Dreamer

Lena McGuire

Oh, my gods. It's the boy from my dream. Standing. In front of my first period class. This is so creepy.

I break my eyes away from his, look down, and walk quickly into the classroom. I take my usual seat in the very front of the class next to this girl named Maia. She smiles at me, asks how my weekend went, and then is quiet for most of the period.

It's hard to focus. I don't want to review shapes and numbers. I don't remember any of it. None of it makes sense, all I can think about is him. He keeps looking at me, and my face gets hot, because I know I'm looking too.

It's all too overwhelming, I need to get out of here. I'm hyperventilating. I'm panting. My breath is coming in short little gasps. My hands are shaking. I can't sit still.

Without thinking, my hand shoots into the air, and I'm asking to use the restroom. I rush out of the classroom, a thousand eyes boring into my back, but only one in particular burns through me. It takes all my will not to glance back.

As soon as the door swings shut I calm down and lean against a wall to catch my breath.

∫ ∫ ∫

When I get back to the classroom, everyone is packing up. My teacher gives me The Look, so I make a pained face and rub my stomach. I'm not sure if she reads it as cramps or a stomach ache, but at least it gets me off the hook.

I grab my binder, and practically run out of the class before I have to deal with him again.

It takes me a couple of minutes to shove through the hordes of teenagers to the A wing, room A12 for my photography class. My Nikon camera around my neck swings as I swerve to dodge running into crazy people. I'm almost to my classroom, just a few more steps until I feel a hand come down on my shoulder.

I fill with dread and slowly turn around. Please don't be him, please don't be him, please don't be him, I silently beg.

When I see that it's just Caroline, I relax. "Thank the gods It's you!" sighing, I loop my arm through hers.

"What do you you mean? Of course It's me!" she says, confused.

"You will not believe what happened to me in math. I'll explain it all at lunch, but you're gonna think I'm crazy, so you better get prepared."

She laughs nervously and watches me with a worried look in her eyes. She can tell this is serious.

We step into A12 and take our seats next to each other - as always. And just like everyday, we share our latest pictures we've taken, compare homework, and discuss music or hot celebrities.

When the tarty bell rings the classroom goes quiet and Mr. Wilson stands up.

"Good morning class! I hope you all had a great weekend full of photography right? And all those projects are finished?" he gives us a smile and then gets right down to it. Everyone passes their weekend project forward to the front of their row, and then Mr. Wilson gives instruction. Then we do as he says. pretty simple. He teaches us more about photoshop on his computer, and then he lets us take pictures of whatever we want as long as it's appropriate, for the last ten minutes of class.

When the bell rings we're off on break. A whole ten minutes of no class. It's a blessing. Caroline and I walk to my locker where I drop off my camera and photography and math binder. I grab my science binder and then we stop at Lena's locker, then we head to the courtyard where we usually hang out at break.

"So? Spill it," Caroline demands.

"All right, I guess it doesn't have to wait until lunch. Well, here goes, so last night I had the weirdest dream...," I tell her the whole story. The bell rings and we begin walking to science.

"So he was in your math class? Oh, my gods! That's sooo weird. You could be, like, and Oracle or something!" she grabs me by the shoulders and shakes me. "Where is my best friend and what have you done with her?"

I laugh, "No, nothing like that, silly! It's me."

Caroline gets a devilish look in her eyes. "Will you read my fortune?"

This makes me laugh even more. I shake my head vigorously.

"Maybe this is a sign! Maybe this means that you will finally get a boyfriend!"

"I doubt that."