Becoming a Dragon by Andy Holland Page A

envied their bright, flame-red hair. Perhaps he was from Furnace. They usually had very curly hair, and weren't generally as tall as the northerners or the westerners, but they weren't always easy to work out. Jerome was tall, muscular and fairly dark-skinned, but his hair was too light to be from the west. She'd have to ask him where he was from later.
    In front of her sat Seth, the friendly young man who she met at her birthday party, who was very clearly from Furnace, with his short, curly hair. He had enthusiastically greeted her when she had first sat down, and she suspected that he might have already taken an interest in her.
    Both Daniel and Jerome were very good-looking, and she glanced over to where Jenna sat, expecting her to be watching enviously, but she had been seated next to Arthur, and having flirted with him at Crystal's party she appeared to be continuing where she had left off. She had no interest in looking over to see what Crystal was doing.
    Crystal was been seated in the last row, so had no one behind her, and she was very happy with that arrangement. It meant less people would be looking at her — or at least looking at her hair. On second thought, perhaps she wouldn't mind too much if Daniel or Jerome were looking at her. Maybe Jenna was right: this school might be fun after all.
    Professor Silver explained that as today was an orientation day, there would be no formal lessons, and school would not start properly until tomorrow. The aim of today was to familiarise themselves with the school, their schedule and learn about their new classmates and teachers. The Professor's emphasis on this and his carefully-planned seating arrangement made her wonder if her cousin was right, that the main purpose of the school was to arrange marriages for the elite of society.
    "We will now conduct a short exercise to help you get to know each other," the Professor told them. They'd just finished collecting all their books for each of their subjects and were storing them in their desks. "Each of you will write your names on a piece of paper, fold it, and put them into this bag." He held out a cloth bag and passed it to one of the students in the front row.
    "What are we doing, sir?" Seth asked as he put his name into the bag.
    "Wait and see, Bragon," the Professor replied. "And raise your hand before asking a question. Just remember the name of the person I call out with yours."
    The Professor collected all the names, then shook the bag, and started pulling the names out of the bag two at a time, calling out the pairs. When he had finished reading out the names, he explained the task.
    "Now I want you all to find the person whose name I read out with yours, when I've finished ! I want you to spend the next few minutes getting to know them, asking them about who they are and where they are from. When I tell you to stop, you are to all return to your seats and then you will introduce that person to the class, telling us who they are, where do they come from, what do they enjoy doing and what is their favourite subject. Does everyone understand?"
    A slow and jumbled affirmation followed, to which the Professor replied, "Let's try that again. Does everyone understand?"
    A louder and more enthusiastic "Yes, professor," ensued, to which he responded, "That's better; begin!"
    The students scrambled around the classroom, trying to find their partner, some of them using the name tags on the desks, and others just shouting out names. Crystal was paired with a girl from the north called Lauren, who sat at the end of the row in front of her. It appeared that they had very little in common. Lauren was the great niece of the prince in the North, Prince Cornelius, and was fabulously rich, something she emphasised a few times. She told Crystal that she liked spending most of her time trying on new clothes and attending palace parties. Knowing the reputation of the North as a rather dull and austere place, Crystal suspected that she