Dragons Rage
The Flaiming Lunch Lady of Doom
Do you have a hero? I used to, before THIS happened. His name was Percy Jackson, but that’s another story. I’m here to tell you mine.
My name is Devin Graye. I’m an eleven year-old kid with ADHD. In other words, I’m hyperactive. My name is an Irish name, even though I don’t have a single ounce of Irishness in me... and worst of all, “Devin” It means “poet”. I hate poetry. Another thing I hate is old people, and apparently, my full name hates me too. You see, my last name, “Graye” means “gray-haired”. So ironically, my first and last names together, mean “gray-haired poet” Don’t tell anyone about that okay? Okay... Anyway, I go to Pennstate Boarding School, and before today I was a respected athlete at P.B.S.. Maybe not that respected. I mean, it’s not like a few wedgies and a couple dunks in the school’s facilities would ruin your reputation, right? WRONG. To be completely honest, my only friends are not that special either. Who cares if you can dunk and score three pointers when your “BFFs” are the duchesses of the Kingdom of Lame! That’s right, duchesses, not dukes. My best and only friends are girls. But hey, Marcie and Lia aren’t all that bad. I mean, they’re both vegetarians, but not bad bad.
Anyway, Marcie is a black-haired, skinny girl with dyslexia that any spit-baller would use for target practice. She probably would look just like Selena Gomez, but her eyes completely ruin the image.They’re neon green with a hint of purple in the mix, like ripening grapes. Some sort of weird hazel, I think. Her real name is Marcella, but if you call her that, she’ll smack you to jupiter. And I learned that the hard way, so trust me on this one. Lia, well, she’s an environmentalist with attitude. She has 5 other siblings, but I’ve never seen them. She has red hair, tree-bark brown freckles, and doesn’t take no for an answer. Arguing with her isn’t that good of an idea. Plus, she always wears green. Every day of every week, green. Last saturday, green. The day after Labor Day, white and green!
Okay, so back to P.B.S. This school wasn’t my first choice for a year-long home. Actually, none of the boarding schools I’ve been to were. You see, I used to live in New York with my mom, Charlette Graye. Then one day I stepped outside onto the driveway and BINGO, a flying lion came and destroyed our car. Did I mention that we were renting the car? So guess who had to cough up all the money to fix it? Me. After that my mom decided it was best for me to go to a boring boarding schoolin PA. And worst of all, no one believes me about that flying lion-thing! Except for Lia.
“Did you really see a griffon?!?!?” Lia whispered to me in the middle of a speech in history class about some sorta greek agriculture.
“If that’s what you call a giant lion-thing with wings, then yeah...” I whispered back half heartedly, thinking about my mom.
“With that and what Marcie saw, it’s almost a sure sign...”
“Wait, what did Marcie see? Sure sign for what?!?” I said that a little louder than I should have.
“Mr. Graye, do you have some thing you wanted to share with the class?” Mrs. Kent, our history teacher, demanded.
“No ma’am,” I sighed. Detention, here I come... I’d been over this routine a million times before.
“Do not let me catch you whispering to someone again, Mr. Graye.” Mrs. Kent pestered. “Or it’s another weeks worth of detention.” I heard snickering from around the classroom. I waited for Mrs. Kent to say something to Lia, but as always, Lia got off the hook. Like last time for instance. She was whispering to Marcie during a quiz about the greek alphabet, and got spotted by Mrs. Kent. When Lia got called up, she said a few words and snapped her fingers in front of Mrs. Kent’s nose. After Lia snapped, Mrs. Kent just stared at her blankly, sent her back to her seat, and acted like nothing happened. Weird stuff like that is always happening in my life.
“Now, who can tell me the plant that was used by the greeks to congratulate the winners of various events? Mr. Graye, how about you try.” Mrs. Kent was giving me the evil eye now. My tension eased a bit, because I actually thought I remembered the answer for once.
“That would be, the um...” I searched my ADHD mind for the answer, “The... laurel branch? Yeah, the laurel branch. The greeks used it as a crown for the winners of their games. I think it was also first planted because of the greek god Apollo.” Mrs. Kent looked stunned, along with Marcie and the rest of the class. Lia was the only one smiling. With all eyes on me, I got a weird feeling. The same feeling I got whenever I transferred to a new school. It made me feel like I shouldn’t be at Pennstate. Like there was danger right around the corner and no one knew but me. And that feeling just kept on getting stronger and stronger. Then, to my relief, the lunch bell rang. Marcie ran over to me as kids piled out the door.
“Hey Devin, how did you know that?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Mrs. Kent just said it was a plant that the greeks used for prizes,” I started, “So I answered her.”
“Not that. How’d you know that it was first planted because of Apollo?”
“I, I actually don’t know...” I admitted. “I guess it just came to me.”
“Okay, weirdo. See you at lunch!” Marcie called while racing off to the cafeteria. Lia always brought Marcie and herself salad for lunch, since they’re both vegetarians. I still have no idea where they got the lettuce from though... But today was taco-day, and I wasn’t just going to be giving that up for a bowl of veggies and random tomato-vinegar dressings. So I waited on the lunch line by myself. While I was waiting, I began to think.
Had Marcie seen the griffon, too? Wait... It was probably my ADHD that made me see it. But how could hyperactivity make me see some-thing like that? I mean, it’s not like I can just hallucinate a car getting crushed like a tin can... Apparently, I took too much time thinking.
“Ahem.” An angry voice growled.
“Huh?” I said, still not paying attention. I looked up to see who spoke. It was one of the lunch ladies that work at Pennstate, but this one was ugly. I mean, worse-than-a-normal-lunch-lady type of ugly. She wasn’t smiling and she looked like she had a permanent scowl. She had gray hair and a very pointy nose, and that nose looked like it pop every ballon in the world. She sort’ve looked like a bird, if you know what I mean. Defiantly not someone I’d want for a grandma.
“Hey kid, are you going to eat or not?” The lunch lady snapped.
“Sorry...” I mumbled while picking up a pudding cup.
“Sorry who?” She barked back.
Sheesh, some lunch lady... I thought. “Sorry Miss...” I snuck a peek at her name tag, “Helena.”
“It’s Pyrena.” she corrected. “Name tag companies... They just never get the names right.”
“Pyrena, huh. Thats the weirdest name I’ve ever heard...” Don’t go getting all offensive about names now, but that was a really weird name, and I’ve heard weird. Like Lia’s full name. She said it when we first met, and even with my ADHD I can’t forget it. Like it’s glued in my mind or something... Xylia Laurellie. Thats Lia’s full name. For some random reason, The X is pronounced like a Z. And of course, I couldn’t say Xylia at first, so I just called her Lia. She’s been called that ever since.
Pyrena tried to smile, which looked totally weird with that frown. “Well half-blood, not if you’re a Phoenix.”
Okay, this lunch lady’s officially crazy. I thought, I don’t even know what a half-blood is... and aren’t phoenixes only, like, a myth? Before I could think of an answer, Pyrena started to transform. She sprouted wings and her nose fused with her mouth and started to stretch out, like a beak. Then I realized it was a beak. Pyrena was turning into a bird. No, not just any bird, a flaming bird. She was turning into a phoenix. The heat coming off of her body was causing the sprinklers on the ceiling of the cafeteria to go off, but when the water came within a twelve foot radius of Pyrena, it evaporated. The fire her life source provided was too strong for even water to put out. The other kids and teachers in the room were panicking and running for the exits. One teachers hair was on fire. Then the thing shot fire at me. The flaming projectile grazed my arm, setting my shirt sleeve on fire, but strangely it didn’t feel like anything was burning. I had no burns marks, nothing. Only the pain of the bruise that the fire-ball left on me. Okay, I thought, I’m immune to fire. How did I miss that?!?!?
“Your won’t escape me, little hero. Did you really think you could hide?” Pyrena sneered in a raspy voice that was defiantly not human. But I’d never seen Pyrena before today, so what was this crazy lunch lady talking about? “My master will stop at nothing till you and your kind are destroyed. Do you here me? DESTROYED!”
Let me get this straight: All this time, I’ve been getting served my tacos by a psycho-maniac, flaming, lunch lady who serves an evil master who is plotting to wipeout man-kind? Seems logical enough. I chucked my pudding towards her, but it desinigrated before impact because of the heat. Plastic and all.
“Devin!” A voice yelled, “What are you doing?!?” It was Lia. My heart sank when I saw her. Hey, it’s not because I likeLia, she’s is cute and all, but we’re friends. Only friends, okay? The only reason I felt bad for her was because she looked almost as beat-up as I was. Which was really, really, beat-up.
“Trying to stay alive, over here!” I managed to get out while dodging another fire-ball thrown by the demon phoenix.
“Try to find the exit! Marcie’s already outside. Go! I’ll meet you there!” Lia stammered as she sprinted towards me through the smoke. Her red hair was dusted with layers of ash. Her expression said everything. She wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Are you two done with good-byes already?” Pyrena snarled. “I prefer to kill you quickly.” Lia pressed something wooden on a chain, like a necklace, into my hand. It had some sort of writing on it, and that writing looked extremely ancient.
“Devin,” she begged, “Run. I’ll be right behind you. Please. I’ll be fine, trust me.”
“Lia, are you crazy?!? I can’t leave you alone with that thing! She’ll killyou!!!”
“Devin, GO!” She said for the final time. I knew arguing was pointless, especially with Lia. With that I ran for the exit, and then a blast of heat went off behind me. I gripped the wooden object even tighter as I raced out the door. It took all the courage I had left not to turn back and help her. Please... I thought, don’t be dead Lia, don’t be dead...
Shut Up! I told myself. She’ll be fine! I heard Pyrena cackle as I ran away. Lia was my only friend who really was, well, a friend. I couldn’t just leave her to die... could I? No. I would go back for her. She definitely would have survived. She’s smart enough to not get herself killed, right? That was all I could think about as I ran. Since that was all I was thinking about, I wasn’t thinking about where I was going. So I did the stupidest thing ever, and tripped. As I hit the ground, a surging pain spread up my leg. I must’ve broken my ankle. Another one of the stupidest things I’ve done. I tried to get up, but white spots started dancing before my eyes. I heard the sound of feet running towards me, and there was also the slight possibility of my name being called, but I couldn’t see who it was or why they were calling. I was hanging on to my consciousness so I wouldn’t faint. Then I hit my head on something hard, and slowly, the whole world went black.
My name is Devin Graye. I’m an eleven year-old kid with ADHD. In other words, I’m hyperactive. My name is an Irish name, even though I don’t have a single ounce of Irishness in me... and worst of all, “Devin” It means “poet”. I hate poetry. Another thing I hate is old people, and apparently, my full name hates me too. You see, my last name, “Graye” means “gray-haired”. So ironically, my first and last names together, mean “gray-haired poet” Don’t tell anyone about that okay? Okay... Anyway, I go to Pennstate Boarding School, and before today I was a respected athlete at P.B.S.. Maybe not that respected. I mean, it’s not like a few wedgies and a couple dunks in the school’s facilities would ruin your reputation, right? WRONG. To be completely honest, my only friends are not that special either. Who cares if you can dunk and score three pointers when your “BFFs” are the duchesses of the Kingdom of Lame! That’s right, duchesses, not dukes. My best and only friends are girls. But hey, Marcie and Lia aren’t all that bad. I mean, they’re both vegetarians, but not bad bad.
Anyway, Marcie is a black-haired, skinny girl with dyslexia that any spit-baller would use for target practice. She probably would look just like Selena Gomez, but her eyes completely ruin the image.They’re neon green with a hint of purple in the mix, like ripening grapes. Some sort of weird hazel, I think. Her real name is Marcella, but if you call her that, she’ll smack you to jupiter. And I learned that the hard way, so trust me on this one. Lia, well, she’s an environmentalist with attitude. She has 5 other siblings, but I’ve never seen them. She has red hair, tree-bark brown freckles, and doesn’t take no for an answer. Arguing with her isn’t that good of an idea. Plus, she always wears green. Every day of every week, green. Last saturday, green. The day after Labor Day, white and green!
Okay, so back to P.B.S. This school wasn’t my first choice for a year-long home. Actually, none of the boarding schools I’ve been to were. You see, I used to live in New York with my mom, Charlette Graye. Then one day I stepped outside onto the driveway and BINGO, a flying lion came and destroyed our car. Did I mention that we were renting the car? So guess who had to cough up all the money to fix it? Me. After that my mom decided it was best for me to go to a boring boarding schoolin PA. And worst of all, no one believes me about that flying lion-thing! Except for Lia.
“Did you really see a griffon?!?!?” Lia whispered to me in the middle of a speech in history class about some sorta greek agriculture.
“If that’s what you call a giant lion-thing with wings, then yeah...” I whispered back half heartedly, thinking about my mom.
“With that and what Marcie saw, it’s almost a sure sign...”
“Wait, what did Marcie see? Sure sign for what?!?” I said that a little louder than I should have.
“Mr. Graye, do you have some thing you wanted to share with the class?” Mrs. Kent, our history teacher, demanded.
“No ma’am,” I sighed. Detention, here I come... I’d been over this routine a million times before.
“Do not let me catch you whispering to someone again, Mr. Graye.” Mrs. Kent pestered. “Or it’s another weeks worth of detention.” I heard snickering from around the classroom. I waited for Mrs. Kent to say something to Lia, but as always, Lia got off the hook. Like last time for instance. She was whispering to Marcie during a quiz about the greek alphabet, and got spotted by Mrs. Kent. When Lia got called up, she said a few words and snapped her fingers in front of Mrs. Kent’s nose. After Lia snapped, Mrs. Kent just stared at her blankly, sent her back to her seat, and acted like nothing happened. Weird stuff like that is always happening in my life.
“Now, who can tell me the plant that was used by the greeks to congratulate the winners of various events? Mr. Graye, how about you try.” Mrs. Kent was giving me the evil eye now. My tension eased a bit, because I actually thought I remembered the answer for once.
“That would be, the um...” I searched my ADHD mind for the answer, “The... laurel branch? Yeah, the laurel branch. The greeks used it as a crown for the winners of their games. I think it was also first planted because of the greek god Apollo.” Mrs. Kent looked stunned, along with Marcie and the rest of the class. Lia was the only one smiling. With all eyes on me, I got a weird feeling. The same feeling I got whenever I transferred to a new school. It made me feel like I shouldn’t be at Pennstate. Like there was danger right around the corner and no one knew but me. And that feeling just kept on getting stronger and stronger. Then, to my relief, the lunch bell rang. Marcie ran over to me as kids piled out the door.
“Hey Devin, how did you know that?” she asked.
“I don’t know. Mrs. Kent just said it was a plant that the greeks used for prizes,” I started, “So I answered her.”
“Not that. How’d you know that it was first planted because of Apollo?”
“I, I actually don’t know...” I admitted. “I guess it just came to me.”
“Okay, weirdo. See you at lunch!” Marcie called while racing off to the cafeteria. Lia always brought Marcie and herself salad for lunch, since they’re both vegetarians. I still have no idea where they got the lettuce from though... But today was taco-day, and I wasn’t just going to be giving that up for a bowl of veggies and random tomato-vinegar dressings. So I waited on the lunch line by myself. While I was waiting, I began to think.
Had Marcie seen the griffon, too? Wait... It was probably my ADHD that made me see it. But how could hyperactivity make me see some-thing like that? I mean, it’s not like I can just hallucinate a car getting crushed like a tin can... Apparently, I took too much time thinking.
“Ahem.” An angry voice growled.
“Huh?” I said, still not paying attention. I looked up to see who spoke. It was one of the lunch ladies that work at Pennstate, but this one was ugly. I mean, worse-than-a-normal-lunch-lady type of ugly. She wasn’t smiling and she looked like she had a permanent scowl. She had gray hair and a very pointy nose, and that nose looked like it pop every ballon in the world. She sort’ve looked like a bird, if you know what I mean. Defiantly not someone I’d want for a grandma.
“Hey kid, are you going to eat or not?” The lunch lady snapped.
“Sorry...” I mumbled while picking up a pudding cup.
“Sorry who?” She barked back.
Sheesh, some lunch lady... I thought. “Sorry Miss...” I snuck a peek at her name tag, “Helena.”
“It’s Pyrena.” she corrected. “Name tag companies... They just never get the names right.”
“Pyrena, huh. Thats the weirdest name I’ve ever heard...” Don’t go getting all offensive about names now, but that was a really weird name, and I’ve heard weird. Like Lia’s full name. She said it when we first met, and even with my ADHD I can’t forget it. Like it’s glued in my mind or something... Xylia Laurellie. Thats Lia’s full name. For some random reason, The X is pronounced like a Z. And of course, I couldn’t say Xylia at first, so I just called her Lia. She’s been called that ever since.
Pyrena tried to smile, which looked totally weird with that frown. “Well half-blood, not if you’re a Phoenix.”
Okay, this lunch lady’s officially crazy. I thought, I don’t even know what a half-blood is... and aren’t phoenixes only, like, a myth? Before I could think of an answer, Pyrena started to transform. She sprouted wings and her nose fused with her mouth and started to stretch out, like a beak. Then I realized it was a beak. Pyrena was turning into a bird. No, not just any bird, a flaming bird. She was turning into a phoenix. The heat coming off of her body was causing the sprinklers on the ceiling of the cafeteria to go off, but when the water came within a twelve foot radius of Pyrena, it evaporated. The fire her life source provided was too strong for even water to put out. The other kids and teachers in the room were panicking and running for the exits. One teachers hair was on fire. Then the thing shot fire at me. The flaming projectile grazed my arm, setting my shirt sleeve on fire, but strangely it didn’t feel like anything was burning. I had no burns marks, nothing. Only the pain of the bruise that the fire-ball left on me. Okay, I thought, I’m immune to fire. How did I miss that?!?!?
“Your won’t escape me, little hero. Did you really think you could hide?” Pyrena sneered in a raspy voice that was defiantly not human. But I’d never seen Pyrena before today, so what was this crazy lunch lady talking about? “My master will stop at nothing till you and your kind are destroyed. Do you here me? DESTROYED!”
Let me get this straight: All this time, I’ve been getting served my tacos by a psycho-maniac, flaming, lunch lady who serves an evil master who is plotting to wipeout man-kind? Seems logical enough. I chucked my pudding towards her, but it desinigrated before impact because of the heat. Plastic and all.
“Devin!” A voice yelled, “What are you doing?!?” It was Lia. My heart sank when I saw her. Hey, it’s not because I likeLia, she’s is cute and all, but we’re friends. Only friends, okay? The only reason I felt bad for her was because she looked almost as beat-up as I was. Which was really, really, beat-up.
“Trying to stay alive, over here!” I managed to get out while dodging another fire-ball thrown by the demon phoenix.
“Try to find the exit! Marcie’s already outside. Go! I’ll meet you there!” Lia stammered as she sprinted towards me through the smoke. Her red hair was dusted with layers of ash. Her expression said everything. She wasn’t taking no for an answer.
“Are you two done with good-byes already?” Pyrena snarled. “I prefer to kill you quickly.” Lia pressed something wooden on a chain, like a necklace, into my hand. It had some sort of writing on it, and that writing looked extremely ancient.
“Devin,” she begged, “Run. I’ll be right behind you. Please. I’ll be fine, trust me.”
“Lia, are you crazy?!? I can’t leave you alone with that thing! She’ll killyou!!!”
“Devin, GO!” She said for the final time. I knew arguing was pointless, especially with Lia. With that I ran for the exit, and then a blast of heat went off behind me. I gripped the wooden object even tighter as I raced out the door. It took all the courage I had left not to turn back and help her. Please... I thought, don’t be dead Lia, don’t be dead...
Shut Up! I told myself. She’ll be fine! I heard Pyrena cackle as I ran away. Lia was my only friend who really was, well, a friend. I couldn’t just leave her to die... could I? No. I would go back for her. She definitely would have survived. She’s smart enough to not get herself killed, right? That was all I could think about as I ran. Since that was all I was thinking about, I wasn’t thinking about where I was going. So I did the stupidest thing ever, and tripped. As I hit the ground, a surging pain spread up my leg. I must’ve broken my ankle. Another one of the stupidest things I’ve done. I tried to get up, but white spots started dancing before my eyes. I heard the sound of feet running towards me, and there was also the slight possibility of my name being called, but I couldn’t see who it was or why they were calling. I was hanging on to my consciousness so I wouldn’t faint. Then I hit my head on something hard, and slowly, the whole world went black.
so yeah...
11/5/13