by Bob Dattolo
Comments galore from the year one and year three students. Almost nothing from my peers, though. Given a chance to bet on it, I would have gone that route. What do my fellow year two students have to talk about when it comes to me? We’re not on campus, so I figured they’d let it go more so than the others.
The year one students? Questioning what I am. There are seven of them between the two tables. They’re not seated together based on what I’m seeing, they’re just here at the same time. There’s a pretty good mix of affinities between them. Actually, between all of the tables. The dragons are telling the others that I don’t smell right. They were about to guess that I’m not in school at all until they saw my eyes.
Now they just don’t know what to think.
The front runner is that I have contacts in and I’m a norm. So adorable.
The girl left me with the menu, so I opened it and began looking through it, all the while rolling my marble back and forth. I swear, I can feel the power in it, and it’s a delicious feeling. Nothing I read said that others can feel their own charms like that. Alicia didn’t mention that or that she could feel what I made, so I have to think it’s just me. More confusion about why that would be. Just not enough to really dig into it much.
Everything looks good on the menu. They even have a dragon section, which is nice of them. Larger servings without having to go for the multiple entrée approach.
Even better.
The kids around me quieted down when my server arrived. She’s probably right around my age, which isn’t unexpected. She didn’t waste any time and took my order without even blinking or reacting to it. She must be used to dealing with students. I can’t tell if she believes that I’m a dragon or not, but I think she does. Her scent didn’t change much at all while she was here. I sorta expected her to smell like disbelief. Confusion. Anything other than normal.
My marble continued rolling back and forth as I rolled it, watching it intently as I thought through things. The voices around me melded together, so I put them of mind as I dug through my brain.
I made a charm. That’s the first thing. A powerful one, at least based on what I could feel from it. And her reaction. I’m pretty sure spells for light that can be used as a flashlight shouldn’t be able to burn paint like a laser.
Or maybe they can all do it. That’s also a possibility. Not based on how Alicia responded, though. She was most definitely not expecting that.
That means that I have to get more things to put spells on and experiment. Something to ease pain. Hold it off. Maybe something to bolster power? I’m not sure how to do that. I think I can bypass straining my magic if I can stop them from suffering through the process. Then again, if I can bolster my power, then that’s probably a good idea either way. Something to shoot for.
Skipping that for now, next in line is Christmas. I have ideas for gifts for people. Something simple, yet something I hope people will like. Maybe. My thought about getting something for everyone keeps coming up, then fizzling. That feels like a good idea that will definitely turn into a bad one. Pretty quickly.
My thought on Christmas are interrupted by my food coming. Plate after plate gets unloaded, which makes me smile. Okay, now I’m pretty close to wanting to kill someone and eat them.
An earth dragon at one of the year-one tables shakes her head at me, “Why are you even pretending like you’re gonna be able to eat that?”
My hands slow as I rearrange the plates, “I’m sorry?”
Short laugh from her, “Why are you pretending? We all know you’re a poseur. Why the fuck would you even bother? You have the academy right there. You have to know that all of the tables here are real students. With real power.”
Hmm, how to respond? Let’s maybe be civil. “I do know that the tables here have real students with real power. As in all of them. Including my table. So how about you go back to your food and allow me to eat in peace?”
Laughter and comments from the older students. My classmates are silent, watching everything. The younger kids look insulted. All of them. Even though I was only talking to her.
Seriously?
She stands a little, “Do you have any clue who you’re talking to?”
The first bite goes down, and it makes my belly feel wonderful. “Do I? Yes. I read your bio on the way in. I’m not sure how you came up with the 11 herbs and spices for your world-famous chicken recipe, but I have to salute you for that. Deliciousness to the next level, right there. Guy Fieri has to be rolling over in his fire-patterned shirts knowing you purchased flavor town and filled it with your chicken.”
Stunned silence from her. Laughter from the older kids. More silence from my classmates as they watch everything.
She stood the rest of the way up, pushing her chair back, “Are…are you making fun of me?”
More food goes down. “Making fun of you? No? I’m complimenting you on your chicken. Best I’ve ever had. Now, perhaps you can sit down and let me finish my food?”
Her hair lit up as she began pulling power. She doesn’t feel like she’s working a spell, just like she’s showing off. “How fucking dare you!” Her growl was actually pretty good, I’ll give her that. “I’m a dragon! You’re a norm! One more word out of you and I’ll drag you outside and show you exactly who you fucked with!”
She didn’t seem to know how to react when I mimed locking my lips shut and throwing away the key. She did turn a delightful shade of red when I fired up my phone and had it play a jaunty tune with someone saying, “You’re adorable!” then laughing hysterically.
Was it wrong of me to put it on repeat?
She began to sputter, at which point the woman from out front came back and forced her out along with her table.
My phone got shut down, letting me get more food down without being interrupted. Just not for long.
“What’re you gonna do? You know she’s gonna wait out there for you, right? Can you get to your car and get away before she hurts you?” The bronze dragon’s voice is deeper than I would have expected for his size. He’s one of the third-year students.
Hmm, “Do you all remember a third-year student last year? Alison Levy? Liked to challenge people in town and kill them?”
Nods from every third-year student, “Yeah? Sure as fuck yeah? She killed four of us. She was fucking psychotic.”
“Huh, she was, wasn’t she? You know she died in challenge, right?”
“Yeah? She fucked with a first-year and was killed right before the trial. Why?”
One of my classmates spoke up when I caught his eye, “She challenged Maddie,” nod towards me, “she’s not a norm. At all.”
Shock from every one of the older students. The same guy slumped a little, “Motherfucker, that was you?!?”
“It was.”
“I heard that fight was fucking insane!”
“Umm, decently so? Less so than some others I’ve been in.”
The same classmate laughed, “That’s not…she’s ain’t kidding.”
“Well fuck…” he stopped talking, sniffing like crazy. “You really a dragon?”
“I am. Just not normal. Like at all.”
The conversation died quickly after that, leaving me to finish my food. I can see the table of first year kids out there waiting. Too bad for them the other table left before the little reveal came out. I guess we’ll see where this goes. Hopefully nowhere. I don’t want to get into a fight with her. Or anyone else.
Chapter 30
There are seven first year students waiting for me when I step outside. Other students are a little farther away, watching the gathering like it’s a sporting event. Just not close enough to get sucked into things.
The earth dragon is at the front of the group, “You thought this was over? You can’t get away from me, you fucking bitch!”
I so didn’t mean to yawn.
No, wait, yes I did. “Can I get a 20-piece bucket of extra crispy? Mashed potatoes and corn for the sides? And…do you have any
biscuits?”
Her mouth clicked shut as she blinked, “Uhh…what?”
“20-piece bucket? Extra crispy? With biscuits?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
One of her classmates spoke up, “It’s the whole KFC thing she mentioned earlier? 11 herbs and spices?”
“What the fuck?”
He sighed, “Don’t you have KFC in Australia? It’s a chicken place. Fast food.”
Huh, so she’s one of the kids from Australia? I never would have guessed it. Like at all. There isn’t even any sarcasm in that in the slightest.
The dragon turned back to me, “Are you making fun of me?!?”
Pinching the bridge of my nose didn’t help much, “Sweet fancy Moses. I swear to God…look, you called me a poseur. Which I’m not. I’m in second year at the moment and I’m a dragon. I get that I don’t look normal and don’t smell normal, but I’m being flat-out honest here with that. Blah blah blah, you asked me if I knew who you were, so I said I read your bio and alluded to you being Colonel Sanders from KFC. You stopped me on the way out with more bullshit, so I decided to go with the same thing. So, making fun of you? No, not really. Not like you’d think.”
She growled again and moved closer, “How fucking dare you!”
Ugh, “You said that inside. Can’t you all, I don’t know, go do whatever it is you were gonna do? Why’re you here spilling your bile all over me? Because you don’t think I am what I am?”
Her finger rammed into my head, rocking me back, “Don’t you fucking question me!”
You have to be kidding me, “Look, I get it. You’re a big bad dragon. All aggressive and dominant. Wonderful. Bravo for you. Go be dominant somewhere else. Here’s a little hint, just a clue, I’m perfectly fine with other people being dominated. I draw the line at me being dominated. So don’t come at me with your posturing and trying to look big for the other first year students. I’ve been through first year already. 60 percent of our entire fucking class didn’t make it through the trial. 48 out of 88. You don’t scare me. In the slightest. So take your confusion about what I am, your anger about I don’t even know what, and go buy Christmas presents or something.”
More growling as her skin began to roil. You have got to be kidding me. This is some crazy bullshit right here.
“You know what? I’m gonna bow out now before you decide to take this too far.” My initial impulse to tell her to have a nice day died as I shook my head and tried to step around her.
Tried.
She hit me with a punch that wasn’t telegraphed in the slightest. I didn’t even see it coming and only picked up that it was a punch as I was mid-air flying to the side. She crushed my jaw, and I was already ramping magic through me as I hit the ground, tumbled, and then had someone come down on top of me.
He slid to the ground as I stood, growling myself. My nearly instant reaction to challenge her died as the guy at my feet interrupted me, “I challenge you!”
The metal mage at my feet is bleeding from the nose yet has a look of victory in his eyes.
“Uhh…what the fuck?”
“No, Josh, you have no right!” The dragon that hit me started pulling magic.
He pushed his way up and dusted snow off his pants, “No right? I have every right, Suzi.”
“What the fuck are you talking about? How do you have any rights to challenge me?”
He pointed at his nose, “You hit me, and I fell. I’m bleeding. That means it’s legal!”
“No, you can’t do this, Josh!”
“How the fuck do you have the right to challenge me when she hit me? Challenge her!”
More magic came from her, “Retract it, Josh!”
“Nope. She’s mine.” He ignored her and looked at me again, “As for her hitting you? You’d think, right? Except that ended when you hit the ground again. At that point, it was on you that you hit me and knocked me down.”
Are you fucking kidding me?
A familiar voice interrupted, “What is going on here?”
Our crazy tall headmaster stalked through the snow. Suzi’s magic started to die down. “Hey, Headmaster Anderson.”
He looked over everyone, “Maddie? What’s going on? Are you challenging these first-year students?”
“I was going to after she hit me.”
Josh jumped in, “I challenged her instead.”
Slow blinks, “I’m sorry? How and why would you do that?”
Josh explained his thinking and showed our headmaster where everyone was standing and what happened. When he was done, he looked victorious.
And our headmaster looked freaked out, “Uhh…Maddie? I hate to say it, but he’s right. Given the distances, the expectation was that you should have been able to not hit anyone else. Had he been five feet closer, then it would have been on her.”
“You have to be fucking kidding me! So because she didn’t believe I’m a dragon and attacked me, now I have a challenge coming at me from him?”
Nod, “You do. Legal. I have a feeling that if you say no, he’ll try to kill you and drain you.”
For fuck’s sake! “This is…unbelievable! I simply do not believe this bullshit!”
Josh poked me in the chest, hitting my boob, “Accept or die right here.”
I got a whiff of fear, just a tiny one, as I growled at him, “You know what? I accept.” Then I turned, “And you? You hit me. I challenge you.”
She scowled, “You can’t challenge me. He’s gonna tear you to pieces.”
Headmaster Anderson cleared his throat, “Technically, she can. It would be set up for right afterwards. Back-to-back, essentially. And, given what I’ve heard, that would be justified as well.”
She glared at Josh as she grunted out, “I accept.”
My bark of laughter echoed back at me, “Fine. Then let me get on with my fucking shopping, you bloodthirsty psychos.”
Josh laughed, “Run away. Have your fun before I kill you and drain you dry.”
His left eye twitched as I stared at him. He’s a solid 10 inches taller than I am, yet I can tell that he wants to back away. “Running away? I’m going Christmas shopping. Just as I planned to do before you fuckheads decided to mess with my day. Now how about you both go write up a will or something? I have things to do.”
He laughed as I walked away, with Suzi saying something about how he’s a dick for stealing power from her.
God damn, man, what the fuck is up with this now?
My phone came out and I texted the girls about what just happened, trying to explain it all. I hit send just before I reached the first store. That started nearly an hour of texting as I hit store after store, eventually leaving with a good number of bags. No one was nearby to see me strip in an alley and then take off.
Nor land.
I swear, no one wants to mess with the snow other than ice mages and dragons. Well, much.
Eva and Tiffany were in the room when I got back. I fully expected them to leave, but they didn’t. They didn’t start talking again and watched me unload. Tiffany’s, “What the fuck is all of that?” cut through the mostly silent room.
Hmm, do I take that the wrong way or let it go? Since I have two challenges today, I’m gonna let it go. “Christmas presents for people.”
Eva’s jaw fell open, but it was Tiffany that spoke, “What the hell? Why so many things?”
“I wanted to buy some things for people?”
“You trying to buy friends?”
“Umm, no? Why would you think that?”
She leaned forward, resting her elbows on her knees, “We’ve been watching you. I’ve been watching you. Brody’s been watching you. You talk to nearly no one. You were allies with Stacey, Cleo, and Cesar, but that seems to have mostly broken up. Who would you buy something for? Why would you bother?”
I didn’t answer until the first gift was wrapped, “I’ve never gotten a Christmas present for someone, so I wanted to do it.”
“Bullshit!” Tiffan
y spoke for the first time in forever, “The first one? No way. You’re more than 18 years old, there’s no way that would be the case.”
Sigh. Big sigh. “Are you forgetting?” Their eyes followed my finger as I pointed at my scars. “I vaguely remember Christmas growing up. While I celebrated Christmas from the time I was 9 to 13, I didn’t have any money to buy gifts for Jean. Reggie didn’t celebrate Christmas and I barely had clothes, so it’s not like I would have had money to buy anything when I was a pet. I was still a pet this time last year. So this is the first time I could have bought something for someone. So I decided to do it.” They followed my look to her trash can, “Even if they decide to throw it out immediately. Even if they don’t want it. I wanted to do it, so I am.”
Eva sat back again, “So you’re buying friends.”
Another sigh, “There’s no part of this that’s an intention to buy friends. No part of it.”
“Give it up, we all heard the rumors. How you were gonna buy something for everyone in the class to make them think you’re not a psycho.”
“Those fucking rumors. Gotta love ‘em. I didn’t buy something for everyone. Not even close.”
Tiffany shivered, “The rumors mention that, too. How you’ll only buy for the people you don’t plan on killing.”
What the fuck?
I started wrapping again, “So, let me get this straight? I’m either buying gifts for everyone to make them think I’m not a psycho so I can kill everyone or I’m only buying for specific people and plan to kill those that I don’t buy for?” Nods. “Seriously? Neither of you see it? Every rumor that’s out there about me has an opposite saying something else. I’m betting there’s also one where I don’t buy gifts for anyone.” Twitch. “Right. Love it. Probably something like I don’t buy for anyone because that means I’m going to kill the entire class. The fact that you two don’t see the ridiculousness there? I have no way of refuting or doing anything that doesn’t play into at least one of the rumors. No matter what I do, whoever’s making the rumors is right at least once.”
