“Dad’s not coming tonight, is he?”
“No, sweet, I’m afraid his secretary called to say that he’s just too busy. I’m sure he’ll make it up to you. Have some cake.” Drake’s mum was short and soft-looking, with kind large brown eyes, long eyelashes and a head of large wild orange curls. Drake was grateful that he’d inherited his dad’s hair, even if it wasn’t perfect.
“Thanks Mum.” Drake walked up to his room before his mum could notice that he was wearing Roche’s jacket. He didn’t want to have to explain. He took off the pieces of his dad’s outfit and put on some normal clothes. He sighed. Everything was dreadful. It couldn’t get any worse. He’d made a fool of himself in front of everyone. It was like one of those dreams you have when you were in front of the class naked … only it was real. Everyone in the school would know by now and tomorrow everyone would be laughing at him. They’d be sticking notes on his back and calling him ‘naked boy’ or something cleverer than he could think up himself. And he had made a fool of himself in front of Juniper. He cringed at the memory of standing up there grinning like an idiot. And he had to face her in detention tomorrow night. He groaned loudly. Then his stomach groaned loudly.
He went downstairs and ate some cake to keep his mum and his stomach happy and then went back to his room and went to bed. He wondered why he had to say such stupid things. And why did his dad have so many things to do that were more important than him? Maybe if he didn’t say so many stupid things, he thought, his dad might have more time for him. He covered his head with his blankets, wallowing in self-pity, and cried himself to sleep.
The next day started off pretty much as expected. Drake arrived at school to everyone laughing and pointing and calling him nudie-boy. They couldn’t think of anything cleverer. A group of popular girls started waggling their little fingers at him and then that caught on so that everywhere he went he was met by waggling little fingers. He realised how few real friends he had that day. He had no-one to sit with to wait for classes to start. Not a single person. Normally he kind of clung onto a group of smart kids, standing at the edge of their group listening or looking as if he were listening. Today they moved away from him, annoyed by the constant jeering interrupting their conversations.
Drake was pleased when the bell rang and he could go to class. Even better, it was Science with Miss Tess. Today they were dissecting a virtual Quanta.
“Couldn’t we dissect a real one, Miss Tess? This is boring,” Barry said.
“Well, sure, if you could catch one for us,” said Miss Tess. Barry just looked at her stupidly.
Miss Tess must have heard about Drake’s mishap the day before because she was extra nice to him. She came over and praised his work and smiled and her eyes showed sympathy.
The rest of the day passed by Drake as if he were watching a movie. He lumbered around the school feeling as if he were observing rather than participating. That is probably what got him through the day and into Room 8C for detention. Roche was sitting at the front of the room with his arms folded, leaning back in his chair. He was wearing checked trousers and a waist jacket to match. His new haircut was super short, leaving little side-burns that almost joined onto his red moustache.
“Welcome, Drake. You look as excited as I am.” Drake looked around to see Juniper sitting in one corner and Ronan, the bad kid, sitting in the other. He sat down in the middle of the room.
“This evening you’ll be copying from this Geography text book into your exercise book. Word perfect. I expect every word … all about the world being flat and other important facts such as what the moon is made of. Start at page 29 … continue until 72. Got that?”
The three detainees nodded grimly, looking sideways at each other.
“Right then, I’ll be back at … well some time. I won’t tell you when so you won’t know when to expect me.”
The three knew him well and knew he wouldn’t be back until the end of the hour — he’d be off having a drink at his desk, or trying to chat up poor Miss Tess — so they relaxed as soon as he walked out of the room. Drake looked over at Juniper anxiously. She looked great today. She was wearing her long fluffy brown hair down and it hugged her figure, moulding around her shoulders and curling up just below her waist. She was wearing her purple dragon-rimmed glasses and a sparkly purple cardigan to match. She looked soft and warm. Sitting on the other side of the room, Ronan was in stark contrast. Ronan looked hard and cold, wearing a tough leather jacket and an even tougher expression. He had huge stomping boots on, a piercing through his eyebrow and a shaved head. Drake had never actually spoken to him before so was surprised when he addressed him.
“How you doing, mate? Heard about your little incident. Wouldn’t worry. They’ll have all forgotten about it within a week. You’ll be nothing again in no time.”
Drake nodded in thanks.
“Drake, I’m so sorry,” yelped Juniper too quickly. “I really can’t help my fire thing happening. I didn’t mean to make you look … I was so embarrassed … couldn’t sleep all night.” Now Drake was stunned. She didn’t think he was an idiot? She was embarrassed? Maybe life was not so bad after all, he thought for the first time all day. Drake’s thoughts were interrupted by the feeling of his phone vibrating in his pocket. He pulled his phone out to see a little message icon and clicked on it. The message was from his dad and said:
Help. Kidnapped. Set this message to be sent after my phone is thrown from the car. No reception in the car. They have blocked it. Have been taken across the wasteland to the city outside the force field. Please contact my office and get them to help. Sorry I missed last night … was being kidnapped. Hope you didn’t stay up waiting. Love Dad.
Drake felt all the blood rush out of his face. His hands were shaking.
“What’s wrong?” asked Juniper.
“It’s my dad … he’s been kidnapped.”
“No way!” exclaimed Ronan.
“Are you sure?” asked Juniper.
“Check out this message,” Drake said, showing them both his phone.
“You should go to his work straight away and show them this,” said Juniper.
“I wouldn’t,” said Ronan, shaking his head so that his eyebrow ring jiggled. “I don’t think you can trust them.” Drake looked at Ronan with a thoughtful expression on his face.
“You know, Ronan, I think you’re right.”
“But it’s Thermodynamics. They’re the biggest company in Dragonland. If you can trust anyone here, it’s gotta be them,” said Juniper.
“The thing is, Dad’s secretary called to say he wouldn’t be visiting for dinner because he was working.”
“So?” asked Juniper.
“He wasn’t working. He’d already been kidnapped. She must be in on it.”
“So what are you going to do?” asked Ronan. Drake was silent. He had no idea what to do but he knew he needed to do something. “Well,” continued Ronan, “your dad sounds like a good guy. If I had a dad who cared about me like that I’d try to save him myself.”
“But how can we do that? We’re just kids,” said Juniper. “And we don’t even know if what he’s saying is true. Is there really a city beyond the wasteland?”
“Cool,” said Ronan. “Let’s go and see.”
“But how?” asked Drake. “How could we possibly save him? How would we even get out of Dragonland to the wasteland?”
“We could fly,” said Juniper, her eyes shining. Ronan twitched his stumpy wings, cut short each month, as if to say ‘what, with these?’ “We’ll grow our wings. We just have to miss wing-cutting each day this week and keep our wings hidden. By the end of the week, we should be ready.”
“How will we hide our wings?” asked Drake, skeptical about the whole idea but without any alternative options. The end of the week seemed like too long to wait. He wanted to help his dad now.
“We can wear capes,” suggested Juniper, excitedly. “We can make them as our project for Textiles.”
“Won’t p
eople notice that we’re wearing capes and wonder why?” asked Ronan.
“They’ll think they’re a new fashion statement,” replied Juniper. Ronan and Drake looked at each other and smiled. No-one would wonder why Juniper was wearing a strange cape — that was the sort of thing she always did — but they’d really look at Ronan and Drake. “Got a better idea?” said Juniper seeing how they were looking at each other. And neither of them did, so for now this was the plan. They’d grow their wings long, hiding them under capes as they did, and then they’d fly … after that, wondered Drake, what would they do? They’d firstly need to learn to fly as it wasn’t something they’d ever done before. He wondered if instincts would just kick on in or if it would take a while. Then they’d need to find a way through the force field. Finally they’d have to make it through the Quinta-ridden wasteland and into the strange city outside, beyond the wasteland. And what would they do then? How would they know where to go? Oh well, he thought, at least we are doing something. He couldn’t bear the thought of sitting back doing nothing.
When Drake eventually arrived home that evening and his mother asked about his day, he didn’t tell her anything. If he’d told her about the ‘nudie’ incident, she would have rolled her eyes, run her hands through her curly hair, and blamed his father for giving him the thermodynamic suit. If he’d told her about the kidnapping, she wouldn’t have believed it and would have made some kind of sarcastic comment about his dad being unreliable and overly ‘creative’ in his excuses. Ronan and Juniper were his only hope. He was hoping that the next day when he got to school they hadn’t forgotten and moved on to their next project.
Ronan and Juniper hadn’t forgotten. Quite the opposite. They were chatting together at the school gates when he arrived and pulled him over to join them.
“We’ve got Textiles first up and luckily today is the day we get to decide on our new project.”
“Are you coming to class?” asked Drake and then wished he hadn’t. That probably sounded a bit mean.
“Absolutely,” answered Ronan. “Got good reason to be there now.”
The trio positioned themselves at a group of tables at the back of the class. Juniper went to look at patterns for capes while Drake and Ronan looked at material. Drake chose a brilliant red for his cape, just like Dragonboy’s cape and a purple velvet for Juniper’s. Ronan chose a patterned material with skulls. They were all back at the table ready to go when Ms Friar, the Textiles teacher, came to have a look at what they were doing.
“Ooohhh, this is interesting,” she said. “Are capes all the thing at the moment?”
“Yes,” said Juniper. “Everyone’s getting into them.” Drake noticed a couple of girls at the table next to them listening in. “They’re in all the fashion magazines at the moment.”
They had never focused so well during Textiles class before. By the end of that class, the material was all cut out and pinned ready to start sewing.
“Look,” said Juniper. “A couple of girls at the other table are making capes too!”
“I didn’t realise it would catch on so easily!” exclaimed Drake. He felt good about what they were doing, even though he felt sick with worry about his father. He was really enjoying spending time with Juniper and Ronan. There were moments when he had almost forgotten that his dad was missing but then the sticky mud feeling in his stomach reminded him again. He hadn’t really felt like he’d had friends since primary school. And it seemed as if they were enjoying themselves too. Ronan was more focused than Drake had ever seen him. And Juniper, in all her enthusiasm, had forgotten all about her need to fit in with the ‘cool girls’.
At lunchtime they got to the cafeteria early and lined up for their serving of mushy green stuff with crispy brown stuff on the side and a drink of berry juice. They quickly found a table in the corner where no-one would listen in.
“So, we’ve got the capes sorted. What next?” asked Juniper.
“We need to figure out where to hide during wing-cutting tomorrow,” replied Drake.
“In the back girls’ toilet,” said Juniper. Drake and Ronan both turned to look at her in horror. “It’s the best place. The boys’ toilets are checked because doofus Barry and his gang always wag in there. No-one ever goes to those girls’ toilets down the back. The furthest cubicle is a shower with a door that goes all the way to the ground, so we can just close the door and sit on the floor.”
“Okay,” said Ronan and Drake in unison. What Drake liked about the trio was that no-one was taking charge. They were all coming up with ideas equally.
“And the next thing is getting past the Quintas … that’s the hardest,” said Juniper.
“We could make a bomb,” said Ronan. Drake stared at him startled and Juniper let out an involuntary yelp.
“I know it seems extreme, but how else will we get past them. They eat people!”
“Where’ll you get the stuff to make a bomb?” asked Drake.
“From the chem lab. I know how to make a bomb that we can carry without too much risk of it going off … and then we light it and throw it at the Quintas and it will go off when it hits one.”
“Not too much risk? So there is risk of it going off while we carry it?” Juniper asked looking frightened.
“Juniper, you don’t have to come if you don’t want. It’s my dad who is in danger, not yours.”
“Of course I’m coming,” she said, looking annoyed.
“We’re going to need her,” said Ronan, looking affectionately at Juniper. Drake felt a burst of jealousy rise from the pit of his stomach and explode in his head. He hadn’t realised until now that Ronan had a crush on Juniper. Is that why he was helping? He quickly dismissed this idea. No, Ronan was in this for a whole lot of reasons. He liked an adventure; he had a real daredevil streak in him. Juniper was just the icing on the cake for Ronan.
Drake walked home that afternoon deep in thought, tapping his dragon claws on his forehead. He hadn’t heard anything from his father and he was worried. He knew that his father had thrown his phone out the window, so not hearing from him didn’t mean anything. He probably was okay but couldn’t get any messages out.
When he got home his mother was sitting in front of the television with a glass of wine.
“What’s up, Mum?” asked Drake. She only watched television and drank wine when something was wrong. Normally she would be buzzing around the house, tidying up, making dinner, flipping over to her laptop to mess around with the online business she was running, all the while asking him about his day.
“Nothing Drake, honey; everything’s fine.”
“Don’t lie to me, Mum.”
“Okay … I’m a bit annoyed because your father said he’d put money in the account this week and he hasn’t … so we’re a bit short on cash.”
“I’ve got some money if you need it,” said Drake, quickly.
“We’re okay … it’s more the principle behind it. He should do what he says he’s going to … but I don’t want to get into this with you. It’s not your problem.”
“Maybe there’s a good reason he didn’t, Mum. Maybe he got tied up.” His mother smiled.
“You’re a good person, Drake. You always think the best of people.” No, I don’t, thought Drake. I just know he happens to be tied up and unable to get to the bank. At least with his mother distracted with her own misery, she wouldn’t notice that he wasn’t himself. He made them both a goose sandwich, put hers carefully in front of her while she remained glued to the television, and took his up to his room. Sometimes it was okay being a small family of just two. You could do what you liked without brothers and sisters interfering. He sometimes craved for a busy house, with a brother and sister or two to chat with, but he knew deep down he’d probably hate it. Most people he knew fought with their brothers and sisters all the time.
The next day Drake, Juniper and Ronan were sitting on the floor of the shower in the girls’ toilets with the door shut. Juniper had brought a blanket and some snacks. T
oday Juniper had her hair in two long pigtails sticking out just above her cute little ears. She’d laid out the blanket and then the snacks and then Ronan had laid out all the bomb components. All Drake had was a pen and paper to help work out the plan. When Drake had met them in the shower, Ronan and Juniper were already chatting and he again felt jealous. He probably didn’t have a chance at all with Juniper. Ronan was tall and dragonly and had that whole bad boy thing going for him that girls just loved. Drake was small and skinny and smart. His mother told him that he would be the one the girls would want when they grew up. Maybe this was true but it didn’t help one bit right now.
“You’ve really got four brothers and three sisters?” Juniper was asking him with amazement. Dragonfolk generally had pretty small families. Seven siblings was really unusual.
“Wow, your mum and dad sure have been busy,” Drake said clumsily.
“Drake!” Juniper scolded. Drake went bright red and silent.
“We don’t really have a dad. My dad left years ago and then we had another dad but he left too,” said Ronan.
“I’m lucky. My dad’s great but let me tell you, my mum can be a bit crazy,” said Juniper.
“Really?” said Ronan smiling shyly at her.
“Really.”
“My parents are divorced,” said Drake, trying to make up for his mistake and get back into the conversation. Juniper gave him a look that said ‘whatever’. But Ronan gave him a smile to show there were no hard feelings.
“My family’s pretty crap, really. I mean, I love my mum and all but she doesn’t have much time for me. And I always have to look after my brothers and sisters and stuff. She doesn’t even notice all the work I do,” said Ronan, sadly.
“Is that why you’re never at school?” asked Drake.
“Yep, pretty much. I want to come more but I never get any time to study and it kinda seems pointless.”
“Oh, I thought you just didn’t care,” said Juniper.
“Sometimes I don’t. Other times I do. It all just seems too hard.” Drake nodded.
Drake the Dragonboy Page 2