Trish's day wasn't going so well. Not only had she forgotten her Realtime Geometry homework, but she had broken a heel on the way to the school, and of course she wasn't quite old enough to drive. She had to walk all the way to Carramba (all of six blocks, go figure) with her shoes in her hand and her fist clenched on the other side.
She knew what Rex 209 would tell her. That robotic entities like himself don't forget homework or could download it from some satelite link - of course she'd done the work. She just forgot that her little brother Simon was all about getting his own work done, and he'd managed to grab hers instead. No one would notice of course, because he attended half the same classes she did, two years in advance. She didn't much care for Simon. He was way too smart. He'd skipped a grade, and probably would do it again.
Trish thought that it would be okay if she could just skip right to a career. She was more than pretty - she was stunning. But her parents had wisely kept her out of the fashion show and beauty contest scene, after the frightful things that happen to children in those families. But that meant that she was fifteen (and a half) and didn't have an agent or anything.
She moped around outside her locker, and then trudged to class. Rex 209 was predictable in his response. The automation wasn't one for being swayed by a coy smile or the batting eye. Freakin' robots.
The day wore on, painfully. Third period Current Affairs was a mess. She'd only decided to take the class because she thought it had something to do with soap opera plotlines. What a mistake that was. Though she was pretty good at keeping up with the real course, and it was pretty funny that the instructor Dominique Talshoy kept a calendar of soap opera events on the bulletin board after Trish told her why she'd signed up. It was nice being taken seriously by someone, even when she'd screwed up.
Acting was exhausting, but the most rewarding part of her day. Since Trish had a lot of charisma she'd been chosen to portray the lead role in a play, though it was only for the acting class to view. Later in the year, there would be a more serious school-wide play to try out for.
Finally, lunch time rolled around. How anyone made it through till then was a mystery. She wanted to mope more, but her brother came up to her and stared at her as she ate. She tried to concentrate, just bite the sandwich. Just drink the juice. But no. Simon stood there, unblinking, until she glared back at him. "What do you want, Simian?"
"Cute, for someone who got their butt served to them in Geometry," he said. "I turned your homework in for you. Sorry, it got in my bag by mistake again."
"I know," Trish grumbled. "Stop doing that."
"Well, I'm sorry, maybe if my apology and turning it in for you isn't good enough, then my gift won't be either." The thirteen year old redhead turned away and was about to get up to leave, but Trish stopped him with a firm hand on his elbow.
"Gift?" She said. "I accept the apology. Thank you."
Turning back, Simon - or Simian, as Trish often called him - smiled broadly. "I found this, and I thought you might like it. You always say you want to have some kind of fur draped around your shoulders, well - I think this will hatch to have fur. Or something."
He handed off a little egg. It was heavy, not like a chicken egg, and it was pretty blue.
"Where did you get this?"
"It's a secret, sorry." Simon grinned again, and left her with the egg. Trish had to quickly finish her lunch and truck on over to her Interpersonal Relations class, which again, she'd kind of made an assumption about what it was for too - but this one was closer to her imagined use. She kept the egg hidden, and brought it home. Simon wasn't really talking to her at home - they always gave their parents the impression that they were at odds, when they really were just acting.
"So... what am I supposed to do with you... Wait until you hatch. Sounds like a plan," Trish said to it. She put it in a handbag with a furry lining, that would keep it nice and warm. Then, she waited for it to hatch...
***
It didn't take very long at all, in fact only a couple days, before the strange egg began to shake. It was fortunately a week end, so she didn't have to worry about taking it to school and feeding it or something. Like the others - they interrupted each other's classes for feeding frenzies, and running around like idiots trying to 'care' for their Egyptans or something.
What popped out of the bag though, was a boisterous, cute, marbled red and yellow creature. It didn't make a sound, but it had huge eyes and fluffy ears and it fell over itself in its haste to join Trish on her bed.
"Well ... hi!" She said. It bobbed its head and then fell face first onto her lap. Struggling to get up, it had huge feet, and it waddled up to her, to stare directly at her eyes.
"Are you trying to tell me something?" Trish asked. But no sound came from its ... "you've got no mouth," she whispered. "Well that makes you a bit hard to feed, huh?"
It shook its head, and fell asleep.
"Okay." Trish said. "I'll have to thank Simeo- Simon, for this..." It had silky fur, sort of, maybe it would grow long? Maybe it would be plush? It was really quite cute, whatever it was. "Pele?" She said, quietly, and the creature lifted its head. "Pele is a Hawaiian goddess of fire and lava. You look like fire and lava, right?" The Chipi nodded after looking itself over. "Oh, you couldn't even know what I'm talking about, you've just hatched!"
But Pele seemed pretty happy with her name, and when Trish showed her off to her friends, they were duly impressed. The Egyptans got all protective, since it was small, and the slightly larger sized Marella seemed to be leading that bunch now.
***
"What do you mean we have to break up and go separate places?" Trish demanded. H'lis was a bit taken by surprise. The girl was usually kind of irritable but today - when they were taking a lesson on what dragons were from where, and why they needed to be different - she was just on.
"Because the better variety is --" H'lis started, but Trish wasn't hearing him. She was looking at the beautiful golden dragon that was standing outside.
"I can't have one like her," she said wistfully. Ixoh's gold stood proudly - and was the sole survivor of her entire race so far as Ixoh knew. "There's no coming back from extinction unless she breeds."
"That's correct," H'lis took that moment to try and turn things. "And in order to maintain a good breeding population anywhere, the dragons should come from a wide variety of locales."
"But you're implying that we're not all going to bond ... girls."
"That's entirely right," H'lis said and even he relalized that his glance toward Tami and Taaj was obvious.
"And not all of us girls are going to bond golds like you want to," Tonja said, shaking her head. "It's okay, you can have them. I've got shiny here," she scratched the fur of her Egyptan's shoulder and he sniffed at her hand playfully.
"Whoever said that all that glitters is not gold," Trish said, "was out of their freaking mind. They're the most beautiful, biggest, most powerful..." She sighed. The dragon wasn't leaving the space she'd been watching, so Trish continued to view her through the window.
"One of our riders has a 'metallic' dragon," H'lis pointed out. "He's not gold. Not bronze, or copper either. Just... metallic."
"That's just weird," Trish muttered.
"So you are paying attention," H'lis smiled a little and caught Trish's mind turning angry. "Well, it's time to go. This time tomorrow we're going to be off to the other worlds. Is everyone good with that?"
They all chimed in except for Trish. She muttered, "why'd she have to be so beautiful and so lonely?"
***
Trish was taken to the Glitz and Glitter Frenzy sands, at Dragonwillow. And there she learned something important. It was true that not everything was gold that glittered: gems and chrome and sparkles and ... well, all the beautiful multicolored dragons of that frenzy were surely a dazzling reminder that gold was merely one of the pretty colors dragons came in.
