Dragons Next Door Story, by KaJones_Writing

[aldersprig]

kajones_writing wrote me a story for my birthday! (In October).

This is set in the Dragons Next Door 'verse, which has a landing page here on Dreamwidth and here on LiveJournal.


Eleanor flicked through the book, knowing that she shouldn't even be looking at it. She was meant to be revising the healing uses of dragon shell for her next class. Instead she found herself thinking about getting revenge on the girls who were bullying her. They didn't like her, so they were doing everything they could to make her feel unwelcome at Lady Cassidy's Academy. Poisoning them was not the answer, but that didn't stop her from thinking about it. A drop of something in their soup to make them sick for a couple of nights to get them back for turning her hair bright orange.
Of course if they worked out it was Eleanor she knew that it would just escalate from there and someone would end up seriously hurt. Probably her. Sighing, she closed the book and put it back on the shelf before attempting to focus on what she was meant to be doing. When she'd arrived at the Pumpkin she hadn't expected everyone to like her, but she hadn't expected a group of girls to choose her as their target. Maybe, if she hadn't accidentally tripped the leader of the group over, they may even have been friends. She didn't like to think of what could have been though.
Slowly Eleanor ran a hand through her hair, staring down at the notes she had made. “Uses of dragon shell,” she muttered, trying not to think of the poison she had seen that included dragon shell.

There was no way she could afford dragon shell, so even if she did decide that poisoning her bullies was a good idea Eleanor wouldn't be using that poison. The effects had made her smile though. She could just imagine them with small chickenpox like spots all over their bodies and it was fair, really. If they could dye her hair orange then she could give them spots... and that was exactly why she shouldn't have even looked at the book.
“Eleanor, is that you?” a female voice asked, making her jump.
When Eleanor turned to look at who it was she saw Audrey. Audrey was one of the few girls in her class who wasn't a part of the group, who didn't want to be a part of the group, and had no interest in following their lead.
“It's me, Audrey,” she replied, hearing the sigh in her own voice.
“What have they done?” Audrey took hold of a few strands of Eleanor's hair and looked at them. “I can make something that will get the colour out.”
“That would be great.” Eleanor smiled at Audrey. “Talk me out of poisoning them, please.”
Audrey raised an eyebrow. “You don't need to poison them. There are plenty of things you could do that don't involve poisoning them.”
“Like what?” Eleanor asked, knowing that Audrey was the girl to go to if you were having problems. Eleanor just didn't like admitting that she was having problems, even though the orange hair really was very obvious. “Really I shouldn't even be thinking of revenge.” She sighed. “What's the point?”
“If you don't teach them not to treat you badly now then this isn't going to stop.” Audrey smiled. “Giving your orange hair isn't the worst thing they can do to you and...” There was a silence. “People like them don't stop just because you've backed down. They'll see you as weak and then they'll start looking for other interesting things they can do to you.”
“I take it you have an idea.”
“I have several. If you come with me then we can get your hair sorted out and we can talk about this somewhere more private.”
Eleanor nodded, picking up her notebook, and stood. “What did you come to the library for?”
Audrey raised an eyebrow. “A book,” she replied, in such a tone of voice that Eleanor thought that was going to be the only anser she was going to get, which would serve her right for asking a stupid question. “When I was going over my notes about the healing uses of dragon eggs I found there was an interesting mix of ingredients in one of the healing potions and I wanted to check them all. I have a feeling that if you took it the potion might have unwanted effect.”
“I wish I had your memory for ingredients.” Eleanor sighed. “I don't know what I'm doing here, Audrey. Maybe the others are right and it would be better if I left.”
“Eleanor, you're good at what you do. Lack of self-confidence, and those girls, is no reason to give up on the hard work you've already done. Be strong.”
“That's easy for you to say.”
Audrey looked at her for a long moment. “It's really not,” she said finally. “I could easily let my family drag me down, because they really aren't good people, but I'm not going to let that happen. Every day I have to prove to myself that I'm not like them.”
“Audrey...” Eleanor shook her head. “Thank you for being you. I don't know what your family is like, and I'm not entirely sure I want to, but I know that you're a good person and I'm grateful for the support.”
“What are friends for?”
It took Eleanor some time, during which they started heading towards Audrey's room, to work out what she could say, because she hadn't thought at any point she was really friends with Audrey. Aquaintances, yes, but friends? Eleanor couldn't really understand why Audrey, the wonderful super smart Audrey, would want to be friends with someone like her.
“I didn't realise we were friends,” Eleanor said finally, her voice quieter than she wanted it to be.
“That's because you're a nitwit.”
“Thanks.”
“I choose my friends carefully, Eleanor, especially in here, and those girls might not be able to see why you're a good person to be friends with, but I do. You are honest about who you are and that's important.”

Comments

[kelkyag]

Paragraph breaks for readability, please!

While Aud totally deserves fangirling, Eleanor might be overdoing it just a tiny bit. :)

Also, magic chemistry, squeee!

[aldersprig]

I know! Whee!