I TOOK A DEEP breath, let it out slowly, and opened the classroom door an inch so I could peer inside. Becky came up behind me and opened the door wide, nudging me softly in the back to go in. I expected the stares, but a boy in the third row had the nerve to snicker audibly. Becky gave him a sharp glare as she dragged me to the last row. We slipped into the only two chairs available and I sank inside my seat, wishing I could disappear.
The tutor at the front of the room paged through his textbook. His youthful appearance reminded me of Professor Mia and Sir Edward.
Becky leaned in to whisper. "Professor Gregory graduated a couple of years ago from Dragonia. He's one of the smartest humans ever."
"Welcome to Anatomy, Elena," Professor Gregory said. Are you okay? he mouthed, and I nodded carefully, not appreciating the extra attention he directed my way.
"If I ever catch anyone pulling the stunt George did earlier this afternoon, I swear, you'll wish you'd never hatched."
The air was sucked from the room as the class went silent.
Hatched? I frowned at his word choice.
"Open your books to page three hundred and fifteen," he said.
The sound of pages turning carried on for ten seconds as the class did as he asked. A picture of a dragon standing next to a human took up the whole page. For the love of blueberries, the ratio between them was way off and it looked terribly unrealistic.
Run, Forrest, run. I bit the inside of my mouth and stifled a laugh.
"Dragons come in different sizes and colors. They start out as eggs, which can be anywhere between one to four feet in length." Professor Gregory picked up a huge egg with a gritty, rocky surface. The harsh lights of the hall cast an eerie glow, creating a funny greenish shine. He handed it to the blond girl in the front row to pass around when she'd finished with her inspection. I didn't want to be anywhere near that thing.
"Sammy came from an egg?" I asked Becky in a whisper.
"Yup."
��A dragon's wingspan can reach up to a hundred and seventy feet," Professor Gregory's voice echoed through the lecture hall. "A dragon's eye has a large iris and a vertical pupil, just like a cat's eye. Can anyone tell me why?"
"I'm sure Riley knows," Becky whispered.
I knew cats because I had fed a lot of strays during our life on the run; it was easier than making friends I would just have to keep leaving. I lifted my hand tentatively. Becky and Professor Gregory looked surprised.
"Elena?"
The entire class turned around and stared at me.
"Well, if it's the same as cat's eyes, then the pupils can open wider to admit more light," I said, not quite sure of my answer.
He smiled. "You're right. Well done." He threw a candy bar in my direction.
"He's lecturing with chocolate bars too," Becky said.
"The white of a human's eye is often a different color than a dragon's. It can be yellow, gold, green, orange, red or even silver. It's protected by a leathery outer eyelid and three smooth inner eyelids. The innermost membrane is crystal clear and protects the eye from damage while the dragon flies." He drew a picture of an eye on the blackboard and pointed to the various parts. "The other two eyelids mainly serve to keep the eye clean. They're not as thick or clear as the innermost membrane. A dragon can use these inner lids to protect its eyes from sudden flashes of bright light."
The chalk made a screeching noise on the blackboard, and everybody cringed.
Professor Gregory chucked the chalk into the trashcan and grabbed another one. "Sorry," he said, and pulled a face.
The class laughed.
We covered dragon eyes over the next hour. I had never enjoyed a class this much before. Sure, everything was still completely unbelievable and I wasn't sure about my life anymore, but this class sure beat Trig. Whenever I gave Becky the 'huh?' look, her whispered answer got me back on track again.
Too soon, the bell rang and everyone jumped out of their chairs. Becky grabbed my books and put them in her backpack. "The first thing we're going to get you tomorrow is a backpack." She threw the strap over her shoulder.
"Sorry, do you want me to carry that?" I asked, seeing her struggle slightly under the weight.
She waved me off. "I don't want you to pull another muscle."
Everything in my body still ached from earlier and I complained as I looked at the steps that led to the dorms.
She laughed and started to push me up one step at a time. If I thought Becky hadn't noticed my soreness, I was sure she had by the time we got to our room.
As we entered, we found Sammy lying on her bed. She had a sour pout.
I fell on top of my bed in a heap, while Becky headed for the bathroom. I wasn't very good at starting conversations, other than bickering with Dad. He must have missed Paegeia so much. I stared at the patterns on the ceiling until Sammy finally broke the silence.
"Elena, I'm so sorry about what George did." Sammy got up from her bed and came over to mine. She looked at me and sighed. The guilt weighed heavily on her shoulders.
I nodded the way Constance did with Master Longwei.
She sat softly on my bed.
"Hey, don't blame yourself, Sammy," I said.
She shook her head, looking at the pillow clutched tightly in her arms. "He gives us dragons a crappy name. Not all of us are like him, honest."
"I know and I'm fine. I have to admit, I came close to a heart attack, but Becky made me feel better."
"Do you understand now why we call my brother a jerk?"
"Wait, your brother asked him to do that?" I remembered someone had whistled before the dragon ran away.
"I heard Toby, a boy in my class, giving Blake the credit. He's so mean and I'm terrified of what's going to happen to him if nobody claims him." Tears welled up in her eyes.
"Hey, I only learned about all this dragon stuff today but I know you need to have faith. Everything will work out the way it's supposed to happen." I wasn't sure what else to say so I gave her Dad's advice; I only wished it had worked out better for him.
The corner of her mouth curved slightly, and then she grabbed me around my neck, pulling me to her chest. When she released me her dimples showed. "We can be BFFs, but Becky comes with the package, no exceptions."
"I like Becky, and thank you for trying to tell me everything in an hour. The two of you give a mean crash course."
She giggled. "We just wanted to get you up to date with everything in Paegeia. I'm sure you'll learn more tomorrow. The city of Elm is full of stories," she said.
Becky came out of the bathroom and sat on the bed next to us. "Are you ready? Sammy and I want to show you a special spot."
I was reluctant to leave my room again, but my curiosity won out. They took me back to the steps, which took us a decade to descend because of my stiff knees.
A dozen students carrying suitcases chatted loudly with each other in the lobby.
"Spoiled brats," Sammy said. "I don't think they've ever spent a weekend at Dragonia."
"They're going home?"
"Only for the weekend."
Becky struggled with the wooden door again. "A little help, please."
"Hold on, drama queen, before you end up losing an arm," Sammy said, and pulled the door open without effort.
She's strong. Must be a dragon thing. My conscience shrugged internally, but it still bothered me. Sammy was really nice and everything, but there were still other dragons out there that were not nice. I'd seen it first-hand, and it was the reason my dad was gone.
We slipped through the opening and entered the school grounds.
As we walked, Sammy went back to being playful and bumped Becky softly. I was glad she didn't feel bad anymore and a small part of me wished I could put things behind me as easily as she seemed to do.
Coming around a sharp corner, we ran into Blake next to the stairs. He was making out with Tabitha, and they made no effort to hide what they were doing.
Sammy turned into a ferocious beast, well figuratively, when she saw them together, stalked up to her brother, and pushed him away, interrupting their make-out session. "You're such an asshole, Blake."
He laughed and my knees went weak.
Why does he have to be so damn gorgeous? I pulled on the collar of my t-shirt in a rhythmic beat, hoping the pathetic excuse for a breeze would make the hot flashes Blake brought on disappear.
"Dad will hear about this," she said.
His smile vanished. "It was a joke, Samantha!"
She spun around to face him. "A joke? Larry and Brent went to the bar is a joke, Blake, not what you and George pulled off this afternoon."
His eyes twitched and he glared at me.
Great, now the hottest guy in school thinks I'm a loser.
"Didn't you hear what Master Longwei said about Elena the other night? I guess not, you were probably too busy thinking about Medusa's naked body."
Tabitha's eyes narrowed and she lunged at Sammy, but Blake pinned her against the wall with one strong arm.
"I'm going to kill you, Samantha. Your mouth is way too big."
"She's not worth it, babes, calm down," Blake said. He whispered something in her ear, and her smile returned.
"At least I'm not a coward," Sammy chirped.
"Sammy," Becky said through clenched teeth.
Tabitha's jaw muscles tightened viciously as we turned and walked away.
"Oh c'mon, Becky, she deserved that. Isn't it enough that I have to be nice to her whenever we go home?"
"Tabitha goes with you guys?"
Sammy curled up her lip and rolled her eyes. "He only wants her for one thing."
"They're an item now?" Becky's eyebrow arched.
"Who cares?" said Sammy.
"You didn't have to do that, Sammy." I felt terrible about the way he'd looked at me, and for his father finding out what he had done.
"Yes, I did," she said. "The day my brother forgets what consequences mean, is the day it's too late."
Becky gave her a one-armed hug. "I'll try to claim him too if you want me to?"
"Honey, you're good with a sword and a shield, but your skills are nowhere near good enough to tame my brother."
"I said try, but by the tone of your voice you can forget about my offer."
Sammy kicked Becky's butt playfully and bumped her softly. "I love you, thanks for trying to make me feel better."
The two girls acted as if they already shared a sisterhood.
"Why did you call Tabitha a coward?" I asked, still confused about what I had just encountered.
Well, except for the part when Blake got me all hot and bothered.
She sighed. "I'm probably going to hear it from my mom. 'Metallic dragons are better than backbiting, Samantha Leaf'," she mimicked in a strong British accent.
We laughed.
"Snow dragons are the biggest cowards," Becky said, answering my earlier question. "When the going gets tough, well, they usually go poof, but I have to give it to her, she's one smart cookie. She does Blake's homework for him on a daily basis."
"Urgh! My brother is just lazy."
"Did Master Longwei really tell you guys about me?" I asked quietly.
"Oh, Elena, your arrival is the biggest excitement this school has had in years. Master Longwei had to say something," Sammy said.
Great, just what I needed.
We exited the doors that led to the dome, and I cringed as I caught sight of more steps.
"Hop on my back." Sammy crouched in front of me.
"Sammy, no, it's fine," I said, looking at her ridiculous posture.
"C'mon, Elena, I won't let you fall. Promise."
"Fine." I gave in and climbed onto her back.
Maybe it was a good thing Sammy carried me down the stairs, otherwise, I would have probably ended up breaking a leg or something.
When she reached the bottom, she released me.
"So, Elena, what's happening on the other side?" Sammy asked quizzically.
I figured after they had told me so much, it was only fair to tell them everything. We spoke about Dad, even though the tears still lurked in the corner of my eyes and my heart still felt raw every time I thought of him. They gasped when I mentioned how many times I had to move because of Dad's paranoia. They didn't understand why, and I didn't have the answers to make them.
In return, Sammy explained more about the dragons, with Becky's skillful interruptions whenever she felt Sammy's explanations lacked color.
Sammy disliked every single one of Becky's interjections and glared at her constantly. I didn't care. My ears were glued to what both of them had to say. The Night Villain was black and breathed acid; even his saliva could burn a hole right through a shield. I met the Sun-Blast, and they called the green dragon a Green-Vapor. They had the ability to lie through their teeth and owned the gift of persuasion. They were also chlorine breathers.
Reaching a fork in the road, we took the path that wound past the Parthenon Dome and walked to a forest with rocky mountains in the distance. I laughed when Sammy said a young Moon-Bolt, like George, would get banned from casinos, because Moon-Bolts could predict the dealers' cards. Her hands moved wildly through the air as she spoke and I wondered if she'd still be able to talk if they were tied up. Nevertheless, I couldn't take my eyes off of her.
Suddenly, I slammed into Becky, who had stopped walking in front of us.
"Sorry, Elena. I didn't think anyone would be here," Becky apologized.
I looked at what she was staring at and saw two dragons. They were big. One of them had a bronze shimmer to his skin, and the other one had a silver glow with huge swallow-shaped wings.
"It's a Crown-Tail and a Swallow Annex," Becky whispered.
The dragons stared back at us and the silver one bowed its head in my direction. My heart thumped again.
"What are they doing here?" I asked nervously.
"They come here to be in their true form." Becky grabbed my arm and pulled me back the way we had come.
"Are they students?" I asked.
Both nodded.
"It's Becky's and my sanctuary. We love the trees, and there's a nice spot by the lake where you can clear your mind. Sometimes I help Becky to improve her fighting skills," she explained.
"What do you mean?"
"Fight, Elena. Sometimes Sammy is my sparring partner."
"In my dragon form," Sammy added, which gave it a whole different meaning.
"Are you insane?" I shouted.
Becky laughed. "C'mon, what do you think Sammy's going to do? She can't even hurt a fly."
"Oh, yeah? Remember that when I light your ass on fire next time," she warned.
We turned around and followed the same path we had taken all the way back to our room.
When I got inside the room once again, I couldn't stop staring at my bed. "So, what's going to happen if the other girl comes back?" I asked, scared Master Longwei might chuck me out of Dragonia Academy. I had nowhere else to go.
"Vicky?" Sammy fell on the couch. "I don't think she will be back any time soon. Sometimes a quest takes up to a year in order to figure out what your destiny is."
"Especially the way the Viden predicts them." Becky opened the fridge door.
Sammy gave her the glare she'd been giving Becky all day whenever she interrupted her. "She's a Crown-Tail, and on a self-discovery quest."
"What's a self-discovery quest?
Becky had mentioned that term earlier, while I sat on one of the other couches.
"Sometimes the Viden sees something that leads to a self-discovery quest. She'll see something that you must find. Whether it's something emotional or hidden, we can't choose. I don't know what she has seen with Vicky, but I remember the state she was in when she came back," Sammy said.
"Vicky disliked the Viden very much. She hated her even more after the day she got her foretelling, but we're obligated to see her at least once a month. Do you remember how obsessed she got?"
Sammy nodded.
"She spent most of her time in the library, just researching. When she started to miss classes, Master Longwei forced her to go on a self-discovery quest and she was ordered not to return until she found whatever she was looking for."
"They let you go on quests alone?"
Becky tossed us each a soda and sat down next to Sammy.
Sammy nodded.
I didn't like the way they forced things here, and after all these stories, I sure didn't look forward to meeting the Viden.
While we sat there sipping our sodas, Sammy explained how a self-discovery quest took weeks to plan. You had to do a whole statement, explaining the reasons you wanted to go. The members of the Academy board arranged a meeting and decided if the reasons were valid enough for a full fund and whether you absolutely needed to go.
After this started to border on tiresome, the conversation switched over to dragons again. I listened in awe as Sammy explained, in detail, the rest of the Metallic dragons. The Crown-Tail had bronze colored skin, and most of them went into law; they hated cruelty and loved the human race. She said that a lot of them disappeared the night of King Albert's death. The Copper-Horns, like Dad, loved telling jokes and riddles, and pulling pranks, but the good clean kind, not what George had earlier. The best part of what she told me was that Chef was a Copper-Horn too. They were also one of the Big Three, the largest of all the dragons. The Night Villain and Sun-Blast were the others. The Swallow Annex was silver and loved to fly. They had the biggest wings of all the dragon species. I felt proud remembering the wings were the first thing I noticed when we found them this afternoon. They had the ability to heal human injuries.
I was told this was why Constance had gone into medicine. She was the best of Paegeia's doctors, which made her the head of the Health Association and a Council member, but she devoted her time to the Academy. Becoming a member of the Council was Becky's biggest dream.
"Can I ask you something, Sammy?"
"Shoot."
"How's it that you are a Fire-Tail, but your brother is a Rubicon?"
They both giggled, but I was used to that by now.
"Let me think." She frowned while staring at the carpet as if the answer were written in the kinky fibers.
"Use cats, they have cats on the other side," Becky said, looking for a way to explain it so I would understand.
"Cats can work. You know when a litter of kittens is born, not one looks the same? It's the same with dragons. You never know what you might get until they're hatched."
"I still can't believe that you were born out of an egg."
She giggled. "Dragons only shift into humans when they're about five years old."
"Why do you have two forms?" I asked.
"Well, to blend in, I guess, like your dad."
"You know, most of the teachers here are dragons, too," Becky said, changing the topic of our conversation away from Dad.
"Really? Like who?"
"Sir Edward and Professor Gregory teamed up a couple of years ago. They're not a dent, but you would think they were if you saw the two of them together."
"Who's the dragon?"
"Sir Edward. He and Master Longwei are both Fin-Tails. The only two left, I think."
"Master Longwei is a dragon?" I hadn't seen that one coming.
"C'mon, Elena, you can see that he is from a mile away. His eyes?"
I remembered the golden glint in them, but had thought it was my imagination playing tricks.
"What's the time?" Sammy sulked after her stomach growled loudly, interrupting us.
"It's time to go."