Dragon 1 Chapter 8

Normally I wasn’t a clothing guy, but I had to say I felt pretty good as I walked into biology wearing some of my purchases from the day before. My new jeans looked better now that I’d put on more muscle mass, and the simple white shirt with my new favorite leather jacket made me feel a bit more armored.

The classroom was the same as it had been for the last few weeks, the same cheap linoleum tiles, white with black splashes to hide scuffs, and cheap stadium seating. But I had changed enough that it no longer felt the same. The massive room seemed smaller now, despite being able to hold two hundred students.

Professor Finstein was up front and struggling to get his computer connected to the wireless projector. I scanned the room, looking for Scarlett, but it didn’t look like she’d arrived yet.

I stepped all the way down the aisle and got Finstein’s attention. “Do you want me to give it a try?”

He scowled briefly before stepping away from his computer in a non-verbal agreement for help. His laptop was a clunky gray brick, and either he was running a ten-year-old operating system or he was one of those that liked to take the options on the new OS to make it look old.

I almost laughed to myself as I considered that some IT guy had done that to make it easier for him.

“It isn’t connecting?” I asked. The blue screen on the projector behind me already told me the answer.

“No. It was there yesterday. Right here.” He pulled up the page for connected devices and pointed to a spot that was now truly empty.

“Uh, huh. Let me see what I can do.” I hit find new devices, and Finstein bristled behind me.

“I tried that. It can’t find the projector.” There was a certain tone the older generation took when they were flustered with technology, somewhere between exasperation and denial.

I checked the remote for the projector, and sure enough, there was a ‘find me’ button that I hit, and a blue blinking light lit up to confirm the action.

It only took a moment for the projector to reappear in his connected devices list again.

“Now I feel stupid.” He sighed. “I need to find new devices on the computer and then hit that button on the projector?” He reached for the remote and I gave it to him.

He stared at the remote, muttering to himself. “Find me. I guess that makes sense. Thanks…” He paused. He clearly didn’t know my name, although I couldn’t blame him with how many students were in the class.

“Zach Pendragon.”

His brows went up at my name. “Oh. I remember that name on the roster. Hard to forget a last name like that. Thanks for the help. Now go get seated before that girl gets up and drags you with her.” He gave me a knowing smile.

I followed his eyes, finding Scarlett sitting back in the third row at the edge. She blushed when our eyes locked. With both the professor and me staring at her, it was obvious the professor had said something, even if she didn’t hear him.

Getting off the lectern, I made my way over to Scarlett. “Is this seat taken?” I asked, seeing her bag in the seat beside her.

“No, it’s for you.” She lifted the bag and shoved it under her seat without looking.

I could feel a few eyes of other men around me staring as I sat down. I smiled to myself, my beast puffing up as we got to claim the girl next to us as mine. At least for that class.

“Thanks.” I got my notebook out as the professor cleared his throat and looked directly at Scarlett and me before he started.

“I hope you are all comfortable, because today we are talking about. Huckel’s rule of aromaticity. Bonus question.” He pointed dead at me. “Zach, does chemical aromaticity have anything to do with our sense of smell?”

I started kicking myself. Finstein clearly didn’t know many names in the class, and now I’d just become one of them. I’d made myself a target for when he needed participation. At least I’d managed to read the chapter already.

“No, or at least, not broadly. His early research identified the phenomena by smell, but that’s only applicable for a small number of the chemicals.”

“Correct. That one will be on the test. Easy points if you read and come to class.” Finstein emphasized the last part, clearly wanting to make sure people showed up to his class. Turning to his presentation slides, he started rambling more about chemical aromaticity.

“Nice job.” Scarlett murmured. “Thought for a second he was going to call on me.”

I gave a halfhearted chuckle. “I think my name was just top of mind from helping him with the projector.”

“Better you than me, apparently. I couldn’t get any reading done last night.” She rolled her eyes. I looked over, specifically interested in what color they would be. They were the same bright emerald as I remembered at the end of our encounter. The adrenaline must have gotten to me when I almost got hit by the cyclist. There’s no way she had gold eyes.

“And next we have an example of that in the benzene family, as you can see…” The professor continued class, and I tried to focus on what he was saying and not on the moments when Scarlett’s arm would brush against mine.

***

“That’s all. I hope you read up through chapter 7 before tomorrow. We won’t get through it all, but at least have the first half read or you might be lost.” Finstein closed his lecture for the day.

“He’s really moving really quickly through the material.” Scarlett packed away her things in a small bag with leather straps.

“Yeah, at this rate, he’s going to finish the textbook in half the semester. Maybe he’ll slow down.”

“Or go off, book.” Scarlett rolled her eyes. “Plus, it’s not like we’ll use most of this unless we are working on programming the computer models.”

Damn, she was so in sync with me. That comment had been on the tip of my tongue. “Exactly.” I finished grabbing my stuff and shuffled my bag onto my shoulder. I paused, not wanting to head off my own way, but not sure what to do next.

She saw my hesitation and looked up at me with a bit of hesitation as she swung her own bag over her shoulder. “Hey, do you want to grab a bite to eat? I missed lunch, and I’m starving.”

“Sure.” I couldn’t have sounded more eager, but that earned me a smile, so I didn’t feel too weird about it. “I seem to be starving all the time lately.”

Her eyes wandered over me, and I was suddenly very happy with my recent transformation. “You look a lot better in those clothes. Either I hit my head pretty hard the other day, or your other outfit really hid your frame.”

“Thanks.” I stepped out into the aisle and headed out of class, doing everything in my power not to look over my shoulder to check to see that she was behind me. When she stepped up beside me after we left class, I asked. “Kinsey for lunch?”

“Yes please. They at least serve hot food, unlike the other food courts.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’d like to have something more than a preservative ladened muffin.”

“Trying to keep away from processed foods?” I asked, making conversation.

“No, I just avoid muffins.”

I chuckled, and we shared a laugh. “But really, what did muffins do to you?”

“Besides threatening my waistline, I have a love-hate relationship with muffins.” Scarlett blew a raspberry.

I wasn’t sure she needed to worry about muffins much. She was a compact little thing. The crest of her bright red hair coming up to my chest, I put her at maybe 5’6”. She wasn’t crazy skinny, but she was trim with lean muscle that looked like she spent plenty of time at her workout of choice.

“Muffins is it? Then what’s your favorite kind?”

Her face twisted with indecision. “It’s too hard to choose. Anything but chocolate chips.”

I gasped in fake outrage. “Please tell me you don’t have a thing against chocolate.”

She laughed. “Please, chocolate is fantastic. Just not in a muffin. It is like a copout. No, you put a little fruit, maybe some vanilla or cinnamon, to sweeten them up. Chocolate is like…” She paused, thinking for a good analogy. “Like assuming you have a catalyst in every chemical equation. Totally cheating.”

“You just geeked out on me.” I didn’t hate it, that was for sure. She had looks and brains.

“Better get used to it.” She gave me a wide grin.

The more she talked, the more I liked her. The spunk made me happy. She wasn’t some sorority girl that would cry about breaking a nail. And we seemed to click. Normally I was awkward with women, but it was easy with her.

Even the beast was being patient, not wanting to screw this one up. “I think I could get used to it.”

Her eyes went wide at that, and I worried I’d gone too far too quickly. As I started to backtrack, she blushed so hard her cheeks nearly blended into her hair. “Thanks.” She said quietly.

She was so cute when she blushed. I wanted to pull her into a hug, but decided not to push my luck. “No problem, here let me get the door.” I stepped forward and snagged the door to the dining hall, flinging it open and nearly smacking myself in the face.

“Careful.” She laughed, breaking the tension.

“The retractor must not be working. Normally these things feel like you’re trying to move a boulder.” We both glanced up at the metal arm. It was connected, but I hoped it didn’t seem odd. Clearly, I needed to work on recalibrating to my new strength. I was pretty sure I’d almost torn the door off its hinges.

“Or you might just be too strong.” Her eyes squeezed tight with the laughter that followed. I joined her, trying not to show how true that might be.

“Come on. Don’t just stand there.” Scarlett pulled me back to the present and into the dining hall.

She turned back partially, smiling a bright smile up at me. Her green eyes sparkled, and I found myself caught a bit, just wanting to stare at her longer. “You’re beautiful.” It slipped out, but it was also true.

Scarlett blushed all the way to the tips of her ears. “Cut it out. Food, then I’ll meet you there.” She pointed to a currently abandoned table.

“Sounds good.” I was feeling hungry again, so I grabbed anything that sounded good. There were a number of options to choose from. Different types of food lined a wall that went back to a half circle, with more shops before dumping into the main eating area.

The pizza place called to me, but I’d eaten enough pizza lately. So I pivoted and went with Italian. Grabbing a bowl of spaghetti and meatballs and heading to the dining area, I saw Scarlett had beaten me and was digging into a burrito the size of her head.

“Think that thing might try to eat you back.” I teased, sitting down and unwrapping my plastic silverware.

“I may be pretty small, but I’m pretty ferocious when I want to be. This burrito doesn’t stand a chance.” She bit violently into the side of it to prove a point.

I gave her a look of mock horror. “I can see that. Nevermind. I feel pity for the burrito.”

We settled into eating, and I took a look around. The dining hall was still running even though it was two o’clock, but it was a pretty sparse crowd. There was enough ambient chatter to make it comfortable to have a conversation, but we didn’t have to yell to talk to each other. Returning to my food, I saw Scarlett watching me.

“Got a girlfriend I’m not supposed to see?” Scarlett teased, raising an eyebrow.

I pointed my fork at her and shook my head as I said, “No.” Wanting to make sure she was comfortable, I added, “Not really many exes even. I normally keep busy between the weekend job and classes.”

“EMT, I remember. Can I assume you are pre-med then?”

“Sorta the plan for now. How about you?”

“I’m straight Chem. Lots of opportunities there in just about every manufacturing field.”

“Something in particular must call to you.” I prodded.

“We all have to start in a lab somewhere. I guess for now I’m assuming I’ll end up in Pharma, mostly because it pays some of the best for when I’m starting out.”

I nodded. It made sense, but I was a bit bummed she was going after the money and not a passion. I changed the subject. “So, what’s your workout routine like?” Based on her toned body, I assumed she must do some sort of workout.

“Oh, just some basics. I do Krav Maga so be careful buster.” She waggled her brows at me, and I knew she was just teasing. “How about you? Wait, let me guess, you lift.” Her lips curled into a smile.

I gave her a little dramatic performance. “How did you know?”

She was working through that burrito quickly and suddenly I realized our little stop might end soon, and I really didn’t want it to.

I was really starting to like her. Beautiful, fun, and smart. It was hard to believe she wasn’t already taken.

“So —” I awkwardly paused, fumbling with what the correct follow up to ‘so’ was. “ —Want to have dinner and drinks,” I paused again, clearly not having thought out where I was going very well, so I just went ahead and went for it. “Tonight?”

Her mouth opened to answer, but my phone started blaring in my pocket. I checked it, but I didn’t recognize the number and hit to end the call.

“You can answer it. It’s fine.” She looked at my phone.

“Didn’t recognize the number.” I explained. “About the—” My phone started ringing again, the same number.

“Go ahead. I’m not running away just yet.”

I gave her a smile and answered. “Hello?”

“Zach.” Morgana’s Swedish accent said hastily. “I need you to come right away. I have a job for you.”

“Tonight?” I looked at Scarlett with a frown. “I was just making plans for tonight.”

“Cancel them. Isn’t learning to live more important?”

It sounded pretty darn important, but I didn’t want to cancel on Scarlett. Apparently, the girl in question understood that I was in a tight place. “Go ahead. She sounds urgent. I should do a sorority activity we have tonight, anyway.” She didn’t get up and leave after saying that, so I figured I still had a shot.

“Great, sounds like your date just canceled. You should bring her by some night so I can get a look at her. Her voice is lovely.” Morgana switched back to teasing. “I’ll expect you in the next hour.” Her phone clicked off, almost like she still had one of those old receiver phones.

I hung up and looked back at Scarlett. “Sorry about that.”

“No exes?” Her eyebrow cocked in a way that put my answer as something that could sink or swim all of this.

“That was my new boss. She’s kind of hot and cold.” Given that I was going to work for her, at least temporarily, it was only fair to call her my boss. My very hot, and sometimes overly suggestive, boss. But Scarlett didn’t need to know that.

Scarlett’s look of doubt cleared up. “Oh. That makes sense. I’m busy tonight and tomorrow, but Sunday?” She seemed as eager as I was to find a time soon, and I took that as a good sign.

“Yes. I’ll make it work. Phone number?” I opened the contacts and spun it around on the table for her.

She didn’t miss a beat, snatching it up and typing into it far longer than she needed to for just her name and number.

I leaned over to the side, curious, but she smirked and tilted the phone and held it closer. “No peeking.” She deleted something and then typed again before handing it back to me.

‘The fabulous and foxy Scarlett’ read her name across the top of the contact. I laughed. It looked like she also enjoyed staking her claim. Not like I could have that show up when I was with another girl and still stand a chance.

“Oh, by the way, would you mind if I made it a double date?” She bit her lip, and I could tell she felt bad even asking. I would have preferred just us, but I knew a double date might help her be more comfortable, too. But before I could answer, she continued on. “My friend, the one that just got here, she is probably going out with her new guy this weekend, and I know she’d feel a lot more comfortable if I was there.”

That made me feel better; it was more for her friend’s comfort than hers. “Are you sure you aren’t just using me as muscle?”

Scarlett waved that away. “We girls can handle ourselves, but I’d love you to meet them. And then maybe once the night is underway we can slip away together.”

I tried not to give away how much I liked that option.

“Sounds good. Well, it seems I need to get going. Duty calls.” I grabbed my phone and texted her so she’d have my number. I started to try to get witty, but in the end kept it a simple ‘This is Zach’.

Her phone dinged a second later. “Got it. I’ll see you on Sunday. I’ll text you where me and my friend decide on going.” She gave me a smile that I burned into my mind’s eye as we parted. I was going to love Sunday.

I felt triumphant walking away from the late lunch. I’d gotten her number and a date. Things were moving in the right direction. Although the para world had already gotten somewhat in the way, with whatever Morgana needed me for tonight. But it worked. This way Scarlett could do what she needed to with the sorority, and we didn’t go too fast too quickly. I could juggle both worlds, no problem.

I pulled out my phone and shot a quick email to the EMT services, telling them I was very sick and it would be irresponsible of me to treat people. I felt bad lying, but something had to give. With my schedule cleared, I headed to see what this job Morgana mentioned entailed.