The Dragon Diaries

Chapter 6

They dropped me off and left teary-eyed and when I turned, I saw Bella glaring at me from the window, sigh don’t know why she hates me so much, I have done nothing to her for her to hate me. I just sighed and went in and saw a lot of people walking about and here lays my anti-social skill, how am I to introduce myself and make friends? It's best to just leave and try another time than to make a fool of myself on my first day, but then again if I just leave, it would seem rude and on the first day too. Man is this hard, decisions, decisions, decisions… having a friend would help with getting through with this new life and I’m tired of being alone so I went to the cold drinks table and poured a glass of Fanta and was just thinking that this looks like a setup for a party or something when I noticed things quietened down, I looked up to see I had their attention and some were not so nice. “this is a private party and you are not one of the vampires invited” said a big buff guy, he seemed calm but the glare and the tight way he was holding his glass said otherwise, so they were not vampires? “sorry I did not know” I guess I won’t be making any friends here, seems like vampires are a hated species and even the shapeshifters that work for them hate them, Master Hunter told me they are the day workers but I guess parties are a night thing. I did not know if I should take my glass of Fanta that I did not even get to sip or leave it but I was thirsty so I took the tumbler and left, they shot me a disgusted look and then turned away. I then remembered that I did not get a tour so I did not know where my room is or the bathroom is and I was debating whether I should go back or just look around, it’s not like I have a limited amount of time since I would not fall dead at day break like the other vampires and nor would the sun burn or kill me so I don’t even need to be stuck underground and Master Hunter did say that everyone will keep my secret… so I decided to go looking around at my own pace, maybe if I walk around a few times, I will know my way around sooner rather than later. This place is quite spacious; it is not overdone with decorations but whoever did decorate has expensive tastes.

The bathroom was huge with a section with four huge open showers and two closed showers and two bathtubs, another section just for the hot-tub and a whole separate section for the females and males. I took my toiletries and went to the closed showers. I was finishing up when I heard a group of men laughing and showers turn on while their banter carried on. I dressed up and went out and I saw the rude party guys so I rushed out but before I got out, my way was blocked by the guy that chased me out of the party. “you seem to be in our way a lot, what are you doing here?” “I stay here, I was just showering, I have every right to be here” I never did anything to warrant the hatred of his kind, my kind since I am a dragon shifter, except I was born into it unlike him and the rest. He and the others do not know me, have never met me before today and yet they judge me at each turn. “what is your problem with me anyway?” he just gave a sneer “you are a new vampire; did I mention the vampire part? You knew vampires think you all powerful humf” sigh I just rolled my eyes and walked away, I was too tired to chat. When I entered my room, I took the couch, I need to remember to get a bed.

When I woke and changed and walked out, I knew it was the day but I could not sleep anymore but nor could I stay here with the unfriendly rude people so I decided to explore this city and get used to my new city. I walked up and the place was abuzz with the shifters who stopped and stared at me with shock and distrust but I didn’t stick around to chat, I walked the rest of the way out and the sun that struck me was such a shock after the dark that I just stood for a moment but that was enough for a shifter to come and block my way, she was tall and had a little of a curve with brownish red hair and hazel eyes. “how is it that you are awake and in the sun?” “if you have not been told by the Master, then it is not for you to know” I adjusted fast from the brightness and just moved around her.

I walked through the forest and was hoping I would find a favourite place here that would be mine, I found a beautiful pond but it was too in the open for me and with shifters here, I’m sure they use this pond so I walked around hoping I’m not too far away when I saw it. The perfect place. The place was almost closed with the big trees and bushes and just passed that was a small half-broken shed. I walked around slowly but I saw no one so I went to go in the shed but movement on the other end caught my eye and I looked but saw nothing, I stayed for a while in my own thoughts and just looked up to see it was getting dark so I gave a sigh and promised to come back soon than took a slow stroll out the forest. It seemed the place was quite in the forest but I don’t have anything to do in the day and besides the shifters, there is no real danger, I hope.

The mansion was busy, it seems the vampires were awake and I interrupted another meeting but that is not my problem, they were all talking in the lobby! “Ariella! If you wish to go anywhere then you must inform us, do not just disappear with no communication on where to find you or how to contact you, if you wish to go out during the day, you will tell the shifters, they now know about your shifter side” it was then that I knew that the meeting was about me and I was in trouble for being away the whole day and telling no one where I was. “I am sorry Master, I will inform the shifters next time” “you will be getting a cell phone so that we can contact you as well” he then walked away then stopped “you start school tonight at 9 pm, there is no uniform, Arzael will take you and pick you up at 3am” I was nervous again but there was no time because in two hours school started so I ran to my room and chose my first outfit for school then went back up but when I reached, I had a feeling I had forgotten something but I guess Arzael knew because he was waiting for me with a bag of blood and that was when I felt the thirst “please tell me that is for me?” “Hunter mentioned that you might have forgotten to feed so I decided to have a bag just in case” I thanked him with a smile and a pat on his hand and took the bag gratefully and almost had the whole thing in minutes “be careful there Ariella, how come you so thirsty? You didn’t get hurt, did you?” I shook my head but he still did a full sweep of my body and only when he didn’t find anything did he move away and I followed him.

It was a long drive as the school was out of town and then when we entered, it seems to be a kind of small school with buildings on the side like townhouses. “do vampires stay here?” I Asked Arzael. “it is half a boarding school for the supernatural but those that are allowed to stay will have to be far way that they cannot travel every day and of cause they have to have permission from the leaders of this area” so this is not the only school for vampires but other species as well, no wonder Master Hunter called it night school and not vampire school, I just assumed because it was night school, it was only for vampires, plus there are those that are home here which would mean that they are territorial so I will have to be careful when I explore. I wonder if there are any new students like me? Maybe I’ll stick with them for the time being before making friends or become comfortable to be a wallflower again, even if I promised myself not to.

“Arzael! It is so good to see you again, brings back the old good days, man do I miss them, sometimes immortality is a curse more than it is a gift” “it’s how you see and live life that would make it a curse or a blessing” “well you did always have an eccentric look into the future and you are doing what you wanted yes?” “ah yes, it is quite different though from how it was back then, anyways we must finish up here, I have brought Master Hunter's adoptive child, she is already enrolled but perhaps you could get someone to show her around?” “name?” “Ariella Thorne” I would have hated taking his name over my family’s but everyone in the cult has the Masters last name “I will print her schedule and program sheet plus the extra classes that she can do on a Friday, this school as you know is Monday to Thursday and Saturdays are for the physical training, this is a night school so all the students that are day goers are expected to have their rest in the day, any questions? Right well here you go and if you would wait a while, I have called Sarisha who will shadow you for the week to get you comfortable” “thank you sir” I said shyly “polite thing isn’t she? Well you sure are welcome love” “I will be taking my leave, please do not disappear again, you have your cell phone yes?” said Azrael “it was just one time and yes I have learnt my lesson and yes I do have my cell, please try not to phone every five minutes” I teased but it was in vain because he did not acknowledge it and just nodded and left. I waited outside the office at the waiting area for Sarisha and looked through my schedule, it seemed basic until the last two subjects and of cause, Saturday classes are not in any school elsewhere that I know of, that grades you I mean.

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

English French

Spanish

Russian Mathematics Science

Business & Saving Technology Break

Break Break Break History Species

Etiquette Fighting techniques Life Orientation Diet

Skills

Homework/Projects

Fridays are for any extra classes you need but please inform in advance. Saturdays are for working on your skills, both magical powers and fighting skills.

“Ariella?” I put down my schedule and looked up to see a thin tall girl with yellow curly hair and big gold eyes smiling down at me. “hi yes, are you Sarisha?” “yes that’s me, please follow me, we still having an assembly at the hall, your schedule will be like everyone else’s so if you don’t know where to go and I am not with you, follow the crowd. Each period is one hour each and on Fridays, we have a twenty-minute period for any extra classes, Saturdays are the longest and most tiring night you will have each week because of the skills we must learn to perfect. You don’t feel like a vampire to me, though, oh and I am a shifter, a lion shifter, I have a twin brother, Zarish but he like every lion is, territorial, so stay away from him and well he does not like vampires so I am afraid after my week, I will not be able to hang around“ well there goes my first friend, what is it about shifters and vampires? Will I have to mention my dragon side just to be friends with them? If so, then they are not worth being my friend, if it is what I am and not who I am that decides if I can be a friend.

The hall was packed with all the students and luckily they had seats, just shows that these assemblies are long, we took the back seats so we do not disturb anyone who is actually listening that is, most are talking with their friends. While sitting, I noticed a guy sitting on his own in the back looking so bored but I felt a kinship with him somehow, he felt me looking and looked up at me, he had dark bluish hair with bright blue eyes with like electric bolts of dark blue, he gave me a glare then looked away “ohh no no no, please do not look or even think of talking to him, no one knows what he is but he is top of Saturdays classes and dangerous” “who is he?” I was still in a daze; I do not feel drawn as in I like him but more like kinship… gosh, it is so confusing. “we don’t know, all we know is his name, Kyrix, which by the way is possibly false” I put it in my mind to find him and talk to him and see if he feels anything, I’ll most probably back out in the end though, maybe I should accidently walk into him.

The assembly was long and the fact that I thought that when I missed about fifteen minutes of it tells me that I will probably fall off to sleep if I don’t bring some entertainment of some kind like the other students here. I walked with Sarisha to our first class and noticed a lot of people looking and gossiping, sigh this is still a school even if it is for supernatural’s so I don’t know why I expected it to be different. I saw Sarisha’s twin and the way he and his gang watched me with her were unnerving, to say the least, and they weren’t hiding their animosity towards me either, she was not kidding when she told me about her brothers protective streak, Sarisha did not notice or she just ignored it and I was in my right mind to tell her that I will find my own way and that she could leave, I mean I was used to being a wallflower and I know how to get to my classes, just follow the crowd she said, not difficult at all, I just need to know who was in my class. I’ll wait until I see my first class so I would know who to follow.

There was not a lot of first years, then again, this school was not filled with students and it was separated into four-year classes, there was one class for each and my class has seventeen. Now I’ll tell Sarisha to go her own way and tell her brother that I will not bother her again. I looked around the class and took a seat in the back and did not bother to talk to anyone. The teacher called me when class settled and told me to introduce myself, sigh I always hated to do so but… ”hi, I am Ariella Thorne and I was born a dragon shifter but was turned into a vampire at sixteen before I could turn into my dragon, erm… my seventeenth birthday is on Monday” s**t I knew I made a mistake by telling them I am a dragon shifter but it just came out before I thought of even saying it or stop saying it “ok so if anyone has questions for Ariella, please talk to her in the break or in between classes” I was dismissed so I went to my class but I saw the class plus the teacher stare at me and some trying to be polite and look at the edge of their eyes but I could still feel their stares.

When the bell rang for break, I did not know where to go to avoid anyone, in-between classes was easy and so was in class as I stayed alone, I’ve already told Sarisha that she can go but she did not want to, saying we can be friends, I told her I do not want to be friends with someone who judges me on what I am and not who, she looked ashamed of herself and left. Walking around looking for the library and hoping that no one would be in there at breaks, I saw a student that was not in my class so I asked him and he told me but I guess he heard the gossip because he asked if I was the “dragon girl”, I said no and left to the library. The library was huge with book shelves but I didn’t come to read so I just went to the back of the library to the secluded place and sat and fell into my thoughts, I should have brought my poem book.

When break was over, I rushed out of the library so I could follow one of my class pupils while staying hidden as much as I could and avoided any eye contact even though everyone tried their hardest to make contact and talk, some did come up to me to talk but I was well versed in the wallflower way and politely talked out of their way and walked to class.

School was good and no one bothered me after break but I was dead tired so as soon as I got home, I said my hellos and then went to wash up and go to bed, I was lucky the shifters were not here yet but Master and a few guards are the only ones I know yet, I really need to change that but I don’t know how.

I had the best sleep in ages but I was not in the mood to talk to anyone so I’ll just go to my new secret place but I need to tell someone. I got up and washed and dressed and just thought that I’ll have to tell Master Hunter that I slipped up and that the school knows that I am a dragon shifter. Gosh, I am dreading that conversation, as it is Arzael was quiet and I know he spoke to the principal and knows already, which would mean that Master Hunter would already know as well but I guess they saw how tired I was last night so they will talk to me tonight as they are asleep now as I’ve slept through half the day. I don’t know whether to come home to that talk or come later and just go to school but I am sure they will have the talk after school when I will be dead tired if yesterday was anything to go by so I guess I will have to come early and be ready for a reprimand.

At the door was when I remembered that I had to tell someone that I’d be going out and luckily saw a guy and gave a small sigh in my head but went up to him. “hi, erm, I was told that I had to tell you guys when I leave so…I’m going to the forest” he just looked at me without that glare that he normally gives me. “ok sure no problem but boss wants you back before eight, look Ariella, I’m sorry for the way I’ve treated you when I thought you were just a vampire, we will treat you right now that we know you a shifter” sigh this again “don’t bother, I don’t become friends with people because of what you are but who you are and you have already shown me who you are, I don’t like it so…just don’t bother” after saying that, I just walked away, I wanted to ask why shifters don’t like vampires but I just did not want to talk right now, maybe when I come back.