Fourteen years later….
Tyler was getting out of bed at her adoptive father’s house. Standing up, she stretched out her arms, wings, and tail before walking downstairs to see if her father had already started cooking breakfast. After stepping out of her room, she scratched the bare scales on her breast as she yawns. She hated wearing a bra or top to bed. After starting puberty, her breast almost exploded in size. They were firm C cups, on the verge of D’s. Her father didn’t like that she would sleep without a top but understood that with her wings pulling on her tops made it uncomfortable to sleep. Even as a small child her wings woke her up all the time.
She makes her way down the hallway of the doublewide modular house, whiffs of bacon and eggs cooking coming to her. She wipes the sleep from her eyes before taking a direct route to the dining room table. She takes her usual seat as her father steps out of the kitchen, with two plates in hand.
“Good morning, scaly butt.” Steven jokes with his daughter. “I am surprised to see you away so early. I thought I would have to pull you out of bed for your first day of high school.”
Tyler pops her neck before taking her plate. “I think your cooking woke me up.” She replies as her dad takes his seat. “But I did set my phone just in case.”
“Good, because I don’t want you to be late.” Her father replies as they both start eating their food. “Did you double check your bag like I said last night?”
“Yes, dad.” Tyler replies with sarcasm. “I have my class paper in the top zipper with my pens. All the books I need for today are in there to so I can put them in my locker. And I put my math and history binders in since they are the only classes I have for today. I even have my other binders and books set to the side to take tomorrow.”
“I am so glad that they changed to a split schedule. I liked it better that way when I was in school. Having eight classes all in one day sucks.” Steven tells his daughter. “Do you know if any of your friends are in the same classes today?”
“Only Johnathon. We both have Math and JROTC together today. I will probably not know anyone in my history or art class.” Tyler replies.
“Oh, text me if you are going to be wearing a uniform for JROTC this year. I already asked Margaret if she will tailor the uniform if you do.” Steven requests of his daughter. “I know when I was in ROTC in high school, I had to wear the uniform for my freshmen year, but then the next year, they just wore a T-shirt.”
Tyler shakes her head as she finishes off her breakfast. “You are still so happy that I took that class.”
“Well, yeah.” Steven replies as Tyler takes her plate to the sink. “You are following in my footsteps, though at another school. It least they are Air Force like I was.”
Tyler grabs an V8 out of the refrigerator before seeing her father’s cane leaning on the counter in the kitchen. She grabs the cane and walks it to the table, setting it next to her father. “Well, I want to see what it would be like for myself. I know it is nothing like the real military, but still.”
“I know what you mean.” Steven smiles as he finishes his meal as well. “But it is supposed to be an entry to the life. Besides, either way, you should learn a few things.” Steven then lets out a laugh, that surprises Tyler as she reaches to take her father’s plate to the kitchen. “I am just surprised to find that my old sergeant is now an instructor there. Johnson hated kids.”
“People can change, just look at me.” Tyler jokes as she walks back to her father.
“Oh, great, Puns on your former life.” Steven says before giving Tyler a caring look. “I am happy that you are working through your old memories.”
Tyler walks over and wraps her arms around her father. While she was physically mature looking for the most part, when standing near her six-foot four dad, it is obvious she is still a teen. “I am just glad that you took me in. I wouldn’t want anyone else to be my parent in this new life. Besides, Madame Illusia even showed me the ‘old me’ still living with his parents. So, there was no harm done.”
“Speaking of Madame Illusia, her carnival is going to be back at the beach next month. Do you want to go?” Steven asks.
“YES!” Tyler replies overly excited. Steven raised an eyebrow before Tyler continued. “Last lime, she paid me $100 to work her ticket booth for an hour. If she does again, then I can get my own VR head set to play with Johnathon and you.”
“Oh, so you only want to see her for her money. You know she sends most of that back to her family.” Steven replies.
Tyler releases her father from her hug and starts to head back to her room to get changed for school. “No. Her and Stephan have also been teaching me magic. You know that dad. I want to show her that I was able to learn the light spell.”
“Okay, okay.” Her father snickers.
Steven makes his way out to his Truck as Tyler puts on her clothes. While it was still technically the peak of the Texas summer, Tyler’s dragon scales and blood still felt cool. She changed her PJ shorts to a pair of blue jean shorts and put on one of her custom bras and T-Shirts. Her long, thick tail went through the custom hole in the shorts, with a strap to hold them up. She puts on her leather belt as an extra precaution to keep her pants up, recalling when she decided to try to fly in first grade and her pants came off mid-flight during recess. The good thing was, she didn’t need shoes. Her feet paws were large and tough. She had stepped on a wood nail before and bent the nail. She just had to make sure she cleaned her feet off before walking in the house, to not track in dirt or other crap.
She then tosses a light jacket over her shirt, making sure to button down the back after slipping her wings through the holes. Sometimes school was too cold for her. She had learned to regulate her body temperature herself but didn’t like to do it. It took a lot of concentration and sometimes made her sick to her stomach.
Tyler grabs her backpack, tossing the V8 from earlier in the drink pouch, opting to not to put it on yet as she had too unclipped the straps and then clip them back on place it on her back. Instead, she just carries it with her clawed hand as she makes her way out to her dad’s truck. On the way out of her room, she picks up her charged phone and her house key before walking out to their porch and locking the door herself.
The two of them lived on about ten acres of land, so Tyler always wondered why her father was so persistent in locking the door. If anyone tried to break in, they would have to hop over a wire fence, traverse a mostly wooded land, and somehow not be seen by the cameras on the outside of the house. This was on top of the fact that her father was almost always at home. He didn’t need to work. Between his disability pay and his hobbies, they never really wanted for much. He also had a large collection of firearms and Tyler herself was a dragon. So, the place was well protected as it was.
“You ready?” Steven asked his daughter as she locked the door.
“Yep, let's go.” Tyler replies as she walks over to the front passenger door of the truck. She tosses her backpack on the back seat as she carefully steps up in the truck. She makes sure her foot claws don’t protrude from her feet as she wraps her tail around her.