I started to snarl back at her but stopped myself. She was right. We were both cranky and exhausted. The past week had been nothing but exams, studying and more exams. Not just in math, science, biology and all our academic studies; we also had daily tests measuring how “human” we could be. These were to see if we could remain under control in extreme, stressful situations, or if we’d lose it and Shift to dragon form. Yesterday, one of our “exams” had involved sitting in the middle of a circle, trying to answer calmly while everyone around us had screamed in our face or asked demanding questions. I’d kept my cool and passed easily enough, but Ember had come out of the room bristling and ready to snap at anything that touched her.

“Sorry,” I offered again, and managed a half smile.

She relaxed and smiled back, mollified for now. “At least it’s the last day,” she said in a relieved voice. “After this, things will go back to normal.”

“Yeah.” I nodded. “I hope so.”

“God, they’d better,” Ember muttered. “If I have to endure another ‘scream in your face for a half hour’ exam, I’m going to bite someone’s head off.” She curled a lip, then took a hard bite of her cereal, crunching down with vigor. “Anyway, I have reasons to pass these stupid tests, too. Did you know that Mr. Gordon will take us to see the new horror movie if we ace the final exam?”

I smirked at her. “You might’ve mentioned that once or twice.”

She ignored my sarcasm. “I’m so tired of these same stupid walls,” she went on, glaring at the walls in question. “I need to get out of here, for a couple hours at least. And come on, Dante—you’re excited, admit it. You’ve been dying to see this movie, too.”

“Yes, though you know what I’m not looking forward to? Being woken up at 12:00 a.m. by someone sneaking into my room because she thought she heard her closet door open.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ember answered breezily. “But you should probably leave the sleeping bag on the floor, just in case.”

I shook my head, finished my glass and headed to my room for my books.

* * *

Testing was brutal. I was tired, and about an hour in, my head started to ache. But I gritted my teeth and pushed myself to finish early. Ember, shockingly, finished a few minutes after me, indicating that she had been studying as she’d said. I felt bad for snapping at her.