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.
“So this school is basically for dragons?” I asked as the name“Dragonia” popped into my head.
“More or less,” Sammy said.
“Then why are humans here with you guys?” I remembered what Constance told me, but what the hell did being special have to do with dragons?
“We belong with them, Elena. Everyone who bears the mark is likely to become a Dragonian.” Becky told me the same thing Constance had. “And one day when I ascend, I'll make one of these bitches my own.”
“You need to work harder on your fighting skills.”
“Wait, what do you mean making one of these bitches your own? You're not talking about a dragon, are you?”
“That's what Dragonians do, Elena, we ride them.”
My stomach swirled now that I finally understood what Constance had meant. Images of humans on top of dragons popped into my head. I pushed them away when skies and clouds appeared. I hadn’t thought for one second that being a Dragonian meant riding a dragon.