(Blog 26) Spring at Scalesville High as Tragedy Strikes
(Continued from our last post…)
Spring arrived in full bloom in Scalesville, painting the campus of SVHS in soft pastels and filling the air with excited chatter about prom plans, senior traditions, and graduation. But for Lena, it was anything but beautiful. Her mind felt like someone had turned down the brightness on her entire world. A month earlier her father, the dragon that said he would always be with her, that always believed in her - was gone. Killed in action in the Queen’s war, leaving Lena and her mother lost for where to find their place in normal routines.
Everyone knew Lena as the girl who had everything together. Homecoming Queen, honor roll student, the kind of person who seemed to float through life with an effortless grace. But now, Kylee and Wix were worried, and Robert felt that his plans to join the military became like salt in her wound.
One quiet afternoon, Lena was in the locker room, changing after gym class. On the other side of the wall, she overheard a group of girl snakes hissing and chuckling in busy gossip and realized that she was the topic of discussion
"I guess even golden girls can fall," One said with cruel satisfaction.
"Poor little Homecoming Queen lost her daddy”, said another in a mocking tone.
"Right? Like, her dad dying in the war is honestly kind of karma. She always acted like she was so much better than everyone else." said the third matter-of-factly.
The words hit Lena like a physical blow. Her hands began to tremble, and suddenly the grief she'd been carefully containing intensified beyond her good girl composition. Heat burned in her chest as scales rippled across her skin. Her wings burst free and she walked around the corner to face the snakes, silent but withholding a storm of emotion that had welled up to a near breaking point.
At first the snakes looked shocked, but their looks of surprise quickly transitioned to evil laughter and further mocking.
Lena flapped her wings and began to yell, sending a gust of wind through the locker room that rattled every door. Flames escaped her throat in a strangled sob, and it was like her mind and body were no longer in unison.
"Stop it!" Sienna's voice cut through the noise as she emerged from one of the bathroom stalls, her face flushed with anger. "What is wrong with you? She just lost her dad. How can you be so heartless?"
Sienna quickly turned to her and asked, “Lena, are you okay?”
But Lena was beyond words. She swiped Sienna away with a trembling claw and sprinted into the hallway where she crouched down next to the end of a row of lockers. She covered her faced with her hands and wrapped her wings around herself like a cocoon trying to make herself small and invisible. Coach Langly heard the commotion and found her way to Lena by the sound of her crying. She knelt down, wrapped an arm around her and motioned her back into her office where she called her mom to come pick her up.
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To be continued… New posts each Friday. Subscribe below to follow the dragons. Read the beginning of it all at Blog 1: New Adventure Awaits.
