Chapter 8

Jake awoke the next morning to find his bed empty, shocked and terrified of what might have happened to Lian the whole time he quietly got ready for school. Had she been taken by some Shade Demons or other evil while she slept, had she just run off alone to leave him to his fate, had her parents found her and assumed the worst and he was now in so much trouble it wasn't even funny?

But the whole time he got ready, from going to the bathroom to getting dressed to going down for breakfast he hadn't seen any clue of any of those things, and his parents were normal as ever as they came to the kitchen to quickly grab breakfast and run off to work.

"Have a good day at school, Jake," his mom waved him off as they both exited out the door together, she going one direction and he the other. As he walked a little past his stoop he suddenly heard a sharp whistle, looking behind the wall to see Lian crouched down and waiting, changed into new clothes and her hair wet like she had washed it.

"Hey," she greeted him especially cheerfully, stepping up and studying him a little, "Huh, so you really wear the same thing every day?"

"Hey, I don't need lip from the mysterious street dragon with such a big wardrobe," Jake snapped at her quickly, pulling her to the side to talk in private, "Where were you anyway, I was freaked out all this morning."

"I woke up and got ready long before anyone this morning to do some things," Lian said somewhat cryptically, smiling bigger as she noticed his raised eyebrow, "Come on, you have school now, don't you?"

"Yeah," Jake said, still just a little weirded out but just going with it as they began to walk along, "Let's go to school then."

"Hey-oh," Trixie greeted as she saw Jake coming up to the school, her smile fading a little as she saw Lian tagging along with him.

"Hey, it's the dragon girl, Lian!" Spud greeted, happy as he came up and gave her a clap on the back while trying to angle at Jake to talk, "How's it going? Good to see ya! Jake-why-is-she-here?"

"Spud!" The teen quickly admonished him.

"Jake, why is she here though?" Trixie asked, giving a disapproving glance at the smiling Lian.

"Look, she's stronger than me and clearly knows what she's doing, so she's gonna stick around to help us with the Dark Dragon business," Jake tried to explain to his friends, "Just trust me, alright? I got a good feeling about this."

"It's not you I don' trust, it's still her!" Trixie said, looking directly at Lian and looking for a reaction, "I mean, no offense missy, but we still know barely anything about you, how can we be sure to trust you?"

"Besides the fact I saved your lives numerous times yesterday?" Lian quipped back, raising her eyebrow at her a little as she smirked.

"Yeah, besides that!" Trixie quipped back, beginning to get up in her face and lian beginning to rise to the challenge.

"Hey, hey!" Jake quickly stepped between the two, trying to keep the tensions down, "Easy Trix! Look, she wants to help alright, so let's just all try to work together, okay?"

"Alright, alright, fine," Trixie finally relented, backing up from Lian but pointing a finger at her, "But mama Trixie got her eye on you."

"Okay well-Spud, can you agree to that too?" they all looked over to see Spud just twirling his fingers as he hummed to himself, jumping and paying attention as he saw their insistent stares.

"Yeah-yup! Spudinksi is on the case-or job-um-" Luckily for him the school bell rang at just that moment, the four teens all looking at each other nervously.

"So-um-what's my cover again?" Lian blurted out nervously.

After discussing it a few more minutes after the bell, the group had decided to introduce Lian as "visiting mom's sister's cousin exchange student Chinese" after a rather awkward and nervous run in with the homeroom teacher, managing to really make it work by explaining that Lian spoke so little due to the strep throat they had been "sick" with yesterday. Mrs. Grachi just sighed, shrugged, and went back to her desk, the story sticking so that by lunch time Lian was accepted as a full time student, blending in by just keeping nearly mute and burying her nose in the books given to her in each class. By lunchtime a few students had even introduced themselves to her, mostly freshmen boys who shyly tried to make small talk only for Lian to just smile as he gestured at her throat, winking at the group as she chuckled a little at her charade.

After a day of catching up with the whirlwind left from the first day of school missed, which fortunately wasn't too much missed this year, the four teens were relieved as the school day ended, no magical hijinks ensuring the entire day.

"Well, nothing happened but some extra homework," Trixie said as they walked down the street past the crowd, tugging at her heavy book bag, "That's a relief at least, if not disappointing."

"Could be, could be not," Lian said, smiling kindly at her as she took her bookbag from her, easily slinging it onto her back and walking much easier than the other girl had, "Just because something hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it won't. We still have Grampa's shop and the airport, after all."

"She's right," Jake said, kicking down his skateboard and pulling Lian on, much to her surprise, "We're going to make sure everything is safe over there, and then we're going to secure Rose and everyone else until this Dark Dragon business is really in the clear."

"Um, I've actually never ridden on one of these," Lian gulped, for the first time appearing genuinely nervous to the trio.

"No worries, just stay up and hold on," Jake assured her, grinning as he kicked off and they went. Lian at first held on so tight he almost couldn't move, but soon relaxing enough that he actually seemed to be enjoying it, even laughing for a second as they coasted down a hill. Jake found it strange, but he also found it great, starting to really connect to her not in a romantic way, but a friendly care that she seemed to enjoy. It made him happy that she was happy, almost like she was a new friend that he wanted to be sure had a good time, and that's when he realized it, she was a new friend, and he did want her to enjoy herself after the rough road she seemed to be enduring, a thought that made him smile big.