The Dream

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Ellie's heart was pounding as her horse approached the last jump on the course and hardest jump she would ever attempt. 4 feet away... 3 feet... 2 feet... the crowd held their breathe... 1 foo- BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Ellie's alarm yelled at her, rudely waking her up. She reached across to her nightstand, grabbing the clothes she had prepared the night before. Ellie was a sensitive girl with brown hair and blue eyes that turn grey occasionally. Her hair was very shiny and flowed half way down her back. She had tan skin and freckles across the middle of her face.

"Ellie breakfast!" she heard her grandmother call from the kitchen. Ellie grabbed her socks and rushed to the kitchen, she always loved her grand mother's cooking. "Blueberry pancakes" her grand mother said as Ellie walked into the kitchen "your favorite!"
"What's the occasion?" Ellie asked as she sat down at the polished oak table just left of the kitchen. She knew the occasion, she knew exactly why her grandmother was making her favorite breakfast in an attempt to distract her. Ellie swallowed the lump in her throat and tried her best to keep the tears in her eyes and the shake out of her voice. Today was her mothers birthday. Her mother had died in a car accident 2 years prior.
Her grandmother must have seen her eyes go red and her face go pale. She shot Ellie a sympathetic look and continued to place 2 large blueberry pancakes onto a plate. "I think you know what the occasion is honey." she paused and took a deep breathe "now eat up the bus will be here in 20 minutes." Ellie's grandmother had a very faint and barely noticeable shake in her voice at this point which is how Ellie knew her grandmother was trying as hard as she was not to cry.
Her grandmother had lost her husband to skin cancer about 5 years before Ellie's parents died. She had always been a strong woman and Ellie had never seen her cry other than at Ellie's  parents and her husbands funerals. Otherwise she had never seen a tear shed from her grandmothers blue-grey eyes.
Ellie hurried and ate her pancakes plain and grabbed her lunch off the counter and shoved it in her bag for school. She had just realized she forgot to put on her socks and quickly pulled them onto her feet and slipped on her black and white checkerboard vans, just in time for the bus.
"Bye grandma!" Ellie said as she waved and ran out the door. Ellie stepped into the bus and greeted the bus driver as usual, "Hey Brad!" she said forcing a smile.
"Hey Ellie!" he beamed back. Brad was a kind-hearted man with a smile that could light up a dark room at midnight. He had soft green eyes and medium brown, shoulder length hair. He had driven Ellie's school bus for as long as she could remember and pretty much knows all of the big things that happened in her life.
Ellie took a seat beside her best friend Mason at the back of the bus. Mason is a fairly tall boy with freckles, blonde hair, and friendly hazel eyes. "Hey, how you holding up?" he asked her
"What are you talking about?"
"You know exactly what i'm talking about."
" Fine. I guess i'm okay, grandma is trying to distract me, but i don't think it's something that I can be easily distracted from." she said holding back tears.
"Yeah I bet, I can't even imagine," he said looking down at his shoes " but you know what would distract you?"
The bus went over a bump and they both flew a foot off their seats.
"Jesus! What?" Ellie said.
"Horse back riding. You and me. Tonight." Mason replied raising his eye brows at the beginning of each sentence.
"Come on. You know my grandma doesn't like me being around horses" Ellie said, frowning.
"Oh riiiight sorry. How about... laser tag?"
"YES!! I'll text grandma and see if that's alright with her." she exclaimed with the most excitement she had felt all night.
Ellie pulled her phone out of her jean pocket to text her grandmother.
They arrived at the school and went to their separate classes. They waved at eachother as the walked different ways down the hall. It was hard doing school on a day like this without Mason. Her teachers nor any of the people in her class knew about what happened to her parents or what that day was. Everything was hard until lunch, when she got to see Mason again. "Has your grandma texted you back yet?" he asked.
"Not yet, she's probably cleaning up or something."
"Alright, well what'd you get for lunch?"
Ellie reached into her bag and pulled out a $20 bill. "Don't you remember what today is?" Ellie said with a laugh and a smile.
"Oh yeah!"
"So? let's go!"
They ran across the street to their favorite arcade and café. It's the same place they had been going since they were 9 years old. It was a fairly small place with a few dark pink, dark blue, and white stripes on the fake black leather. It had neon signs everywhere that made the room somehow feel happy even with the low light. Everyone there knew who they were and knew their orders. Mason got a chocolate milkshake and fries to dip and Ellie got a strawberry milkshake with fries to dip.
They quickly ate then headed to the arcade to play their favorite game. It was a dancing game with a small glowing stage with 9 squares on each side. There were handlebars on the backs of each stage as well as a screen to show where to put your feet in front of each stage.
"I am going to crush you." Mason said, beaming.
"What? Like you do every time?" Ellie retorted sarcastically with as smile on her face.
They each put a quarter into their machine and selected their favorite dance. It was an EDM song that was pretty fast and had taken Ellie 3 years to perfect, and although Mason was also really good, Ellie beat him every time. They were almost done when Mason tripped over his own foot and fell off the stage.
"Are you okay?" Ellie asked, laughing hysterically.
"I'm fine." he responded chuckling softly.
"Well I win. Again." Ellie said giggling. Ellie helped Mason off the floor, still laughing. Mason checked his phone and said while grabbing his school bag "Oh we gotta go, class starts in 5 minutes!"
" Oh! Okay let's go!" Ellie hastily grabbed her bag and rushed to the door to meet Mason.
They jogged back across the street to the school and again went their separate ways.
"Has your grandma texted you back?"
"No it's weird, she usually doesn't take this long to respond. And she's been typing for a long time." She showed him the three little dots in the corner of the conversation with her grandmother.
"Huh weird." Mason frowned, "See you after school we'll ask her then."
The rest of the day was plain and boring. Ellie took some notes in science, wrote a quiz in math, then played volleyball -her favorite sport- in gym class.

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