“Look what I can do!” Olivia giggled, showing her dad a drawing of a sparkly rainbow.
“That’s amazing, Olivia!” Dad exclaimed, giving her a big hug. “What else did you learn in school today?”
Olivia’s smile faded a bit. “We learned about numbers. And then I got homework.”
Dad patted her head. “Homework can be fun! What do you have to do?”
“I have to solve these addition problems,” Olivia sighed, pushing her worksheet across the table.
Dad scanned the page. “Well, these are tricky! Maybe we can find something in the house to help us add.” He picked up a pencil. “How about we use these to count?”
Olivia shook her head. “I wish there was a more exciting way to do homework.”
Suddenly, a tiny voice squeaked, “Maybe I can help?”
Olivia gasped! A miniature dragon, no bigger than her thumb, was perched on top of her pencil case. It had shimmering scales that shifted between emerald green and ruby red, and its tiny nostrils puffed out puffs of smoke that smelled like cinnamon and bubblegum.
“A talking dragon!” Olivia whispered, her eyes wide with amazement.
Dad, who was looking for an eraser in his desk drawer, didn’t seem to notice.
“You can talk?” Olivia asked the dragon, her voice barely above a whisper.
The dragon chuckled, a sound like bells chiming. “Of course I can talk! I’m a magical dragon. And I love helping with homework!”
Olivia’s jaw dropped. This was much more exciting than using pencils to count! “But… how can you help?” she asked.
The dragon fluttered over to the worksheet and landed on top of a number. “See this problem? Two plus two?” The dragon tapped the numbers with its tiny claw. “Watch this!”
The dragon took a deep breath and blew a puff of sparkly smoke. When the smoke cleared, the numbers on the page were magically rearranging themselves! Two apples appeared beside the first number two, and then two more apples popped up next to the second number two.
“Now you can just count all the apples together,” the dragon said proudly. “One, two, three, four! Two plus two equals four!”
Olivia was amazed! This was the most fun she’d ever had doing homework! She quickly added up all the problems, the dragon helping her every step of the way.
When Dad turned around, he was astonished to see Olivia smiling at her finished worksheet. “Wow, Olivia! You finished your homework already? You’re getting so good at math!”
Olivia just giggled, keeping her new magical friend a secret. She couldn’t wait to go to school the next day and tell all her friends about the amazing homework-helping dragon!
