dinohigh, no humans allowed!

"It's finally here!" I say, watching the news. "After years of waiting, we can go back."

Cheers erupt in the house and throughout the neighborhood as the TV announces the live report: the ban on non-dinosaurs has been lifted for Dino High.

Mom looks at me, smiling a beaked grin. "We have to get you dressed!" she says, excitement in her voice. "Classes start tomorrow, and you're not gonna make it in time if you take the bus!"

"Mom, relax," I say, rolling my eyes. "It's not like it's the end of the world if I'm late on the first day."

"This movement in the Senate took decades," she continues, ignoring me. She's already rummaging through my closet, picking out clothes. "Even since I was little, I wasn't able to go. We've had a scholar's ID in the family for generations, you know. I think our family was one of its first students. So it was always weird how we were excluded because of the law forbidding non-dinosaurs from going."

"Yeah, yeah," I say, half listening. I've heard this story a million times, but Mom never gets tired of telling it.

She sighs, pausing for a moment. "Of course, we pterosaurs voted for the law too. We didn't know it would screw us over in the future. We thought 'dinosaur' meant everyone like us. But ever since new studies in science discovered we weren't dinosaurs..."

"We got kicked out," I finish for her, knowing the end of the story. "I know, Mom."

"But it wasn't just us. Plesiosaurs, too." Mom's face darkens. "And silosaurs. They were re-integrated into the dinosaur tree after being kicked out like us. And then archosauramorpha and even wider reptiles. Now they're all considered dinosaurs by the new, stretched definition. It's ridiculous. We're the ones who started this!"

I nod, but I'm barely paying attention as I tug on my uniform. "Yeah, well, they outnumber us now, what? A hundred to one?"

Mom shakes her head. "Not just that. They have legal status in all of our countries in the Dino Federation, and they forced us to recognize their ethnic enclaves and autonomous indigenous zones as governing bodies. We have to train them in the school, even if they wouldn't push through. Protocol demanded they have a generation of their own get the chance, at least academically, to be independent from the rest of Dino."

"This is bad," I mutter, sitting on my bed. "They're gonna flood the schools with non-dino teachers. I mean, it's one thing to be around them, but now they want us to learn their history too?"

Mom clenches her jaw, nodding. "Exactly. They passed a clause in the Senate demanding we teach non-dinosaur history too, as part of a wider dino-adjacent culture. Can you believe it? All this happened because of prejudice against pterosaurs. Racism brought dino-kind into this mess, and now we're the ones who have to beg to be let back in."

I cross my arms. "And they think we're supposed to be grateful? I hate being around them. How could dinos be so racist to us pteros? We didn't deserve this!"

Mom sits beside me, patting my hand. "We just have to show them we're better. That's why it's important you make a good impression tomorrow."

"Yeah, yeah. I'm gonna show them pterosaurs deserve to sit at their table again," I mutter. "And get back at them for kicking me out and forcing me to go to school with all these freaks!"

Mom chuckles. "At least you were lucky. There were private pterosaur-only schools that kept you away from the worst of it."

"Thank God for that," I say, watching Mom pack my bags and fuel the air propulsion backpack. "Flying is gonna be a pain. It's nice to be propelled through the air when you reach glide altitude."

"Wait, don't go yet!" Mom says suddenly, stopping me in my tracks. "The journey is too far with just this."

I roll my eyes. "Mom, it's okay. I can just fly the rest of the way carrying the tank on my back."

She shakes her head. "No. Help me set up, honey!" She points to the basement, her eyes bright with a glint of excitement.

"What are you up to now?" I ask, following her downstairs. I watch as she pulls out something from an old closet, dusting it off.

I can't believe my eyes. "Is that…?"

"It's a vintage glider!" Mom beams, brushing off cobwebs. "With this, love, you'll be the coolest kid in class."

I smile, shaking my head. "Mom, you're such a show-off."

She grins. "I was always a show-off in my youth. And I expect you to make a good impression with your new peers. You have to show these dino-dumbasses that pteros demand their spot back!"

"Yeah," I say, looking at the glider, feeling a surge of determination. "And I've been waiting too long for them to agree."