“The Rebirth of River and Lyric” (54.10) (Oka)

Kalei was listening intently as I tried to offer advice, but I didn't want to make it all about me. Still, I needed to start with a me thing to get to what I hoped would help her through all this.

"When I was at Tesata, it was pretty bad," I said.

Kalei actually laughed despite her teary eyes. "Dude, pretty bad doesn't begin to describe that place," Kalei said.

"Right, but I don't want to make it seem like my problems were worse!" I said. "Every day there was awful. So bad that I didn't think it'd ever get better. But I didn't want to let the bad times win. So even though it was like crawling through quicksand with big, heavy boots that were pulling me down, I tried to keep moving forward. Most of the time, that didn't result in anything. The sunrise that would bring good days wasn't showing up. And it was discouraging to keep trying. But I couldn't give up. Even if it didn't do anything but keep my head above that quicksand, I kept going. And it took forever, but things did get better. A night like tonight would have been a dream a year ago."

A night away from my hellish school and dorms, spending time with my friends, getting spoiled by my parent, that would have been a fairy tale if I told myself that a year ago.

"So I think it'd be good to do that again. Even if it doesn't seem like that sunrise is ever gonna come, that we're just gonna keep getting crap from everyone. Every day, we still get back up and try again. And even if we don't know what we're doing right now, that's alright, I think. Maybe we'll stumble on it, and we'll push forward. And if there's anyone who can push forward and figure things out, it's you."

"Come on with that," Kalei said.

"I mean it!" I said. "Remember when I had that big freakout at the sleepover at your place and you helped me through it?"

"Yeah, but I caused that freakout," Kalei said.

"Still, you fixed it so that's something," I said. "Even if you're a jerk sometimes, you do make my days better."

"Sometimes is putting it lightly," Kalei said.

"Yeah, well, I'm a jerk sometimes too," I said. "We all are! Sometimes our quicksand is just us having jerk moments, you know? So just keep going, kid." I lightly punched her shoulder.

"Kid? Where'd that come from?" Kalei laughed.

"I dunno, that sounded good in my head." I said.

Kalei wiped her eyes. "Ah, I really needed that."

"Anytime," I said. "We gotta be there for each other in the tough."

"Right, so we can get to the sunrise," Kalei said. "I think part of that sunrise is your new eGame. I really want to do a Farlet Kart tournament with everyone."

"Yes!"

Kalei ended up talking video games with me, giving me a bunch of suggestions of ones she thought I'd like, as well as talking a ton about some old game Marmalade was showing her. The way her eyes lit up when she talked about Marmalade was nice.

While we were chatting, a girl in a hood walked by.

"Uh, excuse me," She said, sounding like someone putting on a fake deep voice. "Is this the uh, spot where Rhombus Replay is?"

"The Rhombus of Fun, yes!" I said.

"Ah, that's great, because I was hoping to meet some important people here..." The girl took her hood off, revealing one lovely Zeta Faleur.

"Hey! What the heck!" I said, snapping to my feet to embrace her.

"About time you showed up." Kalei rose to her feet, looking sheepish. “Can I get a hug too?”

"Yeah, get in here!" I said.

We opened our arms and gave Kalei a big hug as well.

"Don't tell anyone I said this," Kalei said. "But hugs from you two are really nice."

"Our secret," I said. "How was your thing, Zeta?"

“Well, dang do I have a tail to tell you all, heh heh.” Zeta said, holding up her own tail.

“Boooo.” Kalei said.

“It was…” Zeta pumped her arms and did a twirling a pose. “Terrifying! There was this big accident Tik had in her memory, and then she got stuck in a crystal. And then after I went to the dorms to get my jacket, and...maybe I shouldn't say that part? But anyways, after that I got my jacket and Stella drove me here!"

"Well, it's good to have ya," I said. "Our food's probably ready if you wanna head back in."

Even with food waiting, the three of us took our time returning to the others.

"Why'd you call it Rhombus Replay?" Kalei asked.

"That's what it used to be called!" Zeta said. "I had my tenth birthday party here. I so told you that."

"I had my tenth birthday party at an aquarium," Kalei said. "Dude, it'd be so cool to film at an aquarium. I was telling Oka that we really need to film soon. Next meeting better be finalizing that script.” 

“I will put it in my planner!” I said. I got out my new little day planner and wrote down something about our video club.

“When did you get that, it’s adorable!” Zeta said.

I held up my planner, which was covered in stickers. “I didn’t like how it just said ‘be true to the motivation’ so I ordered some gay stickers and fixed it.”

"Good plan!" Zeta said.

"Wait, hold on," I said. "How did you know we were here? And why wasn't Kalei surprised to see you?"

"You just answered your own questions," I said.

"Yeah, Zates texted me asking where we were, she wanted it to be a surprise," Kalei said.

"Well, it worked!"

"Hee hee hee..." Zeta chuckled to herself.

"I went out to wait for her," Kalei said. "But then you found me and we got all emotional talk time."

"Aw, did I miss a signature Oka Ohri heartfelt chat?" Zeta asked.

"Pfft, I bet Oka put you up to calling them that," Kalei said.

"I didn't! My ego is moderately sized, but not enough to name my own conversations," I said.

As we continued to riff all the way back, I felt like the night was a great success already. We were all going through it in our own way, but I knew in my heart that we'd pull through until we found our sunrise.