Chapter Text
Winter the IceWing was always on time for everything. That was by far the one thing that was consistent in his sad, miserable life. Except for today.
“SHIT!” He shouted as he realized he had somehow slept through his alarm, and it was already 7:42.
He shot out of bed, grabbing his still ringing phone along the way.
School started at 7:50, so he had to be in the building before then. That would be rather hard considering that he had exactly 8 minutes to throw on some clothes, grab his phone, and leave.
Leaving was the easy part. Getting to school was simply a challenge. Reaching the door without being hit, screamed at, or pushed was a miracle.
“
Oops. Back to getting ready.
” He thought to himself, realizing that he had been lost in his thoughts again.
He hastily threw on some jeans and a shirt. Well, as hastily as he could while trying to fit his tail and wings through them.
Then, he
put his phone into his pocket and departed from the heaven that was his room.
It was time to enter hell.
Well, more like a mild version of hell. By some miracle, his parents and sister weren’t awake yet.
He checked his watch. 7:47.
“Shit! I’m going to be late aren’t I?”
He thought, realizing he’d never been late in his life before.
He ran out the door, slamming it as he left, and took off into the air.
The flight to school was rather calming, in a way. The sun shined brightly, hurting his eyes at times, but he didn’t care. He didn’t have to worry about parents, expectations, or siblings! It was like he’d been set free from some horrible prison that held him for life..
That was, until he arrived at school. He landed on a ledge clearly meant for flyers, and tucked his wings in as he entered the building. There were so many different types of dragons there! He wasn’t sure where to go, however, so he just wandered around a bit before someone shouted his name.
“Winter? Is there a Winter here?” An unknown dragon shouted.
He pushed through a crowd of dragons to follow the voice, and in front of him appeared a SandWing.
“Oh! You must be Winter! I’m Qibli.” The SandWing said as he looked around the room. “I’m your clawmate this year. We’ve got all of our classes together!”
“Drop the excitement. Please. You’re killing me over here.” Winter responded in a rather rude tone.
“O- Oh.. I’m sorry.. I didn’t mean to make you upset, Winter..” Qibli replied, now staring at the ground, a sad look in his eyes.
“
Well shit. I might’ve just gotten rid of my one potential friend. God fucking damnit, Winter. Keep it together!”
Winter thought to himself, staring blankly into the distance as he did so.
“You alright, Winter?” Qibli asked, seemingly back to his previous excited state. “Anyway, we’re really late to first period, so we should probably, you know, go to class?”
“That would be.. Fine.” Winter said, following the SandWing through the hallways until he reached a bland-looking room. On the top of the door it read “ROOM H26 - SCIENCE 9”.
“Well this is great. Time for another boring lesson.” Winter watched as Qibli picked the lock on the door and entered the room. “How’d he learn to pick locks? Strange..”
He followed Qibli into the room and sat down in the far corner next to him.
Oh-so-boring the lesson was. It was a good 5 minutes before the teacher realized how they had gotten there, and also that they had been late. “Go figure, it’s not like a place that was founded by a couple of friends would have good teachers.”
Then, once the teacher realized they weren’t in the room before, she immediately gave them both detention for being late. Amazing. Winter didn’t have to guess what would happen to him the second he walked into the door of his home. It’d be a miracle if he could even go to school the next day!
Once the detention bullshit was done, she launched into a long, drawn out monologue. “Since you two missed my introduction, my name is Hazel. As you can see, I’m a LeafWing.” She paced around the room, staring Qibli down. “In this class, we’ll be studying the evolution of what humans called reptiles to us dragons. Humans were species that used to live on this planet, but they all died out after their common reptiles evolved into dragons. You’ll all have homework tonight, by the way. For that homework, you’ll need these..”
Groans ensued from throughout the room.
“
What kind of crazy dragon assigns homework on the FIRST DAY??
” Winter thought to himself.
She handed everyone some textbooks, gave them a mountain of papers, and then the bell rang.
Qibli grabbed Winter by the arm and pulled him out the door. “We have history next, Winter!” Qibli shouted over the swarm of dragons in the hallway. “We’re going to see two of my friends there. I’ve known those two since 5th grade and I think they might be dating, but I’m not sure.”
“Sounds good!” Winter shouted back, still being pulled through the crowd.
Once the nightmare of crowd control and horrible hallway design ended, Winter ended up at a less bland looking room. WAY less bland.
Paintings covered the walls, posters were hung up around the room, even the door was painted for crying out loud! On the door, printed in a cursive font, was the text “ROOM N5 - HISTORY 9”.
This time, it was Winter who walked into the room first. The teacher was a SeaWing.
Winter sat down at the front of the room this time, right next to a NightWing and RainWing.
“Oh, Winter! These are my friends Moon and Kinkajou. I figured you’d want to meet them.” Qibli said before sitting down behind Winter.
“Hello everyone.” The teacher said in a nervous tone, holding a yardstick in his webbed talon. A badge was pinned to his shirt, identifying him as Webs the SeaWing. “We’re going to start with an introduction to this course today, starting with expectations.” He walked around the room, handing out sheets of paper with the class rules printed on them as he talked. “I expect you to all try your best on the work done in this room, no matter what obstacles you encounter. I don’t care about grades or numbers as long as you put in the effort. I also expect you to take notes in this class. I will be checking notebooks. Just have your assignments done on time, participate in discussion, and you’ll have a nice 100% on that report card come January.” He returned to his starting point at the front of the room. “My name is Webs. I’m a SeaWing. That’s all you need to know. In this class we’ll cover everything from The Scorching until present day.” Cue eye rolls from the class. They said that every year, but they never made it to the present day.
“Return this rules sheet, signed by yourself and a parent, to me at the end of the year, and you’ll obtain exactly ONE bonus point. This also counts as a homework grade.”
He spent the rest of the class period informing us about maps of countries, as well as how governments worked and other really useless information. Ring-Ring. Time for third period.
This was the one class Winter remembered where to go for, so Qibli didn’t need to do any hand holding this time. He bolted out of the room when the bell rang, as his third period was on the other side of the school. Room S2. Algebra 1.
“
Why the hell do they call it Algebra 1 if I’m in 9th grade? This place makes no fucking sense, I swear..
” Winter said, realizing Qibli hadn’t yet made it to the classroom yet. The bell rang to signal the start of third period. Still no Qibli.
Math class passed by quicker than anything else in Winter’s life, but still. No. Qibli.
“
What the hell is he doing? Is he alright? Did something happen?
” Winter thought to himself, trying to keep himself from mentally panicking.
Nevertheless, it was time for fourth period. Winter walked to the room by himself, as he had gotten a copy of his schedule in first period. This room was another bland one, the only differentiating thing about it being that it had computers, and that it was “ROOM S25 - COMPUTER EDUCATION”.
Winter’s face lit up as Qibli walked into the room. “Qibli! Where were you?” He asked, concerned about his new-found friend.
“Oh? Nobody told you? We don’t share third period classes together.” Qibli replied, sitting down at the computer next to Winter.
“Oh.. Yeah nobody told me that..” Winter replied solemnly.
The rest of the day went by like a blur, right up until lunch.
Winter sat down at a table with Qibli, Moon, and Kinkajou. The three were already deep into conversation, so he tried not to disturb them, but there was one question blaring throughout his mind: “How was your third period? Qibli told me we don’t have third period classes together.” He asked.
“Oh.. We do have third period classes together, but.. Every third period, Qibli is pulled out of class to talk with his step-mother. It’s been a thing for awhile, as his step-mother needs to know if any of his family are here. What happened between them.. It wasn’t pretty.” Moon said in a quiet and nervous tone.
“I’m Winter, by the way. Prince Winter of the IceWings.” The words came out of his mouth rather coldly, and the room went silent as he said them.
He could hear murmurs of “This guy’s a prince?” and “I wonder what it’s like..” throughout the room, however. He wasn’t about to deal with getting swarmed by the room, though, so he threw out what food remained and left the lunch hall.
Eventually, seventh period had rolled around. It was English 9.
“
Why do I need to learn English? I’m speaking it right now.
” Winter thought to himself.
English was yet another relatively boring class, with the teacher providing an introduction, assigning homework, bell rings, done.
The bell didn’t ring. It was more of a lousy tap.
“
I guess the end of the day bell is different.. That’s cool, at least.
” He walked through the hallways alongside Qibli before he stopped to ask the SandWing something. “Hey.. Could I get your phone number? I want to call you tonight if I can.. I don’t get to talk on the phone often.” His mind flashed with images of having to hang up the phone with friends because he was being beaten to the ground.
“You alright Winter? You look sad.” Qibli said, handing him a piece of paper with his phone number on it.
Winter said nothing and immediately put the number into his contacts.
It was time to re-enter hell.
He eventually made his way to the ledge on the building, and took off into the air. The fly home was more depressing than the one to school, as now he thought about the prison he was putting himself back into.
“
At least I made a friend..
” He thought to himself.
Winter walked through the front door of his house. His mother was making dinner, and his father was sitting on the couch, watching the television. His sister, Icicle, was probably in her room talking to her friends. Hailstorm was barely around, as he was in college. Which was sad, as he was the only one who stuck up for Winter.
“How much homework do you have?” His father asked in a sharp, commanding tone.
“3 classes. It shouldn’t take me that long.” Winter replied, trying not to sound scared. The truth is that he was scared as hell.
“Good. Go do it. Now. I don’t want to hear you on the phone with anyone! And that dinner better be good, Tundra!” His father screamed the last sentences, which made Winter shudder. He heard a far-off “I’m working on it!”. The response was probably from his mother. But, nevertheless, it was time for homework.
The book work was easily completed in 20 minutes, as it only consisted of copying down notes and information. What really sucked was the English homework. Write a paragraph about a time you felt unheard. There were a million times Winter could choose, but they were all too painful to write about. He decided to skip English, laid down in his bed, and began to watch videos on his phone.
About 20 minutes later, his father walked in, surveyed the area, and shouted: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING! THIS HOMEWORK HAS NOTHING WRITTEN ON IT! ARE YOU WATCHING VIDEOS?!?”
“
Well shit.. SHIT!
” Winter realized what was going to happen when he was dragged out of bed by his ankles.
Winter felt a sharp pain in his head as it hit the floor. He was left there, laying down on the floor, his phone ready to make a call.
Narwhal picked it up. “Who is this Qibli? A friend of yours? Have you been telling him any LIES?”
Winter knew exactly what he meant by lies. He refused to respond to the question.
Sharp pain flooded through him as his father kicked him in the side multiple times.
“ANSWER ME YOU USELESS DRAGONET!” His father screamed, letting unfiltered rage pass through him and into his son below.
Winter finally managed to say something: “He’s my friend..”
Thankfully, that was enough for his father to leave his room. Winter began to assess the damage. He had bruises all along his side, definitely had a concussion, and also had a scrape across his right ankle. That was good enough for school tomorrow.
He still wasn’t going to do that stupid fucking English homework. Time for bed.
Winter threw some clothes for tomorrow onto his desk chair so that a repeat of this morning wouldn’t happen, and collapsed on his bed.
"I wish things were different.." He thought as he fell asleep, and his room faded away.