The Brave Mate of The Unknown

Chapter Three: First Day of School

“Dawn, we were looking for you.” My Dad said as he walked to me.

I was in the garden like always, the flowers were beautiful, I’d love to learn how to grow them. I walked away from the daisies and to him. “I just wanted to look before school…” I stared down at my feet while I spoke.

He picked me up. “I know.” He kissed my forehead. “You came out here because it’s your first day?”

“Yes… it’s going to be so much different than school in the castle. What if I hiccup?” I mumbled, I had dreams about no one wanting to play with me. My mom made sure I got to be around a lot of kids, princes, princesses, and nobility. This was different, this was school with kids who aren’t royals or nobles.

Dad chuckled. “You’re eight, you’re long done with hiccuping. If you’re scared you  don’t have to go.” 

I frowned and looked around as we walked back into the castle, the halls of it were just so lonely. “I will go Daddy.”

We walked down the hallway and we passed a full length mirror, I stopped at it for a second to look at myself. I had long blonde hair reaching my waist pulled up into pigtails. I had on a long flowy dress on, custom tailored my mom said, whatever that means. My eyes were gray like Dad's and I had freckles like mom. "You look lovely today princess." A guard complimented me. "ave a good first day, we're rooting for you."

"Thanks Timothy." I smiled, he was always so nice to me. Once I was done looking in the mirror we walked to the front of the castle where Mom was. “Sorry Mommy, I wanted to look at the daisies.”

Mom smiled at me. “Don’t worry, I hope it was nice.” We all got into a Pegasus carriage to take us to my school. “Are you excited Dawn? When I was your age I wanted to go to public school too but I didn’t get to.” The carriage started moving. “I think it’s going to go really well.”

“I’m scared but happy.” I looked around until we got to school. “Are you going to pick me up?”

Mom shook her head. “I’m not but your Dad will, but I will be close because I have business in the capital.” The public school I was going to is in the capital, the best school in the kingdom.

My parents walked me into my class then left. I sat at my desk. The teacher walked to the front of the room an wrote her name on the white board. ‘Ms. Walker’ she wrote. “Good morning class, welcome to third grade. You may all know each other from previous years but I’d like to introduce two students who are completely new to school.” She glanced at me. “Princess Dawn.” She gestured to me and all the kids turned quickly and stared. The said things but not very discreetly. “And Tamara.” She gestured to a little girl who looked different than everyone else. “Why don’t the two of you talk then introduce each other to the class and I’ll pair the rest of the class up to do the same so we all know each other.” 

I got up and walked to Tamara who looked shy. I sat at the empty desk next to her. “Hi.”

She politely smiled at me. “Hi, you’re a princess? I’ve never met a princess before.” 

I smiled. “I’ve met a lot." Suddenly I didn't feel as worried. "So why’re you new?” I thought I'd be the only new one because all these kids probably have gone to public school together since kindergarten.

“My mom, she said we should move to the capital because people are more progressive here.” She answered.

“Progressive? What’s that?” I looked at her backpack and it was very pink with a lot of flowers. She had tan skin, she had thick short wavy hair and her bangs were all in her face. She was also the tallest of the class.

She looked around, maybe trying to remember. “I think it means they’re nicer. We moved to the kingdom from another because my mom was offered a job and couldn’t get one at home. I like the magic here but no one really flies.”

I laughed. “Elves don’t fly, my Dad does! He’s a dragon and so am I! When I get bigger I’m going to be able to shift too just like him!” I got super excited.

She gasped and her eyes lighted up. “I’m a dragon too!” In that moment I wasn’t alone anymore at school, I had a friend, someone like me. “My mom and dad.” She seemed a lot less shy. 

My excitement died down at those words. “Both of them?” I was confused.

She giggled. “Duh, dragon parents make dragon babies and elf parents make elf babies, that’s what my dad told me.” 

I frowned. “That’s not true.”

“Uh-huh.” She giggled.

I glared at her. “Stop!” I got up and ran to the teacher. “I-I, I want to go home…”

She looked down at me with a frown. “Are you sure? Maybe all you need to talk to your mom.” She walked over to the phone in the classroom and dialed a number, once the phone was answered she gave it to me. 

“Hello? Dawn?” Dad said. 

“I want to go home, the kids are being mean.” I pouted.

“Can’t you try and give it the whole day? How are they being mean baby?” He asked. 

“This girl named Tamara said dragon parents make dragon babies an elf parents make elf babies but thats not true!” I whined, it didn’t make any sense to me, if it didn’t apply to me how could it be true?” 

Dad laughed which weirdly helped. “Dawn, it’s true but dragon children can still come from dragon and elf parents, she just doesn’t know that yet. You can teach her, there are some things you don’t know and some things other kids don’t know. You can learn from each other and become friends. She wasn’t trying to be mean, she just needs to learn.” 

“Okay Daddy.” I sighed. “I love you.”

“I love you too Dawn, bye have a good day, I’ll see you soon.” He hung up, Dad always knew just what to say.

I went back to Tamara and said absolutely nothing. Mrs. Walker called us up to introduce each other. “This is Dawn, she’s the first princess I’ve ever met! She wears nice clothes and she’s really funny.” Tamara said and everyone clapped.

“This is Tamara, she’s a dragon.” I mumbled. “And just moved here from another kingdom because it’s progressive here in the capital which means nicer than the other city they tried to live at here…” 

All the kids clapped.

For the rest of the day we went over all the things we were going to do for the rest of the school year. She gave us paper we needed to give our parents to sign and it made me feel like mommy because she always had paper with her for work. We did a little learning. At Recess all the kids wanted to play with me but they only wanted to talk about what it was like to be a princess and live in the castle. We played some games and that was fun. I noticed Tamara was alone, I didn’t want to play with her because of what she said. But it’s not like she asked to play with me, she just stared the entire time. 

When I got out of school kids were crowded around my carriage, it was kind of annoying, I just wanted to get to Dad. “Excuse me…” I muttered as I weaved my way to the front and got into the carriage. “Mommy!” I cheered and sat in the middle of her and Dad. “I thought you had work!” 

Mom giggled, she looked so beautiful. “Your Daddy told me about the call he got and I thought if you had a rough day that I should be here with you and get out too. I’m going to take the rest of the day off.”

It always made me so happy to hear those words, even if mom wasn’t a dragon, she was still my mom and I loved her. That’s all that mattered so what Tamara said didn’t bother me as much anymore. I told them about Tamara and my teacher and the other kids. I went on talking for a while. Dad stared at me with a blank expression as always and Mom looked really engaged as always. I guess what I learned that day was that not all parents were the same and little girls didn’t know it all.