Forever 21

"Surprise?" asks Emily. "Surprise!" She is almost shouting and I glance around at the people walking by.

"I don't believe you." Melissa says.

"I don't either," Wayne concurs.

"It's hard to believe, I know but it's true. When I turned seventeen, I got my gift. They weren't planning on it but when it happened, they decided to celebrate. And when I didn't want their gifts, they got angry at me. That's why my parents have been M.I.A. for about a year and a half now. My mom's been in the hospital for almost a year and my dad wont come home. It's cause I denied the "gift"."

"Prove it."

"I can't prove it." I say.

"Then I wont believe you," Melissa says shaking her head.

"What do you want me to do? Turn into a dragon right here?"

"Can you do that?"

"It's painful and I haven't done it in about a year but I guess I could."

"Why the hell are you even telling us this?" demands Emily. "I mean, I would have been perfectly fine just thinking your family was a bunch of freaks coming to town for one birthday."

"Really? So you wouldn't have wanted to know why everyone in my entire family was sitting in the place we were going? Or why they showed up at my house tonight? Or why they were in the school? Or why Brianna was so randomly in school talking to Melissa? Or the fact that everyone in my family looks alike?"

"Okay, that was a little weird," Melissa muttered.

"Good point about the family everywhere…." Emily adds.

"Elaine is turning 21. She's going to turn for the first time this year."

"Why were you so early?" Wayne asks. He took this with such a calm attitude it sort of creeped me out. I think he is just trying to figure it all out in his head.

"I don't know. It's not normal and it's supposed to be a sign but I don't see any good in it. It's made me crankier and I can never find enough food to eat or enough activities to wear me out."

"Is that why you do all those girls?" Melissa asks.

"They come to me," I say. "It's not my fault. I don't want them to come to me but they do and like I said to Wayne, why pass up free sex? I mean it's fun and they don't want anything from me afterward."

"You've done almost every girl who's willing to do you in school," says Emily.

"Except two," I say as I smirk at them. They blush a little.

"Don't change the subject." Melissa snaps. I raise my hands in defeat.

"Can you breathe fire?"

"Yeah," I say to Melissa. "It's hard, but yeah." I grab a leaf from a tree and breath in slowly. I take in large amounts of air and I can feel the dangerous heat burning my nose and throat. I take in another amount of air and slowly let it out, setting the leaf in my hand aflame. As it burns up, I drop it to the ground and stomp on it with my shoe. "Believe me now?"

"Are you in like a mega battle with your family?" asks Emily.

"Kinda."

"Kinda?" Wayne asks.

"They're really mad at me and Elaine and Amanda are probably really embarrassed that I was given the gift first. Amanda has a two years of being a dragon and I've only got one but I think there's another reason they're all here so early. Elaine doesn't turn 21 for another week. They are here too early."

"Do you know why?"

"My best guess is my mom."

"Your mom?"

"She's sick. It's a sign that someone is going to get her powers. My grandparents once told me that when one of us turns into a dragon, we get a special power. Dragons were originally helpers of man. Now, since most of the dragons hate humans for driving them into secrecy, most of my family uses their powers to help our family and our kind instead of them."

"What's your mother's gift?" Emily asks.

"To heal." I say smiling. "She was a nurse for our family. Whenever someone needed help, they'd come and she and my father would help them. Whenever the humans needed help, they'd come to see us. But there's downside to healing. To heal a dragon, you need to take their power and then give it back to them when it's clean again. That kind of power is great and needs to be in the right hands. Giving that kind of power to the darkness that is my family is a bad idea. To be able to heal, you need to be able to take the soul from a dragon, strip it until it is just raw power, clean it and then put it back together without killing the dragon."

"So you're saying your mom has to do a surgery almost as complicated as heart surgery to heal a soul?" Melissa asks. I nod.

"What can you do?" Wayne asks.

"I can…" I sigh a little and chew on my lip ring. "I can control elements."

"Why is that given to a dragon?"

"When we were working with the humans, they were young and stupid. They didn't know how to work the metals in the land and we were able to take the metals from the mountains and the ground and help them make weapons for killing animals."

"Is it difficult?"

"Very. I've only ever done it once and I was being helped by my entire family. I don't think I could do it on my own. Not to mention the rest of that gift."

"What's the rest?"

"I can, supposedly, control a person through their blood. I don't believe it but my family said it was an important gift that a dragon can acquire and since I'm so young, it's obviously the one for me."

"Is your dad a dragon?"

"No," I say. "He's 100% human. He doesn't love me even though I'm the same as my mother."

"I wonder why," says Wayne.

"You and me both," I say.

"Can all dragons breathe fire?"

"No," I say. "Most dragons can, only because they learn but it's not something we all have. I can do it because of my mother but I have to work at it and I don’t really want to."

"You don't want to be a dragon?" Emily asks.

"Do you know how hard it is to be a dragon?" I ask. "Waking up at night and hoping you didn't kill anyone; dealing with the itchy scales that just randomly pop up on you when you're not focused on staying human; the stress it puts on your shoulders…"

"Shoulders…." Emily says. "Do you have wings?" she shouts. I look around and sigh.

"Yeah. Most dragons have wings."

"Emily, back to the matter at hand, please." Wayne says. "What are you going to do about your family?"

"I was going to just avoid them but I think they're growing in number. I'm probably going to have to talk to them eventually."

"Can we come?"

"No," I say sternly.

"Why?" Melissa whines. "You need back up!"

"I don't, and if I did, I would need dragons. Not humans. No offense but you three are pretty useless in a fight against fifty dragons."

"You are pretty useless in a fight against fifty dragons," Emily snaps. "You can't just walk in and assume they're going to be nice."

"They have to be," I say. "Until my mother's death, I have as much a chance to get her power as Elaine and Amanda do. I'm not going to get it, mainly because they're older, but there is a chance."

"Do you want it?"

"Not really. It's another responsibility that I need to take care of and I'm not a fan of that." The three nod and I sigh. "Can we go home? I don’t think this birthday could get any better and I really don’t want it to get worse."

"Damian!" a male shouts from behind me. I sigh and turn around, glaring at one of my many cousins.

"Hey," I say. He and about ten others come over to me, shaking my hand.

"How you been, son?" they ask. "It's been so long. You look like a big strapping man now!" I nod and pull my hand from theirs.

"I've been good. I'm going home, though, so I'll see you next Friday."

"So cold, Damian," says my cousins.

"It's not that, I've had a long day." I say as I smile a little at them before turning away.

"Damian, don't turn your back to us."

"I'm just going home. Come on, guys." I say as I look at Melissa, Emily and Wayne.

"You think you can run?"

"No one's running," I say as I look back at them.

"Looks to me like you are." I grind my teeth and turn to face them.

"What do you want?"

"Just a little chat. About your mother."

"I don't know how she is, okay? I haven't been to see her. I haven't seen her since last year. My father hasn't called me either. What's with you guys not going to see her?"

"We can't see her. It's against the rules. Not until she's better or dead." I swallow hard.

"She won't die."

"You don't know that."

"I do. She's stronger than you think and she'll be fine." They roll their eyes and I clench my fists.

"Looking for a fight?" They ask. I clench my teeth before turning around, Emily, Melissa and Wayne following after me. I have to stop short when one of my cousins is standing in front of me.

"Damian, why are you leaving so soon?"

"Really? Here?" He shrugs and glances at the group behind me. The rest of them are standing around us and I sigh. "This will go no where."

"It doesn't need to go anywhere."

"They're civilians," I say. The group looks at my friends and grin.

"They don't seem too surprised to see us."

"Not here," I say again.

"Fine." In a flash, the group is gone, along with Melissa, Emily and Wayne. Melissa screams and I look up to see the group flying above me.

"Give them back!" I shout.

"Come get them." They say. I stare up at their big, black, massive bodies and frown. As they start flying away, I start to run after them. It's useless because they're flying too far ahead of me. I glance at where they are going and start to run back to Reginald.

"You wont make it," I say to myself as I glance around me. I close my eyes, breathe in deeply and flex. It hurts. I can feel my skin tearing from my shoulders and back. I can feel the scales climbing on my skin. I groan as muscles are ripped apart and stretched and pulled. I let out a loud roar of pain that sounds like a dinosaur from that movie Jurassic Park. In a moment, it all goes away. I blink and everything is wider and sharper than they had been before. Not to mention smaller. I move my shoulders, which are attached to big, black wings. I swing the thing that's attached to my butt and flex my legs. I push off the ground and I can hardly believe that I am flying. The night air is cold against my face but I can see the pack of dragons flying towards a familiar house. I thrust the wings downward and speed towards my house.

As I land on my backyard, I knock over a tree. I wince a little and do my best to go back to normal. So much for that. It takes me longer to get back to being a human than it did to make me a dragon. But I get it and I run into the house. The room is packed with familiar faces. They are all staring at me, their green eyes wide and bright with anticipation. No one is saying anything and as I walk by, they move away. I see Wayne, Emily and Melissa in the middle of my living room, laying on my floor. I run to them but Elaine stops me.

"Hello, Damian." I glare at her. "Oooh, so angry."

"You took my friends. Of course I'm angry."

"Angry enough to fight me?"

"What?"

"I just want a little practice."

"No."

"Come on, Damian. I want to get used to being a dragon."

"No. I'm not going to fight you. Get someone else." I start to move forward but Amanda pushes me back.

"You're the strongest here, Damian. You know that."

"Bull shit. I've been a dragon for a year. You have been one for two and not to mention the rest of the family that's been a dragon for hundreds of years."

"It's not the same. You're special."

"The 17 thing again?" I shout. "That's nothing! I could easily lose to all of you!"

"You don’t' know what you're capable of. Don't sell yourself short."

"I will. I cant fight."

"You haven't tried."

"I don't want to try! I just want to go back to living on my own, being with my friends and not deal with you or this dragon stuff!" I shout. They all start talking at once and I can't handle it. I start to get so angry I see red. I push Elaine away from me and walk forward. The rest of my family sees this as an opportunity to take me down and when they jump on me, I begin to freak out. The movements I make are not my own and I can barely comprehend the number of people that are flying toward me. I can barely see two feet in front of me. I suddenly stop and as I breathe heavily, as I gulp down air, the rest of my family is cowering from me.

"Get out of my house." I snap as I point to the door. They all stand and run, moving like they had seen a ghost. I wipe my chin with the back of my hand. The red liquid is smeared across my face but I'm not sure if it was from my hand or from my chin but it didn’t matter. I shook Melissa and Emily's shoulders and when they didn't stir, I checked on Wayne. Wayne groaned and I had to smack all their cheeks gently to wake them up completely. Too bad they didn't wake up at all. I stare down at the three, who are pretty badly wounded. I ground my teeth and cursed my family.

I brought the three to the hospital, saying they were beaten up pretty bad. The fact that I was covered in blood definitely helped my case. I was talking to a nurse, who was helping me fill out paperwork. I told her a group of hoodlums attacked us on our way home. Melissa and Emily are alright, or so the nurse tells me, but they're scratched up pretty badly. Wayne has a broken arm, like he had been thrown or something. I looked at the clock and noticed it was quarter passed twelve.

"Violence is ridiculous in this town." I glance at the clock and nod.

"What a great way to spend the last hour of my birthday." I suddenly fall to the ground, gripping my chest. There is a fire in my chest and it hurts. I can barely keep myself from screaming out in pain. I can feel the flames lick my skin and run up my arms and legs. I look up at a woman and she covers her mouth as I fall into darkness.