STUCK IN A DREAM

Chapter 1

Waking up at 5:35 in the morning felt inhumane, especially when you had to do it Monday through Friday for 4 years. Bethel was extremely glad that she was finally in her last year of school.

Bethel was mentally and physically drained after three weeks of laborious studying for mid-year examinations. She was very eager to start living now that her exams were over, but still disappointed that she had to get out of bed and go to school.

Bethel pulled her long brown hair behind her ears and rubbed her eyes to be able to fully wake up. After about 5 minutes, she got up from her bed and out of habit, made her bed as soon as she dragged herself out of it.

She turned to her clothing rack, with Bethel had picked out a thick, olive green sweater which she paired with black skinny jeans and white high-top sneakers. As always, her outfit was simple and effortless.

The reason Bethel woke up so early in the morning rolled around a few minutes later; her daily skincare routine. The routine was extremely demanding and carefully planned by Bethel to maintain her beautiful and clear skin. It was 10 steps long and each step took a couple minutes.

With time to spare, Bethel patted her face with a soft microfiber cloth, made her way downstairs, and calmly grabbed her book bag and got in her car and backed out of her long driveway. She noticed a car parked on her street, which was never there. She shrugged it off and began to make her way to the Matsumoto Café.

Bethel unlocked the café door with her spare key and as usual, she found Mrs. Matsumoto behind the counter writing the daily specials.

"Good morning Eva, are Ran and Landon ready?"

Mrs. Matsumoto turned around to smile at Bethel. "Hey sweetie! They're upstairs, you can just head on up."

Bethel slightly lowered her head to acknowledge the comment and jogged slowly to the the staff room, which lead to the entrance of the Matsumoto penthouse. She ran quickly up the stairs to find Landon and Kirana sitting at the top of the staircase, putting their shoes on.

"Can you please hurry up? You guys are the reason Austin has to wait so long in this heat," Bethel urged, impatiently.

Landon always had a witty reply whenever Bethel complained or bossed them around and today he used a personal favorite of his. "Calm your tits Beth, we're done."

Kirana shot him a glare and both he and Bethel rolled their eyes at Kirana's reaction and chuckled. They both had similar sense of humor and both had gotten used to Kirana's "threatening" glare.

Landon grabbed his bag from behind him and walked down the stairs to which Kirana followed.

The trio quickly ran down the stairs and walked at different speeds to the car.

They all silently bowed their heads to Mrs. Matsumoto to say goodbye. Kirana and Landon got into the backseat of Bethel's car, leaving Bethel alone in the front.

"Dinnie, text Austin and tell him we're on our way."

"Alright, babe." said Landon slyly.

Bethel roughly hit the brakes, turned around and Kirana and her both shot Landon threatening stares at him, to which Landon replied with only a grin.

'On our way, be ready!' -Sent by Landon
Read at 6:17 a.m. by Austin

They all laughed their way to Austin's house where he was sitting outside on the sidewalk, which was basically a piece of burning concrete. He got up and had to duck to get into the vehicle.

"Hey guys."

Bethel smiled at him with her innocent eyes which caused Austin's cheeks to blush a faint pink. She giggled and turned her head to focus on driving to school.

Bethel pulled into her Disney-themed parking spot, especially made for her. Everyone got out of the car with their bags and made their way to a giant gateway to enter the school. They pulled their IDs out to be scanned for attendance and made their way into the courtyard, where hundreds of students were also waiting so that they can head to class.

Bethel, Kirana, Landon and Austin sat at an empty lunch table which was thankfully under the shade of a few trees. "Five minutes to spare," Kirana beamed. "You guys know I like getting here early."

Austin leaned towards the the girl on the other side of the table and locked eyes with her, staring at her wide-eyed. "You are the only person that's excited to be at school, I hope you know that." the boy stated while placing his arms on the table to keep him upright.

Kirana glared back and clenched her jaw, knowing that Austin only said that to joke around with her, even though he is both very bad at making jokes and being joked with.