My friends all rush over to greet me, and suddenly we're all enveloped in a ball of twisting tails and flapping wings and joy. I think everyone else in the room might be staring at us, but I don't care. After a second or two we break apart. My friend Firefly is the first to break the silence. 

"Skipper... You nearly crushed me!"

Firefly is a Bug Dragon, and they come in all different desigins. She's really pretty, with black all over her, execpt there's a triangle of clear scales from her back legs on out, and there's some weird skin thing under those scales that will light up and pulse in different patterens, sometimes when she wants it to, but usually when she's excited. The only problem with Bug Dragons is... They're about the size of a really small shrew - sometimes even smaller. For us dragons, that's like the size of, you guessed it, a large bug. 

Right now Firefly is perched on Skipper's shoulder. Skipper is a Chamelon Dragon, which means she changes her colors and makes certain patterns to reflect her mood. It DOESN'T mean that she can change color to match the enviroment. That's the ablity of a Blend Dragon. Other dragons usually mix the two up. Right now she's blue with pink behind her ears, on her snout, and at the tip of her coiled tail. Embarrasment.

"Sorry about that, Firefly."

"It's fine, Skip. Don't worry about it. I think we'll face much bigger challenges soon than nearly crushing our best friends."

Skipper snorts so hard she nearly tumbles off of the couch she's sitting on. A couch is basically a block of some material with cushions resting on it. It's big enough to fit three dragons of standard size, and Firefly is just perched on Skipper's shoulder, so I hop up onto it. 

"Don't get too comfy, Scarlet," Firefly says with a laugh. "I think the bell's going to ring soon."

Bug Dragons also have a really good sense of time, and I bet Firefly was stubbornly scouring the schedule, despite Skipper's multiple attempts to get her to: "Loosen up and bend the rules, girl! What you lack in size, you really don't need to make up for in studying. Do something more fun!" My suspicions are confirmed when Skipper sighs.

"She has been studying the schedule ever since we got here, despite my multiple attempts to convince her that she didn't need to memorize it. Heck, I think she even did memorize it just to prove me wrong. That little bug's a contriarian."

Firefly looks Skipper directly in the eyes, which is kind of hard when you're the size of a bug compared to the dragon you're sitting on. Then she bursts.

"I'm not little! I was born in the same year as you! The same month, even! Our birthdays are ONE WEEK APART!

Firefly holds her severe expression for a moment... until we all nearly fall off the couch laughing.

Suddenly the huge bell tolls two times, and everyone gets up and starts moving towards the entrance to all the rest of the school. My friends and I manage to stick together in the crowd, as other dragons split off to go in different directions. Only then do I realize...

I didn't even look at the map. I don't know where we're supposed to go. Lotus, that Zen Dragon, said go where for orientaition?

Firefly rolls her eyes at us. 

"Did neither of you even study the map? I don't think I have high expectiations for you guys. Follow me, and I'll get you to the Atruim for our Sixth Grade Orientation."

She zooms up from Skipper's shoulder, flashes a pattern of pulsing starbursts at us, and then begins to weave her way through the corridors. We follow as quick as we can, acting nochalant but both secretly feeling like we've been saved from oblivion. Coming in late on our first day... That would have been so embarrassing.