Call Spirits in Your Past **Book Two**

Chapter 28 (Monday)

"It's actually a lot like a dream, isn't it?"

Ripple blinked at Vizz, startled that she'd spoken. "What?"

"This," Vizz motioned around them, at the floating objects and flickering colors. "It really reminds me of a dream. I didn't think it would."

"Actually..."

"Yeah?" Vizz asked, hair and clothes floating in low gravity.

Ripple muttered, "it reminds me of my inner world."

Vizz's eyebrows knit together. "Your inner world?" The wooden cubes quivered, like Vizz was about to drop them. Or send them skyrocketing to the ceiling. "Oh, that. Your dissociative stuff."

Ripple nibbled her lip. Was Vizz actually serious? "My dissociative...stuff?"

Vizz crossed her arms. "This is why I have anxiety with people. They take issue with everything," the wooden blocks thumped to the ground. Addie's color bursts continued though, concealing the rest of the classroom. Ripple had actually almost managed to forget they were in a classroom--or, large gymnasium, for doing "enriching" things. Like walking through floating cubes and color bursts.

"It's called Dissociative Identity Disorder," Ripple glowered. "Not dissociative stuff."

Vizz rolled her eyes. "I got the first word right. Besides, I was asking about your inner world," a single wood block rose up and smashed back down, the splinters shooting straight up again.

Ripple silently stared. "Didn't sound much like a question to me," she muttered.

The colors faded, revealing the rest of the gym with clusters of muttering students scattered about, and Addie seated cross-legged nearby. She smiled at them from her quilt. "How'd I do?"

Vizz made no move to reply.

"We..." Ripple scuffed her shoe on the gym floor, "kind of got distracted."

Addie frowned. "Distracted? But we've got to have this ready for the talent show on Thursday."

"How is this supposed to work in a talent show if nobody can see in or out?" Vizz asked. Ripple frowned again at Vizz actually speaking.

Addie blushed slightly, shrugging. "I hadn't thought that far yet."

"And I haven't thought as far as Thursday yet," Vizz picked up a wooden block. She stared at it for a second, then lowered her hand, leaving it floating.

Ripple turned away.

"You still haven't answered," Vizz said.

"What?" asked Addie.

"I wasn't talking to you."

A pause.

"I haven't answered what?" Ripple said.

"You haven't answered how it reminds you of your inner world."

Ripple folded her arms. It couldn't do any damage to explain, just the basics. Probably. Maybe it'd make Vizz quit asking. "I see fractions of my inner world in all the colors," she glanced over her shoulder at Addie's pale quilt. "Like they're the same fuzzy, dreamy quality. That shade of violet is the same as Lucille's skis. The green is Flora's dress, and the dark orange is the movie theater seats."

Vizz wrinkled her brow. "You know that, like, trees are green too, right?"

Ripple nodded.

"But Addie's dream colors remind you of your inner world."

Ripple nodded again.

"I bet it's because they're dream colors," Addie guessed. "Like your inner world is a constant dream-state within your mind."

Ripple just shrugged. Maybe she'd said too much.

"I've got an idea," Addie rose to her feet. "What if our talent was making Ripple's inner world?"

Ripple gaped. "What? Absolutely not. Why don't we make one of your dreams? Or Vizz's...um..."

"My dreams are already in it," Addie said. "That's where all these things come from," she pointed at her quilt.

"I have a question," Vizz pointed at it too. "Did you sew all of that? Or did it just magically appear there?"

Addie stared, blinking. "It's complicated."

"So's my inner world," Ripple said.

Addie sighed. "During counseling, I've been learning how to lucid dream. That's where you realize you're in a dream, and do things to control what's happening. He suggested I start sewing dream objects into a quilt, or a cloak, or something, then dream that into being instead of whatever else."

Ripple blinked. "That...that actually sounds really awesome."

"Yeah," Vizz nodded.

Addie snorted. "Sure, until you're in a nightmare being chased by an animate thundercloud who knows everything about you, and you have to focus on dreaming up a quilt instead of running for your life."

Vizz snapped her fingers. "I've got your codename. Nightmare."

Ripple frowned, thinking of the ocean in their dorm. "I mean, it fits."

"Maybe..." Addie's eyes lit up. "Wait, last night I dreamt about a horse," she crouched, rubbing a hand to the quilt. "You want to see it?"

Before waiting for a reply, a smoky, purple stallion billowed into existence from the pale quilt. It gnashed its jaw, lined with pointed teeth. Its mane appeared as pure smoke, but the hooves and tail kept ghosting in and out of form. Ripple frowned at that and stepped forward, reaching a hand out to touch it, and pushed vibrations inside, forcing the mare more solid. Giving it energy. The hooves and tail grew substantial against the floor.

"Ripple?" Vizz whispered. "What are you doing?"

"Making it more solid?" she touched her forehead to the mare's nose. It whickered, and she smiled briefly. "Do you think it'd let me ride it?"

"Yes," Addie said.

Ripple moved along the side of the horse, tracing a hand down their side while still pouring vibration into it, pulling from the stirred air.

Vizz lightened gravity in the space around Ripple, and she jumped onto the mare's back. It bolted.

She cried out, bouncing up and down, clutching to the mane or the neck or anything that would keep her from falling off the heaving surface. Addie shouted, and the smoky mare dissipated. Ripple tumbled to the ground, slamming on the hardwood floor.

"Rimira?" Miss Trevalene called. "Are you okay?"

Ripple groaned. She pushed herself to her feet, rubbing her backside. "Yeah," she shouted across the gym. The other groups huddled around the class slowly turned away, chatting about whatever talent show projects they were supposed to be working on. Miss Trevalene just nodded, returning to her table and whatever teacher-stuff occupied her laptop.

Ignoring the pulsing pain slowly building in her knee, Ripple walked to Addie and Vizz, hiding her limp.

"I think horse riding is definitely a no for the talent show," Vizz said.

"So Ripple's inner world?" Addie asked brightly. They both grinning hopefully.

Ripple glared. "Don't look so happy about it."

They smiled even wider and Ripple sighed.