For as long as I can remember, my dream starts off the same every night. I’m running in the woods and from what I didn’t know. All I know is that if I stop, I’m dead. And then I look ahead of me and see a river two feet away. As I get closer I can see that the waves are going fast. There is no way I can swim it. But I don’t know what else to do. Because whatever I am running from is getting close. So I jump in. And try as I might to swim, I can’t. And the angry waves push me under. I can feel myself slipping away from lack of oxygen. I finally make it to the top for a gulp of air.
The river pushes me down the bank. And I struggle to grab a hold of a nearby bolder. My fingers start trembling, attempting to latch on. But try as I might, I can’t grab it. The river keeps pushing me further down and ahead of me I see a collection of giant, sharp rocks have gathered in the middle of the river. I know this is it. I search around me for anything to hold onto. But it’s no use. I silently say a prayer and a wait for my death. And the next thing I hear is a sharp crunch…
My eyes flutter open and I struggle to breathe. I glance around my room quickly, taking in my surroundings. I let out a relieved sigh and check the time. 6:45 Am. I let out a small grunt and stare at the ceiling.
Today is the first day of my senior year and I’m not exactly looking forward to it. I wish I could tell you I was the most popular girl in school. With a football jock boyfriend and self-absorbed cheerleader clones who follow me around and hang on to every word I say. I wish I could tell you that I’m the girl everyone wants to be and every guy wants to date. I wish I could tell you these things, but they would be lies.
I’m actually the opposite. You know, the frumpy chick that wears oversized clothes and has really thick glasses that cover most of her face. That’s me. To tell the truth I don’t think the jocks and cheerleaders know I exist. This is a good thing. As long as they don’t know me, I’m safe. I can’t say that for some of the other kids in school.
But the snobby cheerleaders and beefed up jocks aren’t the reason I’m not looking forward to senior year. The real reason is that my birthday is in five days. And in five days the transformation will begin. And that was something that scared me worse than the dream…
