24th December

"Pose for a photo!" Jen let the phone click and saved the photo to the profile of Lisa. The lioness showed a big smile on the photo and made the V sign.

Now it was Jen's turn to be the model and she jumped on the bed, with her wings covered in her pullover extended to both sides and flapping them a bit, curled her fingers like a wild beast. "Roar!" she said and after Lisa took the photo, both girls giggled.

Jen flicked through the new profiles she added. Ginny, Ida and even Olga shared their number with her, and they promised to send a text when they got home.

"You are still missing a photo for this one!" Lisa pointed at a contact with just a number and a name and pushed her elbow into the rips of Jen. Jen followed her finger and saw the name of Jake.

"Erm..." she said a bit shy, but Lisa giggled. "This is how you do it, see?" she showed her the photo that she linked to the profile of Leon. The lion boy had her in the arm and smiled into the camera.

"Cute!" Jen justified the photo. "But do you think I will get Jake to do this now?"

The camp was in turmoil. After breakfast, Jake and Sophie had sent the cubs back to their houses to clean up and pack their stuff. The girls just finished and used the time, until Sophie would inspect their house, to share numbers and do some last photos.

"Sophie!" Lisa cried out when the door opened, and she jumped over a bed to get to their caretaker. "We need a photo of us all!"

Sophie did not have any time to react. All five girls huddled around her und Lisa pushed her phone as far as possible to get them all on the selfie.

"Send it to me, too!" demanded Ida and after a lot of giggles and shouting, every girl had a copy of the photo.

"Can I have your number as well?" asked Lisa to Sophie and the snow leopard laughed. "You are quite eager, aren't you little lioness." The girl giggled when Sophie swished her tail playfully.

After a few back and forth, Sophie gave them her number and they sent her a text, so she would have their number as well.

After a few demands of the girls, she also took a photo of each of them and promised to answer, when they would send her text messages, even though she seemed not as excited about it as the girls.

"I need to ask Jake as well." Lisa sputtered. "Come on Jen." But Sophie held her back at by grabbing her jacked.

"First, I will make sure your house is okay." She scolded the girl, and all others giggled.

It took Sophie ten minutes to check every drawer and every corner for stuff that had been forgotten and she even found a lone sock of Lisa under her bed, which the lioness pushed into her bag with a shy grin, embarrassed about this slip.

Finally, Sophie allowed them to take their bags and bring them into the dining hall. After they left, Jen saw Sophie doing another round through the house to check a second time.

On their way, Jen saw Jake entering the house of Leon and the other older boys and even though they could not hear the words, the girls could hear him shouting loud at them.

A gaze through the window of the house next to the hall, it was the one of the younger boys, including Niel, the bear cub that looked out and made Olga giggle when their gaze met, showed Jen that the boys were playing around, throwing covers and pillows at each other and laughed in their fun game.

It seemed that they did not even remove the sheets or pillowcases yet and their clothes were all over the ground.

Jen grinned to Lisa, when they pushed Olga towards the dining hall and entered the warm house all together. They put their bags into a corner and Jen even lay a bag with her Pajama and the other clothes, Jake purchased for her, on her bag.

"Wonna play some cards until the boys are finished?" asked Olga and pulled a pack of cards out of her bag. "I wanted... photo..." Jen looked towards the window to the boys side, but Lisa pulled her to the table, where the other girls already sat down.

"Come on, Jen." Her friend told her. "He's got all hands full with making sure the boys get ready in time. You should not budge in there."

With a sigh, Jen put away her phone and sat down next to Lisa. She only concentrated half on the game and thought about Jake.

Jen was happy, that she would see her parents again, but she also felt like the time was now running far too fast. She would have wanted to spend the last hours with Jake, snuggled up in a warm bed or a soft sofa and just cuddling until they had to part, but she knew that this was impossible.

They had had their goodbye at the last night. She would not get alone time with him until their parents would come around noon.

It took over an hour, and a lot of games won by Lisa, until Jake came in with the boys, that finally packed their bags and were just as loud as Jen had seen them while "cleaning" their house.

Sophie had looked for them in between and then went to help Jake and it seemed that they managed to tame the boys together.

"All ready?" asked Jake, when he stepped to the girls and showed them a toothy smile. "Since forever." Lisa was in her element. Suddenly she jumped up and pushed Jen at the shoulder with the hand. "Hey, the photo!"

Jen felt shy to ask for the photo in front of the other girls, but Lisa saved her. She asked Jake if he would do a photo with her and if he would do this with every girl.

While the boys fought over the best spot for their bags, Each girl had a photo taken with Jake alone, then all girls together with him and then even including Sophie.

After that, the girls split and went to the boys and the sharing of numbers and photos continued. Jen could barely keep up with all the boys asking her to get a photo with her alone.

There she was back at the attention that she always hated in schools. Being of a rare species had its upsides, but for a shy character like Jen, it could also be hard when everyone wanted a photo with her to brag in front of their friends that they really met a dragon.

Luckily there was Jack as well and he was as demanded as she was. In the end, she even had more pictures of her and Jake than she could have asked for, because everyone wanted to make photos of the two dragons, as if they were a rare trophy, and sent them to her. Jen promised herself to select the best photo at home and add it to the profile of Jake.

At the end, Jake got a tripod with a frame for his phone out of his bag and with a timer they shot a last photo with everyone together. Jen felt like Jake only let her out of his arm, where she was for over half an hour for doing all the photos, reluctantly and she also would have wished to stay like this longer.

They all helped to prepare the lunch, because they decided to have lunch ready for all parents, when they would pick them up. They barely finished before the first parents got in and the dining hall filled with people.

Lisa directly introduced Jen to her parents, a beautiful white lion with a fluffy white mane and a beige lioness with the same blue eyes than Lisa. Her mother had to stop her a few times, because Lisa was talking nonstop.

Then Lisa pulled Leon away from his father, the only one coming to pick him up, and introduced him, but Jen was not left alone for long, because the other girls and after them the boys all wanted to introduce her to their parents.

Jake winked with an eye to her, when he came past her and gave her a soft clap on her hind, as if he wanted to encourage her to stay strong.

Her own parents were late. They had sent her a message that they got stuck in a traffic jam and it might take a few more hours and Jen had told Sophie and Jake about it, who assured her that they would wait for her parents and not leave her alone in the camp.

Jen was very hungry form being shown around by all the other cubs and she was thankful for finally being able to sit down and eat.

On her right was Lisa and on her left Ginny and the girls giggled and chatted during the whole meal, enjoying the last hour they had together.

After the lunch, the parents helped their cubs to bring the bags into the car and there were hugs and shouts everywhere from the kids saying goodbye to each other.

The parents shook the hands of Sophie and Jake and thanked them to keep their kids safe and out of trouble. Jen had to giggle when she saw the gaze of Sophie after the last of the parents left the house.

"Only you are left." Said the snow leopard. "We will do a last check. Do you want to wait here?" Jen directly god up from the couch, that she used to get a bit rest after the exhausting crowd, and took the few steps to Jake, who stood close to her.

"I will come with you." She said and snuggled against the arm of Jake while taking his hand and holding it.

"It seems I am the one too much." Said Sophie with a giggle, when she opened the door. "Make sure she has her jacket on." Was the last thing she said, before she left.

Jen was not sure, how much Sophie knew or suspected, but she felt embarrassed. Her gesture had been obvious about how she fancied Jake. Sure, all other girls had been the same, but Jen still felt insecure if Sophie suspected that there was more between the two dragons.

"Want to help me check the sports hall and the Showers?" asked Jake and placed a soft kiss on her head. Jen only gripped his hand stronger and pushed herself under his arm to put her head on his chest from the side.

Jake picked up her jacket and helped her got get in. Jen directly snuggled up with his side and he put an arm around her, when they stepped out of the dining hall.

Jake took a small detour and visited the edge of the housings together with Jen to look at the forest and the cliff down to the river. He told Sophie, that he would show Jen everything again, so she could say goodbye to them but in reality, Jen knew, that Jake wanted to be alone with her just as much as the girl wanted it.

When they turned around the corner of the sorts hall and saw Sophie enter one of the houses and open all windows to vent them, Jake pulled her around, so that Jen was facing him, and kissed her.

They stood there for a few minutes and Jen could hear her heart beating. Silent they parted their lips and arm in arm walked around the camp slowly.

Jen did not pay much attention to the forest or the river, that roared from the abyss that was just a few steps away from them, when they visited the cliff, but just enjoyed the walk with Jake. None of them said a word. They just held each other's hand and took a stroll together.

When Jen's parents finally came, she introduced Sophie and Jake to them and Jen's father directly got into a long conversation with Jake, standing in the middle of the dining hall, while Sophie, Jen's mother and Jen sat at a table and drank some tea.

Sophie explained Jen's mother, why Jen had new clothes and gave hints where they could find the special tailors that offered the clothes for dragons, and other winged species, in every city.

Because Dragons were rare, usually not many shops had these clothes, but there was a particular chain that always had a few of them available, even though mostly just showcase clothes to attacked customers, because a rare outfit for a rare species was something that was different and made people look at it twice.

Jen heard a few words of the discussion of her father and Jake, when she looked over to them while the older women were deep in their own discussion. The topic seemed to be very similar. Jake told Mr. Scallivan about a tailor, that tailored by order for him and gave him the card of the tailor in case Mr. Scallivan wanted to try him out as well.

At their old home, Jen never had to wear these special clothes, because her mother just adjusted the clothes with a cut in the back that was seamed. The Jackets, that they wore at bad weather, were just very big to fit their wings, because it had been so warm all year at their old home, that they never had to wear it for long.

When they finally departed, Jen hugged both Sophie and Jake for the goodbye. She felt a bit embarrassed when she squeezed Jake in front of her parents, especially when her mother smiled at her and threw her a gaze that Jen was sure meant that her mother at least suspected that Jen had a crush on Jake.

Her suspicion was fortified when they sat in the car and her mother asked a few minutes after they left the camp. "Was it nice, meeting another dragon for the first time?" - "Hmmm." Said Jen, and her head began to buzz from the blood rushing in. "He is a beautiful guy." Her mother teased her further and Jen just showed her a sarcastic smile and her mother waved it off with a smile.

"I am just happy that you got a bit out of your shell. I think it was a good idea to send you to the winter camp here, while we prepared the house and got the renovation done."

The house looked warmer and more like a home when they finally arrived. The wallpapers had been changed and, in her room, she saw the pink wallpapers that she wished for.

She was too tired from the drive, they had been in three traffic jams for over four hours in total, when they returned to look at all the changes in the house.

After saying goodnight to her parents, she fell into her bed.

She only opened WhosApp for a short look. A new group had been created by the girls and she put a quick "I'm home" message in, before she put her mobile phone on the night table and already fell asleep. She did not even notice her mother getting in a few minutes later and pulling the blanket over her body.