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Geniveve Plum

Hmmm... this situation isn't quite ideal, to be sure, but at least it's certainly intellectually stimulating. And this boy — I still don't know his name, so I think I'll call him Dino Bone — isn't dumb, that's for sure. Which is sweet relief, after living in a house with Abcde (a shallow, beauty obsessed butterfly) and Liddy (her mindless minion.) I could live with this conversation for a few more minutes.

"I think I agree with you. I mean, how long were dinosaurs on the earth? I'm not an expert on the subject by any means, but I think they existed for way longer than humans. Although, then again, there were a bunch of species of dinosaurs and only one species of human... unless you count the different steps of our evolution as a different species, but I don't think that counts. But anyway, dinosaurs in general existed for WAY longer than humans, right? Which means they can't be stupid, despite the fact that I read that some of them had pea sized brains or something. To be truthful, they were probably smarter than humans. We've 'ruled the world' or whatever for a tiny fraction of Earth's existence, and a fraction of the time that dinosaurs were here, and I mean, honestly. Look at what we managed to do. Turn the whole world into a complete trash heap? We can't even survive without stuff like factory farms and textile factories, which are, in general, bad to their employees, the planet, non-human animals... everything except us, the consumers, basically. But dinosaurs got by without any of that stuff for literally ages, and left the planet in good condition at the same time. I think that's pretty much the definition of smart."

I fidget with the hem of my turtleneck, suddenly feeling rather warm. Maybe I shouldn't have worn all those layers to a summer party... and what am I saying, anyway? I'm probably making a fool of myself. This is why I don't go to parties. I either hide in a corner or talk about weird stuff like dino brains with helpless people who are probably aching to get away from me. And why did I say that stuff about humans being stupid? We are, but Dino Bone is also a human and therefore he might not be interested in discussing our species's many flaws.

"Sorry..."

Sienna

"Yeah! Geni and Abcde are my sisters. And there's Liddy, too." I pop another grape in my mouth. "They all drive me a little crazy, but I love them. Don't tell Abcde I said that. Is Harper your only sibling? Wait, she isn't, right? There's Ace... and you have a CAPTCHA, too, right? The bird who's playing with Liddy."

"Yeah. Her name is Basil."

"Well, it looks like they're having fun. I just hope Liddy doesn't break anything. She's not actually that much larger than Basil, but Liddy tends to break most things that she likes."

Bean leaps away from me, and heads toward where Liddy, Jewel, and Basil are playing. She is seemingly ready to... I don't know, save Basil from what might seem like inevitable death. "Sorry, not anyone alive. She's not going to break any legs or anything. I just mean that if Basil brought anything cool, it should probably not be shown to Liddy, especially when she's in her dragon form."

"Oh, thank goodness." Bean's face relaxes back into its natural, not-about-to-save-her-CAPTCHA-from-imminent-death expression. Parties are typically better when you're not about to be forced to save anyone's lives.

"Anyway... what do you do for fun? Grace, one of Morning's AEs who moved away has talked about you a little and said you were nice and made good pie, but I don't really know much else."

Abcde

"That was a good idea on Jewel's part. Proper maintenance of hair is extremely important. I've never touched such a soft wolf." I've actually never touched a wolf in general, but I don't think that is important to the conversation. "Ordinarily, I would say that it's not a good idea to interfere with wildlife like that, but this isn't really ordinary, is it? I mean, if they hang out around you and stuff. If I had a dog, I would wash their fur all the time." I pet Sombra again, then hug her and draw in a long breath. "She even smells good. My current shampoo is really nice, but it doesn't have the best scent, I have to spray a little perfume onto my head after I wash it. Do you know what shampoo Jewel uses for the wolves?"

…Liddy…

…I follow Jewel through the trees. She whirls around the branches crazily quickly. It's almost like she's a gymnast! Just behind her, Basil flits through the smaller openings between branches, changing directions just fast enough to avoid colliding with anything. They both are so talented! Like gymnasts, almost. I hang back for a moment, worried. I don't think I'm going to be able to do this…

§"C'mon, Liddy!" Jewel shouts out for me. "You have to see this."§

…I can't even see her anymore, she's so far ahead, and Basil is just a little blue thing that shows through the cracks of the branches. I hesitate for a moment longer. And then I fly…

…It's so fun! I can fit through little areas that Jewel, who is closer to a regular sized dragon than I am, cannot, and my tail allows me to do flips that Basil can't. I feel so special!…

…Then I run into a branch. And break it. And another branch. This is more difficult than I thought, and I can't find Jewel anymore, and I keep breaking more branches. Maybe I'm too clumsy for this. Finally, though, I tumble into a bit of a clearing, where I see Jewel and Basil, waiting for me, I guess…

§"Wasn't that awesome?!"§

…I pause for a moment. The beginning was exhilarating, but then it was hard. I don't know whether I liked it a whole lot. But at least I'm doing it with my new friends. They're so much fun! "YESSS!" I say…