Toby bounced up from his seat as soon as Aiden got on the bus. “You sat with Dylan Galloway? Are you nuts?”
“I’ve been sitting with him for three days.” He dropped his backpack into an empty seat. Aiden didn’t know what to think. Dylan seemed proud of how tough he was and that everyone was afraid of him, and it didn’t seem to bother him that Aiden was one of the people he’d scared today.
“I know. Blaine told me, and Max told me, but I thought they were like, making it up or imagining things or whatever, but I saw you today.” Toby leaned over the seat, ignoring the two kids sitting there. “What happened today? What did he do to Indira?”
“He scared her off, that’s all. She said some horrible things and it made him mad.”
Calling them gay. It made his insides twist to think that was the worst thing she could come up with. Or because she knew it would make Dylan mad? Did Dylan hate gay people? Was this town a bad place for gay people?
I want to go home. Aiden wanted all this to go away, to have his old life back.
“I can’t believe you sat with him. That he let you.”
“Could you please sit down?” the bus driver asked, starting the bus.
Toby nudged his backpack aside and sat next to Aiden. “Do you know he’s dragonkin? My parents think he’s too dangerous. That he shouldn’t be allowed to go to school.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, they talk about dragons—well, Western dragons—like they’re at the top of the list of bad things. Worse even than some of the demons or full-blooded djinn.”
Maybe Dylan was just living up to expectations. “He hasn’t been mean to me. Sort of… friendly, actually.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.” Maybe Aiden was the first person who hadn’t treated him like something dangerous.
Toby tried to get more information out of him for the rest of the ride home. Aiden didn’t think it was right to share the details of their conversations, so he kept things vague, which only made Toby more curious.
“What are you, anyway?” Aiden asked. He didn’t know a way to ask that didn’t sound rude, but he wanted to know, and he wanted to distract Toby from his line of questions.
Instead of being offended, Toby smiled. “I’m a kappa.”
“A what now?”
“A type of water yokai. Er, demon. But not like horns and a red tail demon. It’s a broader term. Make sense?”
Aiden was going to do more searching on the Internet when he got home. If he could manage to stay awake. “Not really. It’s going to take me a while to understand all this stuff. I’m trying to keep an open mind.”
“That’s good.”
The bus pulled up to their stop and they got out, Tina following just behind them. She gave him a curious look but didn’t say anything. Maybe she’d get her brother to fill her in.
“See you tomorrow.” Aiden waved.
“Bye.” Toby and his sister hurried across the street.
Aiden covered a yawn as he reached the house. It was so weird coming home in the middle of the night. He walked in to find Mr. Johnson sitting at the dining room table with his parents.
“Hello, Aiden.”
“Hi.”
“Why don’t you have a seat? I’d like to talk to you for a bit about how things are going,” Mr. Johnson said.
“Is anything wrong?” He set his backpack by the door.
“Not at all. I’d just like to make sure you’re settling in. I know it will take you some time; it’s quite a lot to absorb.” Mr. Johnson folded his hands on the table.
Aiden took the seat across from him, next to his mom. “Um, what would you like to know?”
“How is school?”
He frowned. “It’s hard. I’m behind in all my classes. I’ve never been behind before. And the classes with magic… I feel like I’m at kindergarten level and everyone is so far ahead of me.” Although he’d made progress today. The feeling of tapping into his power had been frightening and thrilling at the same time.
“Don’t worry about measuring yourself against the others in your magical classes. The board considered putting you in the elementary classes, but they decided that would be more awkward for you.”
Going to class with little kids? Yeah, that sounded much worse. “Ms. Yang seems to think I belong in her class and that I’ll get to the same level as the others. Dylan said I’ll be able to kick anyone’s… butt before long.”
Mr. Johnson’s eyebrow arched. “Dylan? Do you mean Dylan Galloway?”
“Yeah.” He tensed, wondering if that was a bad thing.
Mr. Johnson leaned closer. “Are you friends with Dylan?”
“I… I’m not really sure. We talk, but I don’t know if I’d call him a friend.” Aiden wasn’t sure he wanted to be Dylan’s friend. He didn’t want to be friends with glowing-eyes, terrifying Dylan, but when he wasn’t being scary… maybe. Mysterious, lonely Dylan.
“Hmm.” Mr. Johnson nodded. “You’ll need to be careful around him.”
“Is he dangerous?” Mom asked.
“Everyone at school is dangerous.” Aiden regretted it as soon as he said it. He didn’t want her to worry.
“Including you,” Mr. Johnson said. “That’s the whole reason you’re here. You’re one of them, Aiden. One of us. Once you accept that, really accept it, things will get easier for you.”
Aiden glanced over at his parents. Adoptive parents. They kept repeating that they loved him no matter what, but did they secretly hate him? Did they wish they could trade him back for their real son?
* * *
All morning he wondered what he should say to Dylan, whether he was mad at him for not caring about how much he’d scared Aiden yesterday. He’d acted like nothing had happened when he talked to him in Major Magical Control and seemed to think that because his anger hadn’t been directed at Aiden, it shouldn’t bother him.
But the fact that Aiden cared so much about this meant he had to say something.
Dylan walked into class late yet again, and the teacher wrote him up for detention. They were so different. Aiden would have a heart attack if someone gave him detention, and it would be even worse when he had to explain that to his parents. Dylan acted like this happened all the time.
After class ended, Aiden leaned closer. “Hey. I want to talk to you.”
Dylan turned in his seat as the other kids walked out, giving them curious glances. “Yeah?”
“That thing in the lunchroom yesterday… I know you weren’t mad at me, but seeing you like that…” It had sounded fine in his head, but out loud it sounded stupid. Too late now, he’d already started. “I was afraid of you, and I didn’t like that feeling. I don’t want to be afraid of you.” Despite what he’d told Mr. Johnson last night, Dylan was the closest thing to a friend Aiden had in this town.
Dylan’s expression turned guarded, but Aiden saw that what he’d said had affected him. “You should be. Everyone else is.”
“Is that what you want?” It was uncomfortable, but Aiden made himself hold Dylan’s gaze as the room emptied and things got quiet.
Dylan looked away first. “No.”
“Okay then. See you at lunch.” Aiden grabbed his stuff and walked out.
The hallway buzzed with activity. Something cut through the crowd, and kids made surprised noises. It pushed past a cluster of girls near Aiden, and he stared. What was a dog doing in school?
Its eyes had a milky sheen and its fur was gray. Was it old? It walked stiffly but with purpose. It stopped for just a second when it reached Aiden, looking up at him. Then it shuffled away.
“Marcus!” A teacher yelled as he stepped out of a classroom and saw the dog. “Get that thing out of here. No pets in school.”
An older boy appeared with a little smile on his face. “Sorry. Come on, Digger.” He patted his thigh and the dog heeled.
“He’s showing off again.”
Aiden turned to see Maggie. “What?”
“That’s his zombie dog. He brings it sometimes so we can all see how great his powers are.”
“A zombie… dog? So his dog died and he brought it back?” Plenty of people would love to have that kind of power.
“It wasn’t his dog when it was alive. He zombified it afterward.”
Marcus and the dog had disappeared into the crowd, but Aiden gave a wary glance in their direction. “He doesn’t eat people or anything, does he?”
Maggie tilted her head. Today she was wearing a purple My Little Pony shirt. “I suppose he could if Marcus ordered him to, but otherwise, no. It’s not like movie zombies. They don’t go around eating brains. They do their master’s bidding.”
“Oh.” Zombies were another thing to add to the long list of creatures he had to do research on.
Maggie was just as perky as usual in helping him through the assignment in Minor Magical Control. Today they were supposed to light a candle. Aiden sighed as he stared at the wick, expecting yet another failure. Maggie kept encouraging him to concentrate until he gave her a look.
“Sorry. I’ll be quiet now.”
Aiden took a long, slow breath. Let it out. Focused on the candle and imagined it lighting by itself. Minutes ticked away, and he thought about yesterday, how strange and wonderful it had felt to tap into his magic, even for a second. The target falling over.
A little tingle flickered in his chest, a little bit like the feeling from yesterday. Fire, he thought, moving that energy toward the candle. A bright yellow flame appeared. “Oh! I did it—”
The whole candle burst into flame, the heat of it hitting his face as he drew back in shock. The teacher was suddenly there, the fire disappearing as he held his hand out toward it. A lump of wax oozed onto the table.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t try to do that.” Aiden looked up at him, afraid he would get in trouble.
“It’s all right,” Mr. K said. “Things like that happen sometimes, especially early on. You don’t know your own strength, so you don’t know how much to use.”
Aiden shifted in his chair and realized he was shaking. “Are you sure I should be in this class? That it’s not too dangerous?” He had a little bit of an idea of what Dylan must feel like.
The teacher patted his shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. You’re exactly where you should be. Back to work, everyone!”
The rest of the class had stopped when he’d accidentally immolated his candle. With a bit of shuffling and whispering, they turned back to their tasks.