Lana Loves Melanie

Lana Has a Nightmare

The following Monday morning was time for another day of school. Lana's eyes flutter open as the sunshine beamed into her bedroom that she shared with her twin. She sat up in her bed and looked around to see Lola standing in front of her mirror while getting dressed.

Lola looked at her twin, "Good morning Lana," Lola greets.

Lana yawns and stretches, "Morning," Lana answers rather groggily.

"Boy you made quite a racket last night," Lola comments.

Lana gives a look of confusion, "Huh? What're you talking about?" She wonders.

"You kept tossing and turning and I think you said something like 'no' and 'help' and 'stop it, you're my family'. Did you have a bad dream?" Lola explains, with a hint of concern in her voice.

Lana froze. She actually did have a nightmare last night, and it was a pretty scary and intense one too. She very vaguely remembers making a fuss over her dream, but she figured that Lola would be too sleepy to notice it. Apparently she was wrong.

"Uh...yeah. That's all it was, just a bad dream," Lana answers.

"Seemed like a pretty bad one. Wanna talk about it?" Lola suggested gently.

"No!" Lana yelped as she grabbed onto her covers.

Lana's reaction made Lola raise an eyebrow and tilt her head in confusion.

"Uh, I mean, I don't think that's a good idea. It's something I'd really rather forget," Lana stammers while giving a nervous chuckle.

"I understand," Lola replies, "We'd better get ready or we'll be late for school."

"Right, right," Lana gets up from her bed and gets ready.

Shortly after arriving at school, the twins were greeted by Melanie, who had arrived just before they did.

"Hi you guys," Melanie greeted.

"Hi," Lola replied.

Lana did not say anything. Instead she looks downward with a sad look on her face. Melanie takes notice of this and immediately feels concerned.

"Lana? You alright?" Melanie asks.

Lana looks up at Melanie, "Uh...no. I...I had a nightmare last night. I'm pretty shaken up," Lana mutters.

"She doesn't want to talk about it," Lola explains.

"Oh, well I'm sorry about your nightmare. Maybe you'll forget about it as the day goes on," Melanie suggests.

About halfway through reading class, Mr. Cooper walked up to the twins' and Melanie's table and kneeled down so he's eye level with Lola.

"Excuse me Lola. Both Coach Pacowski and Principal Huggins would like to speak to you during lunch," Mr. Cooper whispers.

"What for?" Lola wonders, genuinely curious.

"According to Coach Pacowski, you signed up for the gymnastics team?" Mr. Cooper says.

Lola paused for a moment, "That's right, I did," She mutters.

"Well they both would like to discuss with you about whether or not that's a good idea. And lunchtime is the only period in which they are both able to talk to you," Mr. Cooper explains.

"Oh, of course I'll meet with them," Lola says politely.

Soon afterwards, Mr. Cooper walks away and Lola goes back to what she was doing, which was reading a book.

When she's sure that her sister is preoccupied, Lana discreetly hands Melanie a note that she folded in half. She gestures for Melanie to open the note, but keep it hidden from Lola.

Melanie places her book on the table upward so that it's covering her face. She opens the note which reads: "I do have to talk to you about my nightmare, but it involves my family, including Lola. So we can't talk about it while she's around. When Lola's talking to Mr. P and Mr. H, then we'll talk."

After reading the note, Melanie and Lana look at each other and silently nod.

(A/N: Lana's nightmare is going to be in the next chapter for several reasons. One, her nightmare is going to be pretty detailed, so I figured it would be better to devote a whole chapter to it. Two, if her nightmare was put here, the flow and tone of the story would feel a little off. Three, I didn't want this chapter to feel a lot longer than it should be. So, if this chapter feels incredibly short to you, then you can consider it as sort of a prologue leading to Lana's nightmare.