A Nightmare On Elm Street

first day

(EDITED 14/08/22)

Glen, Libby, Tod and I pulled up to the school in Glen's cherry-red 1959 Cadillac convertible. Libby climbed out and I followed her, taking a look around at the highschool and its crowd of students.

Several gradeschoolers were playing jump-rope, and singing a song that I had never heard before. "Seven eight, gonna stay up late, nine ten, never sleep again!"

I didn't put much thought into how I looked today, the bad dream I had last night was still lingering at the forefront of my mind. Everyone had bad dreams. Why would this one be any different? Dressed in Glen's varsity jacket over a white summers dress, I passed my boyfriend his books before taking his other hand in mine as I listened to what Libby was saying.

"That's what it reminded me of -- that old jump rope song." She shuddered as she revisited her dream. "Worst nightmare I ever had. You wouldn't believe it."

I nodded my head, suddenly remembering the dream she had. "Matter of fact I had a bad dream last night myself." At least she wasn't the only one.

Libby turned and faced me, but before either of us could say more, Tod Gates, a lean, Richard Gere sort, in black leather and New Wave studs, joined up with us and interrupted.

"Had a hard on this morning when I woke up, Libby. Had your name written all over it." He smirked.

Libby cracked her gum with a look of withering indifference. "There's five letters in my name, Tod. How could there be room on your joint for five letters."

I quietly laughed at her comeback which caused Tod to send me a glare. He then stopped in his tracks. "Hey, up yours with a twirling lawnmower", before cutting off across the lawn.

"Tod says the sweetest things." Libby inferred.

"He's nuts about you." I giggled.

"Yeah, nuts." Libby stated, rolling her eyes as she raked her fingernails across a tree as she passed by.

We all stood and stopped outside of the school to talk for a bit before heading to class. Libby yawned before speaking up, "Anyway, I'm too tired to worry about the creep. Couldn't get back to sleep at all. So what you dream?"

I shook my head. "Forget it, the point is, every-body has nightmares once in a while. No biggy."

Glen then spoke up, still holding onto my hand. "Next time you have one, just tell yourself that's just all it is, right while you're having it, y'know?"

"That's the trick. Once you do that, you wake right up. At least it works for me." He had a bad dream too? Libby stared at Glen sharply but turned away when he gave me a kiss before heading off for class.

Suddenly, remembering that Glen had had a bad dream I whirled around, "Hey! You had a nightmare too?" But he was long gone.

"Maybe we're gonna have the Big Earthquake. They say things get weird just before that." I nodded my head at Libby's words, the sound of bells going off in the distance, signalling that class had started.