Ivy nodded.
Bryn stood and went into Ivy’s bathroom. She closed her eyes and imagined her hair various shades of blue with some purple thrown in for good measure. When she opened her eyes, she smiled. She played around a little bit with the color, getting the shades just right before going back out to show her friends. “What do you think?”
“It’s awesome,” Ivy said.
Clint grinned. “It’s not like he can claim you’re not blue now.”
After they finished their breakfast, Bryn and her friends went back outside into the snow to show off her new look. They flew around, ignoring the gawkers. Jaxon stayed away, which suited Bryn just fine. She still couldn’t believe how mean he’d been…and maybe how stupid she’d been to believe something good might ever happen between them. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
When they were tired from flying, and Bryn felt emotionally exhausted, she went back to her room. Clint and Ivy offered to hang out with her, but she didn’t want to take up all their Sunday togetherness time.
Once she was back in her room, she wasn’t sure what to do. She could call her mom, but her parents’ only advice would be to run away. Who else could she gripe to that would understand and maybe have helpful advice? No one. She could call her grandmother, but she was pretty sure any advice given would be of the let-him-go-his-way-and-you-go-your-way variety. And that didn’t work for her at the moment either. Giving up on finding an answer, she grabbed her book. She’d had enough reality for one day. Time to get lost in a story that would end in a happily ever after.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Monday morning Bryn stared at her blue hair in the mirror. She liked it. Should she keep it? She switched back to her dark blond with a cherry red stripe. That was more her. She met Clint and Ivy on her terrace and flew down to the dining hall with them. If Jaxon spent time knocking on her door that was just too bad. She was halfway through her French toast when the asshat-in-question stalked into the dining hall.
“Let the games begin,” Ivy muttered.
Jaxon didn’t stop at the buffet, he headed straight for her table.
“You should have let me know that I wasn’t walking you to breakfast,” he said.
“You shouldn’t expect me to be considerate of your time or feelings when you’ve acted like a jackass,” Bryn shot back.
His eyes narrowed, but he didn’t respond. Instead he went to the buffet line.
“That was entertaining,” Clint said.
On the walk to Elemental Science with Clint and Ivy, Bryn kept a watch out for Jaxon. Since their interaction at breakfast, he hadn’t even glanced in her direction. He wanted to give her the cold shoulder? Fine by her. The less interaction they had, the better.
Unfortunately, the seating chart in Mr. Stanton’s class had her sitting next to him. Thankfully, they were working on their own, writing essays, rather than interacting in a group project. When class ended, Jaxon stood and looked at her expectantly.
“What?” she said.
“I’m walking you to your next class,” he said like she should have realized that fact. “Per our normal routine.”
“That doesn’t work for me,” Bryn said. “Clint and Ivy can walk me to class.” She looked at her friends for confirmation.
“Sure we can do that,” Clint said. “Let’s go.”
“That won’t be necessary,” Jaxon said. “It’s my job to escort you to class.”
“Nope. You’ve been relieved of duty due to your piss-poor attitude.” She walked past him. Clint and Ivy followed.
They were halfway down the hall when Jaxon caught up with her. He didn’t say anything. He just walked near her with a blank expression on his face. For some reason that pissed her off more.
“Go away,” she said.
“This is one of those moments when what you want is irrelevant,” Jaxon informed her with a little too much attitude.
“You know there’s something I’ve been wanting to try.” She reached up and touched his hair. Focusing her Quintessence, she imagined his hair neon pink.
He jerked away from her, but not before he had a bright pink stripe in his hair.
Clint and Ivy laughed.
Bryn grinned. “That worked better than I thought.”
“What did you do?” Jaxon reached up and touched his hair.
Students around them laughed.
“Are they laughing at me?” Jaxon spoke through clenched teeth.
“I’m sure they’re laughing with you.” Bryn headed into class with a warm, fuzzy, satisfied feeling in her chest.
Jaxon stormed in behind her. “Fix it.”
“Bite me,” Bryn shot back.
“Bryn, that’s not the appropriate use of your medical skill,” Medic Williams said from her desk. “Jaxon, come here.” She ran her hand over Jaxon’s hair and it returned to its normal blond color. “Now go to class.”
After Jaxon left the room, Medic Williams raised an eyebrow at Bryn. “Care to explain?”
“He was being a condescending asshat.”
Janelle and some other students laughed.
Medic Williams shook her head. “As tempting as it may be to mess around with other people in that manner, it undermines our profession.”
Bryn was so not sorry.
“Okay, class. You’re going to read through some case studies with a partner. Take notes about any questions you have, and we’ll work out the answers together.”
After the folders were passed out, Janelle scooted closer to Bryn. “Was that as fun as it looked?”
“Yes. I regret nothing.” Bryn opened her file. “What are we reading?”
Janelle opened their folder. “A Medic healed a newborn baby.”
That reminded her of something. “Are dragon pregnancies fragile? I’ve heard of way too many women losing babies.”
“I think they are fragile up to a certain point.” Janelle leaned in and spoke in a quiet tone. “It also depends on how much inbreeding has happened within the Clan. Blues tend to miscarry more often because they tend to only marry within certain families.”
“Really?”
Janelle nodded. “There are more Reds than any other Clan. Black and Green dragons are the next largest Clans. Blues are the smallest, outside of the Orange Clan, of course.”
How did I not know this? “I never heard anyone say that before.”
“You know us Greens. We like to measure things and track data. The Reds have more children per family. Black and Green dragons tend to stop at two kids. Blues may have more than one child but they space them out so they are practically a generation apart.”
“Like Jaxon and Asher.”
“Exactly,” Janelle said. “Which is also why most Blue siblings aren’t close. They don’t grow up together. One is an adult before the other one starts elementary school.”
“That’s so weird.”
“It keeps the balance of power for the older sibling as the heir, while allowing for the safety net of having another child to inherit, if something happens to the first one.”
In Basic Movement, Bryn kept an eye out for Jaxon. She had no idea what type of repercussions she was in for.
“That was brilliant,” Clint said as they walked on the treadmills.
“I enjoyed it.”
“Too bad Medic Williams changed it back so quickly,” said Ivy.
After they finished warming up, Bryn felt antsy. “I’m going to beat the crap out of a Slam Man.” She jogged across the room to the Slam Man section where Keegan, one of the few dragons who’d been nice to her when she first came to school, and some other Reds were punching and kicking the man-shaped punching bags.
Keegan smiled at her. “Let me guess. You want to hit a certain someone, so you’re going to punch the Slam Man instead.”
“You might be right,” Bryn said.
“Yeah, I heard he was a jerk. Did you really turn his hair pink?”
“Maybe.”