Though each of the girls were nervous, none of them said anything about it. Especially not Tabitha, whose training specifically helped her rally courage. Over the course of the next few days, they jammed on their homework, and their classmates threw seethingly jealous looks their way most of the time.

It wasn't every day that a batch of people got picked at this school for such an event.

But Tonja had better things on her mind, at least for Friday. The reading. She'd never forgotten in all the hubub, and certainly her instructor wouldn't let her. When the time came for the reading, Tonja had rested up and been drinking water, making sure her voice was going to be okay the whole time.

In front of a class worth of students, Tonja walked with confidence. The fiction writing class was filled with what Tonja would normally have considered geeks - not the physical type, the big brains of the campus. A couple of The Ten would fit in here whether they liked it or not.

"So when do I get to see the script," Tonja said as she entered the room. There was an odd hush at that - muttering, the students didn't realize that it was to be a completely 'cold' read, or one which had no prep time before hand. "I just hope there's no weird ass names I can't pronounce, 'nshit."

"Th-there aren't," said the meek little blond-haired girl whose script it was. She handed off the copy, with some hand-written notes on it. Tonja glanced at Singe, who nodded, and she took a moment to read the notes. A grin embedded itself on Tonja's lips.

"Oh, I think I'm gonna have fun with this..." She said.

Indeed. The class wasn't sure why Singe wanted to maintain such a grip on this piece, but when Tonja started reading, it was clear. It was a massive space epic - but it was also a tremendous comedy. A ship that was piloted by a gang of loonies, traveling at breakneck speeds through the galaxy. Tonja only got through the first two acts before the bell rang, and was sorely tempted to remain and do more.

"That was hilarious," Tonja said, handing the script back to its creator. "When I get back I want to try out for a part, okay?"

The class scattered, and Singe thanked Tonja for playing with the class. "Extra credit, given," he said, jotting it down on his other class schedule. "And now aren't you going to miss ditching fourth period?"

***

"At least it's still all at the school," said one parent.

"It's not halfway across the country," laughed a dad.

"Not across the galaxy!" Cried another, but he had a bit of a frown on his face. "It's dangerous, taking these kids so far from home."

"They'll be fine," promised T'ver. "And you'll see the kids again very soon, anyway."

"That's right," H'lis said, "we're going to be spreading them out across different dimensions and planets, but they'll all pretty much be safe and sound and back home within a couple weeks tops."

That was somehow less than reassuring, to most of the parents. To the siblings, however, it was amazing.

"You're going to come back with a dragon, can you bring one for me?" Asked Trudi's brother.

"No, but I can bring you back one of these," she said, hugging her lemony yellow flitter.

The creatures which the group had slowly assembled over the course of the last few months were all there too - Egyptans, Marella, Chipi and more. Nothing so big that they couldn't handle a flight on dragonback, nothing so tiny that they'd get lost in the shuffle.

Trish was insisting that her stuff in her room be kept exactly as is, nothing to be moved. Simon promised that he'd keep an eye on it for her, and she ruffled his hair. "You are the one I want to protect it from, Simeon," she laughed. But she also kissed him on the cheek and thanked him for her beautiful little Chipi pet.

Tabitha was oddly quiet, though. Her parents had come, along with her brother, but they weren't much for smiling and all the to-do.

"I do have something I need to tell you, sweetie," said Tabitha's father. "You're... a mutant."

"Well duh, dad, I knew that..." She said, tilting her head sideways, "I just wanted to know whose side it was on so I could research it."

Her father ground his jaw back and forth, until he said, "it's your mother's," and abruptly moved himself away from his wife so she couldn't actually reach him with that fist of hers...

Tanith was about ready to blow, because her mother was loading up her bag with all those little tubes of sunscreen and such. "Mom. Mom! I have enough of it! And I'm going to be indoors most of the time anyway!"

The woman with the rich auburn hair and bright green eyes could hardly contain her excitement, her daughter was going to find a dragon! Tanith sighed and permitted her mother to embrace her. It was hard for Tanith to imagine her mother shacking up with some fey lord, but... There had to be some reason she was all albino and all, right? And she'd never met her father, right?

The others said their farewells, and the individual girls were shown to their rides. The dragons who had searched each one were to bring them directly to a place they would stand for an egg. If they bonded, the pair would be brought right back. But it would take often up to a month for the eggs to hatch, so they had to pack and make sure they had enough clean undies for their trip.

Before they left, the instructors for their fourth period classes had been taken aside (apart from Gresilla and Talshoy of course) and 'informed' that the students would be transfering out of their class and into the dragon mastery course. Most of them didn't care, the girls weren't failing, but neither were they flourishing there. So perhaps if it was for the best, they would just bag the worst class of theirs, and succeed in everything.

There was a bit of jealousy even from the instructors, on that level, but the girls weren't going to let a little thing like that stop them from not only enjoying their success, but rubbing the teacher's noses in it if they could.

Except for Gresilla - because she could wipe the walls with any of them.

"While you're at your dorm," H'lis explained, "you and your escort will be going over specifics and information that will help you. Specifically, how to get back here if you need to."

The escorts nodded in agreement, and Ilya explained to Taylee that no, they had already scouted ahead and made arrangements, so they didn't have to pack too. Their stuff was already at the bond sites.

"And away they go," said H'lis. As the girls flew for the first time (well, on a dragon anyway) up into the clear blue sky over Carramba High School, H'lis turned to the parents and helped again explain how long they'd be gone, what they could expect to do when the girls got back, and how they might be changed by the experience. But how would the families change?

That would be something that only time could tell.