Hey guys, my teachers gave me less homework to do this week and I was very much in the mood to proofread my story. So, here's another chapter for you all where Easton and Norah have a little... one on one. Of course, Rima is always there to help out her human though, right?
Sitting in my chair with my face buried into my textbook, I sighed, rubbing my face. I had wanted to study while the others were at dinner. The others were out in the cafeteria eating but I have had enough of that trashy food. Even after a month I still couldn't get used to the taste of the bland and burnt mush on my tongue. And it was the same meal almost every day, maybe every now and then they would switch it up and give you bread with your dinner but that was usually at the end of the week and today was only the beginning of the week.
Gazing around the room, eyes aching from staring at tiny black letters for too long, I looked at the once clean room that Lydia, Cora, and I shared. In the corner next to Cora's and Lydia's bunk bed was a lump of clothes, mainly our uniforms mixed in with our 'civilian clothing'. Part of me was grateful for the academy making us wear actual pants. If I had gone to the mages academy I would have been required to wear a cloak or skirt.
The lump of clothes was Lydia's and I knew that because Cora had her clothes scattered across the room. If something came off of Cora's body it would stay there until she needed me. Which drove me crazy. Is it that hard to neatly throw your clothes in the hamper. No. No, it's not.
When I had first arrived here I had done my best to keep the room clean to keep my brain calm and happy, but I gave up about three days ago. I used to spend hours cleaning the dorm but after a few minutes of my two roommates being in the dorm, it went back to its normal pigsty. But the urge to scrub every inch of this place until it was clean enough for surgery still poked at my gut.
Growing bored of studying I sit back against my wooden seat and curiously wander into my dragons head. Pine and earthy smells filled my nostrils when I looked through her eyes, seeing familiar pointy trees reaching for the sky. She was on the ground, stalking a herd of deer behind some trees, cloaking herself and moving as silently as a leaf falling to the ground.
Rima didn't mind me watching, in fact, she rather enjoyed it so she could show off some of her hunting skills. I folded my arms over my chest, letting out a heavy sigh of boredom when a knock at the door interrupted me.
"Come in." I hollered, turning my head towards the wooden door.
The door opened and in came Easton, his dirty blond hair looked like it had been wrestling with the wind, which in some terms was true. Even though I refused to admit it, he didn't look terribly bad. Too bad he was a total prick though.
Easton closed the door behind him, wandering over to me with something behind his back. "You forgot this at the lake." He held my bow towards me.
"Oh." I exhaled, patting my chest as I tried to feel for my bow string which was usually around there. Normally I wasn't the type of person to forget something, especially a weapon, but I hated this bow with every inch of my short body and could care less about what happened to it. It just wasn't like my old bow. I had to have a quiver for this one unlike my other one which would allow you to conjure up any arrow you could think of. But my parents took that away from me when they disowned me.
"Thanks," I said flatly, reaching out to grab the bow from his hand when he yanked it backward.
"You know if you wouldn't fall off your dragon so much, maybe you wouldn't lose your stuff." His normal bite and twinge of sarcasm was back in his tone.
My eye twitched, of course, he wouldn't come here out of the goodness of his heart, he just had to make my life hell. "Seriously, can't you ever be nice to me for one minute?! Why does everything that comes out of your mouth have to be snobby."
Easton grimaced, a hint of surprise hiding behind the offensiveness and usual anger that he had whenever he looked at me. I guess he hadn't expected me to lose my temper so fast, but this mood had been a working process for a month and being annoyed at my dragon was helping with this. "Well excuse me, princess, it's not my fault you're a bad dragon rider and mage."
I rolled my eyes and crossed my legs over the other. "Oh wow, real original, Easton. You know not everyone is lucky enough to get a heads start at everything to do with dragon riding. Today probably wasn't even your first time riding a dragon, your parents probably had you training on some dragon when you were what, six?"
Easton folded his arms over his chest and growled, "Don't talk about my parents."
"Why?" I tilted my head, puckering my lips. Rima had pulled away from her hunt and laid down to watch my argument with the spoiled boy. She was even relaying what to say to me since we both know that comebacks aren't exactly my thing. "Because little Miss Scale-Sucker has loving parents?" The blond boy's face dropped into an expression that I had never seen. His brows knitted together, his hazel eyes fuming rage while the veins in his neck bulged.
"What did you call me?" His words were slow and deep, almost like he was trying to stop himself from lashing out at me.
"You heard me... scale-sucker." I said it again with a grin flashing even though a pit wound up in my stomach. The doubt registered in my dragon but she nudged me forwards. To keep looking confident and sure of myself, even though I felt almost bad for calling him such a cruel name.
Scale-sucker was the highest insult you could give a dragon rider. It was given to them by mages for rolling around in the mud with their dragons while mages lived in their perfectly pristine mansions.
"How dare you call me that, you glow-worm!" He raised his voice but still trying to keep quiet.
I chuckled which only seemed to make him even more mad. "Ooo. Glow-worm, try coming up with something I haven't heard before." I told him, turning my head back to my books, trying to ignore him in hopes that he would leave. I wasn't as offended by glow-worm because a bunch of the other riders have already said it to me. Glow-worm infers a snob that runs around like a chicken with its head cut off, not knowing what to do with their abilities so they attack everything they see. I suppose it comes from something to do with the war with the Darkness. But who knows now, it's been so long since that thing has roamed this planet.
"Uh, I don't even know how anyone can put up with you?!" Easton brought a hand to his forehead, spinning around to face away from me. "Your such a snob. I don't even know why the Headmaster even allowed you into this school."
"Maybe it's because unlike some people on this island the Headmaster actually believes in letting go of the past — you know a clean slate. Maybe you should've gone to a mage school, you would have fit right in with all the other know-it-all's." I sneered, trying to act like I was reading when I was actually just staring at the picture of a blue dragon on the page in front of me, waiting for Eastons next move.
"Me... in mage school?" He laughed, wiping the invisible tears he had away. "You must really be insane to think that I would ever be one of you snobs."
"Did you ever even consider what it must have been like for me when that stone showed a dragons egg instead of my elemental symbol?" My head snapped to him, seeing him still facing away from me. "It was literal hell to stand up there and watch my family's horrified faces. My father was furious!"
"Oh, don't pretend to know what it's like to have egocentric parents?" He spun around on his heels, glaring at me.
"Ooh." I dragged out, rolling my eyes. Now Rima had begun to sit back and let me do the talking. "Don't even get me started on egomaniacal parents. Every time I screwed up, if my posture wasn't right -- if my speech was too informal -- if I wanted to train instead of going to some stupid party, it was always 'Norah, dear, this is not what we do. This is not what Crimsons do'." My voice raised to try a mimic my mother's but in a way higher and more mocking voice while making wild gestures with my hands. "Do you even comprehend how much ego it takes for your parents to disown you because of what some stupid stone said?"
Easton's expression softened, a familiar look of pity that Maryanne always gave me. But it was barely there, someone who had just met him would have never noticed such a thing. "Your parents disowned you?"
"What do you think they would do? Support me?" I huffed, still furious. For once Easton was actually silent and let me continue. "They threw me out of the house with barely enough clothes to last me two days. And those clothes, by the way, were trash, they had holes and looked like someone stabbed it with a freaking knife! And they made it very clear to me that they didn't love me anymore." I turned to face the wall. "You don't know what's it was like to walk into your home and see every photo of you taken down. It hadn't even been more than a few hours and they left me because of what some stone said."
My eyes glanced down at the table, looking at the two letters, carefully encased in a white envelope and sealed with a circle of red wax. They were letters I had written to my family, telling them about my day at the academy. I knew that I hated my family for what they did, but I wrote to them anyways, hoping that they would see the other side of the story like I do with everyone. But I never got a letter back, not once. So eventually I stopped sending them and then eventually, I stopped writing them.
"Do you know what happened to me when my parents found out that I was teamed up with you?" Easton asked, his voice harsh but underlined with a sort of understanding and maybe even sympathy.
I looked back at the boy, returning his expression and waiting for him to speak.
"My parents were furious. They went up to the headmaster and demanded that you be kicked out and ordered me to be moved to another team, one that you wouldn't be on. And when The Headmaster said no to them they took their anger out on me. They didn't even speak to me for two days because of you."
"And?" I raised a brow, crossing my arms over my chest.
"And!" He repeated incredulously, eyes glancing to the side as if he was stumped on what to say. "And... that's -- that's why you need to leave."
I raised my eyebrows at the poor insult. Rima's snickering laugh whispered in the back of my head. Now who needs to work on their comebacks? She asked rhetorically.
"So let me get this straight. Mommy and daddy had a tantrum and now you're blaming me? I am not responsible for your parents being closed minded. Maybe when you grow up and become a real man, you can make your own decisions. Until then, leave me alone." It was possible that Rima may have improved on my little speech for me, hearing how pathetic and 'uncool' it was.
He stared at me with his mouth hanging open. "...Um... okay." Said Easton, before turning around slowly and making his way to the door, scratching the back of his head before twisting the knob of the door and leaving.
I blinked, stunned. Did he just leave without making another snarky comment? Did I just defeat the bully? I didn't know whether or not to be scared or thrilled because this shocked Easton could easily come back tomorrow with six times the anger and hate.
Looking to the body sized mirror across from me, I frowned, eyes squinting as I tried to figure out what was on my mirror. I squinted, then frowning. Ice? I wondered, searching the glass that had been covered in a thin layer of what seemed to be frost. My frown deepened. But that wasn't possible, it was the middle of summer, how can there be frost here?
The door swung open, startling me out of my thoughts. I thought it was Easton coming back in for a round two but it was just Lydia and Cora, laughing and chatting while they sauntered past me.
Cora's hazel eyes fell on me a few seconds later and she jolted to life. "Oh my gods! You have to tell me about your dragon. I haven't had time to ask you anything."
Lydia nodded eagerly, trotting over to me with the black haired girl. "Yeah, I have a thousand questions for you."
Cora wrapped her hands around her arms, rubbing he biceps. "Gez. We need to talk to maintenance about fixing the air conditioner, it's freezing in here."
Glancing back at the mirror, the icy covering was gone. Like I was just imagining things. I shook the thought out of my head, it must have been my imagination. But why was it so cold? I didn't feel anything. Maybe it was Cora being a weakling, she did look like a twig.
"No, don't bother. I'll fix it." Lydia waved. "My father taught me how to fix stuff like that."
In the back of my head, Rima had gone back on the prowl for her food, but there was a lingering concern in the back of her mind. I shook the thoughts of the mirror out of my mind, labeling it as my wild imagination while Lydia and Cora propped me with questions about my two-colored dragon.