Dragon Wars: A Dragon Novella

by Rich Scribes

have to complain about,” He practically shouted as he plopped onto my couch.

  “Only two today? Slow day?”

  “One, you were exempt from that stupid algebra test, and two you live next door to Ziora.”

  “You have to study. That is a foreign concept to you, but you have to. I don’t mean read up on that erotica crap that you read to get ready for prime time,” I said with disgust. I only thought middle age women read that crap. I was so wrong. Those books were springing up left and right in our school, like a bad roach infestation. “What is the big deal with Ziora?” I was trying to play it off that she wasn’t the ‘it’ girl in our school.

  “Liar!” Nelson tossed me a look filled with revulsion.

  “She is just like any other girl. There are a lot of them out there, you know.” He knew I was lying even more. There was no one like her. I only had one more year before I was shipped off to college. The only time I would see her during that time was during summer vacation.

  “Well, she is just a girl that is in your garden talking to your mom.” He laid back down on the couch. “Do you have chips or anything?”

  “Now you tell me this?” I was starting to panic, and that excited knot in my stomach formed once again. She was on my property and talking to my mother. I quickly rushed to one of the windows in my living room to verify that Nelson wasn’t lying. There she was, having a conversation with my mom about my mom’s orange blossoms probably.

  “Dude, go outside and talk to her…” Nelson prodded.

  “I’ll have plenty of time to do that…” I walked over to the couch. I guess she really wanted to get started on the assignment.

  “What do you mean by that?”

  “Well, I’m supposed to help her with an assignment for English class.” I said. Nelson put his hand in a fist and bit it.

  “What! Lucky bastard…let me help the hot chick. My tongue works just fine around the ladies. Yours ties itself in knots.”

  “You’re stuck on a third grade reading level. Shakespeare would be like reading latin.”

  “Cliffnotes.” Nelson replied proudly.

  “Hmm…good idea, too bad you didn’t use that for your own English assignment.”

  Our conversation was interrupted as my front door opened. Nelson looked at me filled with joy.

  “There is this lovely girl that has requested to see you.” My mom said indicating Ziora was in the house. Nelson still had the cheesy smile and was hopping all around, which wasn’t helping my nerves.

  “Um…living room…” I responded as I stood up with my knees slapping together because I was nervous. I walked over to meet Ziora, and Nelson followed. She looked even better up close. Nelson almost ran me over when I stopped in front of her.

  “Hi!” Nelson’s overly enthusiastic voice made me jump a little.

  “Hi…” Ziora said, as she shifted a little. “Marvin, right?” She bit her bottom lip again. I guess this was a nervous habit.

  “No, I’m Nelson, but I think I can really adjust to Marvin.” Nelson’s grin somehow got bigger.

  “So…having trouble with the English final, huh?” I know it was a stupid question: why else would she be here? My mother was just standing behind her, taking this all in.

  “Yeah, thanks for helping me, Brent.” She said with a smile. My heart dropped a little. After all these years living next to each other she didn’t know my name. We even had half our classes together, but I wasn’t going to let that put a damper on things.

  “Uh…uh…my name isn’t…”

  “Bryce…he’s Bryce,” Nelson sputtered out.

  “Oh, I’m so sorry about that…” She blushed.

  “I think he wouldn’t mind that you called him that either.” Nelson said again.

  “I’m kind of fond of my name. I’ve had it for a while now.” I said.

  “I really do apologize. I’m not the best with names. I’ve seen you both at school. I know we’re in some classes together. English is just the worst for me. Remembering all the different names. Who wrote what. What character said what and in what story? Who were they talking to…it stresses me out.”

  “You’re not going to be stressed out on my watch. We will get you speaking Shakespeare in no time, well just as long as you get my name correct.” I smiled. Wow a complete and coherent sentence. I wasn’t doing too bad. Nelson, however, was almost drooling on my shoulder. Ziora smiled at me, and, again, bit her bottom lip. That was driving me crazy…in a good way.

  “How about you kids do your homework on the counter in the kitchen? The lighting is better there,” My mom said. My mom was still behind Ziora, and pointed down at her, and mouthed, ‘so hot’. And then she walked right past us and into the kitchen to wash her hands. I shook my head and smiled. The three of us now walked from the hallway into the kitchen area, Nelson almost glowing with excitement. My mom went and grabbed some snacks for us and then went back outside to do more tree hugging.

  “So, the issue with you and Shakespeare is memorization?” she had all her work laid out now in front of us. Nelson just stared at her like she was not of this world.

  “Well, that’s a big part of it.” Ziora stopped to think. “Honestly…everything!” she smiled. “A two year old may as well have written what I’ve done so far.”

  “Looks a bit like what Nelson would write, actually.”

  “Which one would be worse?” Ziora smiled. I couldn’t believe that it was this easy to talk to her. We continued on with her assignment. She picked out a long dialogue from ‘The Tempest’ and I helped her decipher it. Then she put it into an essay format for the first part of the final. Nelson on the other hand was just gawking at her all afternoon, until his mother called the house to ask him to come home. This made Ziora realize how late it was and said she had to go as well.

  “Thanks…you may have just saved my English grade.” She said smiling at me. She had an addicting smile, and I loved it.

  “Well, who would I look at next year if you flunk out…” I was saying before I could stop myself. I hit forehead. Oh, brain, why did you fail me? She probably thought I was some type of creep. I looked at her to find she was blushing.

  “Well, then I’m glad you had some type of incentive.” She smiled. I walked her to the door and we both said good bye.

  “What a little hottie she is.” I heard my mother say from behind me as the door clicked shut. I smiled. My mom was right, but seriously…she was my mom! There was no way I was having this conversation with her.

  “She is just a girl that needed help with her final project from school.”

  “She is a very attractive girl that needed help…”She winked at me again. “Come on, help me make some dinner.”

  We sat down to eat some salad and spaghetti, again alone without my father. He was never home it could be morning or it could be night, and he didn’t disappoint with his lack of presence.

  “That girl Ziora couldn’t keep her eyes off you, huh?” My mom mentioned as she poked at some lettuce.

  “Are you serious?” I smiled. I couldn’t help it. “She has a man, who probably could toss me into the end zone,” I pointed out.

  “And what about you? You have letters pouring in from all colleges willing to give you a free ride. You could’ve graduated this year if you wanted to.”

  “Yeah, but I’m the guy that her boyfriend cheats off of to stay on the football team so that he can get girls like that.” At least that is what the stereotypes were in all the movies, and they were pretty much right on.

  “High school relationships don’t last.”

  “Where is dad?” I attempted to switch the topic. I couldn’t talk about Ziora anymore. Reality was reality. “Working late, as usual, I see.”

  “Bryce, what he does is really important. You should try and cut him some slack,” my mom said.

  “It is easy to cut him some slack when he isn’t around,” I watched her reaction a
s I drank. “What does he do exactly? We don’t ever talk about his important job.” My mom stopped eating, and her jaw tightened. That always happened. Maybe he was a pimp or a drug dealer. We did have a nice house, and I could get whatever I desired.

  “Mom, just tell me, is he a pimp in Miami?”

  “Bryce!”

  “It’s a legit question. You never tell me, so my brain goes crazy with ideas.” She smiled at me. She knew that there wasn’t any harm to my question.

  “One day you will find out what he does, but right now you have to trust me.” That is how every conversation ended: that his job was of great importance. No more questions. The only thing I knew for sure was he wasn’t president of this country. Or I would have noticed a difference in living.

  Mom kept bringing up Ziora, and I kept switching the subject. Finally I said that there was no way Ziora would give up Mr. MVP for a guy like me. She didn’t like that argument, so she stopped talking about Ziora. I went upstairs after washing the dishes, and just went online to check my email, and search the web until I went to bed.

  I was about to log off completely until a red icon indicating I had an email blinked on the screen. I took the pointer and dragged it to the corner, and clicked on it. The subject line read anonymous. Oh, I love me some emails from porn sites. I didn’t open the email and was about to log off, and again the red email light blinked. I rolled my eyes. This spammer was becoming annoying. If I wanted to, I could run a back trace with a computer code that I created, but I