_ - _   Amaya’s POV   _ - _

Time passed quickly. Classes dragged on, winter blended into spring. Mr. Marson and Alec had their hands full trying to keep me from getting stressed about the first shift. I vividly remember the first time I saw myself in the mirror when I got too emotional. I was washing my face trying to calm down. When I raised my head and saw my reflection in the mirror, I nearly screamed in shock. My pale skin was littered with ghostly scales. My pupils had turned into slits and the gold around my pupil grew to cover my entire iris. When I looked at my hands, my nails had turned to claws. The flush of a toilet is probably the only thing that stopped me from turning completely.

For whatever reason, knowing that I was a dragon made it so much harder to control my emotions. It felt like my understanding of the world had been put in a paint spinner and set to high speed, then dropped on the ground for good measure.

“-ama… Amaya!” Mr. Johnson said impatiently. “Please pay attention during class. Now, what is the square root of four to the second power times three divided by thirteen plus two?”

“2.717464882” I replied after thinking for three seconds.

“Wonderful, now tell me, why did you fail the last test if you can solve that faster than I can think cock-a-doo-dal-doo Calamazoo?” Mr. Johnson asked with a hint of humor in his voice.

“I’m sorry sir, I know I’ve been distracted lately. I believe I still have an A in this class though?” 

“That may be true, but I still want to see you doing well. One more test failure and that A will drop faster than the apple did onto Isaac Newton’s head.” Mr. Johnson said, turning to continue his lesson.

When the bell rang signaling the end of school, I packed my books and headed out the door to meet Alec at the front door of the school. By the music room, just a turn from the front door I noticed the school’s ‘popular girl’. She isn’t popular for any good reasons. Her name is Makaila Mccormick and she is a spoiled brat. She picks on anyone that she thinks is an outcast just to try to make herself look better. She has been trying to get under my skin for the last few weeks, and failing, much to her disappointment.

“Look who showed up. The girl who looks like a freak and killed both her parents.” Makaila said in her bratty high pitched voice.

I stopped dead in my tracks and glared at her, not breaking eye contact. “Say that again.” I said angrily. I was about ready to rip that smirk off her face.

“What?” Makaila said a little more uncertainty, looking scared. 

She looked around to see the faces of the students looking at her with an expression that said ‘did you really just say that?!’

“It’s true isn’t it? Your mother died giving birth to you. Then you killed your dad with that horrendous fake scar of yours. That’s probably why he had a heart attack in the first place.” She finished saying her nonsense with a hyena laugh that could burst the eardrums.

“Want me to show you just how fake this scar is? I can give you one just like it.” I growled walking toward her feeling rage taking over my rational side.

“What’s wrong with her eyes?!” Someone shouted to the side of us. The boy who said this sounded panicked, like he just saw a monster from the fairytales.

I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder and turned around to punch whoever it was. It was a nice girl that had helped me once before when I had dropped my papers. I felt bad for almost punching her.  I suddenly saw Alec running my way and wondered why he looked so panicked. Alec’s mouth was moving, but there wasn’t any noise. Suddenly my whole body erupted in pain. I clutched the sides of my head and my vision fell into a painful blackness.

Sorry for the short chapter everyone! I couldn't fit it all in one. Happy reading!