Chapter 1 – The Beginning

"Good morning, Elena!" I said aloud to myself as I looked in the bathroom mirror. Then I heard a voice calling me from out in the hall.

"Miss Florea where are you?" my servant Alba shouted.

"In the bathroom." I replied as I switched off the light and stepped into the dark hallway, almost being knocked down by Alba.

"Oh, sorry Elena, I didn't see you there. I promise it won't happen again". She said apologetically.

I righted myself as and said, "Not to worry. Can you make me a cup of that delicious Rozmarin dulce sweet rosemary tea, please?"

"Of course. Would you like some Plăcintă cu cartofi as well?" she asked.

"Yes." I replied excitedly. This pastry dish was a flat, round dough patty stuffed with mashed potatoes, and then fried in oil until golden brown on both sides. Alba made it even better by adding grated cheese and sautéed chopped onions. This was such a yummy treat and always filled my belly.

I turned on my device and went to the weather app to see what the weather would be like for today. The app showed that for today, October 9th, 2022, it would be sunny with a high of nine degrees, but feeling like 2. Yikes, is it getting colder, I thought to myself and making a mental note that I should wear an extra sweater today.

After breakfast, I packed my school books and put on my coat and shoe and said goodbye to Alba.

"Yes, you better go now, so you are not late. Have a good day." Alba said, as she did up the top button on my jacket and put a hat on my head.

"Thank you, Alba. I will see you later. Have a good day yourself." I said as I took off the hat and threw it back on the bench. She shook her head at me, knowing we go through this same thing every morning when the weather gets colder. Wearing a hat wasn't cool anymore, and would mess up my hair.

Later, as I arrived at Kizuna Middle school class 3C, I saw my friends Ioana and Sofia as they greeted me at the door to our class.

"Good morning, Elena, how are you today?" Sofia said in usual cheery way.

"Hey Sofia, don't brother her, class is about to begin, and we don't want to be late," Ioana said as she hurried her way to her seat in the classroom.

The teacher came inside and with him was a new student. The boy stood in front of the class and said, "Hi, my name is Yuu and I just moved here to Romanian from Kyoto, Japan." the boy said.

"You will be sitting next to Miss Florea." The teacher said and showed him where to sit.

Later, after our morning classes were done, and it was time for lunch, everyone went over to Yuu's desk and started asking him questions.

"Hey, how old are you?"

"How do you know how to speak Romanian?"

Yuu replied, "My birthday is in March and I will be 15. I am fluent in Romanian, Japanese, Korean and of course English."

After everyone had gathered their lunch things and gone on their way, I invited Yuu to join me for lunch.

"Hey, how can you speak four different languages?" I asked him as we climbed up to my special, secret spot on the rooftop." "

" Oh, my father taught me to speak Romanian, I self-taught myself English." he told me.

Before he could finish telling me how he is so multi-lingual, I said, "Wait, I hear something! Get down! It's here. The white dragon, Gura Alba." I whispered.