“Mm-hm. I still can’t believe you blew Eruption out of the air!”
He shrugs. “I didn’t want him to hurt Asteroid. Or you, for that matter. He was being very threatening.”
Recalling the giant black and red dragon makes me shiver. He knew what he was doing, and I don’t think he or Mr Reedman would have cared if someone had been injured.
“Who are you going to ask to mentor you, huh? Your brother?”
“Maybe. But Ciara’s probably grabbed him already,” I sigh. “I don’t know who to ask.”
I can’t ask Maya, because she’s always with Mason. We’ve barely spoken since I arrived because of it. I could ask Marco, but the question is if he’ll do it or not – he’s lazier than I am.
“I’m sure you’ll be fine,” Wes smiles.
Marco’s my only shot.
“I’ll go and find Marco, see if he wants to do it,” I say more to reassure myself, but Wes nods anyway.
“I’ll see you later. My parents are coming for dinner today; I want to look nice.”
“Have fun.”
The brown-haired boy waves before haring down the street, Asteroid clinging to his backpack.
It didn’t take me long to find Marco; I spotted Drea lazing around in the sun in a large park. A large fancy fountain of a dragon is right in the middle of the large green space, with a few trees dotted here and there. Marco is sat on a bench nearby, talking to someone I don’t recognize.
“Hey,” I wave as I approach, and Marco straightens up.
“Hey. You okay?” Marco asks as I come closer.
“Yeah, I just need to ask you something.”
“You bedding the younger Years now, Marky?” The boy next to him taunts, which makes me recognize him immediately.
Mason.
His brown-blonde hair is no longer long and shaggy, but shorter, with tufts sticking out at weird angles. He’s had a growth spurt, but it’s clear that his attitude has not sweetened.
I’m ashamed to say that he is good-looking now though. Only a little.
“Fuck off,” Marco snaps.
Mason rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Come on Fortune, we’re leaving. Later, Scargirl.”
A white and gold premier dragon follows him out, his head lifted high arrogantly. Red fire markings cover his wings and legs, which means that Mason is fire.
“Good to know he’s changed,” I mumble sarcastically, covering my face with my fringe as he walks away.
“Hmph,” Marco snorts. “What did you want to ask me?” He pats the now empty spot on the bench next to him, and I quickly sit down.
“You know that First Years need mentors for dragon training...?”
“You want me to do it?”
I’m thankful he gets straight to the point as he tucks my fringe behind my ear.
“Yes please. I trust you.”
“Why can’t Rocky or Maya do it?”
I play with my fingers in embarrassment. “Ciara’s probably got Rocky, and every time I see Maya she’s too busy to talk. Plus, you know me better than anyone. If anyone’s going to mentor me it should be you.”
My friend smiles slightly. “Okay, I’ll do it. As long as you want me to do it because we’re friends, and not because it’ll make you look better.”
“You know I wouldn’t!” I glare at him, offended that he would even imply that I would use him for his money.
He puts his hands up apologetically. “Okay, okay. I was just making sure.”
I don’t speak for a few seconds, but eventually mutter: “Thanks.”
“On the field? If it hasn’t changed from last year, that is.”
“Nope, still the same place.”
He wraps his arm around my waist and pulls his phone out of his pocket, staring at the screen and mumbling something I don’t catch.
“Something wrong?”
“Huh?” He narrows his eyes at the screen. “No, nothing. Do you have a phone?”
“No. Do I need one?”
He shakes his head. “Nah. Rocky hasn’t got one, and he’s doing fine.” He puts the phone back in his pocket. “I only use it to keep in touch with my parents, and that isn’t always a good thing.”
“How come?”
Mason was always the favourite child, because of his vocal talents. Marco wasn’t really given much attention by his parents; I can understand why he isn’t totally happy about being in touch with them again.
“They’re always nagging me to be more like Mason. I don’t want to be like that arrogant prick. How he has any friends is beyond me.”
“Maya’s interested,” I mumble.
Marco snorts. “She fancies him, that’s why.”
“No! Since when?”
“A while. But he’s with Sadie Brookes at the moment. Remember her? She’s a right slut now.”
It pains me that I have to hear through the grapevine about how Maya’s been doing.
“Wasn’t she anyway?” I joke half-heartedly.
“She’s even worse now. Walks around naked whenever she gets the chance. She had a crush on me for a while.”
“Reciprocated?” I ask a little too quickly.
He rests his head on top of mine, so I can rest mine on his shoulder. “No. But...” He pauses and then shakes his head. “Nothing.”
“No, tell me. We don’t keep things from each other, remember?”
He sighs. “That was a stupid pinky promise.”
“It still stands; it’s too late to back out now.”
“I didn’t know you were the secret police,” he jabs me in the stomach playfully with his finger. “But, alright. No judging, okay?”
“Okay...?”
“I had sex with her.”
I pull away from him in disgust. “Marco!”
“You said you wouldn’t judge!” he whines.
“Why? Why would you do that?” I bury my face in my hands. “I thought Maya was joking!”
Marco crosses his arms and scowls, pushing me away with his elbow. “Go away.”
“No! I’m sorry, it’s just...” I lean against his side, arms around his waist. “I didn’t know that you were doing... that.” I try to hide the fact that I’m blushing, but if he noticed he doesn’t say anything. I always thought that maybe…
His voice tears me away from my straying thoughts. “I’d do it someday.”
“But, not with her,” I sigh, pushing the image of us to the back of my mind. “She’s a waste of time.”
“Indeed.” He relaxes enough to uncross his arms but still wriggles uncomfortably. “I haven’t done it since.”
“I thought Maya said there was two girls? Who was the other one?”
He squirms uncomfortably. “She was.”
Marco and Maya? I didn’t even know they had a thing for each other... I feel a flare of jealousy before I bury it. Marco’s an adult; he can do whatever he wants.
“Did you like her?”
“No.”
“Did she like you?”
“No.”
“Then why-”
“I don’t want to talk about.” He stiffens, his lips sealed in a thin line. I don’t want to push him if he doesn’t want to tell me.
“Okay. You don’t have to if you don’t want to.”
We sit in silence for a while, just sitting in the sun and enjoying each other’s company. The icy atmosphere soon melted, as neither of us wanted our fights to last long. But, after what he told me today, I now realize that everyone’s grown up. A lot.
His stomach starts to growl, making me laugh. “Do you want to go get something to eat? That is, if you’re not still full after everything you ate for lunch, fatty.”
“Yeah, sure. We can come back and eat it here, if you want.”
“Sure. It’s still warm out.” I stretch my arms before picking Aqueous up; he’s has been lying in the grass with his legs in the air and his tongue lolling out.
Drea lumbers along behind us, glaring at anyone who passes by, including Aqueous and
me.
“Hey, Haze.”
“Yeah?”
“You don’t think any different of me, do you?”
How can I?
With my arms held out, I pull him towards me in a hug, and I feel him relax immensely, curling his arms around my waist and resting his chin on my head. “Never. I don’t care what you do, I’m always here.”
“Thanks. Just, don’t tell Maya that you know.”
I hesitate for a second, mulling it over. But when I look at the desperation in his eyes, I reluctantly relent. “No problem.”
7
Chapter Seven
The next week passes relatively quickly. Most of my school classes are fun, and my teachers are nice too. I haven’t made any more friends since Wes, but I have talked to Lilac from water dragon training a few times.
Maya and I have had short conversations as we’ve passed on the street, but apart from that she’s been hanging out with Mason a lot so we haven’t had the chance to meet up. I don’t think she wants to be friends anymore.
But today I’m excited as it’s our first lesson with our mentors, so that means Marco can help me learn and teach me himself. He was on time for once, one of the first mentors there. As soon as I approached him people started hurling abuse at me for even daring to go near someone of his popularity. He quickly shut them up, however, telling them to mind their own business.
My prediction about Ciara and Rocky turned out to be true, but I could see the fury in my brother’s eyes when he realized Marco was mentoring me. I looked away when Ciara put her middle finger up at me behind his back.
Grown-up, my ass.
“Welcome to your first dragon training lesson,” Mr Reedman booms, quickly silencing all chatter. “Anyone who has not got a mentor should have seen me by now, so I presume the rest of you have got one. In today’s lesson, you will teach your dragon how to use the most basic move of your element.” He stops and turns towards a short, fat, dark-haired man and a tall, stick-thin woman with black hair.
“That’s Sadie’s dad,” Marco mutters in my ear. “Let’s hope he doesn’t know who we are.”
Mr Reedman continues: “Mr Brookes and Miss Locke will wander around to check how you’re all doing. Today will solely be a student–mentor lesson. Now, spread out and begin.”
Marco drags me down to the far end of the field, deciding on a relatively flat area. “Here,” he says. “The first move is easy; you’ll pick it up in no time.”
Aqueous yaps in agreement, looking up from attacking a tall clump of grass.
“Tell him to go to the middle,” Marco says, taking a step back. “Be firm if you have to.”
“Aqueous, go to the middle.”
The black dragon looks at me once, huffs as if I’m deliberately trying to annoy him, and continues playing with the grass.
“Aqueous, now.”
He realizes the fun is over and half-heartedly stands up and lumbers towards the middle, plonking himself on the floor sulkily.
Marco throws a water bottle to me. It slips through my hands clumsily and drops on the floor. He tuts and rolls his eyes. “Use that to train him.”
“How?”
“Create a ball of water with it, only a small one.”
“Do you know what you’re doing?”
He shrugs and winks at me. “I’m winging it.”
I pour a bit of the water into my hand, but it falls through my fingers. “I don’t...”
“Have you never created a ball of water? Not even for fun?”
“No...? I’m never playing a game with you ever again if that’s what you do.”
He chuckles and steps around Aqueous, who is now rolling around on the floor, and grabs my hands. “It’s easy. Just concentrate on making a ball.” He moves around behind me, holding my hands up.
I pour the water again and squeeze my eyes shut, trying not to think about anything. After a few seconds, I feel the water rise from my fingers.
“Still a womanizer I see, Marco.”
Crap.
The water sloshes on the ground, which makes Aqueous dive forward and chew the wet grass excitedly. Mr Brookes now stands in front of me, arms crossed, with wet trousers.
“I’m so sorry-” I begin.
“It’s no problem. I didn’t mean to break your concentration,” he says, but his hard gaze is still locked on Marco, who takes a step back and drops my hands. “Control yourself for once, Marco. She’s only fifteen.”
“She’s my friend,” Marco replies darkly, his hands balling into fists.
“I don’t want to know about your personal life.” Mr Brookes walks away, careful to step over Aqueous. “Just behave.”
Marco sighs irritably and steps towards me again. “Let’s try again, shall we?”
He picks up my hands, but this time I feel a burning sensation. With a loud yelp, I jump away from him, staring at my now bright red hands. Aqueous looks up at me, his eyes wide as if to say: are you alright?
“I didn’t mean to!” Marco protests, grabbing the water bottle and pouring the cool liquid over my throbbing hands. “I’m so sorry, Haze. Do they hurt?”
“Of course they hurt!” I snap, feeling a stab of guilt at the flash of pain in his eyes.
My companion lands on my shoulder, with his head tilted to one side, watching curiously and wondering what we’re doing. He then leans on my arm and opens his mouth, and I gasp as I see a tiny stream of water, no thicker than a pencil, flow out of it. The water is ice cold, and as clear as glass.
“How is he...?”
“The water you touched contained a bit of your elemental powers. Aqueous played with it, and got a new water marking,” Marco explains.
Looking carefully at Aqueous, I see matching blue water swirls on both his cheeks, when this morning he only had one. The cool water soothes my hands, which now ache only slightly.
Marco smiles. “Lesson one complete.”
* * *
Rocky was not impressed with what happened. It turns out that he was close by, and had seen everything.
Poor Marco barely got a word in to defend himself before Rocky started screaming at him. I’d hoped Marco would keep quiet, but instead the two of them got into a huge row about it.
It was not pretty.
After leaving them to bicker, I decided to have a warm bath after all the excitement of the day. Aqueous always gets really excited about that; he loves splashing about and swimming in the water. I like using my element to make small droplets of water zoom around the room – a trick I learned soon after discovering my element. I have to be careful though; Marco asked me to demonstrate my element a few days ago and the droplets smacked right into him and drenched him. It was hilarious at the time. One droplet is zooming around Aqueous’ head; he bats at it playfully while shooting water at it.
I giggle as my companion covers his chin in bubbles, making it look like he’s got a beard. My partner chirps happily, trying to scrape off the bubbles, before getting distracted and mistaking his own tail for a toy. I close my eyes for a while, just enjoying the silence.
Of course, it doesn’t last long.
“Eek!”
“Get the filthy thing out of here!”
“What if it has fleas?”
The screaming and thundering about even makes Aqueous shoot towards the door, scratching to get out and see.
“Hold on, let me put a towel on.” Wrapping the white towel around myself that I had left on the toilet earlier, I cautiously open the door.
A beige blur shoots past the door, with a mob of girls behind it. I instantly recognize one of them.
Sadie.
Oh, why.
She has long platinum-blonde hair, most of which is extensions. She’s wearing a short, light pink dress, and her face is heavily made up.
Her icy blue eyes land on me, and a dark smile creeps on her face. “Scargirl! I haven’t seen you for ages!”
I don’t reply, knowing I would only get condescending comments th
rown at me.
She turns fully towards me, eyeing me up and down. By this point a crowd has gathered, muttering and pointing in the direction the beige blur went.
“Having a shower, Scargirl?” Sadie says, taking a threatening step towards me.
“Bath,” I whisper, not able to tear my eyes away from her icy gaze.
Aqueous growls as she comes within inches of me. The blonde girl’s eyes drop and she sneers; “he’s puny.”
Before I can call my companion back, she kicks him square in the jaw, sending him flying backwards further into the stall.
“Hey! How dare you-” Before I can finish my sentence, she’s snatched the towel off me, making me squeak and slam the door shut.
“Wow, Scargirl hasn’t developed much, huh?” Sadie jokes, banging heavily on the door just as I lock it. “Her pancake chest was the flattest I’ve ever seen. Not to mention that hideous scar. Who would want to kiss that?”
My face reddens as the crowd roars in laughter.
“Fucking hell, she wasn’t a pretty sight!” someone screams above the noise.
“Doesn’t she shave?” Sadie snickers, making everyone laugh again.
They saw me.
The entire cabin saw me naked.
How the hell am I going to live this down?
“Now, where’d that little furball go?” Sadie screeches above the crowd, silencing them immediately.
Aqueous crawls towards me, his head ducked in shame. I cuddle him close to me, shivering and crying under the sink.
I’ll be teased about this for the rest of my life.
But then I realize in shock: she took my towel.
My clothes are on my bed.
Stupid, idiot! You’ve set yourself up for more teasing!
My companion nuzzles my chin, looking lost and hopeless. However, he suddenly swings his head round, staring at the bath, his teeth bared and eyes narrowed into tiny slits. A small beige tail sticks out from behind it, swinging back and forth.
What the hell?
I crawl closer to it, realizing that this must be the thing that everyone’s after. It tries to squeeze closer behind the bath as I approach, growling desperately. As I reach it, it suddenly jerks itself out of its hiding place and faces me.
Elemental Dragons Book 1: Blood and Water Page 6
