Dreams That Do Not Matter (gmw fanfiction)

Girl Meets Boy

Verity's POV

Me and Missy walk into the classroom and take our usual seats in the back. Mr. Matthews comes in and starts teaching.

"You guys don't connect with each other. It's like you can't exist without these." He holds up a cellphone. "You use emoticons rather than emotions. You're an unfeeling generation of zombies." After this Riley and Maya pretend to be zombies and Mr. Matthews stops them, "Stop eating each other."

Myzell walks into the classroom and makes an excuse for being late by saying her goldfish died, but I know she doesn't have a goldfish. She has a budgie. Not that she ever told me, I'm just good at observing.

I tune out, because I am not a part of any of this and I start to softly hum a melody of a new song I'm thinking of.

Next thing I hear is Mr. Matthews giving us a homework. "Okay, so here's what we're going to do, guys. We're going to split into teams and discover whether or not technology has made us better people. You'll do presentations on your findings. 

And here's a twist: no computers. We're going old school. You're going to do your research at the New York public library." Although me and Missy do have one computer at home, we don't use it very often, so we gather information for most of our projects at  the library anyway.

"And here's another twist: because I trust you not at all, give me your cellphones."

Everyone groans about this while me and Missy just reach into our bags to grab our cellphones and hand them in. We don't have smart phones and we use our phones only when necessary. Smart phones and phone bills cost too much money and it's kinda hard to keep up with all our needs as it is.

Mr. Matthews makes teams for the assignment, but he only teams up the Riley gang. No surprise here. When it comes to him, nobody else is in this classroom. Me and Missy form a team, of course, it's not like anyone would want to be with us.

After the bell rings, I tell Missy, "Looks like we're going to the library tonight."

To this she replies, "Well, we would probably go there even without the assignment. It's Friday night tonight. Those are the worst. And you can hardly find a better hiding place for such a time than the library."

At the library

We enter the library and see that Riley, Lucas, Maya and Farkle are already there, looking around as if they have never seen that place. And probably they haven't.

While they stare at the books we walk up to the librarian, Ms. Riggs. She greets us, "Hello, Verity, Missy. Are you here to pick out some book to read like usually? Who is choosing the book this week?"

She knows us very well, we've been coming here every time it was possible since we were four. We would always sit down in the corner of the library, pick out some books, huddle together and read, trying to forget about everything that's going on outside.

"I think today is Missy's turn," I reply, to which Missy cheers.

She goes up to one of the shelves in the back of the room and finds a book. It's called 'Unremembered'.

This time, we're not here alone, so it's not as peaceful, but I guess it will have to do.

Me and Missy take turns reading aloud, the same way we've been doing for years.

I start humming the tune that came to my mind today. Missy asks me, "What kind of melody is that?"

"Oh, just a new song I'm thinking of."

"What do you have so far?"

"I have (a/n I do not own the song, it is a Lindsey Stirling song)

I pirouette in the dark

I see the stars through me

Tired mechanical heart

Beats til the song disappears

Somebody shine a light

I'm frozen by the fear in me

Somebody make me feel alive

And shatter me

So cut me from the line

I'm dizzy, spinning endlessly

Somebody make me feel alive

And shatter me"

As we read the book further, we start to get into the plot and it's like the world around us stops existing.

Suddenly I realize it's getting quite late and we should leave.

"As much as I hate to say this, it is getting late and we should really return home."

Missy groans, "Do we have to? You know how Friday nights are. I would much rather stay here."

"I know, me too, but that's just not possible, this place will soon be closing for the day anyway."

With this we say bye to Ms. Riggs and reluctantly leave.

At home

Since we didn't work on our homework at the library, we will do it now. I think we don't need any books about this topic. 

It is already late, because the way home is really long. We get to work, trying to ignore all the noise, that is impossible not to notice.

Missy looks exhausted and I don't think it's from the assignment. She asks, "Do you think this will ever get any easier?"

"We'll just have to wait and see." I don't have the heart to tell her that I don't hope that this storm will pass one day, but I don't think that's what she meant by that. She wanted to ask if we'll ever get used to this, if we will ever get a good night's rest. Because the answer to that question would definitely be no.

After a while we finish the assignment:

Technology can be a useful tool when it comes to finding out what's going on somewhere far away. But perhaps it causes us to focus on things that are farther away so much that we fail to notice the things that happen right next to us. Perhaps we are so busy trying to contact people who are not with us that we forget about the people who are always close by. Maybe we start ignoring the smallest things that are around us and even ignore feelings of each other. 

Perhaps we forget that there are people who need our helping hand. Or we stop realizing that even the smallest smile can make someone's day.

So does this mean the technology is bad? Not necessarily. But if we are not careful, it can take away our humanity.

When I have written everything down, I look around to see Missy sleeping. I whisper to her, "Good night, sis. I wish you to have peaceful sleep." 

Quite hard to achieve the way things are.