CHAPTER 8
"I," Lily said miserably, "am going to die."
Listening to Lily's tale of woe, Ariel grinned. Lily had been elated when she found out that 'Defeating the Dark' was, indeed, taught by Tanis. Her delight had worn off, however, when she discovered she was supposed to read four chapters and write a 3-page summary of each one. "How could he do that to me?" Lily moaned.
"Hey, at least he didn't assign you an entire book," Ariel retorted. She was almost through the 600-page magic textbook. It was the first volume. The other thirty-nine were on the floor. Her notes were 75 pages long. She had been working for hours, and had only managed to get as far as she was because of her skills in rapid touch-typing and her fast skimming of books. Ariel had a feeling that her hands would be extremely stiff and painful the next day.
"How was that fighting class?" Lily turned a page in her textbook and typed something into her own laptop, which was a disgustingly bright pink.
"Canceled," Ariel said absently, starting the last chapter (finally) of the magic textbook and entering her 77th page of notes. "It was raining, remember. And the evil platypi were using the gym."
Lily grinned. "Less homework for you, though," she pointed out.
"Good point."
"Speaking of platypi, did you notice that they took our dog?"
"No! What did they do to him?" Ariel cried in alarm.
"They say he has true evil potential. Revven conveyed their message. They took him to their Evil Platypi Training Ground. To make him more 'cute', they named him 'Mopsie', apparently. They say they will use his cuteness to get close to important people so he can eat them."
"Pleasant."
"Yeah, I know."
The girls worked in comfortable silence for a while. About ten minutes later, Ariel closed the magic textbook after three hours of reading. She started on the assignment for the dragon class, which only took about half an hour.
"Did you see the printers?" Ariel asked. "They're supposed to be super-fast, and they never run out of paper or ink. Revven told me."
"Yeah, they're really cool!" Lily said, dropping a textbook on the floor and picking up another. "They really do give an insane amount of homework, don't they? Did you finish that textbook?"
"Yeah, at last. I'm working on the dragon notes."
"Good luck. Dragons?"
"Yeah, they're great!"
"I'll take your word for it. Hmm. The cooking class seems easy . only a chapter, imagine."
Ariel finished a list of dragon parts in her notes before commenting. "There's only a chapter in the dragon class, too."
"I know. Let's see.I need to read the last chapter for."
Ariel reached the last page of her dragon textbook, finishing the notes. She then played Dune 2000 for a few hours until dinner. Looking through her schedule after she ate, she discovered that tomorrow was a "2" day, in which she had three classes; 'Why The Dragonlance Characters Are Not Your Lust Objects', 'Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series', and 'The Fighters of Dragonlance: How They Did It'. She readied her textbooks and laptop, hoping that in getting ready in the evening, she would be able to sleep later in the morning.
"G'night, Lily," Ariel said sleepily as she climbed into bed.
"Good night, Ariel."
Ariel woke the next morning, extremely bleary. Revven was bouncing impatiently up and down on her stomach. The moment he opened her eyes, he moved on to Lily ("Why me first?" Ariel mumbled). Once finished, he zipped out the door, calling for all to hear, "WAKE UP!"
Managing to stumble to the bathroom, Ariel put in her contacts and brushed her teeth. Slightly more awake after splashing cold water all over her face, she got dressed in a shirt and jeans (again) and did her hair in a neat ponytail. Glancing at her watch, Ariel saw she had fifteen minutes until breakfast. She used the time to put on sneakers and then sat down to draw something. She was halfway through a dragon claw when Revven sounded the call to breakfast. Finally fully awake, Ariel and Lily joined the sleepy column of students moving toward the cafeteria.
After getting a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and fruit - she felt she needed the sugar - Ariel sat down at her table, where Kiara and Liara were already arguing. Digging into her watermelon, Ariel listened.
"You redid your pitcher!" Liara exclaimed happily as Kiara sat down with a black pitcher on her tray. Ariel gulped, seeing Kiara's new label on the pitcher. Kiara gave Liara a death glare and twisted the pitcher around so she could see the label. It said "PROPERTY OF KIARA ONLY" above a large picture of skull and crossbones.
That day Liara had a purple and blue tye-dye pitcher, with "Liara" written on it in simple silver print. Kanth fluttered down, proudly bearing his own mini-pitcher. It was painted gold and labeled in black, "PROPERTY OF KANTH ONLY". Under it was a gruesome picture of a dragon eating a screaming knight.
"Kanth," Liara said reproachfully. Lanth also flew down, bearing an almost exact replica of Kanth's pitcher. The difference was, Lanth's was silver and had "LANTH" written on it in blue. Under it was a picture of a blue rose.
Kanth lifted the sugar shaker at the table. It had been placed there exclusively for the use of Kiara and Kanth, in the hope that there would be some sugar left for the students. The gold dragon unscrewed the top and dumped the entire thing into his small pitcher. "Good for you, Kanth," Kiara said approvingly through a chocolate chip flapjack. (A flapjack is an enormous pancake.)
Finishing her fruit, Ariel started on her pancakes. "You see, Liara?" Kiara said triumphantly. "I won."
"What?" Liara said, surprised.
"I said that I would influence Ariel's breakfast so she'd eat sugar before you would do it so she could eat fruit. I won, see?"
Ariel stared.
"Well," Liara said slyly, "I guess that's true. But she was eating an equal amount of fruit salad before she ate the pancakes."
Kiara glared. "But I bet it weighed less."
"But she ate it first, which implies that she liked it better."
Kiara sighed. "Neither one of us won, okay? It's too early in the morning to argue."
Smiling, Liara nodded. "Of course. You brought it up, of course, but I will overlook it if you cover what we were going to do to the loser of our bet."
"That's not fair!" Kiara said accusingly.
Liara winked at Ariel. "You see, our bet was the winner got ten steel coins. The loser had to teach an embarrassing lesson to you."
Ariel looked up, curious. "What?"
"Ahh, maybe I should surprise you."
"Liara, you wouldn't really do that, would you?"
"Oh, all right."
"So what is it?"
Liara grinned evilly as she drank more hot chocolate. "Dragon mating and reproducing habits."
Kiara smiled with an evil glint in her eyes. "I'm sure your class will appreciate it, aren't you, Ariel?"
Ariel collapsed into laughter.
A/N: Those of you who have reviewed this . THANK YOU!!! To answer AngelDragonStar's question (was that a question?), the textbooks are probably 400pages.
"I," Lily said miserably, "am going to die."
Listening to Lily's tale of woe, Ariel grinned. Lily had been elated when she found out that 'Defeating the Dark' was, indeed, taught by Tanis. Her delight had worn off, however, when she discovered she was supposed to read four chapters and write a 3-page summary of each one. "How could he do that to me?" Lily moaned.
"Hey, at least he didn't assign you an entire book," Ariel retorted. She was almost through the 600-page magic textbook. It was the first volume. The other thirty-nine were on the floor. Her notes were 75 pages long. She had been working for hours, and had only managed to get as far as she was because of her skills in rapid touch-typing and her fast skimming of books. Ariel had a feeling that her hands would be extremely stiff and painful the next day.
"How was that fighting class?" Lily turned a page in her textbook and typed something into her own laptop, which was a disgustingly bright pink.
"Canceled," Ariel said absently, starting the last chapter (finally) of the magic textbook and entering her 77th page of notes. "It was raining, remember. And the evil platypi were using the gym."
Lily grinned. "Less homework for you, though," she pointed out.
"Good point."
"Speaking of platypi, did you notice that they took our dog?"
"No! What did they do to him?" Ariel cried in alarm.
"They say he has true evil potential. Revven conveyed their message. They took him to their Evil Platypi Training Ground. To make him more 'cute', they named him 'Mopsie', apparently. They say they will use his cuteness to get close to important people so he can eat them."
"Pleasant."
"Yeah, I know."
The girls worked in comfortable silence for a while. About ten minutes later, Ariel closed the magic textbook after three hours of reading. She started on the assignment for the dragon class, which only took about half an hour.
"Did you see the printers?" Ariel asked. "They're supposed to be super-fast, and they never run out of paper or ink. Revven told me."
"Yeah, they're really cool!" Lily said, dropping a textbook on the floor and picking up another. "They really do give an insane amount of homework, don't they? Did you finish that textbook?"
"Yeah, at last. I'm working on the dragon notes."
"Good luck. Dragons?"
"Yeah, they're great!"
"I'll take your word for it. Hmm. The cooking class seems easy . only a chapter, imagine."
Ariel finished a list of dragon parts in her notes before commenting. "There's only a chapter in the dragon class, too."
"I know. Let's see.I need to read the last chapter for."
Ariel reached the last page of her dragon textbook, finishing the notes. She then played Dune 2000 for a few hours until dinner. Looking through her schedule after she ate, she discovered that tomorrow was a "2" day, in which she had three classes; 'Why The Dragonlance Characters Are Not Your Lust Objects', 'Why Dragonlance Is Not Just Another Stupid Fantasy Series', and 'The Fighters of Dragonlance: How They Did It'. She readied her textbooks and laptop, hoping that in getting ready in the evening, she would be able to sleep later in the morning.
"G'night, Lily," Ariel said sleepily as she climbed into bed.
"Good night, Ariel."
Ariel woke the next morning, extremely bleary. Revven was bouncing impatiently up and down on her stomach. The moment he opened her eyes, he moved on to Lily ("Why me first?" Ariel mumbled). Once finished, he zipped out the door, calling for all to hear, "WAKE UP!"
Managing to stumble to the bathroom, Ariel put in her contacts and brushed her teeth. Slightly more awake after splashing cold water all over her face, she got dressed in a shirt and jeans (again) and did her hair in a neat ponytail. Glancing at her watch, Ariel saw she had fifteen minutes until breakfast. She used the time to put on sneakers and then sat down to draw something. She was halfway through a dragon claw when Revven sounded the call to breakfast. Finally fully awake, Ariel and Lily joined the sleepy column of students moving toward the cafeteria.
After getting a stack of chocolate chip pancakes and fruit - she felt she needed the sugar - Ariel sat down at her table, where Kiara and Liara were already arguing. Digging into her watermelon, Ariel listened.
"You redid your pitcher!" Liara exclaimed happily as Kiara sat down with a black pitcher on her tray. Ariel gulped, seeing Kiara's new label on the pitcher. Kiara gave Liara a death glare and twisted the pitcher around so she could see the label. It said "PROPERTY OF KIARA ONLY" above a large picture of skull and crossbones.
That day Liara had a purple and blue tye-dye pitcher, with "Liara" written on it in simple silver print. Kanth fluttered down, proudly bearing his own mini-pitcher. It was painted gold and labeled in black, "PROPERTY OF KANTH ONLY". Under it was a gruesome picture of a dragon eating a screaming knight.
"Kanth," Liara said reproachfully. Lanth also flew down, bearing an almost exact replica of Kanth's pitcher. The difference was, Lanth's was silver and had "LANTH" written on it in blue. Under it was a picture of a blue rose.
Kanth lifted the sugar shaker at the table. It had been placed there exclusively for the use of Kiara and Kanth, in the hope that there would be some sugar left for the students. The gold dragon unscrewed the top and dumped the entire thing into his small pitcher. "Good for you, Kanth," Kiara said approvingly through a chocolate chip flapjack. (A flapjack is an enormous pancake.)
Finishing her fruit, Ariel started on her pancakes. "You see, Liara?" Kiara said triumphantly. "I won."
"What?" Liara said, surprised.
"I said that I would influence Ariel's breakfast so she'd eat sugar before you would do it so she could eat fruit. I won, see?"
Ariel stared.
"Well," Liara said slyly, "I guess that's true. But she was eating an equal amount of fruit salad before she ate the pancakes."
Kiara glared. "But I bet it weighed less."
"But she ate it first, which implies that she liked it better."
Kiara sighed. "Neither one of us won, okay? It's too early in the morning to argue."
Smiling, Liara nodded. "Of course. You brought it up, of course, but I will overlook it if you cover what we were going to do to the loser of our bet."
"That's not fair!" Kiara said accusingly.
Liara winked at Ariel. "You see, our bet was the winner got ten steel coins. The loser had to teach an embarrassing lesson to you."
Ariel looked up, curious. "What?"
"Ahh, maybe I should surprise you."
"Liara, you wouldn't really do that, would you?"
"Oh, all right."
"So what is it?"
Liara grinned evilly as she drank more hot chocolate. "Dragon mating and reproducing habits."
Kiara smiled with an evil glint in her eyes. "I'm sure your class will appreciate it, aren't you, Ariel?"
Ariel collapsed into laughter.
A/N: Those of you who have reviewed this . THANK YOU!!! To answer AngelDragonStar's question (was that a question?), the textbooks are probably 400pages.