Dawn of Dragons

Chapter 20: Stone

"Aria, are you okay?"

Ember peeked around the door that led to their dorm, and stared at Aria, who was currently sobbing into her pillow. Aria didn't reply, just continued to mope.

"Hey Aria, look at me,"

Aria raised her head, to reveal a bloodshot eye. "What do you want?" she asked tiredly.

"I want you to stop being a jerk and get up. Nothing is going to be accomplished if you act this way all the time." Ember looked down at her, hands at her hips.

Aria fell back down into her pillow. "Why should I care," she said miserably, sniffing loudly. "I just got my entire Magic Class to hate me because-"

"You basically killed the entire class and fatally wounded Professor Fiore," Ember said, sounding bored. "News travels fast, my friend."

Aria sat up, glaring at her. "If you went through that you would also feel the same way," Aria started shouting, her voice growing louder and louder. "You can't feel what I'm going through because you won't understand, and probably won't ever understand, so you can just shut up, okay? Just shut up-"

A crack like a whip made Aria's face fly to the side. A burning, stinging, pain grew on her cheek, and Aria looked back at her friend with a hurt look.

Ember drew her arm back, it's palm bright red from slapping Aria. Huffing, she sat down next to Aria on her bed. "Did that get you to your senses?" she snapped. "No one cares if you accidentally dropped a giant ball of chaos on their heads. And if they do, they have a problem, and will have to answer to me. So shut your mouth, dry your tears, and have a tissue. Cause seriously, you've got like a waterfall of snot running down your face." She jammed a tissue in Aria's hand and looked away.

Aria looked at her, shocked. "I..." she faltered. "Thanks. For being my friend."

Ember looked back at her and cracked a smile.

"Well, someone's gotta."

* * *

The next few days passed by quickly. Aria had found combination magic dull and uninteresting, because the teacher had placed a restriction on her magic and not allowed her to use any of it. She watched a lightning dragon, a water dragon, and an air dragon create a thunderstorm together outside that lasted for days and made everyone sopping wet. Ember was no help. She had a short temper that threatened to explode every second, and unfortunately, did during class after getting soaked to the bone.

Nobody could miss the huge patch of burnt grass on the side lawn now.

To her dismay, she found out later that Vera was in her PE class. When the Princess saw her, she did nothing more than sneer, "Get out of my way, trash," before sauntering off with her little band of girls and the guys that also constantly trailed behind her, hoping to catch her eye.

However, she discovered later in class that someone she had not seen in a while was also in her class.

Someone had snuck up behind her when she was taking a break after all the back breaking work, and covered her eyes. "Guess who it is," a rich, deep voice said.

"There's no need to cover my right eye, Andres," she sighed. "I'm already half blind as it is."

Andres uncovered her eyes and smiled that smile that made ladies swoon and the other men jealous, his dark purple eyes glinting mysteriously. He gave her a quick peck on the cheek, and she felt her normally paper white skin flush with heat and turn pink. Some other students watching giggled, and Aria saw Vera scowl at her, jealousy destroying her features.