Heere Be Dragons - A Be More Chill Fanfiction

Seven - First Day Jitters

     "Here we are! First day of senior year!" Michael shouted as they walked through the main hallway. Jeremy was hugging his "boyf"-inscribed backpack to himself, focusing on keeping his hot nerves swallowed down. Breathing fire at school would be bad, to say the least.
They were seniors. One more year. It would be good. He had friends. He didn't have to keep secrets from Michael anymore. It was gonna be good.
     Math class first thing in the morning sucked, though. Even if it was just syllabus stuff, Jeremy felt stupid and out of place. Nothing new.  None of his friends were in his class, either. A perfectly average student, Jeremy wasn't in some of the more remedial classes with Brooke or Rich. He also wasn't in any advanced classes with Jake, Jenna, or Michael, who was a bit of a closeted math genius. Christine and Chloe were at the same level as him, but had chorus during that period. Jeremy sighed and lay his head down on his desk. The freshman sitting next to him kept blathering on about how his eighth grade teacher had tutored him specially in math and how he was hoping to be taking statistics by the time he graduated. So much for dragons being super smart or wise or whatever. Jeremy couldn't do much more than algebra.
     His next class was mythology. He had that one with Michael, which was great. Another thing about Jeremy's boyfriend: he was weirdly knowledgeable about all the old Greek stories.
     "It's history, bro." Michael explained, leaning back in his chair. "You can see how fucked up everyone's beliefs were back in the day. A head god who went out of his way to stick his dick in everything? You don't get religions like that nowadays." Jeremy smirked at Michael. His smile was perfect, especially when his face lit up with excitement, which it did every time he talked about things he knew a lot about. There were lots of things that activated Michael's nerd. It made Jeremy's heart flutter every time. "And hey, maybe you're descended from a hydra or something. That'd be sweet." Jeremy felt heat in his cheeks and swallowed.
     "You can't tell anyone, remember.?"
     "Yeah, yeah. Don't worry. My Chem classmates thought I was high when I told them I'd even seen a dragon. They'd never believe I'm dating one."
     "...Weren't you high this morning?"
     "Well yeah, but that's not the point." Jeremy chuckled, returning his attention to the teacher. The Trojan War was probably the best place to start the mess of these stories.

     Finally, lunch. Christine plopped down at a table with her tray of cafeteria food. It smelled like manure and tasted like cardboard and wax, which it just might've been.
     "Hey, Jeremy," Christine said, sitting in front of him. "I haven't heard from you in a few weeks. How are you doing?"
     "Fine. Still can't really stop the fire breath."
     "I brought one of those handkerchiefs for you."
     "Thanks." Jeremy took the cloth from her and stuffed it in his pocket.
     "Where's Michael?"
     "Seven-Eleven."
     "You two doing alright?"
     "What? Y-yeah! Everything's great. Why do you ask?" Jeremy was blushing a bit. Christine smiled with a sigh.
     "Anything new about that egg?"
     "He's started carrying it around with him."
     "What!? Awesome! Can I see it?" Christine bounced in her seat. Growing up with dragons didn't mean she'd ever seen a real egg.
     "Sure you can, Christine," Michael said, flouncing in with music blasting from his headphones. He dug around in his backpack for a minute, finally pulling out the rock. "Pretty sweet, huh?" Christine caressed it in her hands.
     "How do you know it's a dragon egg?" She asked, dancing over her words. She knew how Jeremy knew, obviously. But there was no way he'd tell Michael. "What if it's just a super cool rock?"
     "My dragon boyfriend told me," Michael said, waving off the question and taking as sip of his slushie.
     "W-what?" Christine nearly dropped the egg. Her eyes darted to Jeremy, who's face was buried in his hands. He had her parents' fireproof handkerchief pressed over his mouth. "Jeremy?"
     "I'm fine." He didn't lift his head.
     "D-do you know this dragon that Michael's dating?" He finally looked up at her.
     "I'm still not sure I believe it's happening." His face was still pink. His eyes were wide.
     A million thoughts buzzed in Christine's mind. What other dragons did Michael know? Was he safe? Was Jeremy heartbroken? Or jealous? Or terrified? What if Michael was even closer to finding out? The two boys were talking to each other, but Christine couldn't hear their words over her frantic mind. She snapped back to attention when Jeremy stuck his tongue out at Michael. It would've been perfectly normal, but the fork in it was clearly visible.
     "Jeremy!" Both he and Michael spun to look at her. "What happened to your tongue? Is it hurt? Did you cut it on something?" Jeremy looked at her, confused. Michael's eyebrows lifted, though.
     "Dude! You didn't tell her?"
     "D-didn't tell her what?" An embarrassed and baffled blush flared on his face.
     "That you... burned it on pizza the other day! Yeah, that's it! That's why it looks a little weird."
     "What are you talking about?" Jeremy's eyes darted between them, frantic. There's nothing wrong with my tongue."
     "Jeremy," Christine took a deep breath and wished to herself that she could speak dragon, not just understand it. Then maybe she could tell Jeremy how close he'd come to slipping up. "Your tongue looked like it had a fork in it. It was probably just a shadow or something, but you need to be careful. People might start to worry about you." He looked even more confused, somehow. Michael was panicking silently, biting his lip in some barely-hidden frenzy.
     "You know my tongue has always looked like that." Christine felt herself go giddy with secondhand fright. How oblivious was he? Saying all of this in front of Michael? Had Jeremy gone crazy? What would make him forget to keep his biggest secret? Was he sick? How could she help? Did dragons like soup? Where was Rich? He would probably be able to help.
     "Jer," Michael whispered something in his ear. Jeremy shot him a look.
     "I didn't tell her. She just knew. That's why we broke up. I freaked out." He looked over at her, blushing again. "Sorry about that."
     "I-it's fine." Christine still didn't understand. Michael knew. That was the only explanation. But Jeremy would never let him know, right? They sat in tense silence for a few minutes. Christine and Michael were both shifting in their seats, Michael a little less so than her. Jeremy ate his lunch, clueless.
     "Oh, shit," he finally said, looking up. His eyes were wide and his face was pink. "I-I forgot to tell you, didn't I?" His realization broke the anxiety in the atmosphere in an instant.
     "That you told him? Yeah." Christine said through giggles. "I want to know the story." Jeremy was beet red, holding the handkerchief over his mouth. Michael was laughing too, a loud bellow of glee ringing through the cafeteria.
     "Can I tell her, bro?" He asked, gasping for breath. Jeremy nodded averting his eyes.
     "Okay, Chris. So it all started when I found the egg. Jer was a mess, all stammering and worrying and it was cute as fuck. So I got him high and confessed my undying love for him. I kissed him and it ignited the passion in his heart, which came out of his mouth as these cute little sparks." Christine looked over at Jeremy, who was blushing even harder at Michael's story, which of course meant it was at least kind of true. She giggled. "Anyway, we had this great heart-to-heart and he told me everything and let's be honest here, he's both a cutie and a sick-ass dragon, so I asked him out. The rest is history."
     Jeremy tried to respond, but his voice stammered with candle flames. He covered his mouth again and glared at Michael through his pink mask.
     "How'd you find out?" Michael said, snickering.
     "Oh, well... it was a little obvious from the first time I saw him. My parents are dragons, so I've always known who is one. I didn't tell him until we were dating." Michael blinked at her. His eyes went wide.
     "Wait, are you a dragon too?" Jeremy answered for her.
     "She's adopted. And could you guys please stop talking about me like I'm not here?" Smoke still curled out of his nose. Both Michael and Christine laughed. Jeremy eventually joined in, keeping his hand near his face to block any accidental arson.