Marie's POV
The hospital room is white. A woman is sitting next to the bed. On the other side, a nurse with a name tag that reads Jackie is reading a screen.
"She's having a moment," Jackie announces.
The woman next to the bed nods and grips my hand tighter. She looks right at me and starts to speak.
"Jasmine," she says. "Jasmine, if you can hear me, you need to wake up. Please. Your birthday is in a few days. You'll be sixteen." She wipes a tear from her cheek. "Just wake up. Wake-"
"-up!" My mother pounds on the door. "Marie, come on! You'll be late for school!"
I sit up, gasping. The hospital dream is a reoccurring dream and it always leaves me with a feeling of loss.
"Marie Johnson, if you don't get up-"
"I'm up!" I call.
"Well hurry up! We need to leave in twenty minutes!"
"Alright." I get up and go through my normal morning routine. For my outfit, I put on skinny jeans with a black sweater, black boots, and a black and blue scarf. Then I head downstairs for breakfast.
My mom hands me a plate of eggs when I get into the kitchen and she tells me to eat quickly. Once I finish, I grab my school stuff and my mom drives me to school.
"Bye, sweetie! Have a great day!"
"I will!" I get out of the car and go into my school.
2 hours later
"Please solve these problems in your notebook," the teacher said. I pulled my notebook out of my bag and opened it up to a blank page. As soon as I began, my vision went kind of blurry.
Ok, so if y=x+21, and y=x times 2, what is x? So you need to-
Suddenly, a steady beeping fills my ears. I sit up straight and look around, but no one else seems to hear it. I shake my head and it goes away.
Ok, back to the problem. Alright, so I need to put them equal to each other, so
x+21=x times 2. Ok then we-
The beeping starts again, louder than before. I try to ignore it, but it doesn't work. I shake my head to try and clear it, but it stays as loud and annoying as ever. I look back down at my paper, when suddenly-
I'm in the hospital room again. The woman is there still, but now a man is with her. This time there's no nurse.
"I think she's having a moment," the man says. The woman sighs.
"David, she's been like this for nearly sixteen years! What if she never wakes up?"
"Don't say that. She will wake up. Her moments are coming more frequently and are happening longer."
"But what if she doesn't? I don't know how much longer I can stand seeing our poor Jasmine like this."
"It'll be ok. You'll see." The man pulls the woman into a hug. A tear drops off her cheek and lands on my face. For some reason, I want to reach up and comfort her, but my arms won't move.
"Jasmine," the man says, "if you can hear me, please come back. Jas-"
"Marie!" the teacher snaps. "I will not tolerate sleeping in my class!"
I sit up straight. "I'm sorry sir, I don't know what happened. I was doing my work, and then I guess I just fell asleep."
"Marie, I believe you, I do. But this is the third time you've fallen asleep in class this week! Maybe you should go to a doctor."
I nod and go back to my work, somewhat embarrassed. It's true that I keep falling asleep in math, as well as a few of my other classes, but I never seem tired when I do. Even weirder, is that I always dream about the same hospital room, and the same woman and man. They always call me Jasmine, and sometimes they call me that enough that I get confused about what my name really is. As for the teacher's suggestion of seeing a doctor, I've tried that as well. He suggested I maybe have narcolepsy, a condition where the person falls asleep at random times, but not all the symptoms are right.
The bell rang, snapping me out of my musings. I packed up my stuff and went to lunch.
~~~
"-and he called you out on it in front of the whole class?" my best friend Kelley asks incredulously.
"Yup," I reply, popping the p.
"Wow," my other best friend, Esme, says. "That's kind of harsh."
"Tell me about it. And then, when I try to explain myself he tells me I should see a doctor!"
"OMG, I can't believe he did that!" Kelley exclaims.
"How embarrassing," Esme agrees.
"I know, right?" I say. Just then, my boyfriend Liam comes over to our table.
"Hey, what're you talking about?" he asked.
"Marie's terrible math teacher," Kelley informs him, and she proceeds to tell him the whole story. Kelley, if you can't tell, is the school's biggest gossip.
After she finishes, Liam looks at me.
"That's awful. I don't know what I'd do if my teacher called me out like that in front of the whole class. Are you sure you're ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
The bell rings, signaling the end of lunch.
"See you later," I tell my friends and I head to science class.
The rest of the day passes uneventfully, and before I know it, school's over. I head to my bus and find an empty seat. The bus leaves not too long after, and when it gets to the first stop I get off. I'm the only one at my stop.
When I get home, I throw my school stuff in a pile and go upstairs to my room. I pass the time by doing random stuff until dinner.
I eat quickly, not really noticing what I'm eating. My mom, of course, notices.
"Honey, is everything ok?" she asks.
"Yeah, I'm just feeling a little funny," I tell her.
"Well maybe you should go to bed, and you'll feel better in the morning," my dad suggests.
"Yeah, that sounds like I good idea," I say. I say goodnight to both of my parents and head upstairs to get ready for bed.
As I'm falling asleep, I remember that tomorrow is my birthday.
Tomorrow at least will be a good day, I think.
Little did I know how wrong I was.
YOU ARE READING
Life is but a Dream
Teen FictionMarie has been living a (mostly) ordinary life for fifteen, almost sixteen years. She has a loving family, two best friends, a boyfriend, and straight A's in school. The only thing weird with her life is her. Sometimes she hears noises and voices...
