The students slowly got off the bus. Daisy didn't say anything to her partner for the day. She and Emily didn't get along well. But Daisy's best friend hadn't been allowed to come.
Too bad because her best friend would've loved meeting the dragons. But her mum was silly and thought they would keep her a prisoner, or kidnap her, or something weird that dragons wouldn't do.
Of course, adults never listened to Daisy. And so her friend had stayed home.
Daisy was the last one off the bus—she was sure the teacher had put her in the back on purpose to avoid her questions. So when she stepped onto the gravel, the rest of the students were standing near a kind of short dragon-shifter with black hair and dark eyes. The tattoo on her arm meant she was a dragon. Each dragon-shifter had a different one. Daisy wanted one, too, when she was older, even if she wasn't a dragon-shifter.
The woman watched them all with very intense eyes. Not mean ones, but still, it made Daisy feel like a CCTV camera was watching her.
Maybe dragons could remember everything.
Before she could stop herself, she blurted, "Miss Nikki, can you remember everything you see? Like, if you wanted, you could replay a memory like a movie? That would be brilliant if you could."
Her teacher shushed her, but Miss Nikki smiled and said, "No, although that would be fantastic if we could. Sadly, we only have sharp eyesight and super hearing."
Daisy whispered, "So you can hear me now?"
Miss Nikki laughed. "Yes, which means I can hear all of you." She looked at the crowd. "So don't go planning any mischief behind my back, okay?"
All of her classmates nodded. Daisy opened her mouth with another question, but her teacher said, "No more questions for now, Daisy. Unless you want to stand here and not meet the other dragon-shifters?"
Even though she wanted to ask Miss Nikki tons more things—after all, it wasn't every day someone could talk to a dragon-shifter—seeing others her own age would be more fun, probably. Maybe she could learn new games from them. "No more for now, I promise, Miss Fletcher."
Nikki spoke up again. "Ah, Daisy, as in Daisy Chadwick?" She nodded, and Miss Nikki added, "Then congratulations on winning the contest. I hope today is a lot of fun for you."
She nodded enthusiastically. "Me, too. Can we go now? Please?"
Miss Nikki chuckled and motioned toward a path. "This way. It won't take us long to get to the school."
As they walked down the path, Daisy did her best not to skip ahead. She had to stay with Emily, after all. Too bad Emily walked really slow. A tortoise might beat her in a race.
Still, she knew mentioning it would only make Emily walk even slower. That's the way she was.
Even with Emily being a snail, they soon reached a two-story building, and Nikki stopped them. "This is the school. We'll go around the back, where the students should be waiting."
With each step they took, Daisy's heart beat faster. She couldn't wait to see how the best day ever would get even better.
Freddie wishedthey could meet the human students anywhere but the school. Normally he didn't mind the other students at the school, but they all would be watching them through the windows. And that also meant other teachers would be watching them. No doubt they'd each make a report, so if Freddie messed up again, they'd tell his mum.
Even if he was going to try his hardestnotto mess up today, it could still happen, and then he might not be able to practice shifting at home for a few days as a punishment.
And he wanted to get better at shifting. Because once he was good, then he could maybe start flying.
His dragon yawned.Don't worry. Just stick with the other students, and we'll be fine. Mr. MacLeod won't allow anything bad to happen.
I hope you're right.
Before his dragon could reply, a group of children came around the corner, and he forgot about everything else.
The humans had arrived.
At first, they looked like any other school kids. Although why they walked in pairs, holding hands, he had no idea. Weren't they supposed to be the same age? A dragon would never be forced to hold hands that way at nine or ten.
His inner beast snorted.If we were in a human school, I'm sure we'd be doing the same.
We'll be flying soon and aren't babies. We shouldn't need to hold hands.
Mr. MacLeod spoke briefly with the human female adult he guessed was the teacher and then turned toward them. "Miss Fletcher and I came up with a plan over the last few weeks ofhow today will go. First, listen for your names. Each human will be paired up with a dragon-shifter student. You are to look out for your partner for the day, no matter what. Understood?"