The Joining: The Cycle of the Shards Book One

18: The Day Proceeds

     Critock tried to stay out of things and let the day progress as it would if he had never showed up, he really did. But he knew that idea was in jeopardy when he walked into the study hall, to find Claire sitting alone, and obviously still upset from Critock's talk earlier in the day. If things were to proceed as they should then he realized she would have to be returned to good spirits, otherwise Kyle would have to deal with her once he was gone, and he wasn't entirely sure if the normally sullen boy would be up to the task. From borrowed memories he sat in his seat, and whispered to Tom, noticing that the teacher that day was sitting on the opposite side of the room from most of the students and was looking through their own book and oblivious to their actions. "You're not going to like this, but I need to talk to Claire." He nodded towards the blonde girl with red cheeks, who sniffed almost on queue.

Tom shook back and forth. "Didn't you just say..."

"I know! I know. But she's upset because of what I said at lunch before you showed up. I need to at least try and reset things to the status quo. Right now she thinks Kyle is a bad guy. If I could smooth things over, at least she's not going to attack him after I'm gone for something I did. That cool with you?"

"Listen to you, using slang. We'll make an Earth native out of you yet. Yeah, go ahead. Not like we can do anything else in here outside of setting up a fake eye exam." Tom felt strangely proud. His partner was learning!

Critock considered the eye exam idea for a half second before dismissing it. He stood and quickly moved over to Claire's table, sitting down at the empty chair opposite her. When she looked up and saw him, she gave him a look that would have killed lesser men. He took the look in stride, and started immediately. "I'm not here to fight, I wanted..."

"You wanted what?" She came back at him like she had been rehearsing what to say in her head for the last two periods. "Wanted to shame me some more? Wanted to humiliate me again in front of all our friends?"

Critock shook his head. "Wanted to apologize." She stopped, clearly not expecting this. Granted, before today she hadn't expected much of anything from Kyle, other than random chats online. But here he was in front of her, continuing to speak like he never had before. "I was out of line. Obviously I like Shanna, and I still think she's a different person than you think she is, but you have every right to your opinion and I shouldn't have called you out like that in person. For what it's worth, I think you would've been a great cheerleader." Critock made that last bit up, not having any real knowledge of how she was, but if it made her feel better, what could it hurt?

He thought that Claire would have said something snarky back, or that he would have at least shamed him like he shamed her, but what she did surprised him: She cried. It was soft, but tears were coming out of her eyes and she was making small whimpering noises. This was absolutely not Critock's usual territory, and he looked around helplessly. He heard a soft muttering nearby. "One of the greatest soldiers in the universe and he can't handle a crying girl. Here." Tom had stealthily moved under the tables with a napkin and dropped it on the table. "I thought you were going to make her feel better?" He added, but Critock ignored him and handed her the napkin, which she took and wiped her eyes.

"No, I would have been terrible. I didn't really want to be in it, I just wanted to hang out with Shanna. We were friends for years growing up, and I saw her going for it, so I figured, why not? She got in, and I got kicked to the curb. And then she's been hanging out with those plastics." She paused to blow her nose. "They're just so awful and she doesn't seem to care. We haven't talked for months. I don't even care about cheerleading! I hate them!" She dissolved into stronger tears now as she covered her eyes, and Critock looked around to see if anyone was noticing. There were a few students glancing her way with concerned looks, but the teacher was too far away and hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary. He looked at Tom, who slowly floated away.