The creature looks up at Elliot and bounds toward him, leaping into his lap.
"AHH!" Elliot shouts. "What is this?"
"It's a dragon," I gasp in awe, my mouth opens wide.
"No, it's not. It has to be a-a green wolf w-with wings. Dragons aren't real. Are they?" Nick asks. Aaron jumps behind the tree, hiding from it. Nick was slowly scooting away from it.
"Is it safe?" Aaron asks.
"Rah!" The dragon roars happily. It jumps from Elliot to me, and then to Nick and curls up on his lap.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to!" Nick shouts, trying to hide from him. The dragon begins licking Nicks' hand, and Nick shuts his eyes tightly. After a second, he slowly opens one and calms down. "It's safe."
"Let's name him Hector!" Joey exclaims.
"Are you sure it's safe?" Aaron asks.
"I think so," Nick says.
"It's safe," I tell him.
"So we're naming him Hector?" Elliot asks.
"Yes, we are," Joey tells him.
"Are you really positive that it's safe out there?" Aaron asks a third time.
"It'll be fine," Adam says.
"It's going to bite me!" Aaron hisses.
"How do you know?" I ask.
"That's what happens in your cartoons, there's some cute, fuzzy thing, and everyone likes it, and then it goes ballistic on you and rips your organs from your body!" Aaron explains.
Suddenly, the bell rings and scares Hector. He jumps into Joey's open backpack and hides in his hoodie. Joey zips up the bag and we run to line up to go inside. The whole way Aaron stays on the complete opposite side of us, just to stay away from Hector.
After a distracted bit of class, we meet back up at lunch. No one else really ever sits at our lunch table except us, and that's good, I guess. Both Adam and Aaron get school lunch, while the rest of us bring our own.
Back in second and third grade, we all made little forts with our lunch boxes, so nobody could see what we were doing. Not that we did anything people would care to watch.
"You bring Hector?" Aaron asks Joey as he sits down with his tray.
"Yup," Joey answers, opening his jacket to show Hector sleeping inside.
"Alright, keep him on that side of the table," Aaron tells him.
"Fine," Joey sighs.
"What going on?" Nick asks, coming over.
"Nothing much," I tell him. Adam then comes and sits down by with his tray.
"Where's Hector?" Adam asks, taking a bite of his spaghetti.
"Still with me," Joey informs him. Adam nods.
Nick suddenly bends down and comes back up holding a gummy worm. He holds it over his mouth and drops it in.
Aaron makes a disgusted face.
"Ha, ha. Awesome," I laugh.
"That is not awesome," Aaron tells him.
"Yeah, it is. Free food is always awesome," Nick chuckles. Aaron sighs and takes a small bite of a carrot.
There's a moment of silence, so Aaron asks,
"Did you guys know that there are six barbarians in The Metal Gladiator series like there are six of us?" Aaron asks.
"Maybe we should have a small group like that," Nick says.
"Well, if we do, what do we call it?" I ask.
"I don't know. Any ideas?" Elliot looks around at us.
"Uh . . . ask Aaron. He'll have an idea," Joey suggests, looking to him.
"Aaron?" Adam asks him.
"Not sure. I haven't been thinking about it. Give me some time," he responds, looking up as he eats.
"How about the letter X?" Nick asks. One of the reasons that we all became friends is because of all of our favorite letter, X.
"So that's it? Our name is X?" Joey asks.
"We'll add more," I say.
"What are we trying to form?" Elliot asks us. Suggestions start spilling out of each of us.
"A squad."
"A band."
"A team."
"A group."
"Wait. Go back one," Nick interrupts them.
"A team," Aaron says.
"Yes. X . . . Team. X-Team. It's perfect," I say, standing up.
"Ryan, sit down," a teacher scolds me. So I sit.
