Adventures in Dreamscapering

project

I didn't see Max for the rest of the week, and my dreams, typically with some degree of lucidity and vividness were unusually dull and uncontrollable.

Which I suppose was what I needed to focus on my science project with Nathan the insufferable, considering that we still hadn't started on it even though two weeks had almost passed.
We scrapped our Mars idea after Nathan convinced the other groups not to use it and suddenly didn't want it and now we were left twiddling our thumbs in science.

"Okay, we've got like two weeks left Nathan. We need at least an idea." I looked up from my blank notebook page that I had been staring at for the majority of the class.

"Do you have any?"

"No."

We entered silence again.

"What about...never mind." Nathan placed his pencil eraser into his mouth once more in false concentration.

"What?"
"Nothing."
"Just say it! It's not like we have any better ideas."

Nathan blushed a tiny bit before murmuring something under his breath. He looked at me with the desperation of a shy person praying they wouldn't have to repeat themselves.

Sadly that wish would not come into fruition for that proverbial shy person.

"Nathan you're going to have to speak up if you want me to hear--"
"We could do it on lucid dreaming, okay! That's what I said. So do you know what that is, or...?"
I giggled a little bit.
"Why are you laughing?" Nathan said blankly and sheepishly. I realized shortly later that of course he wouldn't know that I had lucid dreams every night and most recently had some very interesting adventures in lucid dreaming.
"Yeah, I know what a lucid dream is, Nathan. That's actually an excellent research topic. No one else is likely going to be doing it so it will be an original idea...alright, let's do it!" I said more excitedly and louder then I intended. Neighboring groups tear themselves from their various assignments to stare momentarily at us before turning back around.

Nathan looked shell-shocked. Perhaps he didn't expect me to agree with him so quickly.

"Uh. Sure! Okay! We have a topic, great!" Nathan put his hand up and I stare at it for a moment until I realize too late that he intended a high-five after he high fives himself and gives me a fake glare. Maybe.

Ms. Boyd gave us the clean-up warning as the bell was going to ring and for the first time in a while I didn't leave class loathing Nathan!

Later he texts me :

Yo I'm actually kind of excited to work on this project now that it's on a topic that interest me

well interests me more than Mars lol

anyway do you want to meet up like afterschool or whatever and work on it

like not today if you don't want to

but whenever

Nathan's quintuplicate text message style amused me and I grinned at my phone in my lap during class (which inevitably got me caught and my phone confiscated till the end of the day).

When I had my phone returned to me at the end of the day by a grouchy office lady, I returned Nathan's text.

sure I'm busy today but tmrrw maybe ??

K.

---

Nathan and I met up at the library after school the next day, both of us shortly weary of each other in awkward silence before Nathan starts the conversation.

"So."
"Yeah?"

Our colloquy ceased momentarily before Nathan presses quietly: "So...when did you start?"

"Start what?" I said stupidly, then realizing my mistake, I stuttered, "Oh! You meant like lucid dreaming. Haha, duh!"

Nathan squinted at me blankly. He opened his mouth to ask the question again, probably with a sarcastic flavor this time. I beat him to it with an answer.

"Sorry. I babble sometimes and forget the point. I've always been able to without much effort. Since I was little."

"Woah, really?"

I nodded, smiling.

Nathan laughed. "Ha, that's neat! It's really hard for me to have lucid dreams. It takes like three months of 'practice' for maybe two seconds of lucid dream?"

We did the opposite of work on our project again, but this time it wasn't because we were silently hating each other; rather we were exchanging our nonsensical dream stories. I was very tempted to tell him about Max because I knew it would blow his mind but ended up not doing so because I also knew he wouldn't believe most of it.

Our conversation drifted into other things like siblings and other trivial factors of home life and we discovered that we weren't too different other than our personalities.

"Wow! It's really weird how we spent all this time hating each other and we actually have so much in common." Nathan said, leaning his head on his hand.

"Yeah. Maybe we just needed to get to know one another? You're not half bad."

"I know." Nathan winks and we both giggle.

"Well, I have to go and we have still done no work. So I guess we'll be in here tomorrow?"

"Ha, yeah. Bye Greenie." Nathan says as I pick up my black backpack and prepare to leave the library.

I smiled and didn't bother to correct him.