-Excerpt of Dragon Stone

Chapter One

"Run, Sapphire! Get out of here! I'll hold them off!"

A golden dragon by the name of Sharian was fighting off alien like creatures. I ran off, away from them, and came upon a great big door. It was locked.

One of the creatures followed me there, a look of hatred and a thirst for blood in his eyes. His claws were razor sharp, and so were his teeth.

He launched himself at me. I was trapped with no way out. So this was how I was going to end, I thought. I held my hands over my closed eyes and waited for my death.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

I groaned and leaped out of bed to turn off the alarm clock. I was all sweaty from the nightmare. I looked to see what time it was. 7:30. I scrambled out of bed and got ready for school. I was confused. This was the 3rd time I've had this dream this week. What did it mean? Was it a sign? And who is this Sharian? Was he even real?

I ate my breakfast as quickly as possible to go to the bus stop. My mom came downstairs, her hair looking like Godzilla this morning. She had dark circles around her eyes, and looked tired. With a mouthful of cereal, I said "Good morning."

She looked at me wearied eyed. "Good morning." She started pouring a bowl of cereal from Special K, her new diet of cereal. I don't know why she goes on diets. She's slim, with olive skin and bright blue eyes, which was unusual. Who has dark skin, but blue eyes? But somehow I also inherited the same features. Dark tanned skin, with bright blue eyes. Kids used to call me a freak because of that. That's how I got my name Sapphire.

"You seem to be in a hurry," she said.

"Don't want to be late," I replied. "For the bus," I added.

We ate silently for a while. Dad was at work, my sister, who was sick, was asleep upstairs. After a few more minutes, my mom looked at me. "Sapphire, we need to talk." I looked at her, taking a mouthful of cereal.

She sighed. "Sapphire, I know it's hard for you to blend in, especially since you're new. Most people need to get to know you before they are nice. I know that people think that you are freakish and they make fun of you all the time, and some teachers have a tendency to pick on you…" she paused. "But I don't think that should interfere with your behavior. You have had already two detentions so far, and it's only the second week of school." She looked to see if I was paying attention. "So, what I'm trying to say is that you should watch your behavior, but that I'm proud and will love you no matter what." She kissed my forehead. "Now go, the bus is almost here." I grabbed my backpack and rushed out the door. "Bye Mom!" I called behind me.

When the bus came, I climbed up the stairs and found an empty seat. We passed the first week of high school. Ugh. I hate school. I was the only one from my middle school who was coming to this place. I missed all my friends.

When the bus stopped at our school, I was the first one out. Unlike most people, I don't stop to chat. I go straight to where I'm supposed to go. Besides, I had a plan to make happen.

There was this girl in school, Sierra Coles. She was a scanner. Like basically, she looks you up and down and makes it show. Then if you don't please her with your looks, she'll make a big deal out of it. Gain a gram of fat or grow a pimple, it's the end of your career, and the end of the world. She scanned me from head to toe, and right on top of my head she stopped. She saw my brown skin and bright blue eyes, and she automatically took out her cell phone, and texted the whole school on me. She got 300 replies automatically, and she read them aloud to me. And they weren't friendly replies.

So now I'm going to start a food fight in the cafeteria at lunch time against her. You mess with the bull, you get the horns, buddy. Only Sierra is going to get mayonnaise and ketchup on the front of her shirt.

I walked down the hallway, waiting for someone. I made a new friend, Agua, who apparently didn't care whether or not I had blue eyes. She comments me all the time, but sometimes I'm not sure whether she's complimenting me or my features. Well, I thought that if I was going to throw a food fight and get in trouble, I might as well drag her down with me. She agreed so oh, well.

When I got to the end of the hall, Agua wasn't there. So I just waited until she came. Our bus was the earliest bus in town, so I had about half an hour before class starts.

"Hey, Sapphire?" a voice asks.

I jump about a 5 feet in the air. Man, that person startled me! I turned around and I almost fainted. It was a guy about 6 inches taller than me, with brown hair and bright green eyes. But that's not why I nearly collapse. Automatically when I saw him, the first thing that popped out to me was the golden dragon in my dreams. For a moment, I actually thought he was the dragon. But then I refocused my thoughts and settled down. That can't be possible.

"I'm seeing things," I said, and put my hand to my forehead.

"Ok," he said slowly.

"Um, do I know you?" I asked shortly.

"Oh, sorry," he says. "I'm Sharian. I'm new at the school-"

Oh snaps.

I ran off, away as I could possibly have my legs carry me. I turned around a corner and gasped. Oh, my goodness. I panted for breath, my hands on my knees and my 2 ton book bag on my back. I slid down the wall slowly, and took off my book bag. This was not happening. Now I knew that half of my dreams were true. There was a Sharian. And what was all that stuff of a vision of seeing him as a dragon? That can't be a small coincidence, either. No, something's up.

"Oh, it's the towel head girl," I looked up and saw Sierra Coles striding down the hallway with a couple of people from her fan club. She sneered at me.

"Just back off, I'm not in the mood for your taunts," I said, ignoring her. I was too worried that Sharian might come after me than to listen to her.

"Ooh, I'm so hurt," she said sarcastically.

"Why don't you get a life and shut-up?" I said to her. She opened her mouth to say something, but then snapped it shut.

"Humph," she said, and walked off with her fan club traveling behind.

Just then Agua showed up.

"Oh, look who finally decided to show up," I said, throwing my arms up.

"Well, sorry, Miss Early Bird," she replied. But as she walked up to me, I saw she had a worried glance on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked with concern.

"Do I have a crescent on my forehead?" she asked hesitantly.

"Um, nope," I answered. "Not that I know of."

"Whew," she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Why do you ask?"

"Oh, nothing." She changed the subject abruptly. "So," she lowered her voice. "What are we going to do about Miss Preppy Sierra?"

"Like I said, we're doing a food fight."

"Oh, yeah" she said, suddenly remembering. "But let's go over it one more time, shall we?"

"Um, ok," I said. "Well, first we have to wait for her to do her famous stride acting like she's all popular. When she reaches her table, her high heeled shoes will trip over the line of string, therefore, causing the trap to go off and spill ketchup all over her. Then once people see that, you know how the whole cafeteria starts a food fight once they see food get thrown. It'll be a mad frenzy."

"Hmm, I see," said Agua with her thinking face. Then her face lit up once she saw someone walk near us. "Ooh, hi Sharian!"

I jerked my head to her direction. There he was, walking towards us with every girl's head turned towards him as he walked as if in a slow motion movie with a new guy walking for the first time through the hallway.

"This is sick," I said, mimicking as if I was about to throw-up. I got up on my feet and made a run for it. "Gotta go, Agua. See you later." I made a run for it to class.

Well, first I actually went to the library to do a little bit of research on something that was due. I procrastinate all the time, meaning I leave things to the last minute. So in the end I was the last one to enter class. And smack! The first person I saw was Sharian sitting in the seat right across for me. I silently moaned and headed to my seat. But right when I put my stuff down, the teacher, Mr. Warren, looked up and said, "You're late, Miss Nanuk." I blushed. I hated it when people said my last name. But then I looked at the clock. He was right. I was ten minutes late. "Sorry," I mumbled.

"If it wasn't for our new student, Sharian, who happened to have seen you in the morning, I would have marked you absent," he said with his boring voice.

"Sorry," I apologized again. I sat down and glared at Sharian as Mr. Warren started a lesson on reading. "What are you doing here?" I hissed at him.

"I moved up to Honors class," he told me. "I'm new; the councils just got a hold on my testing scores."

"Humph," I pouted at him. "Just stay away." He flashed me a huge grin. "I'm serious," I said.

"Miss Nanuk," Mr. Warren said. "Is there anything you would like to share with the class?" About 20 pairs of eyes looked back at me. Sierra and her friends snickered.

"Um, no, sir," I murmured. He continued teaching.

At lunch, I eagerly got in line and hastily got to my seat. Agua sat next to me. We watched intently at Sierra and the nearly invisible string near the table where Sierra normally sat. Her high heeled boots clomped to the lunch table. Me and Agua became tense and anxious as she stepped near it. We hoped she would press it. Oh please, I thought. Please, please, please step on it.

Then as if reading my thoughts and prayers, she stopped and looked at me and Agua. Then she flashed us a huge evil grin at us. She looked at the string and behind her shoulder. Sharian passed by, smiling with a tray in his hands, heading for us. She took the point of her boot and put pressure on the line as he passed and backed away just in time. The trap worked, but to my horror, the food fell on Sharian instead of Sierra. He looked at her, and she pointed at me. The whole school started throwing food at each other and started pointing fingers at Sharian and laughing.

But it didn't seem like he cared. Sharian looked at me with a playful expression, and took some of the goop off him. He aimed at me. Oh snaps! I ducked, but I was too late. I got a handful all over my clothes. I pursed my lips and looked at him. "Oh, so that's how you want to play it, huh?" I took a handful of salad with ranch dressing and threw it at him. The whole cafeteria got into a wild frenzy.

We continued for a long time, and didn't stop. But then the lights went off. The principal, in her glasses, stood up on the stage in our cafeteria with the microphone in her hand.

"Oh no," I moaned. Busted.

"Miss Nanuk to the office, please," the principal said. The whole school was quite. I looked at Agua and Sharian, who wouldn't even look at me. I noticed Sierra wasn't by the table, but standing next to the principal with her evil hazel eyes flashing. That snitch! I cursed under my breath. I followed the principal, aware of the hundreds of eyes staring after me, staring at the food all over my clothes and left the cafeteria.

I sat down on one of the leather chairs in the office and looked down. I didn't know what to say. I played with the strings on my shirt and looked around. The new velvet curtains were draped across the window. The violet walls smelled of fresh paint. Last time I came here, the room was blue. The cherry wooden desk had a glass bowl as a decoration with a beta fish in the middle. It blew bubbles at me, as if it recognized me from the last time I came here. The principal sat in front of me, taking a handkerchief and wiping her glasses. After a while, she looked up at me.

"Sapphire, this is the 3rd time you've been sent here. What am I going to do with you?" she said.

You can let this pass, I thought. And let me go. But instead I said, "Sorry, Mrs. Sherwood."

"I'm afraid I have to tell your mother in person," she said to my horror. "Has she been aware of the past 2 times you were sent here?" I nodded. "Well then, now will be a third. Stay after school. I will call your parents and have them in a conference- together," she added.

"That's what I was afraid of," I murmured.

"Then that's settled. You're dismissed and may head to your current class." I got up and walked out the door.

As I walked into Ms. Bakker's class, all of the students looked up. I took a seat in my spot and I wasn't surprised to find Sharian sitting across from me. He made an apologetic face, as if to say sorry about the food fight. I shrugged. I took out my notebook and started taking notes on the world's hardest subject: algebra and geometry.

When the bell rang, everyone headed eagerly out to dismissal, except for me. I had a conference. As Sharian walked out the door, he noticed me heading the wrong direction outside. So naturally, he followed me.

"Um, the exit of this school is that way," he pointed in the opposite direction. I kept on going without paying attention. He looked behind him and back at the direction I was headed for, as if having a conflict between himself. He wasn't sure what to do, so he shrugged and followed me.

I was beginning to get annoyed at him following me everywhere. "Don't you have someplace to go?" I snapped. Sharian looked at me with amusement. "So what if I follow you around?"

"You're getting on my nerves," I gritted my teeth. He flashed me another dazzling white grin, and the whole hallway of girls looked at us. I hated the attention he was getting. He was new, and already he was blending in. Not that I was jealous. I just don't think it's fair, that's all.

"You're jealous," he teased, as if he read my thoughts.

"No," I said quickly. I started walking faster. We were almost there. He caught up to me easily. I tried to change the subject. I tried to see if he had any connection to my dreams. Now was my chance. "Hey you know what's strange? For three times this week, I had a dream about a golden dragon. By the name of Sharian. And he had green eyes." I frowned. I just noticed it. He really did have green eyes. I glanced at Sharian to see how he would react. He seemed to shift around uneasily. "Yeah, what about it?" he said finally.

I smiled a mischievous smile. "Know anything about it?" I asked. I stopped outside the door. He looked at me. "This is where you're stopping?" he said nervously. I nodded. "Um, uh, well, bye, Sapphire, I have to go." He ran the opposite direction.

"Finally," I said to myself. Alone at last. I took a deep breath before I came in. I was getting ready to face the music of my parents. I put my hand on the doorknob and walked in. I gasped at what I saw and nearly screamed. Mrs. Sherwood was on the floor, dead.

Chapter Two

"Help!" I screamed. "Sharian, where are you? Someone help!" The vice principal, Mr. Dutch, rushed in. "What on Earth are you-" he stopped in his tracks when he saw the body. "Oh, my God," he moaned. A crowd started to gather around. A woman tried to push through the crowd. "Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me." It was our councilor, Ms. Maclean. Once she used that tone of voice, you do what she says, or else doom will await you. Once the kids saw her, they backed off. "What happened?" she said in a strict voice. She narrowed her eyes at me. She grabbed my arm, digging her long polished fingernails into my skin. "You're coming with me," she said. Then she looked at Mr. Dutch. "Call the police. Let them handle this." She took me and tried to get me through the crowd. "All right, everyone, back off. There's nothing to worry about."

Yeah, right. Oh, sure, ok. The principal is dead, who seemed like she was murdered, and there's nothing wrong. No need to worry. NOT!

Ms. Maclean took me to her office this time. She sat down. "What happened?" she practically shouted. "What did you do?"

"I didn't do anything!" I yelled back. "I just walked in, and she was dead." But Ms. Maclean still wasn't convinced.

"I'm getting the police," she said finally. "You're under arrest, for murder."

I sat there, shocked. "Y-y-you can't do that," I stammered.

Ms. Maclean sighed and turned around. "Sapphire, you were alone in that room, and we find the principal dead. What do you think that leads us to think? And you were supposed to have a conference with her, which gives us more evidence. What do you want me to do?"

"You can trial me," I said in a high squeaky voice.

"I'm not going to do that," she said simply. "It's too much trouble to go through when you could just admit you killed the principal."