Ancestral Dragon

Chapter 12

The bell rang for first period. The halls thinned out as everyone ran to their classes. Jak followed suit and hurried to his English class, swinging the door open.

"Nice of you to join us this morning, Jak," the teacher, Mr. Zogn, said. "Was there too much traffic in the halls? Or maybe you missed the bus this morning? That one is always my favorite." He was wearing his classic buttoned down shirt with dress pants. He always had his hair neatly combed and wore glasses over his larger than normal nose. He was also one of those teachers that obviously hated what he was doing and didn't try to hide it.

"Actually, to tell you the truth, the school bus broke down at my stop and I got stuck behind a pack of girl..."

"Are you mocking me?" Mr. Zogn interrupted. "Because I can have you in detention today during lunch, helping me grade the pop quiz you just won the class."

A moan came from the students as every head turned to face Jak standing in the doorway with a gaping mouth and wide eyes. This was just one more reason for Jak not to fit in. He took the open seat next to his friend Mat

"Way to go buddy," Mat whispered. "I totally wanted to take a quiz on the homework last night."

Jak shook his head knowing full well that Mat never did the homework. Mat was the captain of the soccer team and involved in so many different groups in school while not so much for Jak. They played soccer when they were younger and somehow stayed close. Mat went on to play for the school but for some reason, Jak's mother forced him to quit sports after his father passed.

"No, but really," Mat whispered as he put his books under his desk. "This sucks. He's always been such an ass."

Mr. Zogn started to write the question for the pop quiz on the board. Jak was just as nervous as his friend because he never did the homework either. The question read; Who were the main characters of this story? It was simple enough but Jak had no idea. He didn't even know the title of the story they were supposed to read last night. He glanced over at Mat and saw that he was just as confused.

Jak thought for a few minutes trying to remember what they were going over in class. Nothing came to mind. He wrote down that the characters were elephants and turned his paper over.

"Okay class," Mr. Zogn said. "Pass your papers to the front of the rows and I will come to collect them. Now, I know many of you don't read the stories I assign, so I hope this is a lesson to those of you who are not reading."

"Did you have any idea?" Mat asked quietly.

"Nope," Jak said. "I don't read for this class man. It's such a waste of time."

"Okay, let me see," Mr. Zogn said, picking up the work from the last row. "Did anyone get this correct?" He paused to shuffle through the papers. "I see. So, most of the class is not doing the assigned reading just as I stated. From now on I will be giving a pop quiz whenever I feel like it. Now, can somebody summarize our reading from last night, without looking at the book first?"

Right away a girl's hand shot up in the front row.

"Of course, Kim. Always a pleasure to have someone in class who pays attention."

"The story was about the extinction of dragons," she began. "It started off with a princess who loved to take walks through her father's kingdom. She would hike into the mountains and never feared any creature that came across her path.