Kira slipped into the library during her free period, right before lunch. She knew she could stay the whole time—but she liked Lila and her friend. They were nice enough, and now that she knew that she shared a deeper kinship, a true sisterhood with Lila, she wanted to make sure they became fast friends.

But she had questions of her own about all that had happened—ones that Lila couldn't answer and ones that she didn't trust Aideen to. 

Her grandmother had long taught her to look for the truth on her own terms. To be a scholar, one needed to collect as many sources as possible. And as many unbiased ones as was possible in a world with ever-increasing biases.

Dragons had been in literature and lore for so long, Kira suspected some truth lie among the pages of the library. Pages that weren't straight from the fire-breathing mouths of the creatures themselves. 

She threw down her backpack and took a seat at one of the unoccupied student computers. She pulled up the card catalog—a quick search revealed that there were indeed a few tomes available right now in the library of books dedicated to dragon mythology from around the world. Ignoring the titles that were the type of fantasy-adventure novels she usually perused, she jotted down a selection of starters on a sticky note. 

She hopped up and wandered toward the back of the library, where the Folklore and Mythology section was labeled in laminated paper with clipart of dragons and papyrus scrolls tacked to one of the shelves. 

Kira stared up at the tower of books, then glanced down at her sticky note. She looked back up—to come face to face with a weathered red book with golden lettering on the spine: Dragons of the Earth: A Collection of Myths and Legends From Around the World.

Kira frowned as she examined her list again—she didn't recall seeing this title among her search of the card catalog. 

But she supposed a generalist overview like this would be a great place to start, wouldn't it?

Just as she reached for the book, so did another hand, with a tiger's-eye ring and a slew of colorful braided cord bracelets in ruby, black, white, and teal, with little painted wooden beads. 

Kira turned her head just as the hand's owner did. He was a boy her age, with silvery-blonde hair that fell into his eyes, square tortishell glasses masking dark brown eyes and a lightly-freckled face. He was much taller than her, and wore a dark denim jacket laden with button and enamel pins. Most noticable, Kira decided, were his drop-earrings—a daring choice.

He was definitely her type. 

As the thought crossed her mind, another realization struck her. She'd seen him before—where had she seen him before?

"Oh, sorry, were you going for that?" He withdrew his hand. "I hadn't seen it in the library before, so I was going to run it through the system."

"You work here?" Kira couldn't help the disappointment slipping into her voice. She had thought he was around her age—but he was too old for her if he was a librarian, no matter how convincing the babyface.

He frowned, confused. "I'm part of the Media Studies class. That means we get to work as library assistants as an elective."

"Wait, there's a class for that here?" Hope sprung anew in Kira's chest as she imagined the song-lyrics she could write about him. He was interesting to look at, with more details about him the longer she looked at him; the way his freckles looked kind of like the Little Dipper around his right eye, his t-shirt that declared eternal love for the Mothman.

"Oh, yeah, you're new, aren't you?" He pushed his glasses up his prominent nose. "Aren't you Dr. Gershwin's granddaughter?"

"You're my neighbor." Kira blurted out the realization, only to clap her hand over her mouth and internally curse her own awkwardness.

"Yeah, it's nice to finally get to meet you." He smiled and stuck his hand out in a way that told Kira that he was awkward too. Thank God, since that meant she actually had a chance. "I'm Galileo."

"Kira." She managed to remember what she'd learned from her grandmother about a proper handshake. One less embarrassment to keep her up tonight. 

"I guess you should take the book then," Kira said, her eyes darting back to the red tome.

"Nah, it's okay, you can take it, should be fine." He waved his hand dismissively. Something sparkled in his dark brown eyes. "I have a few recommendations, if you want other books like that. I like to think of myself as somewhat of a cryptozoologist."

"A what?"

"Cryptozoologist." His face turned red and he looked away, shoving his hands into the pockets of his red plaid pants. "Someone who studies mythical creatures."

"Like the Mothman?" Suddenly the t-shirt made more sense. 

"Something like that," he agreed. "But I'm fond of dragons. Always have been."

A part of Kira was tempted to blow the whole secret right there for a chance to flirt. Because there was something epically poetic about declaring herself to be a dragon princess. But she had no idea how to string that into something that didn't make her sound clinically insane. 

So she decided to go a different route. 

"I've just recently taken interest." It was true enough. "Do you have any other recommendations?"

If she thought his eyes were sparkling before, they were now the full Fourth of July. "Oh do I! I think I've read nearly every book on dragons in this library. Come on, follow me!"

As she let him lead her deeper into the stacks, she couldn't help but feel charmed, but also like she was falling. Not just in love, as the saying often went, but into something that would be her undoing. Which she supposed was also how love was described, but it would go into her lyric notebook all the same. 

Because she knew that she was the lonely girl, always would be. And as much as Galileo seemed to like her now, she knew eventually he'd find out about the dark that was too heavy to carry, would see the real her someday and back away from the monster.

But she'd enjoy it for now, until she hit the Earth.

She went in for the kill. "I like your earrings, by the way?"

"Really?" He turned back to her, eyes wide in surprise. "Oh, uh, thank you."

"You should tell me where you get them."

"Oh." He tilted his head in consideration. "There's a boutique downtown. If you want to go after school—"

She linked her arm into his and he accepted, although his face went pink. "It's a date."