Dragon Rings

Chapter 1: Sammi

A furious shrieking woke me from my comfortable sleep. Groaning, I rolled over, slamming my hand on my alarm clock. I didn't even need to look at it to know what time it was. Five in the morning. Same as always.

Swinging my legs over the side of my bed, I stood up. And immediately fell face-first into my dresser. Pain sparked across my forehead as my face caught the very edge of the cheap wooden piece of furniture and I fell to the ground, just centimeters shy of the wall. "Darn it. Again with this." I muttered, kicking my blankets from where they had entangled themselves around my ankles.

Maybe if my room had been larger than an office cubicle, I wouldn't have hit my head on my dresser. As it was, I was probably going to have a black eye. Again. Using the dresser edge that had just attempted to give me concussion, I heaved myself up to my feet and began my day.

I pulled out my clothes, jeans and a pale blue shirt, and walked down the tiny hallway to the bathroom. If you could call it that. A shower with one setting - cold - paired with a rusty sink that rarely works and a dubious-looking toilet made up this so-called bathroom. It was even smaller than my bedroom, which was saying something.

After taking my shower - which was more suited for a penguin than an actual human - I quickly got dressed and checked the time. Five ten. Something on my windowsill buzzed and I grabbed it, flipping my phone open (Yes, my phone is a flip phone. I'm disappointed too). A message from my best friend, Joellani.

U awake yet?

On my way

The Wolf is sleeping in today, so u got time

Shoving it into my pocket, I grabbed my backpack and raced out of my bedroom. My house was nothing of importance. My tiny bedroom, the even tinier bathroom, my mother's bedroom, and a kitchen-living room thing. Holding my breath, I walked into said kitchen-living room. As always, there were around four or five people passed out on the floor. My mother's "party guests". Locating my life-giver mostly by the lack of a beard, I went to the rusty sink and filled a cup with water then dumped it on her head.

Undecipherable mumbles came from her as she groggily woke, but I didn't stay and try to figure out what she was saying. Instead, I went outside our little rundown house and got my bike. I didn't bother locking the door; who could possibly think anything of value resided here? My bike was probably the most expensive thing, a fairly impressive mountain bike that helped with the gentle hills of my town, Corpus Christi. Of course, it was a birthday present from Joelle, but hey, beggars can't be choosers.

I checked my phone before biking off and saw a message from another one of my friends, Star.

Backpack.

I cursed when I realized I had forgotten to get it and ran back inside. My mother was kicking her "friends" awake but thankfully she didn't see me or my frantic rushing to get my backpack. For other people, it would have been surprising that a friend remembered your backpack before you, but this was the third time this month that it had happened.

I'm... A forgetful person.

Five fourteen. I mentally cursed myself and got on my bike - this time with my backpack - and began furiously pedaling to uptown Corpus Christi. It doesn't sound very impressive, but in the humid eighty degree weather, I couldn't get there fast enough. Thankfully, the rickety and rundown houses soon gave way to decent - if hurricane battered - businesses that were probably older than most of the residents. Of the world.

After five minutes of silent pedaling - well, I was silent. The cars, not so much - and I reached my destination. A small little building sandwiched between the high school and a Pizza Hut named "The Café". So original, right? I work at the Café with Joelle, her twin sister Lunima, Star, and two of my other friends, Red and Hana, though they take the afternoon shift. Joelle and Lunima's foster mother, Ms. Lupine. Because of her inability to be nice (and the possibility she has fleas), we call her the Wolf.