Dream Child

Chapter 1

"Catherine Reynolds?" called Mrs. Smith from behind her desk.

"Here," I muttered. Even though I've been at Middleton High School for three years now, teachers still aren't used to me being so quiet. So, Mrs. Smith had to look up from her desk to see who responded to her call.

After she had noticed me, she went back to calling the roll, and the syllabus she had passed out at the very beginning of class had finally made its way to me. I didn't pay it much mind since I had noticed over the years that all the syllabuses that teachers passed out were essentially the same with different words here and there.

I could hear the conversations of my peers, telling each other what they did over summer, how they dreaded yet another year of high school. I've never been much of a talkative one in classes, so I don't have many friends. The only friends I have made since I've been here is Destiny West, Middleton High's first female track star, Anthony Meyers, president of the Logic club, and Lucinda Winfall, co-founder of the school's coding club.

 They approached me when they saw me sitting alone at lunch during my freshman year, and have ever since welcomed me as part of their group. I feel very fortunate to have them as friends, otherwise, I would be extremely bored from school. Kind of like I am now while listening to Mrs. Smith talk about the rundown of this year.

~~~~~~~~~~

I thought the day would never end, so when that bell rang at 3:30, I ran to my bike, threw on my helmet, and booked it back home. I had, unfortunately, forgotten to check the weather this morning, so I checked during lunch, it was due to pour right after school. So I had hoped that I could possibly beat the storm home. But, halfway through my ride home, it started raining.

By the time I got home, I was soaking wet. I parked my bike in the garage and grabbed one of the beach towels we had out there and dried off as well as I could before I headed inside. I opened the garage door and was immediately greeted by Mittens, my Siamese cat. I found her outside our house when she was just a little kitten, I took her in and cared for her ever since then.

"Hi girl, you wanna go to my room?" I asked. Mittens started rubbing her face against my calf, which I knew was her way of saying yes. So, I scooped her up and headed back to my room. I plopped her down in my bean bag chair then fell straight onto my bed. After what seemed like ten minutes, I heard someone yelling for me from the hallway.

"Cat, you home?" I heard the voice yell. I recognized it as my sister Lily's voice.

"Yeah! I'm in my room!" I answered.

"I'm coming in!" she exclaimed. Not even five seconds later, I see Lily standing in the frame of my doorway. She stood tall, wore a plain white shirt, distressed jeans, her college ID still around her neck. People are always shocked when they realize that I am the sister of Lily, we look nothing alike. In contrast to her tall figure, I'm almost a half a foot shorter and slouching most of the time which made me appear much shorter. I always wore black, comfortable clothing, mostly sweatpants, and sweaters. Her short chocolate brown hair contrasts my long, violet to cobalt blue ombre hair. Her sky blue eyes are also the exact opposite of my russet brown eyes.

"Mom and Dad called me, they said they're wrapped up in a meeting and won't be home until late tonight. So, we're on our own for dinner tonight," she explained. Mom and Dad were the CEO and founders of Reynold's Electronics. So, I was pretty used to not seeing them very often. They were always wrapped up in meetings, making deals, or working on new products to put on the market. "What do you want to do for dinner?" Lily asked.

"I'm fine with either sushi or pizza," I responded.

"Pizza it is then. It should be here in thirty minutes." Lily said, then she left my doorway to order dinner.

As soon as she left, Mittens jumped onto my bed and started rubbing her head against my face. I sat up and hopped off my bed, I got down on all fours and started to look under my bed for her brush. What I found instead, was my old diary from when I was five. Just for fun, I decided to read through all my old entries. While I was skimming through the sparse entries, I noticed one that caught my eye.

Dear Diary,

I just had one of the weirdest dreams ever. I was on a fluffy cloud and I couldn't see anything except the sunset, I'm scared of heights and I was so high above the ground I couldn't even see it. But then, there was this very loud voice, it seemed like it was coming from all around. It told me, "Calm down my child, you are safe up here. For, it is a dream, and nothing in here can hurt you. I have something very important to tell you, my child." I asked the voice, "What is it?". It responded with, "You are a very special child, for you have an ability unlike many. You are one of the children I have chosen to be a Dreamscaper. You have the ability to travel through people's dreams while you sleep. No one can see you, and you cannot tamper with people's dreams. You are merely there to observe. You must tell no one of your special ability. Now, I must leave you, my child, good luck." and then I woke up. I wonder what this means...

- Catherine

I remembered that dream, vividly. I also remembered what the voice had said. It was the beginning of my life in the dreamscape. I've been able to travel through dreams ever since then. It's what I look forward to when I go to bed.

"Pizza is here! " I heard Lily yell. I tore out the entry and stuffed it underneath my mattress, then put my old diary back where I found it.

"Coming!" I answered. I was looking forward to going to sleep tonight.