Preview

Got you guys a preview of the next chapter in The Dragon Games. Got the first 2066 words of chap 5 pretty much down. I'll get the whole thing up here when I've reworked through my draft. Hope you like it!

Chapter 5

People and Perspective

1

Yellow machines spewing smoke from their silver exhaust pipes chugged around the theatre club’s hall, their tracks chewing up the filthy grass as they went. The success of the play had warranted a bit of a makeover for the neglected building, the loud construction equipment even drawing the eye of a few curious students who hadn’t been aware of the old building’s existence before.

With the next season game about two weeks away, and the theatre club undergoing renovations, Jim found some free time in his schedule. Normally he would go out on the town with his friends, or perhaps spend some time with Cassidy, but not now. His workload was piling on, and he willed himself into the library to find himself a quiet corner to study. He checked out a couple of textbooks and failed to absorb the information inside, his hand dragging down his face as he sighed, frustrated at himself.

He was no Einstein, but it hadn’t always been this difficult to get at least some work done. Jim was spry out of the gates of high school, despite most of his old friends going their own ways. He’d been looking forward to becoming an adult, but now it was only the campus sports team that gave him respite against the workload. Who cared about a bunch of hooey like…

He looked down at his notes.

-Like perimeters and diameters and thermometersor whatever else Mr Hode had in store for them? He just wanted to play, to impress these sponsors that had flown into town. He couldn’t do much about that if he was sitting in the library reading books, now could he? He couldn’t believe he’d thought last year had been hard…

Thinking of last year made him frown. All that care in making a presence, establishing himself a reputation, it had earned him a bit of attention from someone of the opposite sex, and after a few dates he’d been sharing his life with another. Soulmate, she’d said. It had been his first true delve into something serious. It had hurt so much when it ended, what came after.

Perhaps that was why he sought the advice of his friends now. Not because Cassidy was a Pokémon, though that certainly played a part, but because he couldn’t go through all that again. What Lara had said to him, the thing’s he’d said to her, he could remember them like they had happened yesterday.

Maybe, he thought, looking down at his crappy notes. -that’s exactly my problem.

Something about an approaching set of feet struck Jim as familiar, and he looked up from his books. From between a pair of shelves came the extended subject of his thoughts. He stared at her bright smile for a little longer than he should have, wondering if history would repeat itself.

“You were giving that book a good glare, Jim. Despise math that much?”

“Cass!” he said, conscious of how much he’d been sneering and forcing a grin. “How’d you know I was here?”

“I didn’t. Library lady told me someone already checked out the texts I needed, and you’re the culprit.” She gestured at the desk with a claw. “May I?”

She made to grab an empty chair, but Jim darted over and beat her to it, grabbing the stool by the backrest and presenting it for her. “I could get used to this,” she laughed, accepting the seat.

Jim returned to his own chair, picking up his pencil with no real intention of getting back to work. The Garchomp folded her hands over her lap, tail curling over one of her ankles. Her posture was so good it made him aware of his own hunched spine. If he didn’t know about her living conditions, he’d think she’d come from royalty.

“I never had the chance to properly thank you for the other night,” Cassidy said. “Been a bit busy since then, hasn’t it?”

Her lick on his cheek was worth more than any payment, but he didn’t correct her. “Yeah, I uh, got an idea where we could go next, when we get a chance.”

“Well, if it’s as any good as last time…”

She flashed him a coy smile, his heart skipping a beat. Even Lara hadn’t been this impressed with him so quickly, and although a part of him thought it was a little odd, it did wonders for his confidence.

I guess I must be doing something right, he thought.

They had been silent for a long moment and the awkwardness was starting to build. He tapped his foot as he watched her, forcing himself to say something.

“So-”

“When-”

He blinked at the mutual interruption, nodding at her and asking her to go on.

“Oh, no, it’s fine, you go first Jim.”

Jim wasn’t about to insist and make this into an argument, so he went ahead. “No, I-I was just wandering about your part in that play. I would have taken us to a karaoke bar if I’d known earlier.”

“Surprised? Thought you might be.” She smirked at him. “Do you sing too?”

“Nope, no way. A dying cat would sound better than me.”

“You just have to work at it. I wasn’t born with my vocals honed in either, it took a long time let the words carry me.”

“And the ukulele?”

“More of a side bonus to the singing. One day our lead guitarist failed to turn up to practice – this was back in high school by the way – and a couple of us tried to fill in for him. Turned out I could handle it better than the others. Over time I had some lessons in a couple other instruments, but the uke has always been my go-to.”

“… Wait, wait,” he said, holding up his hand. “you were in a band?”

“Oh, no, just music class. I didn’t make the cut to get any further than that. Their loss, right? Anyway, it turned out I could put my skills to use on the stage, as you saw. Though I’d love to be part of a duet at least.” She looked him up and down, her golden eyes dilating. “You play any instruments?”

“N… well.” He thought for a second. “Actually I’ve dabbled. In the percussion family.”

“Percussion? Which one?”

“Yeah, you know those little rainbow xylophones?” He mimed hitting a keyboard. “I could spell out cabbage like the patch kids were going out of style.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “Don’t be such a tease, I was being serious.” But despite her words, she was laughing that heavenly laugh he so enjoyed.

Jim twirled his pencil between his fingers, the cold air conditioning prickling the hairs on his skin as he cleared his throat. “So… what were you going to say? Just before?”

“Oh, my question was a lot duller than yours, I doubt it will compare.”

“Try me.”

“I was going to ask about that,” She pointed at his textbook. “You’re also finalising Mr. Hode’s report?”

“Heh, yeah, ‘finalising’,” he mumbled. “Was just about to type this all up then beat it.”

“Physical violence against literature isn’t the answer,” Cassidy said.

“I meant beat it as in get out of here.”

“In that case, would you mind if we compared notes? Since you’ve so happened to have the last textbook?” From her bag she produced a yellow folder, a little sticky note with a subject name written on the front cover.

“Cass, that’ll be like… like comparing a tiger to a pussycat. I hate math.”

“So do I. Come on, let’s see.”

She reached for his work, Jim pressing down on his exercise book to try and deter her. He couldn’t compare to her draconic strength, though, and she slid his notes over to her side.

She peered over her muzzle critically as she held his report up. “I’m sure it’s not that bad I- Eugh!”

She made a sound like she’d just seen a toad get squashed beneath a truck, and Jim buried his face in his palm in shame. All that work on appearances, and now the truth was out.

“Well,” she began. “this is a little… hm.” She squinted as she read from one of the paragraphs. “‘By and large, it is this humble researcher’s opinion that the summary of the report is thus…’ That’s a little inflated, isn’t it? What’s wrong with ‘in conclusion’?”

“Have to make that word count somehow,” he tried.

“There’s plenty to talk about in the topic. Look, just go over the main points like I did.”

She held out her own report and had him go over it. She’d carefully placed each paper in separate plastic slips so they didn’t crease. It was all carefully formatted like a computer document, with sticky notes labelling what the pages contained.

“Woah,” he said after glancing through it. “you think I could… uhm…”

“Copy? And risk the both of us failing?” Cassidy shook her head. “Look, yours isn’t bad it’s just… second-rate to good!”

“Pretty sure that means the same thing.”

“Here, you need to brush up your concept introduction, that’s where the main problem is.” As she said this she picked up her chair and scooted closer. Before Jim could say problem schmoblem, she was taking him through word by word and telling him how to shape up his report as politely as possible.

Over the next half hour his shame turned into admiration, then to respect, then to absolute impression when he went over his first couple of reworked pages. He didn’t like how some of the other people hanging around watched the dragoness clearly taking the lead in the work, but having Cassidy as company made it all worth a bit of emasculation.

“This is awesome,” he said when they were done, the difference noticeable even from just a glance. “Might actually get a decent grade this time.”

“It’ll have to do. You really shouldn’t wait until the due date to finalise assignments, Jim.” She gave him a look not at all condescending.

“I know, I know.” He was about to add I was busy, or some other excuse, but couldn’t word it in a way that didn’t sound petty. “Thank you. Really.”

She held the eye contact until a slight heat invaded the scales on her snout, turning them from blue to pink. She glanced between them, as if she’d just realised how close the two of them had been sitting together. The dragoness didn’t try to move away, though. “You doing anything later?” she asked, lidded eyes watching him.

He had to hand in some forms to coach, visit A block to find Mrs. Green, and pick up his jersey he left in the locker room the other day.

“No nothing,” he said. “Wanna do something?”

“I’ve got an idea…”

Right as Jim was about to ask what, Cassidy pushed his papers into his hands. “Pack up, Kendra’s hosting the auditions for the new club members, we should go and watch.”

Not what Jim had in mind, but he masked his disappointment with a grin. “Sounds good.” Carefully sliding his work into his bag so as not to crease it, he waited for Cassidy to collect her things.

“Ready,” she said, waiting for him to lead the way.

“Alright. Shall we?” He held his arm out, like he had on their night out, a little more confident this time around.

Cassidy looked down at his offered limb like she would at a fish jumping out of a body of water, glancing at his face with apprehension. “Here? In front of everyone?”

“Well if you don’t want to…” He lowered his hand. Before it reached his hip, her arm snaked its way between it and his waist, her claws weaving between his fingers. The little scales on her soft palm rubbed and tickled against his flesh. “Reconsidered?” he asked her.

“Not many males like expressing these sorts of things in front of others. Like they’re afraid.” She flashed him a warm smile. “Not you, though.”

“I think Kendra’s been putting bad ideas in your head about us guys.” He waved a hand at the library. “Who cares what these people think? This place is full of nerds anyway.”

“Is that why you’re here, then?” The Garchomp couldn’t look any more cheeky if she tried.