Dragons in Disguise

Chapter 5: We didn't expect that (Ann)

The crowd started cheering. 'Holy clamshells! I cannot believe we just did that." As the girls walked over to their very relived family, Ann felt a sharp pain across her calf. She realized that there was a small horizontal cut there. 'Huh,' thought Ann, 'Must have caught it on Robert's gloves.' As the girls approached their brothers, Mark jumped on top of the bench he was sitting on and yelled for all to hear, "ALL HAIL THE MURDER QUEENS!" Ann laughed as the adrenaline began to leave her system, she thought that whatever happened, the boys would always find a way to make then smile.

She laughed harder when Joy, who had apparently not noticed that half her face was covered in blood, struck a pose and said, "and don't you forget it!" All the boys nodded solemnly and said "Yes, Your Majesties," in perfect unison. At this point, Ann's very worried Uncle Cody came running up with bandages, trying to see who was hurt and where. He appeared to have a mini heart attack at the sight of Joy's face. "JOY! Please tell me you still have both eyes." Joy shrugged and replied, "Nah, he got one." Uncle Cody grabbed the nearest water bottle and poured it over Joy's face, washing the blood away. He calmed down a bit when he realized she still had both eyes and Joy was just messing with him.

Ann sat still as Alex wrapped a bandage around her leg. "What is our mother going to say about this?" Alex tied off the bandage and stood up, "Honestly, I'm more concerned about what Aunt Hannah is going to say about Grace and Joy." Ann looked at her cousins, who had finished being fixed up. Grace had her entire left forearm wrapped in bandages, and Joy had a folded piece of cloth over her eye which was held in place by more bandages that went all the way around her head.

Their arrival home was greeted with the expected, concerned cries of "What did you do?!" from both anxious mothers, followed by a detailed account of the fight, told by the very excited boys... "-and then, Ann jumped on Joy's back and Joy SHOT her at Luke and BOOM! She kicked him in the face!" Alex was bouncing up and down as he told the story, and the girls were almost in stitches from laughing. Uncle Cody stood up to tell them how proud he was. "Even though they were all older than you- ""Ahem." "-Except you Joy, and even after Joy got hurt right at the start, you persevered, well done."

The parents decided that once the girls' injuries were mostly healed, and the treehouses were finished, which they nearly were, David's just needed a roof, all the kids could spend a whole week in the treehouses. The building of David's roof took two more days, and the healing of injuries, another three. All three girls were cut deep enough that they now had some pretty cool scars, at least, they thought it was cool, their parents were considerably less impressed.

The day before their weeklong treehouse trip, all of the Dragon Nerds were in the library, copying scrolls, when, lo and behold, in sauntered Robert and Co. Robert pointed at Joy, who had taken her bandage off that morning. "Nice scar, your majesty, you're welcome by the way." Ann jumped to her feet, "You shouldn't have worn those gloves, Robert! That was against the rules!" Joy put a hand on her shoulder to calm Ann down as the rest of the Dragon Nerds started packing up. "Leave him be Ann, he's just proud of his handiwork. I'm surprised he isn't happier with his makeover though." She turned to Robert, "Your nose plastered all over your face! What a masterpiece! However did you get it done like that?" Joy appeared to think for a moment. "Oh! That's right, I believe I rearranged it for you!" She walked past a stunned Robert, calling over her shoulder, "You're welcome by the way."