Spirit [Dragon Academy Book 1]

            The clock ticked again changing the time to 10:22. Cody let out an irritated sigh from his seat in the Spanish room. Just two more minutes, he thought to himself.

            He had his books ready to leave the class. Kids were talking and the even the teacher was in a small conversation with a girl in the front. No one was talking to him though. He wasn’t popular, but he wasn’t a nerd. He was more of a “nobody” kid. One of those kids that no one knew. Just a nobody loser.

  And lately, he hadn’t felt okay. Not sick, nothing like that at all. Just different. Like he wasn’t all there or like he was losing himself. Cody’s ears burned with a strange feeling. Not pain, but like they were on fire. Weird. Cody didn’t think it was possible to be on fire and not feel even a little bit of pain.

The clock ticked again and Cody just wanted to scream at it to tick one more time. He was starving, a common result when you skip breakfast and you have 6th period lunch in 8th grade. His stomach growled again.

             Fabulous. It was only the end of 4th period.

            The clock decided to have mercy on him and ticked loudly again, causing the bell to explode. Students hurried out of their seats and raced into the hallways of the average sized junior high school.

  Cody hurried to his locker and pulled out his stuff for his 5th period math class. As he started back up the hallway, he slapped his best friend Eli a high five and offered him a smile as he continued walking.

  Eli was popular. He was loud and wild and well liked. He was athletic, friendly, and funny. He also had great looks.

  Not Cody.

             Cody had pale skin with a freckled face. He had long blond hair and glasses. Not those big geek glasses like Harry Potter, no, just normal kid glasses. He was wearing light blue, baggy jeans and a checkered blue short sleeved jacket with a white T-shirt. Yep, not babe material at all.

             Cody entered the math room and checked his “mailbox” for any papers. He pulled out a progress report and sighed. He was only getting a 90% when he had been getting a 93% the other day.

He grabbed today’s bell quiz before heading to his seat in the back. There, he sat with two kids. A red headed tall kid named Ryan and a blond named Allaina. Ryan was already in his seat with his head resting on his desk like always. Cody had already started his quiz when Allaina sat down next to him.

            Math class flew by with the teacher just going over last night’s homework. It was a simple homework assignment. Just plot a chart using y=2x+1 and label the chart. And so instead of listening, Cody just read his book through class. When the clock took mercy on his incredibly loud stomach and the bell rang, Cody rushed out of class. He ran to his locker to grab his lunch and science binder.

  Eli was leaning on his locker, giving girls joking “I’m into you” looks. Cody slammed his locker shut and the two best friends took off down two flights of stairs and down the hallway to the cafeteria. They walked across the cafeteria and to their table in the back corner with their friends.