Which left me with the feeling that the other shoe was going to drop. Part of one did – somebody scrawled “Dyke” on my locker.

I rolled my eyes and scrubbed it off. I knew there was no sense reporting it with the current administration, so I pretended it didn’t get to me. They’d probably go away if thoroughly ignored. People like that usually did.

Then I got shoved against the locker. I restrained myself from putting whoever it was through the opposite wall.

“You need to learn to appreciate a good man.”

I put my knee in his crotch. “I know how to handle men.”

“What’s going on here?”

“She attacked me!” he squeaked.

“He started it.”

I knew I was going to be suspended. I didn’t really care. He started it wasn’t a good enough excuse.

“He did.” It was Clara’s voice. “He shoved her into the lockers and was threatening to, well…”

So, back to the Vice Principal’s office. He decided to suspend both of us for two days rather than sorting out who hit first.

I couldn’t entirely blame him, as it was very much into he said she said at that point.

Entirely. It gave me two days to work on other stuff. Except, of course, everything was quiet, Kanesha was busy, and I hadn’t seen a fire giant in a week.

I wound up hanging out in the history museum, which was air conditioned, vaguely interesting, and gave something of an air of normalcy.

I was still going to graduate, at least. And then I’d be done with all of this crap. I’d have other crap to deal with, of course.

But I’d be done with one set. For good.

Then I felt a disturbance. Sensed magic ripple across the city.

A big disturbance. I was on my feet and out of the building before any conscious thought entered into the matter. Then I tugged out my phone. I texted Kanesha. She was probably in class. Clara would be at school with her phone off.

I hesitated, then called Sebastian.

“I’m already on it. Localizing it to…just by the airport. The park at the end of the runway.”

I knew where he meant and frowned. I could run there…yes, probably faster than taking the bus, for me. For a normal person it would be another matter.

I ran for the river. And then I saw that the river was roiling and churning. “No, Seb, it’s in the Potomac.”

“Great, what, a sea serpent? I’m already in Arlington.”

“Maybe. I can’t tell yet. Maybe a dragon.”

“Same thing, really.”

I wasn’t about to argue with him.
Especially as a dragon head rose out of the water. A big dragon head.

And me, of course, without my sword.