Dreamjumper

Chapter Six

                 

"Can someone please explain to me what I just drew?" Lance asked, leaning back in his chair as he rubbed his chin.

  "I ... actually have no idea," I said, peering over my desk at his artwork.

  Lance had tried to draw a flower, but he had made it into something completely unrecognizable. The stalk was drooping and curled around itself in a spiral; the flower petals were pointy and jutted out at uneven angles; and the center of the flower poked out from the petals as if it were wearing them as a collar.

  "Hey, maybe it's a dragon. See, the stalk's the tail," I tapped his drawing lightly with my pencil, and he gave a shrug.

  "You know what, maybe it is. Here," he said, leaning over his desk, pencil in hand. He began to draw something, and when he pulled away, the center of the flower was a dragon's head.

  "That's a fearsome-looking dragon you've got there," I observed, and scooted my chair over to sit on the other side of his desk.

  I sketched flames all around the dragon's body, including his mouth so that he was breathing fire. Lance drew some smoke trailing from his nostrils, and I gave him some arms with fierce claws.

  "Hey, this didn't turn out half bad," Lance said with a grin.

  He wrote a name on the top of the page - QUILI: DRAGON GUARDIAN OF THE RIVER.

  "Kee-lee. That's actually an awesome name," I said in approval, liking the way that the world rolled off my tongue.

  "And he's a got a bomb-ass river to defend, too. It has a whole load of jewels in it, even ones that have never been seen before. Naturally, the humans want to take it all for themselves - but that's where Quili comes in. He emerges from the depths, and takes them all out with his fiery breath," Lance said, his hands moving wildly in the air.

  After his explanation, Lance and I just stared at each other in silence.

  Then, all of sudden, we cried in unison, "Sick!"

  Lance hurried to draw the river in the background, while I sketched in the jewels. "We have to draw some humans on the shore!" he commanded, his eyebrows furrowed in concentration.

  "On it!" I replied quickly, and began drawing a small band of warriors armed with spears and swords.

  We were focusing on our drawing so intensely that we didn't notice someone hovering over us, looking down expectantly.

  "Ahem?" Someone cleared their throat, clearly trying to get our attention.

  My head shot up as I snapped into the present. And as soon as I saw who it was, I had wished that I'd just kept it down. It was none other than Amanda Hill. She had curious expression on her face as she leaned over to inspect the drawing.

  "That's really impressive. Did you draw that, Lance?" Amanda asked.

  I ducked my head and rolled my eyes. She had clearly seen me working on the drawing, too.

  "Not by myself. Anne helped me draw him. Actually, it was Anne who gave me the idea to turn my crappy old flower into an epic dragon," Lance admitted.

  Amanda gave a bittersweet smile, her distaste clearly visible. "That's so nice of you."

  She paused for a moment.

  "Can I talk to you for a second, Anne?"

  I felt my stomach drop suddenly, my throat going dry. "Uh, sure – what's up?" I asked, struggling to get the words out.