I was in the middle of reading a script for one of my local theater group’s next performances when I heard my baby sister screaming. Now, Zeta screaming wasn’t a completely abnormal moment. Zeta’s a yelper, whether it’s spiders, shadows, jumpscares on TV, lights flickering, the works. She’ll yelp. But this didn’t sound like a normal Zeta yelp.

“Zeta?” I called over. “You OK?”

She didn’t answer. I rushed to her room to find her bleeding a lot from her mouth. It was just her fangs coming in, but it was a panic-y rush to the hospital. It didn’t help that my attempts to calm Zeta down were just making her more frantic, as she kept questioning if I was lying to her and she was actually in danger after I jumped the gun and told her to pull the towel we grabbed away from her face, which led to a lot more blood coming out. She kept mumbling something like “Awwhhhyuuuulyyintuhmeee” as I tried to pay attention to the road.

Zeta’s a brat, but she’s my brat. Alright, brat might be a bit harsh. She’s had a weird upbringing, so she’s earned being a little bratty sometimes. She puts up with me, after all.

Eventually, after going through a nostalgia overload seeing the Thadley Cani video again (“Like, whoa dude like you have your fangs and stuff dude, whoa”), we got to meet Zeta’s new Cani doctor. She was tall, had short, dark red hair, and seemed to be wearing a jumpsuit or some kind of mechanic outfit under her doctor coat. My first impression was that this doctor was a bit much. That she’s talky and trying a bit too hard to be quirky. Like she knew how hot she was and had to show off. She had that kind of smirk, that “I know I’m hot shit, and I know you know it too,” kind of look.   

“What is this exactly?” Zeta asked, knocking me out of my Dr. Diast analyzing.

“Power blocker,” Dr. Diast said. “As you saw today, you don’t start out with control over your gift. This is like your training wheel.”

“What happens if I don’t wear it?” Zeta asked.

“You really should,” Diast said. “Power blockers make sure you don’t accidentally turn someone’s yard into hair or blow up my lab while I was in the middle of a breakthrough, making me lose all my progress on a very important research project that would have done some serious good to the people of East Valataran…stuff like that. It’s another reason that it’s best if you go to a Cani focused school while you learn to control your new gifts. Unless you’re prepared for frequent emergency renovations.”

I should probably chill. She passed the handshake test, and she’s being good to Zeta.

“Not on my salary,” I said. “And you should be thankful Zeta, those were a lot clunkier when I had mine.”

Zeta still looked petrified at the premise of a power blocker. I know I’d explained them to her before, but I maybe should have given her some examples that stuck with her instead of those long-titled Cani books, because I’m pretty sure Zeta only skimmed those.

“Alright, one more thing and you can get out of here,” Diast said. “You’re such an easy patient! Compared to the last kid at least. If you smell a smoky room in the hallways, it’s ‘cause little Trilbert thought it’d be a good idea to show off a sneeze-fire before I could get his blocker on.”

Diast got out pamphlets, and I held my breath, bracing for the business pitch she was about to inflict on us.

“Now that you’re officially in the Cani club, you have to go to a Cani school. I’m sure that incredibly boring video brought that up.”

“Wait, like…not Staverius?” Zeta asked.

Had her fangs not come in, Zeta would have gone to Staverius, which was a fine school in my opinion.

“Staverius isn’t super equipped for Cani these days,” Diast said. “Lucky for you, I work at a school that is. I’m only here in this building in the summer. While I am a fabulous and talented doctor, my main squeeze is teaching at a Cani school.”

First off, she kind of insulted my school. Second, she just started her business pitch. Third, she was giving me that “I’m super hot and you know it,” look again. “You’re a doctor and that’s how you say that?” I asked.

“A doctor during the summer,” Diast said. “Big difference. But don’t worry, despite my crap verbiage I know what I’m doing. Now can I get back to Zeta’s deal here?”

I gave up and started trying to come up with a way to let Zeta down easy that we most likely couldn’t afford a nice Cani school.

“I highly recommend my school, Rising Shards,” Diast said. “It’s got some garbage tied up with the Kilanders, but it’s at least super well-funded ‘cause of them. It’s the best Cani training school in the whole region. Well, tied with Falling Shards, cuz Rising is the girls’ school and Falling is the boys. But they’re only like a field apart so I kinda lump em together. And it’s one of the closest. And and and! I’d probably be your advisor!”

While Diast rambled on and on about her school, I looked through the pamphlets. It definitely looked like a good school, but it also definitely looked like an incredibly expensive school.

“Would that be OK?” Zeta turned to me with a puppy dog look on her face.

“Doesn’t look bad,” I said. “Not far from here at all. But…”

I gave Zeta the “we can’t remotely afford this” look.

“Oh…” She said.

“We’re just strapped for cash right now,” I said. “I’m sorry…”

We got on some program for void storm families that helped with the apartment, but that program didn’t extend to fancy Cani school (which is really stupid if you think about it). I hated breaking Zeta’s heart like that, but better to rip the bandage off early.

"Pfft," Diast said. “As if I wasn’t prepared for that.”

Oh boy, she’s a persistent one. Please don’t try to convince Zeta first, then it’ll be even harder for her to let this one go. I noticed Diast was just smiling at me. I get it, you’re very attractive, now can we wrap this up? She just kept staring at me.

“…and?” I asked.

“Oh!” Diast said. “Yeah, my bad. I got lost in my own moment of pride. Scholarships, dude! I can get Zeta in. Then I’d also really more likely be her advisor!”

“A scholarship?” Zeta asked. “Am I even good enough for one? I’m not really anything special.”

I was about to tell her that she absolutely was and to not be so down on herself, but Diast beat me to the punch.

“I think so!” Diast said. “You seem pretty remarkable to me, and I just met you. This scholarship has a little bit of a qualifier, but I think you’d be able to handle it.”

“What do you mean by that?” Zeta asked. “The qualifier part, I mean.”

“There’s a set number of things you have to do in your first semester to stay on,” Diast said. She handed Zeta a small card. I peeked over her shoulder to read it with her, it was a list of things she’d have to do to honor the Benta Scholarship. Now it was her turn to show some trepidation.

“Oh,” Zeta said. “I don’t know.”

I noticed a slight tremble in Zeta’s hands. I hoped Diast wasn’t throwing too much at her right away.

“I mean, this list is pretty long,” Zeta said. “That level of control over my powers? That many void beasts to beat? And I’m not entirely sure what a void beast is.”

“We don’t have to decide this now, right?” I asked.

“How about this,” Diast said. “I’ll give you a week to decide, that’s the usual timeframe. Call back with what you decide. A Cani school would be ideal but ending up at Staverius wouldn’t be the worst thing.”

“So what would Staverius be like for a Cani now?” Zeta asked. You said it was different.”

Noooo, don’t convince her against Staverius! Or I dunno, give Zeta her options, I guess. I actually hadn’t been for a bit, so Diast might have been right. Something about her being pushy and that forced quirkiness and her knowing how hot she was made me want to argue in favor of Staverius, though.

“It’s not a Cani school, and the Cani budget got slashed a few years back,” Diast said. “It’s doable, but it’s not built for us anymore. There’s a lot of safety nets that aren’t there anymore for Cani.”

“Hm.” Zeta said.

“I really think you can do this, Zeta.” Diast said. “I think you’d be a great fit at Rising Shards.”

For all my insta-aversion to Diast’s tactics at the start, I wasn’t used to a teacher reaching out to her like this before. Usually they just told me they wanted her to ask more questions in class. She could really use a teacher like that, and although I hated to admit it, she probably wouldn’t be getting that at Staverius.

“If you go, it’s gotta be on that scholarship,” I said. “I don’t see any way I can afford it otherwise…”

Zeta did the thing where she leaned forward, with her hair hiding her expression but her body language speaking for her. This was all a lot.

“It’s your call, though,” I said. “Uniform’s a lot better than Staverius’ too.”

“Really?!” Zeta yelped. See? She yelps all the time. “No prison suits?”

“I’m not kidding when I say like,” Diast started. “95% of the kids who were going to Staverius I’ve met with say something about their terrible uniforms.” “But I’m sticking with a week. Call me back then, but also call back if you have any weird sudden symptoms. You’ve taken your first steps on your Cani journey, and those second steps can be rocky.”

Fine, Dr. Diast is alright. I don’t take all that back, she is still trying too hard I think, but she is hot so maybe she’s earned it. More important than that, she’s there for Zeta already.

When we got home, we were both pretty exhausted.

“Hey, come here,” I said, hugging Zeta. “How are you feeling?”

“Fangs’re sore,” Zeta muttered. “Sleepy.”

“Well, let’s clean up the blood in your room and then call it a day, yeah?” I suggested.

After we got cleaned up, I let Zeta be alone to recuperate and get used to her new teeth. She kept touching them every few seconds just like I did when mine came in.

The next morning, Zeta told me she decided she was going to Rising Shards, and that was that. I was happy she was confident in her decision and wanted to do whatever I could to support her. I couldn’t deny that I was also much happier than I expected to be when we found out Diast would officially be her advisor.