Age Of The Dragon. Book I.

Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Storm.

Chapter 1: The Calm Before The Storm.

Arabella's POV

Never a dull moment in this life. Well, aside from the occasional mind numbing instance where you find yourself completely and utterly bored to death. Unfortunately for me, this happens to be one of those instances.

I know I might sound a bit melodramatic, but seriously, it's 6:50 in the Goddamn morning. Give me a break. I feel like I've been here for hours, listening to the constant yammering of my peers and teachers. In actuality, it's only been a couple minutes, but that holds no significance in my mind. I just want to go home. Or at the very least, get a double-shot of espresso that'll give me even an ounce of the energy I'll need to get through this.

I know I should be more excited. It is the big day after all.

First day of freshman year.

The first day back always accompanies a back to school assembly. Which is really just another name for the mandatory lecture we're forced to sit through every so often. If the school's goal is to make sure the students are all depleted before classes even start, then they're definitely doing their job right.

In case it wasn't painfully obvious, I've never really understood the purpose of these things. I mean they handed out our schedules already, what the hell are we still doing here?

"Hello!" I hear my friend Sophie snap at me. "Jeez it's like talking to a brick wall..."

"What..." I mentally roll my eyes at that, "what's up?" I sigh before turning to face her.

I could still hear the teachers in the background going over monotonous announcements that I'm sure were already on the calendars and papers they sent us home with at the open house. This is what I woke up at 5:00 am for...

"Bella, I've been trying to get your attention for like the past hour!" she complains.

"That's literally not true, but go on." I prompted.

She rolls her eyes at my remark.

"Whatever, you've gotten your schedule right?" She asks rhetorically.

"No." I say flatly. "I was the only one who didn't get one, let's march to the office and go all Karen on those mofo's" I respond sarcastically to which she rolls her eyes at, yet again.

I take her apathy to my sarcasm as a signal to just hand her my schedule, so I do.

"I swear I'm gonna throw myself out the window if your stupid schedule betrays me," she professes as she takes the thin piece of paper in her hands.

I shoot her a look that I would only hope conveys 'I know you're full of shit, but please go on.'

"Obviously if we have all the same classes then I won't. Keep up babe." She quips, looking down to determine her verdict. "Yay, we do! It's as if the universe knew I couldn't live without you." Sophie smiles brightly at me. "Good thing too, I don't know if I'd make that jump," she laughs, looking over to the nearest window which was about 30 feet from the ground. "Now I don't have to."

"Screw that, do it anyway. I'll join you. Let's go right now." I jest.

"Fuck yeah..." Sophie halfheartedly agrees before letting out a heavy sigh. "But while we're basically trapped here.. I kinda wanted to talk to you about something..." she trails off making my heart rate pick up a bit.

"Well, what is it?" I ask anxiously.

"It's nothing bad it's just..."

"Soph, you know the suspense thing makes me anxious, just spit it out please." I beg.