Breath of Fire

Chapter Seven

"This is insane, why do I need to move?" I complained to Blair a few hours later as she shoved me out of the living room and back up the stairs the moment we heard the sound of the boys walking up the path to the house. After finishing my hair and makeup, the two of us had headed downstairs where Blair had attempted to teach me how to play "dragon chess" as I was calling it. She had just defeated my last player when suddenly she was on her feet ushering me out of the room.
    "Have you never seen those human chick flicks? Every ugly duckling transformation has an epic reveal!" She said in answer when I questioned her.
    "Did you just call me ugly?" I said with a laugh; though frowning as I caught a glimpse of myself in the hallway mirror. The outfit she had picked out for me to wear this evening showed far more skin than I was comfortable with. The top was partially see through and had several crossing strips of leather that highlighted my curves; and the matching leather shorts barely reached mid-thigh.
    "Oh, hush! Just get that cute little butt of yours upstairs and don't come back down until I say," she said with a roll of her eyes. I rolled mine right back at her as I turned and reluctantly headed back up the stairs.
    I tapped my foot impatiently as several minutes passed by as the muffled sounds of Blair greeting Blaise, Terrance, Caspian, and Elios filled my ears. I waited another five or six minutes before I had enough of waiting.
    "Blair! Can I come down yet?" I called out.
    "Not yet!" She called back.
    "This is absurd! I'm coming down now," I warned her as I took a step forward.
    I could hear her grumbling as I stepped down the stairs and couldn't help laughing. My laughter quickly died out, however, as I felt several eyes watching my descent. When I finally reached the landing, I crossed my arms and squared my shoulders as I glared at the four men standing before me.
    "Do I really look so bad that you are all speechless?" I was half joking, but my insecurities had a way of making themselves known. None of the men answered. Instead, they just continued to gape at me like fish out of water.
    "It's quite the opposite, my ignorant new bestie," Blair commented as she chuckled and nudged her elbow into her brother's side. Blaise coughed and ran a hand through his hair as he elbowed his sister back; his eyes remaining on me the entire time.
    "My little sis is right, sweetheart. You look sinfully delicious," Blaise finally said as he licked his lips and stalked towards me. I backed up as I caught sight of the feral gleam in his eyes and the slight smirk he was sending my way.
    "Your sister is a slave driver," I told him, saying the first thing I could think of as I thought back to how many outfits I had tried on today. I was finding it extremely hard to concentrate at the moment with him being so close. For someone who rubbed me in all the wrong ways, I couldn't get the thought of him rubbing me in all the right places out of my dirty mind. The egomaniac of a red head clearly knew he was effecting my thought process as he took another step closer. I backed up another step and looked sideways in the hope of distracting myself, but it only made maters worse. Caspian, Terrance, and Elios were giving me similar looks as Blaise and had also crept towards me without my knowledge.
    "You hair is so soft, little dove," Elios commented as he slid a strand of my hair through his fingers.
    "She smells like caramel," Terrance hummed as he leaned forward. My knees threatened to buckle as he suddenly kissed my neck. I stumbled back; barely noticing as my spine pressed against the bannister.
    "She tastes like it too," Caspian growled as he snuck in on my other side and snaked his tongue out to lick the side of my jaw. Holy fuck. These guys were gonna be the death of me. I gulped, my throat feeling drier than a desert.
    "Help, please," I pleaded to Blair, who was smirking something fierce. She rolled her eyes at me but strode over and yanked me to safety all the same.
    "Down, boys! You're scaring my Bambi," she commanded as she wrapped her arms around me.
    "Bambi?" I asked as I raised my eyebrows at her.
    "She isn't your anything, Blair," Blaise rumbled at his sister. I rolled my eyes. I was not some children's toy for them to argue over having to share.
    "I'm not anyone's anything," I said as I scowled at Blaise before turning back to Blair for an answer.
    "Yes, girl. You should have seen yourself. You looked like a deer in the headlights! I think I'm gonna call you Bambi from now on," she said with a giggle. As if I didn't have enough nicknames already...
    "How do you even know about Bambi?" I asked.
    "What can I say, I liked watching human movies when I was a hatchling," she replied with a shrug. I couldn't resist grinning as I pictured a young Blair sprawled out in front of a tv stuffing her face with popcorn. As pleasant as the image was, I felt a small pang of jealousy as I thought about how I had never gotten the chance to do the same growing up. There was the occasional opportunity to watch if the guy I was servicing had something playing in the background or; depending on what work I had at the time, whatever was on display for customers. From the little content I had managed to watch over the years, it did not seem like I had missed out on much. Most of the content seemed mind numbingly boring; but I did regret not being up to date whenever someone made a movie or tv show reference that I could not understand.
    Blair, Terrance, Caspian and I sat down in the living room while Blaise and Elios headed to the kitchen to cook dinner. I stared at Blair in shock when Blaise had volunteered to help with the cooking.
    "As surprising as it sounds, my brother has always loved to cook, he's at his happiest when in the kitchen; or reading some book or other," Blair explained with a chuckle as the others nodded in agreement.
    To pass the time, Terrance suggested a game of dragon chess and no matter how many times I tried to decline, they would not take no for an answer. Before I knew it, we were all sitting on the carpet around the coffee table and setting up the pieces. Caspian pulled out a hidden drawer from the table and emerged with two more sets of game pieces and several extra game boards which he hollered at Elios to help him set up. I looked up at Elios as he stuck his head into the living room with a roll of his eyes and whistled softly. I gasped in awe as the checkered boards rose up in the air and sorted themselves into what looked like a mini staircase.
    "That's just a parlor trick, honey, I can show you something far more impressive if you want," Terrance said as Elios and Caspian scowled at him. "I was talking about my element gift not that, geesh get your minds out of the gutter people," Terrance attempted to cover up, though from the grin on his face it was obvious that he was not trying very hard.
    "Dinner is ready!" Elios called out an hour later. Terrance, Caspian, Blair, and I all looked up in surprise. We had quickly become engrossed in our game; me doing my very best to not get all my pieces killed and failing miserably as I attempted to listen to all three of my opponent's advice. I breathed a heavy sigh of relief as I stood up, glad for an excuse for the game to end as I had been seconds away from losing my last piece to one of Caspian's.
    "Is there anything I can help with?" I asked as I entered the kitchen.
    "Don't be silly, princess, you are our guest," Elios responded with a wink as he waved me over to the dining room table.
    I stared wide-eyed as platters of food were brought out and set in front of me. Elios and Blaise had gone to town and prepared a full course Italian meal for us that looked positively mouth watering. I swallowed in anticipation as everyone finally sat down and started digging in.
    "Holy shit, this is good," I moaned with delight as I took my first bite of what Elios informed me was called chicken parmigiana.
    "Thanks," said Blaise with a shrug as he started to eat as well. He had a look of indifference on his face but I was sure that I detected a hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth.
***
    "Wake up, sleepyhead, you don't want to be late to class on your first day!"
    I groaned loudly as I felt something heavy land on top of me the next morning. I opened my eyes to find that Blair had entered my room and hopped onto the bed with me.
    I grumbled and sent her a string of curses as I shoved her off of me and made my way to the bathroom to take a quick shower.
    "Your clothes are on the bed when your ready and don't take too long, Bambi, breakfast is waiting!" I heard Blair shout to me as I stepped out of the shower and went to brush my teeth.
    Twenty minutes later I joined her downstairs in the kitchen.
    "Where is everyone?" I asked as I glanced around to see that it was just Blair in the kitchen.
    "The nerds said something about wanting to meet with professor Pyrion before class so they already left," Blair informed me with a shake of her head. I laughed as I rolled my eyes. She clearly thought anyone who wanted to get to campus early was out of their mind. I had a feeling she was going to give me grief soon since I was most likely going to be doing the same myself. I had always wanted to be able to get an education but never been able to afford it and while dragon university may not be exactly what I had in mind, I had decided last night that I was not going to waste the opportunity. There was still a chance I was not going to get to remember anything about this week, but I might as well take advantage of the opportunity while I had it. Right?
    I ate a hurried breakfast and waited impatiently for Blair to finish up as well before we finally headed off to her first class.
    "I've got basic elemental history class first; the most boring class ever, it's all I can do to keep my eyes open," Blair told me as we walked across the field towards the buildings that housed the classrooms.
    "I don't know, it sounds kind of interesting," I said with a shrug, trying not to sound too excited since she had already made her dislike of the class known.
    "Maybe for you, since you don't know our history, but my parents hired the best tutors they could find for Blaise and I when we were young and most of the information is stuff I've known since I was a hatchling," I listened to Blair ramble on about how much she hated her elemental history class as we headed down the hallways towards said classroom.
    I felt eyes on my back the entire time we were walking and several low whispered conversations. I rolled my eyes. I wasn't some movie star or crazy mad psycho-killer to be gawked at or feared! I rubbed my arms self consciously, not liking the fact that I had just gone from a complete nobody to a somebody in the span of a few days. It was the worst thing that could happen to someone who was used to staying under the radar for their entire life...
    "Here we are, get ready to be bored out of your mind," Blair said as she pulled open the classroom door for me. As the door opened and I stepped forward, my eyes landed on an a regrettable sight. I groaned in annoyance as I spotted Penelope and her friends sitting in the front row of the class staring and giggling at me as they stuck their tongues out. Really, how old are you - who bothers to stick their tongue out anymore, that is so childish...I thought to myself as I lifted my chin up and strode forward; only to find myself tumbling forward as Penelope stuck her leg out and tripped me.
    Before my body could hit the floor, a pair of strong arms caught me. I sighed in relief, glad that Penelope wouldn't be getting what she wanted this time around.
    "Thanks," I said, as I stepped back and looked up to see who had rescued me. I could not help but roll my eyes. It just had to be another overly muscled man with a perfectly sculpted face.
    "No problem, Kaida," the man replied with a grin.
    "Um, my name is Sammy, not Kaida," I said in confusion.
    "Oh, I know, you've been the talk of the whole school lately," he replied.
    "Then why call me Kaida, if you already knew it wasn't my name?" Now I was even more confused.
    "It's a nickname, sweetheart. It means 'little dragon' in the ancient tongue." I stared at the brown haired man before me as he winked at me.
    "But I'm not..." I started to say, trying to remind this guy that I was not a dragon, but was cut off before I could.
    "My name is Drake, by the way," he said, then pointed to the two chairs on either side of where he stood, "care to join me?" I nodded and caught sight of Blair smirking at me as Drake pulled out my chair for me.
    Despite Blair's talk of the class being unbearably boring, I enjoyed it very much. It was hard to keep up with the numerous old dragon names the teacher spat out, but it was interesting to be learning the history of a whole race of creatures that up until a few days ago, I had no idea existed.

***

    "Would you two ladies like to join me for lunch today?" Drake asked two hours later when the bell signaling the end of class had finally rung and we all filed out of the room and started heading towards the dining commons. I looked over at Blair to see if she minded and saw her looking over at her brother and his friends who were standing outside the cafeteria glancing at us expectantly.
    "Sure, we'd love to, Drake," I said, not liking the idea that we had to get approval to sit somewhere else. This wasn't the middle ages! Even from this distance, I could hear Caspian, Terrance, Blaise, and Elios hissing as Drake lifted a hand to my back and lead me over to the stack of plates in the corner.
    On top of the usual stares I had been receiving all morning, I could feel four more pairs on my back as Drake, Blair, and I filled our plates with food and found an empty table to sit at. From the glares the four male dragons were sending me, they were pissed off that I wasn't sitting with them, but oh well, they had to learn that I was my own independent person who wasn't going to follow them around like most girls probably did. Besides, I liked Drake. He had spent the entire history class leaning over and explaining to me what the professor was saying; something I had greatly appreciated.
    As we sat and ate our meals, I asked Blair what the plan for the rest of the day was and she filled me in. Next up, was fight and flight class - which sounded a lot like gym class and was apparently held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday after lunch. Blair also explained that all grades took fight and flight at the same time, which meant that I would have to endure further glares from her brother and his friends. Great.
    "What do you two have after fight and flight?" Drake asked Blair. I glanced over at her, interested in the answer as well.
    "We've got intro to fire with my brother." I looked up at her in surprise. "He's the teacher's aid," she replied to my unanswered question; guessing correctly, that I hadn't expected to have any classes with her brother.
    "Really? So do I!"
    "Wait, it's not like classes just started for you two, how did you two not realize you have the same classes?" I asked, unable to stop from laughing.
    "They are large classes and I can't be expected to remember everyone from all the grades so soon, I am still a first year after all," Blair said with a scowl as Drake smiled and shrugged.
    "So what's your excuse for not realizing it during your intro to fire class though?" I prodded, not letting the subject drop just yet, enjoying the feeling of having a friend and maybe a new one; depending on how things went with Drake, to tease and joke around with.
    "I told you, I spend most of my time in that class asleep!" Blair said, sending me a teasingly hurt expression. I chuckled as I reached out and picked up my can of sprite and took a sip. We spent the rest of our lunch period conversing about what kinds of classes and professors taught at the college and though I was interested, I was partially distracted by the four sets of eyes on my back the entire time.