“Then Oka and I really must get in line,” Lillia said.

  Oka waved bye to Zeta as Lillia dragged her to the line.

  Oka watched Zeta grumble off and hoped she’d be alright. As she waited in lih Lillia, Oka also hoped Lillia still wasn’t mad at her for making fun of her a week or so earlier.

  “You’re worried about her?” Lillia asked.

  “Yeah,” Oka said. “Kalei has us doing this stupid challeo not be in the same club.”

  “Right, she was very loud about that.” Lillia said.

  “She’s very lurly, isn’t she?” Oka said.

  She thought to add “That’s a joke.” But Lillia’s gring stopped that.

  “I’m sure she’ll be fine,” Lillia said.

  Oka figured at the end of the day Zeta would figure something out, but she still felt a pang of loneliness watg her best friend leave her sight.

  “Oh, great,” Oka said as they got closer to the front of the line.

  “What is it?” Lillia asked.

  “My…guardian.” Oka said.

  Oka saw Berin talking to Reit Kinder. Where did he even e from? Oka had told Berin her pns for which clubs she wao join, and surprisingly didn’t face resistance for them. Although, her pys nor choir are dangerous the way beam chasers is, so he’s probably fine unless I trip on a spiky prop or something on stage.

  Oka’s adoptive father seemed a bit heated with his brother, who kept waving a fan to cool himself off after his performance.

  “Now, Reit, remember what I asked you st week.” Berin said.

  “To not be,” Reit waved his fan and took a dramatic pose with his non-fan-holding hand high in the air. “Dramatic.”

  “Right. But more specifically dramatic towards Oka,” Berin said. “Because she’s family, I don’t wao get special treatment.”

  “Fine, but if she possesses the ag ability of our bloodlihen I'll have to give her some sort of preferred treatment."

  “…you do know she’s adopted, right?” Berin said.

  “Hmm.” Reit said. “This…is a potential plication. But I will heed your request.”

  “Oh, Oka, there you are!” Berin said. “There’s my star actor.”

  Beri in for a hug right away, which was really embarrassing in front of a friend, but Oka had reached a point where hugs felt more normal from him at least.

  “Hello, Berin-parent. Berin father. Father Berin.” Oka said as she hugged him back. “Any of these new niames nding with you?”

  “They could use some work,” Berin said. “But I admire the effort.”

  Berin ruffled Oka’s hair, which was annoying but in a like nice way.

  “Alright, if Uncle Reit gives you any issue let me know.” Berin said as Reit sighed dramatically. “See ya ter.”

  “Alright, bye Poppa Kinder, Parent/Guardian…uh, what else….” Oka said. She gasped at a niame idea. “Berint! Like, Berin and parent!”

  “That one isn’t bad.” Berin said.

  Oka and Lillia finished signing the papers, officially making them part of the theater club. Reit informed them that there would be tryouts for the spring py over the few weeks and gave them each a copy of the script for the py The First Ink Pen.

  “Huh, that sounds familiar.” Oka said.

  “Razmus had a question about it at his game,” Lillia said.

  “Ahhh right,”

  “Oh, you know Razmus Marne?” Reit asked. “He attends every py the theater club performs. He was in Falling Shards’ theater group as well.”

  “Terrific,” Oka said. Lillia actually gave a slight nod, and possibly held back ughter despite gring. Progress!

  Oka sat back down at the back rows in front of the makeshift stage on the beach to page through the script. Lillia walked past her.

  “Are you leaving?” Oka asked.

  “I’m going to firm my pletion of the club event, then study this script in my room,” Lillia said. “My roommate is incredibly…tiresome, so having her be away could be fruitful for my studying.”

  “Ah, gotcha,” Oka said. “See you ter, then!”

  Lillia gred at her before leaving. Less progress.

  Oka looked around the other students that had signed up and were just hanging out there as well. Theater was one of the only clubs that shared with the boys at Falling Shards, so there were a few older boys from there mingling. The only person here was Naomi Ratuna, which was an aain. Naomi was the prefect for Oka’s se of the dorms, and she seemed to want to rule with an iron fist. If Naomi treated py practice like she treated dorm bedtimes, Oka hoped she wouldn’t have to act with her. Judging by her miming, Naomi was dramatically ag some se out about someoh a top hat or some kind of weird hat eating a lot.

  Oka noticed that just past Naomi, Lillia was standing nearby still, seemingly having stopped shortly after leaving for her room. She had an expression Oka had never seen Lillia have before as she watched Naomi talk to her friends. She didn’t look distant, judgmental, or even gring. She had a longing look at Naomi. That longing look turned inte filled gre when Lillia noticed Oka staring. She marched back towards her.