3rd December

Jen took a while to realize where she was. She woke up by Sophie returning into the house from a check on the boys, who were up already.

Jen could hear the boys shout and play outside and pulled her cover more over her body. She did not want to get out of the bed, because her heart felt nervous again about meeting all these strangers. She knew what would happen.

It took Sophie a bit of comforting and negotiations to get the girl out of her bed. Sophie was the only one she knew here, and Jen got used to her a bit the last evening. Without any other option, she clung to the caretaker when they left the house, Jen packed into her warm jacked with the hood on her head and the scowl around her neck, not showing much of her scales.

Her mother had explained her last week, that one of the reasons she was sent to the camp was, that she got used to be around other kids and take a step into more independence. It was true, that Jen still felt very nervous around people she did not know, even kids, but she did not buy this reason from her mother and also did not agree to this. She knew that her mother and her father just did not have the time to care for her in the weeks until Christmas, because they had to visit the new company of her dad, even though Jen still did not know what her father was doing there at all.

"Be quite for a few minutes." Sophie raised her voice towards the boys, when they entered the dining room in the big house in the middle of the camp.

"This is Jen. I want you to be nice to her, do you understand?" Sophie explained and she pushed Jen, who tried to hide behind the snow leopard, in front of the other kids.

"Wow!" came the shouts of the boys who huddled all around her. "So cute!" and "A dragon?" were just a few words Jen was able to pick up from the chaos of shouts of the boys.

Jen wished she could hide behind Sophie again, but she just closed her eyes and let the excitement of the other kids flush over her, enduring the embarrassment and anxiety of being the center of attention from all these strangers.

"Now, now. Let her have a bit of space. She will not fly away." Sophie joked while she helped Jen out of her jacket because it was quite warm inside the house.

"I bet she could with her wings." One of the boys said and Jen noticed embarrassed that she had spread her wings a bit, when the tight grip of the mantle had been gone, to get the stiffness out of them.

The remark of the boy was not correct, because Jen knew that the wings were not strong enough to carry her. At least yet. Her father told her, that an adult Dragon could, with enough training, fly with them. She never managed to lift from the ground at all when she tried a few years ago and since then she never tried again.

At this moment though, she wished she could have flown away from all this attention.

Sophie shielded her a bit from the eagerness of the boys to prevent them from storming the girl but when they all were at the breakfast, Jen, who opened her eyes again, saw all of them eying her with big eyes and following every movement of her, which made it even harder for her to look at them.

Sophie had them all introduce themselves, something that Jen just got over with saying her name and age. She did not remember all the names of the kids because she was too embarrassed from all the looks of the boys to listen.

There were 9 kids. Leon Kings, a 13 years old lion. Zen Smith, a 12 years old wolf. Milo Wilson, a 12 years old German Shepard. Jonathan Carlson, a 9 years old ape. Leny Larson, an 11 years old beaver. Donny Miller, an 8 years old donkey. Paul Allister, a 10 years old otter. Brandon Johnson, a 13 years old wolf. Niel Mavericks, an 8 years old bear.

After the breakfast the boys huddled around Jen and started to storm her with compliments on how cute she was and made her yelp in surprise, when they touched her wings to feel them and shot pictures with their mobile phones.

It was Sophie, who saved her after a few minutes, reminding the boys to leave some room for the girl. Jen felt double embarrassed after realizing, that she did not use her make-up kit this morning and therefore had no eye shadow or other make-up to spice up her visual.

The other kids seemed to not mind that at all and she was the attraction of the morning, until the other kids came.

Jen slowly got used to the boys, after they were less invading on her with the first excitement being over and Sophie telling them to respect the personal space of Jen.

When, in the evening, the other kids came, it all started again though. Not only the other kids were very excited about meeting Jen, but she also saw quite some parents eying her with interest and one even pulled out a phone to take a picture, which Sophie prevented though by reminding them that they should not just shoot pictures of other's children in the camp.

Even though Jen should have been used to the reaction of people who did not know her by now, she still felt intimidated by all this eager attention.

Dragons were very rare, some even said in danger of extinction. Not only were they protected by every government, one of the reasons why her father had such little problems to move with his family to America, but meeting a dragon was also seen as a good luck charm and a one in a live chance, because many people never saw a dragon in their life, or only in television.

Knowing, that she was of a rare species, did not help Jen though to feel more comfortable about this. Sure, when she knew all the people around, she actually was able to enjoy all the attention. In her old school in Europe, they even called her Diva and said she was attention whoring, which was naturally not true in her opinion, but with strangers she still felt uneasy every time.

She retreated to the girls' house to not be in the middle of all the attention and tried to get used to the arriving girls, who were no different in their excitement about meeting Jen.

From the girls she also heard about the other boys that came this day and she watched them through the window.

Steven and Nathan Park were horses with the age of 10 and 13. Jen heard about them from their sister, Ginny, an 8 years old filly who was the first to join Jen in the house.

Ian Howardson, a 9 years old stag, even personally visited the girls' dorm with his twin sister Ida, a cute deer of 9 years as well, that directly bonded with Jen and scored points by pushing her twin brother out when she noticed how he troubled Jen.

There were 3 more new boys. Artemis McDough, an 11 years old badger. Malcom Donnaven, a tiger that was quite big, even though he was only 8, and Eliot Sanderson, an elk of 10 years, who already showed small antlers and seemed to be very complacent.

The two missing girls were Lisa Teether, a lioness that reminded Jen of her friend, only that she had white fur and was just 10 years old, and Olga Parnokova, a 12 years old bear, who was by far the heaviest of the girls and looked a bit intimidating for Jen.

Only at the dinner, that now all cubs had together in the big dining room together with Sophie, the attention was for the first time ripped away from Jen and she was happy about it.

The reason was the arrival of their second caretaker.

"Hello Kids!" he introduced himself with a loud voice. "I am Jake Knight. Together with Sophie I will make sure that you are save and sound and have fun."

Jen was awestruck by the appearance of Jake. This was the first time she met another dragon and like all the other kids, she stared at him in interest.

He was clearly older than them but not too much. In his introduction he mentioned that he was 17, but for Jen he looked older.

His muscles were clearly visible under the shirt and his arms looked like they packed a lot of muscles under the black scales.

Where Jen was white, jack had all pitch-black scales and even his eyes were black but for Jen he looked beautiful. Her heart made a jump and beat hard against her chest while she looked at the men that looked around and smiled to all the kids.

Unlike Jen, who had her wings pressed against her body most of the time, he had his wings spread while he introduces himself, which made his introduction so much more impressive.

He seemed to enjoy the attention and all their eyes, so much different than Jen felt always when she was the center of attention.

Jen was happy for Jake to appear for two reasons. On the one hand, she found him fascinating, because he was the first male dragon, next to her father, that she saw. Second, he took away all the attention of the other kids.

Jen finally was able to relax a bit, even though she too had her eyes glued on the impressive body and figure of Jake while she ate.

Her fascination and attention to Jake also managed to make her loose a bit of her nervousness and she started to talk with the girls next to her, Lisa and Ida, more actively. The topic was for sure just Jake all the time and the girls giggled together.

"Do you think Jake has a girlfriend?" the girls were laying in their bed and talked with each other. Ida, who lay next to Jen, turned around to her when asking the question.

Sophie had left the house when the other girls arrived and moved back into her house. The caretakers each had their own house, that was the same size as the houses the cubs were sleeping in.

The boys had been split into groups of 5 to occupy 3 of the other houses. Sophie had taken the house next to the girls' lodge, while Jake took the one closest to the entrance of the camp, which was on the other side of the 3 houses of the boys. This way, the girls could reach Sophie easier and Jake could have an eye on the boys, or so they explained them.

"Sure!" said Jen, after giggling as well. She felt her head get hot from the blood rushing into it. "Maybe Sophie?" she suggested.

"Nah!" Olga threw in from the other side of the room. Jen was used to all the girls right now and despite her intimidating appearance, Olga turned out to be very nice and gentle.

"Sophie said she is already 25. Jake is just 17. I am sure that he has a girlfriend his age or younger."

The girls giggled. The topic around Jake made it much easier for Jen to bond with the other girls. The attention was, for most parts, not so much on her, because all the girls were giggling together and talking just about Jake right now.

She even did not feel nervous anymore when talking to the other girls. They continued with their discussion until Sophie entered the lodge and reminded them that it was late, and they should sleep.

With a lot of additional giggles, the girls finally turned off the lights and got ready to sleep. While drifting off to a dream, Jen imagined Jake in her head and grinned about her first encounter with another dragon. For the first time in her life, she understood the feeling of others, when meeting a dragon for the first time. It had something magical.