strain my body to look not freaked out by that question. I grabbed my tail, because my neendage felt like it was about to betray me with a frantient or something.

  “W-where is this ing from?” I asked. I got my tail under trol, it seemed at least.

  “What, sorry! It’s…for my research.” Oka said.

  “Oka, I adore you, but please don’t ask that question and say it’s for research.”

  “…personal research.”

  Did I just say I adored her out loud? I sighed and flopped backwards on my bed.

  “Didn’t the void py…like…show enough?” I asked.

  “Enough to get my imagination going!”

  “Oka.” I said. Firmly. I don’t know why. I was trying to show some authority over this despite having none. I was mostly just trying to keep from exploding from how not ready I was for that versation on that night.

  “I’m sorry, I’m curious!” Oka said. “I’ve been w and I have some theories…”

  “You have theories?”

  “Well, I think about your maturity level, and Jeans’ being a bit older…and you wanting to please her…I could see some…perhaps, TV-14 level is between you two. Possibly even TV-MA.”

  “Oka, the more you phrase things like this the less it makes me want to tell you.” In that moment I alsretted showing her any TV show that had ratings.

  “But there’s still a ce you’d tell me?” Oka said.

  I definitely would tell Oka, but I waime to prepare. Talking anything about Jeans is hard, but such a touchy subject was even tougher. And the whole thing that I just realized I had a massive crush on her, and that this versation might let slip things I wasn’t ready to say.

  “The court is not in session,” Kalei said, makirademark sit-esque entrance more. “But this judge still has judgment to dish out.”

  “…what?” I asked.

  “Beam chaser court’s closed,” Kalei said. “I fot, but I did get to get some of the stress out running there and back.”

  “We’ll tihis talk ter,” Oka said.

  “tinue what talk ter?” Kalei said. “You’re not talking about me, are you?”

  “Definitely not,” Oka said.

  “Cool,” Kalei said, irely paying attention. I could see she was looking at pictures of the game system on her phone. “Roux will have to eat dirt when she sees me with the eGame 3…”

  After a quiet-ish hour or so of phoaring from her (she was watg breakdown videos of the new game sole and trailers and stuff for it), Kalei fell asleep. Oka and I stared at each other, a mix of and relief on my end that Kalei didn’t press on our versation that she interrupted. I hadn’t thought about it until Oka brought her up, but I hadn’t had any friends in my room since Jeans, and now I was bringing my best friends there, one of which I now had a crush on. It brought a queasy mix of emotions to close out my night.

  * * *

  “Alright gang, we’re entering Eche territory, so be on your toes,” I said.

  We were waiting at the train station in LE for Stel. Oka stared wide eyed at everything once we got close to the city, making me wonder if she’d spent any time in a big city before.

  “Zeta, why do you talk like that?” Kalei said. “All of us have been near Eche, it’s normal. Super normal, even.”

  Eche didn’t have fangs, or any other i sign. I didn’t have fangs until very retly. But I still always felt different around Eche even if we were like pretty much exactly the same teically speaking. We just each had a different jun point in our development that put us on separate paths. I hadn’t been ba the ‘normal world’ since I got to Rising Shards, but for me it was still weird.

  “You know Kalei,” I said. “I could tell Stel not to pick you up and she’d let you just sit there with your stupid game system with no plugins or nothing, all alo midnight as everyone else pys it, as Oka and I get a good night’s sleep.”

  “…point taken.” Kalei said.

  “Also, why is Syval here?” I asked, pointing to Syval, Kalei’s friend from Falling Shards, who was standio us.

  “Hi!” Syval said.

  “Is he part of this adventure?” I asked.

  “Yep, and I checked that with Diast too,” Kalei said.

  “Not that she has any authority uy like me,” Syval said. “A guy from Falling Shards, I mean. It’s the boys’ school. Dr. Diast doesn’t teach there.”

  I nodded, not sure if Syval was telling a joke or something because it really wasn't nding.

  “Don’t worry, he’s not sleeping over at your pce, Zates.” Kalei said.

  "Yeppers," Syval said. “My dad’s pig me up in a sec here.”

  “Well, I don’t have any follow up questions, then.” I said. “Except when you started calling me ‘Zates.’”

  “What unch game are you getting, Kalei?” Syval asked.

  “I just have Palindrome preordered, but I’m not really excited about the lineup.” Kalei said. “I’m mainly just gonna py Talon with better graphics to start out with.”

  “I feel like Zeta would like Talon. Zetaaaa.” Syval said in a deep voice. He followed it with a softer, more feminine, “I’m here.”

  “Huh?” I asked.

  “Haven’t you ever pyed Talon?” Syval asked.

  “Huh?” I asked.

  “it’s a multipyer game. Or, multiple games, there have been many Talon games. When you pick the Zeta css the announcer is like Zetaaaa. And you’re like ‘I’m here.’”

  “Oh!” I said. “Is the Zeta css any good?”

  “Not really. It’s more of a joke css than anything.”

  “Great,” I said.

  After some more talk about games I still didn’t get (Syval and Kalei corrected me for calling it an ‘Egame’ and not an ‘eGame’, something I’m not sure made seo correct out loud), Syval’s dad showed up and they were off. Oka was still staring at the city in awe.

  “Oka, are you surprised by how big LE is?” I asked. "Though I guess you have been here before, hm."

  “We’re so close to your house,” Oka said wistfully.

  “It’s not really like a house, it’s just an apartment.”

  “We’re so close to your apartment..."

  Her enthusiasm had me close to a bathump, which I felt I would probably yelp about which would be a problem expining. Luckily, Stel’s car came up shortly after. It wasn’t as fancy as Syval’s dad’s car, but it felt more home-y to me, so it won in my heart.

  “Ah, the famous Oka and Kalei,” Stel said as Oka and Kalei buckled up in the backseat.

  Stel looked my best friends/roommates up and down.

  “Alright, you guys want food first?” Stel asked. I sighed in relief. I’m not sure why I thought Stel was going to hate Oka and Kalei, but I’m gd her immediate rea was not that.

  “You’re taking good care of her, right?” Stel asked, which genuinely wasn’t one of the first things I expected her to say to them.

  “Yup,” Oka said. “Hey, so lemme see Zeta’s room.”

  My stomach lurched. Why am I being so weird about this? I gave myself some respite as in a few days I did just realize I had a crush on Oka, and I grew a tail and Oka was asking me how far I went with Jeans AND she was really ied in seeing my room.

  “Oh, so direct? I bet you’re Oka.” Stel said.

  “Yup!” Oka said.

  “How are those Kinders?” Stel asked.

  “She ’t get you autographs,” I said, immediately embarrassed she’d even ask. I expio her a lot how the Kinders were treating Oka as their adopted daughter.

  “They suck,” Oka said. "Sometimes."

  “You got adopted by Berin Kinder, right?” Stel said.

  “Yuh huh.” Oka said.

  “If he’s anything like he is on the Kinder show, I am somewhat sorry.”

  “He’s alright,” Oka said. “I still feel like I’m just kind of a sympathy adoption for positive publicity or something. But Berin’s not that bad pared to the others at least. And Caya’s pretty cool.”

  “That’s still a depressing ratio of cool to uncool family members,” Stel said. “Zeta, you take good care of her, alright?”

  “She does!” Oka said.

  Stel got us all fast-food burgers before bringing us home. I hadn’t been home since school started, but my homesick relief was interrupted by Phase Three.