𝔹𝕖𝕥𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕟 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕍𝔼𝕀𝕃 𝔹𝕠𝕠𝕜 𝟙

Elizia, wait! I called out as I tried to Catch up to her.

Kids blocked my way as they shuffled around the halls. I pushed past them forcefully trying to keep up with Elizia as she walked towards the exit ignoring me.

“I don’t want to hear it, I don’t want to talk to you Zaphira go away.”

“Elizia, you understand, it’s not what you think.” I insisted as I tried to slip past a group of jocks is due roared down the hallway cheering about something stupid.

Why today? This hallway is almost barren any other day of the week but today it has to be the fullest? God that’s annoying.

I watched as Elizia has slipped out the door, the door slamming behind her as the nearby kids stopped and stared as if they had watched the whole show unfold.

“Great, what am I going to do now? Elizia is not going to believe me and Blaine is too stupid to realize that she had a crush on him, then again he’s the same person that treats me like I have never grown up since childhood.” I mumbled to myself as I turned away looking for another exit.

I pushed the doors open, the sound of the whistle from the couch as I stepped outside the school.

Blaine ran across the field as he chased after the soccer ball. I shook my head and stared away from the soccer field is the couch blue on his whistle.

I kept walking ignoring everyone, the cool breeze picking up leaves whisked across the cement weaving around the ground as it was carried off. Curiously I turned and looked Blaine stared at me his hands to his side, for a brief second, I thought he was sad as he watched me walk away ignoring him.

Don’t feel bad Zaphira, don’t feel bad he deserves to be ignored if he truly was a friend, he would treat me like a friend and not some child.

I reached the parking lot exhaling deeply as if the entire time I walked past the soccer field I hadn’t breathed the entire time.

I could see Elizia talking to someone as that person got into their car, I walked towards her, her eyes meeting mine before glaring at me and moving towards her car getting in and slamming the door.

Elizia talked to the girl one more time before pulling out of the parking lot leaving a cloud of smoke behind her.

Great, how am I going to fix this if she won’t even talk to me?

“You look stressed.” Blaine’s voice said nonchalantly.

Does he not learn? Does my ignoring him not click that I don’t want to talk to him?

I turned to look beside me the Blaine look-alike stood beside me curiously as he looked at my face.

“Oh, it’s you,” I said as I sighed in relief. “I thought you were someone else for a second.”

“The guy that I look like? Are you guys fighting or something?” He asked sounding genuinely concerned.

“Something like that,” I said as I started to leave the school.

The Blaine look-alike followed me down the street still curious. I didn’t say anything as I walked silently down the street.

“What did you and your friend argue about if I may ask?”

I glanced at him, a curious expression on his face as he waited for me to say something.

Why does he want to know? Plus, where does he keep coming from anyway? It’s like he’s a ghost and pops up when he feels like it.

“He’s been keeping things from me and I learned he doesn’t see me as a mature person just the same child he grew up to, it’s like I never matured in his eyes,” I said honestly.

Valentine looked at me for a moment, his eyes very similar to Blaine’s as he looked thoughtful.

I watched the wind blew his hair gently almost in the same manner as Blaine’s when the wind picked up.

“I see, I’m very sorry but maybe to him you will always be this young girl to him,” he said still looking thoughtful. “If you grew with each other maybe it’s hard for him to see you differently then as how you were then kind of like our mother will always see their child as a young child.”

Maybe, maybe Valentine is right… Does Blaine still see me as a child just because he grew up together? Will I never be Zaphira the teenager to him? Maybe mom would be the same way she was still here, but would Blaine still see me that way if she was?

“So then how is school for you?” I asked as I look back at Valentine who looked like he was basking in the cool crisp of the setting sun.

“Not as exciting as yesterday,” he said sounding a little upset. “Yesterday I got to experiment with Dragon eggs it was very interesting, once the dragons are born of Babel to attainment a think, I’m going to name mine Phoenix but I’m not exactly sure I’d have to wait for it to be born first.

But today was just boring, all he really did was practice my fencing for the festival that’s going to happen.” He finished.

Did he just say he was experimenting was a dragon egg? As in like a real Dragon the creatures that speak you fire out of their mouths?

“Dragon egg? You’re experimenting on a Dragon egg why?”

Valentine looked at me confused for a moment as if my shock was surprising to him and not the fact that mystical creatures.

“Well yeah, it’s a tradition at the Academy. Once you had a certain ranking you can start learning how to take care of a creature within your field, in my case I am learning how to take care of a Dragon egg, once the Dragon is born I can make a contract with that and it will be my companion throughout the rest of my studies at the Academy.” He said nonchalantly.

He’s got to be kidding, these going to… What did he say he is going to do with the Dragon? The more I talked to him the more confused I get.

“You’re going to make a contract with the Dragon! A real live contract with a real live Dragon?”

“Y-Yeah, of course, why do you look so surprised?”

“Maybe because dragons don’t actually exist, and you’re talking about making a contract which also doesn’t exist with a creature that is more for storytelling and mystical lore than anything,” I said bluntly.

Valentine looked at me, his head caulking to one side before giggling to himself then laughing as if I said something funny to him.

“You’re funny, why would you think that dragons don’t exist?” He finally asked.

“Maybe because no one has seen a Dragon in the millennia or something like that,” I spoke.

“Where are you from? Everyone seemed dragons everyone knows that dragons are real, a lot of the students for the Academy use them as travel companions, I’ve even heard some of the dragons especially the old ones that you rarely see these days were used during the war over decades ago.”

I stared at him blankly as I tried to think of what he was talking about a war that existed decades ago?

Okay, I really am starting to think that maybe there is something strange about this boy, a war that happened over decades ago? And dragons that exist…

I looked at the boy's, as is close still shabby looking as if he hadn’t changed his closing days the only difference from each time, I saw him was the parents that he wore. He looked a lot like Blaine but if he existed over a thousand years ago or at least back when pioneers ran the world.

Maybe Valentine is… God this sounds so stupid but… Maybe Valentine is from another world entirely. Everything he says sounds so strange dragons and magic… Things that we don’t learn in this world, things that don’t exist in reality.

Is it possible that he’s somehow showing himself to me in his own world somehow?

But if he is then how can I see him and why does it look like he’s standing right next to me? Why does he seem so… Present?

“I don’t think we're from the same place.” I finally said as I watched a car drive by superfast.

“What are you talking about? I thought you attended the Academy.”

No, I said I went to a high school a normal high school no fancy academies for me. I couldn’t afford one to save my life.” I said.

“But then how do you get your education? There is only one school in all of Astoria.” Valentine said confused.

For you, there are about four maybe five high schools within Astoria but none of them are academics, where I’m from academies are saved for the elite, schools for the rich kids and high achievers that get scholarships.

Valentine looked at me surprised, as he tried to understand what I was saying. I chuckled to myself as I watched his eyebrows scrunch.

I guess he really is from some other world. But how am I even able to communicate with them? If he is from another world entirely then shouldn’t there be like a ball blocking us from talking or even knowing each other’s existence?

“Let me ask you a question,” he said finally. “What do you see around you?” Asked.