"You have to tell us!" Nalia whispered as the group of friends sat down on their table for History, "Come on! You have to tell us what Julian wanted! He went after you the moment you left!"

"Nothing happened," Flavia hissed.

"Bullshit!" Paula grinned, "You keep on stealing glances at his direction! You never do that! Something happened!"

"And don't use the excuse that he is good-looking!" María interjected, "We know you!"

Flavia hated that. She also hated that she couldn't use that excuse. Her eyes darted to where Julian was sitting before turning to face her table. All she wanted to do was strangle him, shave his messy brown hair, burn his freckles and cause his green eyes to disappear. Also, few other horrible things that would be considered illegal. She closed her eyes and started to breathe slowly before turning to the expecting faces of her friends.

"He just wanted to know if I was ok." She lied, "When I got up I hurt myself, he wanted to know if I was fine." It was a half-truth; she did hurt herself but the bruise came from her training with Drake. Nalia raised an eyebrow clearly not believing a word she said.

"Welcome class," Flavia turned to face the teacher she hated. She wanted nothing more than for him to disappear but at the same time, she didn't. She hated being indecisive. "Today we will be watching the news to inform you of the most recent events."

The class stayed quiet, they knew if they complained they would get assigned an essay about what they watched. If they stayed quiet he might not give them homework but they would have to be bored to death by the video. Being silent was the best option. Clapping his meaty hands, the teacher clicked on the video and a newswoman appeared. At the sight of her Flavia began to hope it wasn't news about what she was thinking it.

"Today a Rider was found in a park." The brunette newswoman kept her emotions in check but her choice of words revealed her opinion on Riders. "It had been talking to a little girl, clearly trying to convert her into becoming that."

Flavia flinched at the words but stayed quiet her eyes burned into the cold green ones of the woman, there goes her hoping. She wanted to yell that you couldn't be converted into a Rider you had to be born. She felt Julian's eyes on her but she ignored him. She had to. She knew that if she turned around she would see pity or maybe even slight agreement as to what they were hearing. She hoped for neither.

"The parents of the child saw the markings on its arms." A picture of the Rider was shown; his sleeves were cut off to reveal beautiful markings to show what he was.

Flavia tugged on the sleeves of her shirt imagining what would happen if she was exposed. While the image was blurry she could see the fear and distress in the boy's face. What made it worse was that the police had a gun pointed at the back of his shaved head while he had no weapons. She knew that he wouldn't dare use his powers in case he was shot right then and there. María stared at the image with disgust and Flavia wasn't sure if it was at the actions or Rider. She hoped it wasn't the later.

She was doing a lot of hoping and hating.

"The parents made the correct choice of calling the police and getting their daughter as far away from it as possible." The brunette shuffled her papers, "Micheal is now interviewing the family."

The scene switched to reveal a man in his late thirties in front of a family. "Thank you, Scarlet. I'm at the park with Mr. and Mrs. Johnson and their daughter Zoe." The girl waved at the camera, she looked five. "Mr. Johnson, could you tell me what caused you to call the police?"

"The Rider was talking to my little girl," the man responded, "it was trying to convert my Zoe."

"The man was nice." Zoe smiled at the camera, "He said my drawing was pretty!" She waved a drawing of a red dragon and a unicorn, it wasn't the best.

Flavia smiled at the dragon and for a second she forgot about the cruelty that had been shown moments before. Such a simple drawing showed that the little girl was still learning about the world, she was still innocent and she still didn't know about the lies spread about Riders. She still didn't know about the gray area of the world.

Mrs. Johnson held her daughter, "No it wasn't. It was trying to take you from daddy and mommy."

"H-he was?"

"Yes sweetie, it was."

Flavia clenched her fist, "Jerks." She muttered and the video paused.

"Excuse me?"

"Jerks!" She told the teacher, "They don't know him! The Rider did nothing wrong! The little girl said so herself! And why call him an 'it'? He's human not an object!"

"What are you talking about? You are believing the words of a little girl rather than adults?"

She turned to face María, "Yes! Adults aren't always right!"

"This time they are! And why are you calling it a he? It's not human nor is it intelligent!"

Flavia closed her eyes as other people in the class agreed. She hated this. She hated being hated. She hated that they were called objects instead of humans. She hated that they were treated like slaves were treated years ago. She hated that she couldn't say that at risk of being sent to the 'Converting Camps'.

Instead, she stayed quiet glaring at the table and the teacher let the debate commence in his classroom. It wasn't even 50/50, more like 20/80. Many thought that Riders were nothing but evil (not)people who wanted to harm them, but others didn't. Flavia couldn't bring herself to hate the ones who hated her unknowingly. How could she hate them when they were only following what their parents taught them?

Flavia looked up to see that the class was split. She noticed María was with everyone who hated Riders, Paula was with the people who didn't and Nalia was beside Flavia. She felt an arm on her shoulder and she knew it was to give comfort but it didn't help. Looking around her eyes landed on Julian who was staring at her, she noticed that he was standing on the side of the people who liked the Riders. Slowly she stood up and looked at María who was staring at her expectantly, but without a second thought, she went to join Paula and Julian.

Nalia stayed.

Flavia didn't blame her. Nalia hated to choose between her friends and choosing Paula and herself would mean that she would leave María alone; however, if she chose María it would not only mean she would leave Flavia and Paula but also decide that Riders weren't human. But staring at one another Flavia knew what was Nalia's opinion about this, Nalia agreed with Flavia and for every reason. So the debate continued and it continued until the end of the class.

When everyone left the room the class was still split but it was more even than before. Some of the people who said Riders weren't human changed their mind and went to join the other side and vice-versa. However, because of the debate, some friend groups split as well. One of them was Flavia's group of friends. María wouldn't talk to Paula and Paula wouldn't talk to María. Nalia and Flavia stayed in the middle, while María would talk to her Flavia knew it was to try and 'convert' her to the 'correct' side. Nalia was with the worst outcome, both Paula and María talked to her to try and make her chose and the redhead hated it.

Flavia couldn't be happier that school finished a few hours later even if she had to suffer through math.

She waved goodbye to Nalia, Paula, and María as they parted ways. Nalia gave her a smile and mouthed a question which Flavia responded with a nod. Looking around Flavia scanned the area for Julian and found him talking with his friends. Taking a deep breath, she adjusted the bag on her shoulder and headed towards him. She tapped his shoulder and they all stopped talking as they turned to face her, she gave a small smile and wave towards the other boys.

Markus, Will, and Nico. She remembered them from the classes she had with them. "You wanted to talk to me?" She cocked her head to the side hiding her smirk knowing very well she put him on the spot.

His friends turned to face Julian, "Oh. Right, yeah. Bye guys, see you tomorrow."

The boys waved goodbye and Flavia could hear them laughing, whispering and thinking up ideas as the two left. She coughed at one of the ideas, sometimes she thanked her enhanced senses while other times she didn't.

"You ok?"

"Yeah," she blushed at another thing she heard, "totally fine. You know you should clear things up with Markus tomorrow."

"Why?"

"He is saying that we are secretly dating."

Julian turned but they were far from his sight, "How?"

"Enhanced senses." Flavia grinned as she looked around before entering the forested area Julian followed after her. "Stay beside me. Fawn knows you are with me but the moment you do something she considers threatening you will become her late lunch." Julian gulped but nodded.

'Fawn.'

'I'm coming, my hatchling.'

'You are already here.'  Flavia chuckled as she felt her dragon's presence behind them, 'He is already worried enough. Stop camouflaging.'

'Very well.'

Flavia turned around and Julian followed suit as Fawn dropped her power and materialized in front of them. Her blue eyes looked down at Julian her large head inches away from his ghostly pale one. Flavia giggled as Julian's green eyes darted everywhere to find that almost his whole view was the powerful dragon in front of him.

"H-Hello."

'Hello.'

"She says hello," Flavia responded playfully glaring at Fawn. "I'll be the messenger."

Julian nodded, "I'm, um, I'm Julian."

'I already know that human.'

"Fawn."

"You are magnificent."

'I like this human,' Fawn snorted causing Julian's hair to move, giving him a punk-rock style. 'Why can't more be like him?'

Flavia scoffed and crossed her arms, "She likes you for the compliment."

"Thanks?"

"Take it," She grinned, "she might never compliment you again."

"Right."

"Are you going to keep it a secret?"

"What?" He turned around to face her, "Secret?"

She stared at him waiting for it to click, Fawn growled causing the boy to jump in fear. "The markings."

"Of course!"

Flavia smiled and climbed Fawn with ease. "Good."

With one last wave, both dragon and rider disappeared from sight before flying upwards. Julian watched as the tree shook from the powerful wings until everything stood still once more. He stayed staring at the sky for a moment as a grin made his way on his face. Running out of the forested area for his home he had the strange feeling of importance. He held a secret that nobody, that he was aware, knew off and he liked that. Sure, he learned it against his and her choice but he felt that learning such a secret opened a door to a whole new adventure.

Above the clouds, Flavia had the same feeling and she wasn't sure if she liked it.

If anything she was afraid of what that door let out and welcomed in. 

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~Dani