The Four Guardians of Nature

Chapter 9:The dream

             This time instead of being in the usual field of grass surrounded by trees, I was in a room that looked like it belonged in an Alice in Wonderland movie. It was an octagonal shape with at least three mirrors facing the middle so that I could see myself from all angles. I was wearing a flowing blue dress that had a silver butterfly brooch connecting a shawl that was the same color as the dress. My hair was in flowing  barrel curls that extended down to the small of my back with a white ribbon acting as a headband. What was weird was the fact that in the real world, my hair was only shoulder length. I looked at my feet and saw oddly elegant sneakers that were sky blue with golden glittering swirls covering it, the sole and the strings  were both silver. I looked closer at the details of the room, there were multiple paintings with women who looked almost exactly like me but with subtle changes like the width of a nose, or hight of the forehead, and different shades of brown hair. I walked towards a door that was forest green with a rusty door knob and turned it to find a ballroom.

                       In the room was Myles dressed in a green suit with a silver tie, Oriana in a dress similar to mine which was maroon with the shawl being gold, Abderus in a suit similar to Myles' but navy blue with a bronze tie, finally Sean in a white suit with a black tie walking towards me. "You look amazing." He whispered. "Where are we?" I asked tentatively. "Are you feeling well?" He responded while putting his hand on my forehead. I shooed him away and said that I was fine. He gave me a confused look but said nothing and took my hand while leading me to the dance floor where everyone was standing at edge, doing nothing. "Sooo... Do we dance first?" I asked. He gave me an annoyed face and said, "Look stop fooling around, you know its your birthday and you said that we should dance first. You had us all dress in these silly costumes so that you could compare us to people in some book that you read years ago. I get that this might be funny to you, but it's quite frustrating for the rest of us who chipped in to rent this ballroom. Now come on and on all ready and dance." He added angrily as he jerked me towards the floor. I tried to pull away but his grip was so tight that his fingers dug into my skin.

              "Ow! You're hurting me!" I yelped in pain. As I said this, he let go as if he had gotten burnt and said, "I-I'm sorry I didn't mean to."  "Yeah. I'm sorry too. For playing that trick on you I mean. I guess I was just really excited for this and I wanted to have fun earlier then we were supposed to and I got carried away." I lied while rubbing the now sore and red spot on my arm. He gave me an apologetic and forgiving look as he took my hand, led me to the middle of the dance floor, and said, "May I have this dance?" I nodded and he waltzed with me,(I was feeling extremely uncomfortable as I had never waltzed before, but I tried not to show it) others joined in as well. I had no idea who they were because when I first came in there was only Sean, Myles, Abderus, and Oriana but now there were at least forty more.

          Sean and I were dancing when I felt someone tap me in the middle of my back and say, "Could I get the privilege to dance with the birthday girl?" I turned around and saw Matthew holding out his hand to me. I suppressed the urge to slap it away because it seemed that I was in an alternate universe  where I might be friends with him, for if it were in real life, he wouldn't dare to ask me anything. I looked at Sean for approval who nodded in agreement, but I could tell that he wished  our dance hadn't been cut short. I turned to Matthew and took his hand. He led me away to an unoccupied corner and said, "You looked pretty uncomfortable so I figured I should step in before you made a fool out of yourself." "Gee, thanks" I mumbled. "So how do you like the party?" He asked leaning on the wall across from me. "It's... Fun." I said, unsure if I could tell him that I had no idea what was going on. "Why did you hesitate?" He asked. "I didn't!" I said defensively. He rolled his eyes and said something  that had an uncanny resembalence to "Liar, liar, pants on fire." "Do you really want to know why I hesitated?" I mumbled. "As your closest friend, you can tell me anything." He said. Curse this stupid dream, making Matthew my "closest friend".