As I sat there, hanging out with the bird, I saw my Glacien classmate Rachel striding from the Education Hall. She turned to me and waved emphatically with an overly goofy smile. I waved back with my other hand, and the tiny bluebird was still attached.

Rachel stopped and dropped her jaw, then started jogging toward me. I wondered what was going through her mind, but she was eccentric. Nice and cool to me, though, so I appreciated that. No matter how strange, anything she did probably wouldn't surprise me. I thought it was weird, as she got closer, the bird was still attached to my hand.

"Whoa!" Rachel said. "Is that an Attleton bluebird on your finger?"

"Uh, I guess so. It's definitely a bluebird, and it's on campus."

"Do you have like a magic touch with birds? I've never seen someone do that."

I chuckled. "I'm not sure. But this guy has really taken a liking to me."

"Do you mind if I try moving closer?"

"I don't mind. Trust me, this wasn't intentional, I was just sitting here, and it flew up to me."

Rachel tiptoed closer, and the bluebird sped off, flying high up the tree.

"Oh my gosh! I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to make it go away." Rachel put her hands up to her eyes and dragged her face down, frowning.

"It's not a big deal, seriously. I wasn't even expecting the bluebird to visit me. I was just sitting here about to take a nap."

"If you say so. How are you doing, Rollie? You holding up okay?"

I scrunched my brow. "Everything is going okay, I guess. Why do you ask?"

"You seemed so down today in class. You usually listen closely during Professor Henderson's lecture, but today you stared at the table deeply, sighing occasionally."

My face turned red." Oh, uh..."

I remembered a conversation with my dad when I was about to enter high school. He told me I should never tell people if something is bothering me. He told me to keep anything emotional inside, always. "It made you tough and a better man. You never want to look weak to anyone, or you won't get any respect," my dad said.

What a load of garbage.

"Yeah, I'm pretty bummed, honestly," I said.

Rachel stared at me, nodding. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"Farrah is mad at me. I said something dumb to her yesterday, and she told me she didn't want me to sit with her for meals today or hang out with her. I guess."

"I'm sorry." Her lips sagged. "If you don't mind me asking, what's the dumb thing you said?"

"I'd rather not talk about that. It was a rude thing about her family, though, and that's all I'll say."

"Well, if you have nowhere to sit, you can sit with me and my pals today." She beamed. "You'd fit right in."

"Thanks. Maybe I will, maybe I won't. I might want to be alone. So if I sit by myself, don't take it personally, please."

"I understand." Rachel's eyes wandered around while she paused. "Do you want any advice about the Farrah situation?"

"If you have advice, I'm all ears."

"I think you should either talk to her or write her a letter and put it in her mailbox. Tell her how sorry you are and how you learned from your mistake. If I had a boyfriend and was mad at him, I would appreciate something like that."

I smiled. "Thanks, Rachel. We'll see. That's not a bad idea."

Rachel bowed her head and waved goodbye. Bouncing toward the Glacien Dormitory, she yelled, "You're welcome to sit with us!"

I stood up and went to the Fyron Dormitory. I was so tired I took a nap on campus for the first time ever. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I fell asleep and woke up just in time for dinner. On my way to the dining hall, I saw Farrah and her friends walking into the lounge, and my heart sank. I froze and didn't move, I let them walk a fair distance ahead of me, and fortunately, none of them noticed me.

Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.

Entering the dining hall, I saw Farrah sit with her friends, and they all laughed with each other and chatted obnoxiously loud. They were probably ecstatic I wasn't with them.

Maybe that's not true, Rollie, don't beat yourself up for no reason. Just sit by yourself, and enjoy your meal without anyone bothering you. Read another story from The Dragon Tamer book.

I got my plate of folded shells containing dumplings inside and a savory gravy. Sitting at a table by myself, I pulled out "The Quests of The Dragon Tamer" and started reading, but I could hear Farrah's table and their loud conversations. Even though I was far from them, I couldn't focus. I exhaled and saw Rachel's table with a few other people. They had a spot open. Shrugging, I approached them and set my plate down.

"If you're here to mock us, you're not welcome," one guy said. He had a royal blue cloak on, an Aquaso.

"It's okay! It's okay, Xavier! You don't have to be mean to him. I invited Rollie to sit with us," Rachel defended.

"But..." Xavier said, and his voice trailed off. "You know, I'm sorry. I let the rumors get the better of me there for a second. I'm really sorry about that, Rollie. You can sit with us."

"No worries. I'm just happy to not eat alone. Hi, Mandy," I said.

"Hi!" Mandy waved quickly, her lips curled up.

Mandy was the only person at the table I recognized and had a conversation with before, other than Rachel. She was the Venomaus with the twin Elliott. Mandy was so much nicer to me in my brief exchange with her.

Another girl was sitting at her table with her hair mostly in front of her face, only one eye visible. She wore a maize cloak, a Voltrun.

"This is Iverson, by the way," Rachel introduced us. Iverson just nodded and smiled for a flash of a second.

"So, Mandy, where is your sister Elliot? She doesn't sit with you?" I asked.

Mandy frowned. "No, not usually. She has her Aquaso and Winderon friends, and she's been hanging out with Patrick a lot."

"She's been hanging out with Patrick a lot? I'm sorry to hear that," I said.

Everyone at the table glanced at each other.

"All I'm saying is, the guy is a jerk. I wouldn't want him hanging out with any of my siblings," I quickly said. I didn't think they would have gotten offended by that.

Everyone at the table put their index finger on their bottom lip and pointed at me with their other hand.

I laughed. "Okay, what's this? Are we playing some kind of game here? Sorry if you all like Patrick, but I know the guy pretty well. He was my mentor last semester, and we were constantly butting heads. I tried to get along with him, I really did, but there's not much there that's redeemable about him."

They all still pointed at me in silence.

"Okay, what gives? Why are we doing this?"

Rachel cleared her throat. "Well, when we assembled this table of misfits, we all agreed that this would be a safe space for everyone, and everyone would always be welcome. We decided to follow a rule for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. At the misfits' table, you must never say something about someone that you would never say to their face."

"I would say that to Patrick's face. In fact, I pretty much have. I probably said meaner things about him to his face last semester."

Mandy giggled but stopped herself from going into a laughing fit by holding her breath.

"Sorry, Rollie," Rachel said. "What I meant was, we don't say anything bad about others at this table. Because that's what other people do to us, so we aren't welcome to sit at other tables. And are we really better than others if we make fun of them like they do to us?"

"Yes, we still are better because those other people are pompous jerks," I said.

Mandy snickered again, but Rachel glared at her.

"It's not funny, Mandy," Rachel said politely but firmly.

"You're right. I'm sorry," Mandy said.

"Anyways, we have a signal if we notice one of us saying something rude or mean about another person. It can be a hard habit to break."

"And so why do you hold your finger up to your mouth? Does that mean anything?"

"Just more of a warning to watch your tongue."

"Ah. Well, I'll try and do my best to not say anything mean about anyone. Sorry about that."

"So what's wrong, Rollie? Don't you usually sit with Farrah and one of the popular tables?" Mandy said.

I took a couple of bites of food. "You're right. I usually do. But not today."

"Do you mind if I ask why not?"

"Where do I begin? If Farrah didn't sit there, I would never in a million years sit with her friends or those other jerks because––"

The whole table held a finger up to their mouth and pointed at me again.

"Sorry, that's going to take some time for me to get used to. Basically, I said something rude about her brother, but I was being genuine and honest while also looking out for her. Not to mention, her brother was rude to me when I first met him, and even Farrah said some negative things about him."

Mandy shook her head. "Rollie, do you have any siblings?"

"No, I am an only child."

"Well, as someone who is somewhat close to their sibling, I couldn't stand the idea of someone making fun of Elliot or saying something mean. But people say, 'Oh, but Mandy, you complain about your sister. I'm only repeating the same thing you said about her.' And while that is true, I still love her a lot, and she is my sister. I get to say those things about her because she is my sister, and I know her better than anyone."

"Did you get mad at me for saying negative things about Patrick?" I asked. Even though I saw her laugh, I wanted to make sure I wasn't being offensive.

"Well, Patrick is a little different. But If you were to insult her, even if it was something I insulted her about, I would be offended." Mandy shrugged. "If you talk to Farrah again about it, I think you should apologize and say you didn't understand what it's like to talk about another person's sibling or family member because you don't have siblings."

"That's a good idea. I appreciate that, Mandy. Oh, how's your pet doing? I think its name was Toby? You know, the ferret with the orange fur and white circles around the big brown eyes."

Mandy's eyes lit up, and she beamed. "Oh my gosh, that's so sweet of you to ask. I can't believe you remember his name. Yes, it's Toby. He's doing great! He's up in my room right now."

"Right on. Glad to hear it."

After dinner, I went to Dragonstryke practice and practiced a few drills in case I had to fill in for anyone during game time. The idea of being on the bench was annoying after I really strengthened my fire bolt throws when I threw them like a football, but it didn't matter how amazing I played in practice, I wasn't going to be in the playoffs, and that was final. At least I could think about what I wanted to say to Farrah when I saw her next.