Disclaimer: I don't own How To Train Your Dragon! All credit goes to Dreamworks for making such a fantasic movie!
The door slowly opened to the classroom of 206 and the first thing Avalon saw on the board was a overgrown reptile on the board with wings and a webbed tail. She groaned and rubbed her forehead. Mythology class was the one she always enjoyed, but not when the dragons got ripped out of the textbooks. They are the worst theory ever known to man.
Avalon groaned and rubbed her forehead. "Ava!" Someone said from across the classroom. Avalon looked up and saw her best friend, Mikie, or Mikaela. A smile braced Avalon's lips as she maneuvered through the desks to the back of the classroom where Mikie was saving a seat for her.
"Hiya, Mikie." Avalon slid into the seat and pushed her rectangle framed glasses higher up on the bridge of her nose. Mikie smirked slightly and slid something onto her desk. Avalon looked at the folded up paper and started to twirl the square in her fingers. "What's this?"
"Open it!" Mikie piped up after eagerly waiting for a response. "Okay, okay!" Avalon held up her hands and unfolded the paper, reading Mikie's neat cursive on the page.
"Meet me in the park. Something big has happened." Was all it said. She took a glance at Mikie who was blushing and nodding like a lunatic. All Avalon could do was nod in response to her super hyper friend. "OK, calm down," She said, reaching out and putting her hand on Mikie's neck.
"You'll get whiplash." The girl finally stopped nodding and the bell rang. They're teacher scrambled in, papers sticking out of his briefcase, half of his shirt only tucked in and his auburn hair a total mess. Avalon rolled her eyes. "Typical Mr. Haddens." She mumbled and began to reach in her bookbag.
"Good afternoon, students! Hope you all had a productive weekend," Mr. Haddens said. They all moaned and mumbled a response. Avalon finished digging through her junk and finally pulled out her camera, carefully flipping it open and began to record the class.
"Today is all about dragons!" He began. "Dragons are the biggest mystery to mythology. Do they exist? Are there really giant lizards with tails? Are they able to be trained? Well, we'll find that out, won't we? Now direct your attention to-" He stopped and looked at the camera on Avalon's desk.
"Avalon," He scolded. She smirked before looking up. "What?" She asked in an innocent tone. "What have I told you about filming in class?"
"Only do it when you aren't looking?" She said with a smirk, making the entire class laugh. "No," Haddens snapped. "I told you to never pull that camera out." Avalon groaned and snapped the camera closed, slipping it back into her bag. "Killjoy." She muttered. Though Haddens heard it. "I know. It's why I'm a teacher."
Avalon simply sighed and put her chin on the desk, sitting through his mind-numbing lecture about dragons. Haddens pulled down the -what used to be- map and it had a picture of a chinese dragon on the front, the body parts marked and named. Dragons. Everyone liked the subject, but Avalon. She thought it was completely preposterous.
"Now, we all perceive dragons to just be giant lizards with wings, right?" Haddens started and everyone mumbled in response. "But there actually can be evidence that links us back thousands of years in the past." He pulled up the map and headed to the projector, turning it on. On the screens was a picture of a dragon's skeleton. It had a pretty small body, because of it's small wings, and a little head.
Avalon groaned. "Oh, please..." She couldn't help but mumble to herself as she pretended to be interested in her nails covered in black nail polish. The lectures continued on for a good half an hour before Haddens finally shut the projector off. "Now, as your project, I want you all to create your very own dragon species and create a chart, which you will be presenting to the class." Everyone groaned.
"Now, now, I don't wanna hear it." Haddens said flatly and walked behind his desk, picking up a stack of papers. "Now, I've graded all of your tests on life in Viking time, some did well and some did... Less so." He began to pass out the papers and Avalon looked at her grade. "F" sat at the top of her test. And underneath the letter, the words sat, "See me after class" made her gulp.
How much trouble could she be in though? It's just one test... She waited patiently for the bell to ring and she was left sitting at her desk as everyone bolted out. But Mikie stayed back for a second.
"Hey, you gonna be alright?" She asked Avalon. "Huh?" Avalon finally looked up from her little daydream and tried to remember what Mikie just said. "Oh! Totally, don't worry 'bout me." She gave a forced smile to her friend which she picked up on and nodded, picking up her bag and walking out of the classroom.
Avalon just sat there... Her pencil repeatedly hitting the desk. She waited patiently as Mr. Haddens walked up to her slowly, running a hand through his mess of shaggy hair. "Ms. Avalon," He grabbed a chair and sat himself in front of her desk. Avalon sighed slowly. "Yes, Mr. Haddens?"
"I want to talk to you about the recent subjects." He said and reached for her test paper. "Never in my life have I seen someone get a lower grade than you. And the idea of dragons seem to disgust you... Why is that?" Haddens put the paper back down and Avalon rubbed the back of her neck awkwardly. "Well, Mr. Haddens... I find the idea of Vikings and Dragons to be just a preposterous theory. There was never hardcore evidence that dragons ever existed, and even if they did, that must've been a brave lizard and a dinosaur." She tried to make a joke. Haddens laughed half heartedly and then sighed again.
"Avalon, I want to give you something..." He stood up and headed for the door, closing it and locking it. Avalon's heart stopped and she gulped. Why did he need to lock the door?
"C'mere." He went behind his desk and Avalon slowly stood up, going up to the front of the room. She approached behind his desk and he opened his desk drawer. "OK, Avalon..." He pulled out a black velvet box that seemed pretty large. "What is it?" Avalon asked Haddens.
"It's... Something that has been passed down in my family for... A very long time." Haddens opened the box and inside of it sat a golden necklace in the shape of a very beautiful dragon. It had large wings and a tail with fins but instead of both of the fins being gold, one of them was silver. Avalon gasped. "It's beautiful... Is it real?" She asked him.
Haddens nodded and slowly took it out of the box. "Oh yes. Very, very real." He held it out and she turned around to let him put it around her neck. Avalon held her hair up and Haddens quickly put it on her. She held the pendant in her fingers and blushed a deep crimson. "You're giving this to me?" She asked him.
Haddens nodded. "This is yours. But you have to promise me that you will take care of it. And... I'm giving you a week to study, and you will take that test again." He said to her. Avalon nodded. "This is amazing... What's this though?" She inspected the dragon pendant a little closer, looking at the wings. There seemed to be special iron flakes in it. "That's a special made iron. It's apart of something that was very old in my family. Take good care of it..." He put the box in her hands and she couldn't help but smile wide.
"I promise I will Mr. Haddens!" And with that, she ran out the door, zipping up her jacket to keep her new necklace safe.
Avalon made it to the park and she saw Mikie on the swings. Avalon smirked and sat down next to her in the swing. "OK, what's the big deal, Mikie?"
"Guess where I'm going tomorrow?!" She said, kicking her feet back and forth like a child. Avalon couldn't help herself as she came up with a funny retort, "Uhm... St. Elizabeth's Hospital?"
Mikie passed her a look that read "Seriously?" with a signature smirk that Avalon had gotten so used to seeing.
"You're funny," Mikie responded and let out a chuckle.
"I'm serious!"
"And I'm talking! Shut up," Mikie held up her hand to Avalon's face and she snapped her jaws at Mikie's fingers, which quickly retreated to the chains connecting her to the swing's seat.
"I'm going to..."
"Dramatic pause..." Avalon giggled at her input before Mikie shouted out at the top of her lungs,
"Alaska!"
Avalon covered her ears at Mikie's loud shriek and stared at her friend as she began to jump up and down on the ground, her hands making bird motions and her hair bouncing up and down with every jump as if she was trying to take off.
To say Avalon was shocked was an understatement. They had always spoken about going to Alaska to see it in person, to see all of the rich culture, the beautiful white mountains and most of all, Aurora Borealis. That was their dream, to be on the highest mountains and spend the entirety of their time gazing at the darkened skies that danced with the colorful lights of Aurora Borealis.
Avalon's heart started thumping as she jumped out of the swing. "Are you serious?!" She shouted.
Mikie started nodding vigorously as she grabbed Avalon's hands and began to jump up and down with her, swinging both of their arms back and forth and laughing loudly.
"Oh Ava, its what we've always wanted! To see the Northern Lights, in person!" Mikie said, hugging her friend as they both started laughing like maniacs. But then something in Avalon made her heart sink.
"Wait... You said you're going... That means I'm not," She said, looking down at her feet and all happiness left her face. Mikie stopped jumping and smiling all together.
"Oh Ava... I'm so sorry," She said, pulling Avalon into a hug and stroking her soft and silky hair as she sighed.
"If there was another plane ticket, I would definitely take you..." Avalon's heart felt like it was in her stomach. How could her best friend live their dream without her? It wasn't her fault, that Avalon knew. But it just seemed very unfair.
"I promise we'll keep in touch and I'll be back in three weeks," Mikie said, pulling back as she saw tears in Avalon's eyes.
"I'm gonna miss you, Mikie," She sniffled as
Mikie laughed. "You've always been the sensitive one, huh?"
"Yeah, and you've always been the one living young and reckless!"
"Damn straight." They both shared a laugh and said their goodbyes before it was time for both of them to depart in different directions.
Avalon wiped her eyes free from tears as she headed up her stairs of her front porch and opened the white front door, closing it behind her lazily as the familiar smell of coffee and peppermint. She smiled and set her bag down near the door and took off her shoes.
"Ava!" She heard a shout from upstairs and her ears began to ring. "Mom?!" She shouted back, confused.
"Ava!" Her mother shouted again.
"Mom?!" She shouted again.
"Ava?!"
"Mom!"
Now they were both confused and Avalon ran up the stairs and found her mother in her bedroom, folding up her blankets and sheets, putting them on the shelf in her closet. Avalon smirked and leaned against the doorframe and flipped her black bangs with pink streaks out of her hair and just sighed with content.
Her mother turned to look at her and smiled. "How was school today, honey?" She asked simply, her golden necklace that had her first initial, "J" for Jenna, shining as it hit the light coming through the window.
Avalon shrugged. "It was OK, I guess. I got an F on my Viking test though." She said, dropping the test on her bed and sitting down in the chair next to her desk with her laptop and other cameras.
Jenna gaped at her daughter and picked up the test, looking it over. "Oh, sweetie... I thought you were so good at Mythology! How did you fail this test?" She questioned Avalon who rubbed her forehead.
"I don't know, mom... But I'm taking the test again in a week. You shouldn't worry so much," Avalon said, smiling a little. Her mother smirked and put the test down walking up behind her as she opened her computer and logged on.
"I do worry, sweetheart. You're future is important to me." Jenna stated and rubbed her neck slightly. Just then, Avalon burst and spilled out the words like it was bile in her throat, "Mikie's leaving."
Her mother froze and cleared her throat awkwardly. It was as if she knew exactly where she was going.
It made Avalon's mind start swimming with questions to ask. Why she couldn't go with her? Why did Mikie have to leave now? Why was she leaving in the first place?
But she decided to not voice her opinions and just kept quiet as she stared at her home screen blankly and tapped her fingers on the desk. Jenna remained silent as she removed her hands from her daughter's shoulders and sighed.
"Where is she going?" Jenna broke the silence and Avalon had a response immediately.
"Alaska. I don't know why she's going either. I think she's leaving tonight, but I can't be sure. It isn't worth looking into either." Her eyes filled up with tears again but she quickly wiped them away and sniffled. Her mother's eyes turned a dull color as well as she headed for the door.
"I'm... Gonna get dinner started, honey. Tell me if you need anything." Avalon nodded as Jenna closed the door. A few minutes went by and now Avalon was staring at her screen saver. A series of colorful pipes, twisting and turning every different direction shined bright on the screen.
Avalon put her head down on her hands that lay on her desk and heard the clock ticking on her wall with every passing second. And with every passing second, her eyes started getting heavier, and soon, she fell asleep on her desk, with the sound of the clock pushing her further into the state of deep sleep.
Tick, Tick, Tick... Tick... Tick... Tick