Chapter Text
I ran as fast as I could to not miss the bus. It was already 6:58, and the bus almost always arrived at 7 AM sharp. I moved my legs as much as my muscles would let me, it was still early and I had yet to eat anything today, so my stamina was severely injured…I saw the bus stop. I glanced at my watch. 7:04. The bus was slightly late today. I thanked the stars as I almost screeched to a halt in front of one of the few friends I had…at all. Luke Harris, a tall, lanky senior with brown hair and the complete inability to get a girlfriend. He looked me up and down and sighed.
“You almost missed the bus. Again.” He said, hiding his smile and turning away.
“Cut me some slack, alright? I forgot to turn my alarm clock back on last night…” I said, trying to steady my breathing before I hopped on the bus. A few years of Cross Country did me some good, but not touching the sport for a year did kill my stamina. Within a minute the bus turned around the corner, stopping right in front of us. The door opened and Luke and I climbed onto it. We were graced with a completely empty seat and we both sat down beside each other. During the ride we talked about the progress I was making in an RPG, various anime that we both needed to watch, what ridiculous thing he would lewd next, typical degenerate stuff. Some people shot us dirty looks when our voices got a little too loud, or when we something a little too inappropriate, but we didn’t care. The bus and lunch were some of the few times we got to talk to each other inside of school, so we used every possible opportunity to talk our hearts out. Besides, who cared what they thought? To us, the things they talked about were equally revolting. Or they would be if we actually listened to their conversations.
The bus finally stopped in front of the school, and the two of us got off to go to breakfast. It would still be a few minutes before our friends would arrive, so we both grabbed food and sat down to wait patiently for our friends. The first to make it to the school was Ariana (Ari for short), a short pink-haired girl who looked like she was more than slightly hungover, but not from alcohol. She greeted Luke and me before scurrying off to get herself some breakfast. While she was in line, another of our friends stepped into the cafeteria. Dylan, a tall, rather chubby senior who went straight for the breakfast line. I sighed and waited for the final person of our little group to show up. When Ari returned with her breakfast, a girl sat right beside me and said, ‘Hey.’ I turned to see Alexis (Lexi), a short brunette sophomore with thighs that could kill a man and the final person in this unholy group of degenerates. Dylan eventually returned and we all enjoyed the first meal of the day, excluding Lexi, who ate at home. Soon enough the first bell rang and we were all off to our classes. Lexi and I shared First period, she and Ari shared Second, and Ari and I shared Third before we would be split up till and after lunch. Dylan and Luke shared all of their core classes and only one elective. When lunch finally came, we met in the cafeteria once more and sat far away from everyone else.
Besides each other…none of us had very many friends. Lexi was able to chat up a storm in a few of her classes, and Ari had a few people she got high with, but it was the three of us boys that seemed to keep others away. No matter how many times Lexi and Ari told us otherwise, the three of us considered ourselves unattractive. This thought was only bolstered by the simple fact that none of us have been asked out before. Not even the girls. Most people seemed to avoid us like the plague outside of class, and we didn’t mind. All five of us had been through bullying and other various traumatic events before we met each other and we preferred to stick with each other rather than talk to others for the most part. I always assumed that we simply felt the most comfortable in school when we were around each other, at least that’s how I felt. This ragtag group of degenerates was my ragtag group, and that’s all I needed.
After lunch, the rest of the day went on without a hitch. Classes went on, and thankfully none of us were loaded with a ton of homework. So, Luke and I said farewell to our friends and headed back to the buses. We hopped on and talked all the way back to the bus stop. When we finally climbed off of the bus, we said farewell to each other, knowing full well that our conversation for the day was not over. I went home, sighed when I realized that neither my younger siblings nor mother was home, so I walked upstairs and climbed into my room. There, I immediately turned my console on and flipped my laptop open to see that, sure enough, everyone was online in a group chat we shared. While playing the RPG I had talked with Luke about earlier that day, I also talked with the group a lot until eventually we all had to hop off to do stuff like chores and other stuff our parents asked us to do. Eventually we returned to the group chat, talking with each other until we all had to go to sleep. So, we all said goodnight and were off to sleep. I eventually turned off my console and scowled when I saw that I had accidentally stayed up past midnight. I sighed and crawled into bed, letting sleep overtake me and thinking about the next day and the crazy antics that my friend group would get into tomorrow…
~~~
I woke up with a jolt. I don’t know why I woke up, I didn’t have a nightmare or anything. I looked at my alarm clock to see that it was 2:34. Christ, only two hours of sleep…what the fuck woke me up? I thought as I looked out my window to see that Luke was in a similar state of panic. We both studied the streets, looking for something that would wake us up, only to find absolutely nothing. I sighed and was about to climb back into bed before I heard a single noise. Something that wouldn’t be out of the ordinary during the day, but was completely terrifying to hear at night. The TV is on. I thought as I looked back over to Luke to see that again, he seemed to hear something too. I shrugged at him and crept my way downstairs. I definitely was hearing the TV. I crawled my way as quietly as I could manage to the living room, seeing the light from the TV shine onto an empty couch. What the-? I thought, looking around the living room to see no one was inside of it. I turned off the TV and sighed. Maybe one of my siblings left it on…they probably didn’t go right to bed either. I thought, convincing myself that it wasn’t anything crazy and made my way back upstairs to my room. When I stepped inside, however, I saw something absolutely maddening.
A small, jet black creature was sitting on my windowsill. Its tail flicked back and forth, it was clearly curious about something. I followed where it was looking to see another creature on the other side of Luke’s window…a different one though. I looked down to confirm that I had seen something sitting on my windowsill, and pinched myself to make sure I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t, and some part of me wanted to pet it. I stuck my hand out to gently caress its head…and the moment my finger came in contact with the little dragon my hand felt it was on fire. I resisted the urge to yell as I grabbed my wrist and tried to brute force my way through the pain. Within moments it subsided, and all of the pain faded as quickly as it arrived. I looked up at the dragon and it simply tilted its head at me, before…smiling? I stared down at my hand to see that it had been engraved. I shook my head and looked at it again…my right palm was engraved with two silver dragons intertwining with each other, and the more I stared at it, the more I could swear that they were moving. I looked back up at the dragon and it jumped on top of me, knocking me back a few feet and tripping me. I fell backwards and smacked my head against the wall hard enough for me to lose consciousness…