Friday

Friday…

“Well, it’s Friday. How about a little celebration?” Dane said, pulling a bag from his coat pocket.

“What’s that?” Juniper asked.

“This is a little harmless relaxation. Snobweed.” He took one out and tossed the bag to her.

She reviewed the bag’s contents and saw a clear slimy substance, much like a cube of jelly. She picked it up. It clung to her fingers and smelled like flowers. Then she passed the bag to Finch. Kacey didn’t ditch today, but Juniper couldn’t miss the opportunity to be herself. Before they parted ways, Kacey had warned Juniper about ditching responsibly.

Juniper wasn’t too worried about missing anything in math class because her tutor would still force her for a good hour or two on the subject, despite ditching or not.

She groaned inwardly to herself. It had been a week since she came to the Valnoco realm, and she didn’t feel like she fit. She missed her family and felt lonely here except when she ditched math. Kai seemed to be very busy and stressed. She only saw him for dinner. He would return late and leave early in the morning.

Juniper wasn’t sure if it was because of the day she was attacked or if he was distancing himself from the night, they had their argument. Either way, she didn’t feel confident. Her possessive side didn’t want to be rejected, thrown into a pit of lava, and Kai pursued another lady.

She didn’t know what she should do. She hadn’t seen Stasia since the attack, and she doubted Dayton wouldn’t be any help.

She wanted to leave the heated hell and return to her everyday life. She thought about escaping, but as far as she knew, she would need a dragon to go and didn’t know the way. Heck, she didn’t even know how to ride a dragon yet.

The university was home to some of the best courses in dragon training and riding, but because she’s a human, Kai had decided to hold off on learning anything she thought would be interesting.

Instead, she was stuck with classes focused on the divide between Earthlings and Valnocons, which is great fun to learn about, especially since she was considered the enemy. The course also spoke about how the horde divided. Kai was a part of the Groda horde, but there were five hordes all together.

Juniper’s mind was overloaded with information that she could barely remember what day it was, let alone the name of the other hordes.

“Suck on it like this, Junes,” Finch spoke, taking her train of thought back to the present. He showed her as he slurped on one end, taking the substance from the inside out. He drank it away like a Jell-O shot.

Juniper followed his lead as she inwardly hoped it would feel like Longxie, the elixir Kai had given her the night they met.

Seconds passed.

The chirping of the creepy crawling forest seemed to ease away and suddenly didn’t seem so scary. It was like Juniper was back home. She felt homesick; this was the closest remedy she had, the only sense of control she felt. The birds were chirping—a soft, comforting melody as she let out a hum.

Juniper felt like she needed this. This week had been so much that she barely had time to think for herself. Yet she couldn’t shut her mind off about her family and new life. She felt her mind go to sleep, her body relax, and she was wide awake in the blissful present.

...

“Enjoy your trip,” Dane said, hugging her before they split ways for class. They skipped lunch and stayed staring at the ashen sky, listening to the sounds of foreign nature and smelling the freshness of volcanic air. She shook her head a bit, feeling the dizziness becoming more potent.

The class was a trip. The teacher talked about the war between humans and dragons. Humans in masses would come to dragons, slaughter them for their blood, get high, and do it again.

As the teacher spoke, Juniper lived every scene as if she was there herself. The drug was swimming in her veins, and she swore it became stronger, as if it duplicated in her bloodstream.

The surrounding scenes unfolded as dragons flew around the classroom and humans thrashed around. A dragon’s size and strength significantly triumphed over a human’s abilities, but the massive amount of human hordes could overpower a dragon.

Once Juniper had watched a video of a group of hyenas hunting a boar, they started eating their prey before it was even dead. The visions she saw in front of her were no different as they held the dragon down, trying up its mouth and gorging into the scales’ soft skin, drinking straight from the source. The dragon let out a mournful moan.

Juniper’s hand shook as she watched her hallucinations. She knew she was in class, it was all in her mind, so she did her best not to make a sound or act out of the ordinary.

“You alright, Juniper?” Professor Galeon asked. Juniper nodded, paranoid that if she spoke, she would get caught. He gave her a stern look before he continued with his lecture.

Professor Galeon was the only teacher who seemed to dislike her. Maybe he is very passionate about history, but she felt it affected how he saw her. The way he looked at her was like he knew what she was up to and intended to get her in trouble for it.

She fought her hallucinations for the final three classes. Once she was out of history class, her trip was much more blissful. She walked out of the school, looking for her guards to take her back. Her gut fell to her stomach when she saw Kai waiting for her instead.

Someone must of fucking told him I’m high.