Los Angeles Dragons

There weren't always dragons in the Valley.

Well, considering the dragons we know now are over 1000 years old, there probably were. But we had no idea. We had no reason to believe they existed at all, certainly not in 2022, and most definitely not at the Archibald Creative Learning Center.

ACLC is a school for the "otherwise gifted" students who just don't jive with a normal learning environment. We've got kids of all backgrounds here-

Going to a school like this comes with it's challenges- First of all there are the assumptions others make about you, the way your mind works and what you are capable of in "the real world"- whatever that means.

There's also the fact that every single person attending ACLC has some kind of incredible gift. When you're constantly surrounded by mini Mozarts, Einsteins, and Plaths the pressure to be equally impressive can feel pretty heavy.

Overall, it's pretty cool to be an Archibald student. We may struggle with things that neurotypical people believe are simple- but the things that come naturally to us leave them speechless.

People travel from all over to see our talent shows- it's actually where we get the majority of our budget for our school's funding. With all of our students being pretty much masters at something- the talent shows are more like variety ensembles. Ever since Daston Martin, critic for the Wyman Times, called it a "must see for all ages shapes and sizes" we've sold out every year, the day tickets are released.

One thing we're absolutely not known for?

Athletics.

Well, not until quite recently.

All of our teams were such a joke that it felt fitting that our mascot was a mythical creature. The Archibald Dragons never won anything, and we weren't expected to. The Archibalds (who founded our school) were extremely mysterious, outside of a select few common- known facts.

1) They were direct descendents of a family from the actual medieval times

2) It was a family of Royal Jesters - hence the crown and sceptor insignia on everything

and 3) They were weird about the name- keeping the line going and whatnot

In medieval history, jesters were so valued as entertainment they were given the ability to talk, and mock publically without any punishment.

We have an anti-bullying zero- strike rule at our school, but the ability to speak and express ourselves freely without punishment has remained a cornerstone of Archibald's curriculum. Students here are pretty independent, we build our own schedules and are each able to add any support to our own studies that we need, whether that be a translater, and assistant, extra time on tests, computer class or outdoor and snack privs, or even name adjustments, all a student need do is make an appointment and add the request to the system. This "special need" as some call it is then added to your file so that our teachers know to respect and incorporate it in our learning here.

It's a pretty rad situation and we all know we're very lucky, so we pay a lot of gratitude to the Archibald family. There's pretty much always a descendent per graduation cycle, and they're always considered royalty. No matter what. If it weren't for their great great great great great great great great great great great great (etc) grand father's extreme talents and generosity, we wouldn't have any of this. We would likely be drowning in "normal" schools and being made fun of for all of the things that, here, are considered gifts, and are encouraged.

Speaking of gifts, the Archibald family descendents are consistently outdoing their entire class, usually having the most unique gift of all.

That's why it was so strange when this year's new students, twins Sam and Sookie Archibald, didn't seem to have any.

To the point that they actually seemed quite normal. To the point that we actually weren't sure they'd have been accepted if it weren't for that precious family name.

That's until after adding athletics to their files, and being accepted as brother and sister to play on the school football team, we all witnessed something undescribable, inarguable, and without-a-doubt magical at the homecoming game, exactly 1 minute before it ended, when Sookie Archibald got on the field.