“I don't think so. Master Longwei asked me to give her the crash course.”
“May I?” she pleaded.
Becky nodded and looked at me with a huge smile on her face.
“What are you doing?” My heart thumped painfully. The last time I felt like this, Dad had transformed into a dragon.
“Relax, Elena. Sammy just wants to introduce you to a dragon.”
“A dragon! Where?” I shrieked and everyone outside fell into an utter silence. This was so not cool. A couple of students laughed, while others shook their heads in disgust. I covered my face with my palms. In one millisecond I had killed the only chance of ever finding a social life.
“Oh shut up,” Becky said. “Eat your food.”
“Sammy, you should take her to Constance for the serum, before she goes mental,” the girl with the white hair sang, and everyone, including Blake, laughed.
Sammy flipped her amiddle finger she’d thrown me a couple of minutes ago. “Suck on that biatch.”
The girl, whose name I’d forgotten, darted into the air, ready to attack.
Blake carefully pushed her back into her seat. I heard her protesting and saw him leaning in closer to her. He whispered something into her ear. Her sweet smile appeared, revealing perfect white pearls.
“You're going to get your ass kicked one day, Sammy,” Becky warned her.
“By Tabitha? She wishes,” Sammy said.
I tried to picture this tiny girl with a sword and wondered what she could do with one.
“We need to tell her, Becky.”
“Go ahead. You were busy anyway.”
“Elena, promise you won't freak out.” Sammy took my hand between her small ones.
I closed my eyes and cringed.
“Promise!” she said in an ordering tone.
“Fine, I promise.”
“My name is Sammy Leaf.”
I looked at Becky, who arched her left eyebrow with a slight twitch in the corner of her mouth.
“Are you related to Blake?”
“She hardly started her first day, and she already knows who my brother is?” Sammy said.
Becky laughed.
“Sammy, everyone knows your brother.” Another dreamy guy walked over to our table and sat down next to Becky. He was the total opposite of Blake, although their eyes were the same color. He was tall and slender, with blonde cropped hair and fair skin. His smile made my heart skip a beat.
“Lucian, Elena, Elena, Lucian, the prince of every girl’s heart and of Tith.” Becky gave him one of her million-dollar smiles.
Lucian shook his head, faintly smiling back. “Nice to meet you, Elena.” He held out his hand for a shake.
“You're a prince for real?” The words slipped out while I shook his hand.
He replied with a quick nod and a huge smile that lit up his blue eyes. Then he took the seat next to Becky.
“Lucian is the other frat boy.” Becky carried on teasing him, bumping him with her shoulder.
“I'm not the other frat boy, okay. Blake is way above me."
“My brother is a dick, Lucian, which makes him lose a thousand points and you gain a thousand just by having that cute smile.” Sammy flirted too.
He lowered his eyes, embarrassed, and complained in a playful manner, which made the three of us laugh.
I have to admit it made him hot. But after seeing Blake, it was going to be impossible to find anyone else sharing that kind of beauty.
“So did you tell her yet?” he said.
Sammy gave him the eye. “I'm trying too, but every time I get rudely interrupted.”
They turned to me. “For heaven's sake just tell me.”
“She can be feisty, I love,” Sammy said in a singsong tone and took my hand in hers again.
“Elena darling,” she said. “As I was busy introducing myself─ and don't interrupt me again─ my name is Sammy Leaf, and I'm a Fire-tail.”
It took a while for me to understand what she was trying to tell me. “Please tell me you're not a dragon.”
They kept quiet, waiting for my next reaction.
“Oh shit.” I heard Becky's voice as I turned into a pillar.
Sammy still held a death grip on my hand.
“Elena, don’t do this please. I need to go to Elm.”
“Wait, Elm is on the line?” Sammy shrieked.
“Maybe this was too soon.” Lucian's voice sounded far off.
“Yes, but if she freaks out we don't go with them,” Becky answered Sammy.
“Elena,” Sammy yelled. "You promised!" She slapped me across my face. Hard.
“Sammy!” Becky and Lucian cried together, but the slap worked. She brought me back.
I lifted my hand, motioning that I needed a minute to regain myself. Resting my head on my arms I took deep breaths and absorbed this new information. I should've seen that one coming. Dad was a dragon hiding amongst humans. The students nearby snickered.
“Just breathe okay, I promise I won't eat you.” Sammy spoke with a soft, voice while gently stroking my back.
“Sammy!” Becky and Lucian said together again.
“What! She might think that.”
I finally untangled my tongue. “So, basically you're everyday form is human.”
“Except for class when I need to morph into a big ugly dragon,” she said with a raised lip.
Becky and Lucian released their breaths.
“You’re not ugly,” Lucian said in an admiring tone.
"Maybe not to you, but to Elena I might be."
“So no dragons are soaring through the sky?” I looked at Becky.
“No, Elena. The dragons are all around you.”
I looked at the other tables. Everybody had gone back to chatting and enjoying their meals, my little outburst from earlier already forgotten.
I sighed. “I don't care what you are as long as you promise me you'll stay in this form.”
She smiled and her dimples dented deep, just underneath her cheeks.
“She's back,” Becky sang.
“Welcome to Dragonia,” Lucian said as he picked up his tray and joined another table crowded with boys.
“You're a dragon, for real?” I asked, and she nodded.
“Can I come with tomorrow?” She begged both of us.
“Well,you broke it to her, so I guess you're in,” Becky said.
Sammy clapped her hands.
“You're a dragon too?” I asked Becky.
“No, Elena, I got the mark.”
I had completely forgotten about the mark thing. “Who else are dragons?”
“Easy. You can tell by the hair orthe color of their eyes. We have a mark too,” Sammy explained, and pulled down the back of her shirt to show me a mark on her shoulder. The sign curled up into flames. The ink was red, exquisite, and similar to a tribal sign. “Every species has a different one.”
Constance's eyes popped into my head.“Wait, you said eyes.”
“Yes, they're extraordinarily freaky.”
“So Constance is a dragon.” It was weird thinking it, not to mention saying it out loud.
“Julia too,” Becky chirped.
“The nurse!”
“Unless you know any other Julia,” she said.
I’d spent a week with two dragons in disguise. They must have thought I was an idiot with the way I had behaved. I looked at the girl with the snow blonde hair. Becky and Sammy followed my gaze as I stared at Tabitha smiling and flirting with Blake.
“Tabitha's a Snow dragon. They're white and the smallest of the dragons.” Sammy started to give me the breakdown. “The one next to her is a Moon-Bolt, his name is George. Do you see how blue his eyes are?”
“Wait, he’s a blue dragon?” I remembered the dragon that had attacked us the night Dad died was sort of blue.
"Yes, you get what I'm saying?"
I looked at all the boys at Blake's table. One of them had red hair, the kind you dye for a carnival. Another one had bright green stripes mixed with his dark hair. Basically, everyone at that table had vibrant color in their hair or extra-ordinary eyes.