The Dreamer Trilogy: Book One

Chapter 6

I sit in the wooden chair, awaiting the arrival of my new classmates. It’s only a few minutes before students start to emerge from the doorway. Each of them enters individually, and takes a seat in the nearly empty room. A few of them glance up at me, some offering smiles while others giving me glares. The class has minimal seats left available before someone decides to sit in the desk next to me. Someone walks in the room, and scans over the students before walking to the back of the room and taking the seat to my right. He has black hair, buzzed almost to his scalp and he looks like he could knock someone out with a single punch. His eyes are thin and concentrated on the person in front of him. “Whew..” I say to myself before looking back toward the door. A minute goes by, then five, then ten, and finally, Katie struts over to the front of the room. “Well class, this is Dream Study. Here is where you will spend the majority of your morning and afternoon. I am your instructor, Katie. I will teach you all there is to know about this class, and would appreciate your cooperation.” Her voice echoes throughout the class. She pauses before continuing, “On your desks are the computers that run the Dream Study program. I would like you to now open them and turn them on now.” She finishes. The students obey as we all open up our new laptops. I press the button in the upper left hand corner, and the screen flickers on, showing the word “Loading”. We all sit in silence as the laptops finish starting up. The loading sign vanishes and a new screen replaces it. The new screen shows at the top in big, bold lettering, “Select User” and below it are three icons. The first icon says “Student”, the second icon says “Instructor”, and the third icon says “Guild”. “Alright, now that everyone’s computers are up and running I would like you all to select the ‘Student’ icon.” Katie says, her voice still as loud as before. I use the trackpad at the bottom of the computer to click on “Student”. As I press it, a message pops up on the screen reading “Authentication:” and a blank space after it. “The password on the white board behind me is the authentication code to get into the computer.” She says. I hadn’t noticed it before, but she had already written the code on the board in black marker. 2F205K. That seems like an easy code to remember, second floor (2F), room 205 (205), instructor Katie (K). I make a mental note of the password before entering it into the computer. The message disappears, revealing the desktop; It has a waterfall wallpaper and several icons on the main screen. “On the desktop there should be a little icon with the label ‘Dream Study’. I want you all to open the application and then wait for further instruction.” Katie says, before returning to her desk. I open the application and the desktop is replaced with an image of a brain. I mouse over some of the brain and as I do, that portion of it is highlighted. “Alright. Now, I would like you all to choose a part of the brain. It does not matter which part you choose, so no need to worry if you are making the correct choice.” I hear Katie say from behind her desk. I hover over the different parts of the brain and find that there are seven that are shown on my screen. I find one near the center of the brain and click on that one. A little pop-up appears on screen confirming my choice. I hit “okay” and proceed to the next screen. There are five boxes on both sides of the screen, totaling ten; each having a label at the top. I skim over the labels and realize they are all named after an emotion. Sadness, Happiness, Anger, Frustration, and Nervousness are just some of the ones that appear on the screen. In the center portion of the screen is the diagram of the part of the brain I had chosen. “Now, you should have an image similar to this,” Katie says, gesturing toward the white board, which now shows a screen replicating mine. “You must zoom in and trigger each of the cells in your designated portion of the brain. The boxes on the sides of the diagram record how many times you trigger that particular emotion. Just click on a part of the brain and see what emotion comes out. Have fun!” She says sarcastically before sitting down again. One student in the front of the class raises his hand. She points to him and he asks a question that is on all of our minds; “Do we have to do this for four hours straight?” Katie responds with a simply put “Yes.” I look back toward my screen and click on the axis rotator for the 3-D module of the brain. I hesitantly click on a random spot, and the number “1” is added to the emotion “Fear”. I click on another part of the brain. The number “1” is added under the emotion “Sadness”. I click on the brain again and another “1” is added under the previous one in the emotion “Sadness”. “This is going to be a long day” I say to myself in my head. I turn my body and look over at the guy to my right. He’s pressing the keys rapidly, the numbers flying across the screen to their respective categories.