Like A Dream

Chapter 1

"Quiet Henry, I'm working on something here," Charlotte says before grabbing him by his shoulders and pulling him close.

Henry wakes up with a start. He grabs his phone. The time reads 4 am. He groans and lets himself fall back onto his bed, his head now laying on his pillow again. That stupid dream again. He's been having the same dream for 3 weeks straight now. Him and Charlotte playing mini-golf in the Man Cave. Charlotte making a bet that if she misses the next shot they have to kiss. Charlotte purposely missing the shot and then grabbing him by the shoulders, pulling him in, before he wakes up just as their lips are about to touch.

Henry rubs his face tiredly. He barely even sleeps anymore. And when he does there's that dream again. And what's worse is that now he can't be around Charlotte without feeling weird. Without thinking about that look in her eyes, that confident and flirty way she spoke right before grabbing him and pulling him closer. Henry sighs as he folds his arms behind his head. He wonders if Schwoz can come up with an invention to stop him from having these dreams cause honestly, it's getting ridiculous.

Henry tries to fall back asleep after a couple of minutes of evaluating his life, but he couldn't shut his brain off. All too soon it seems, he hears his alarm go off and he groans before begrudgingly getting up to get ready for school. As he gets ready he tells himself that he's not going to let things get any weirder than they have been with Charlotte. He ends up creating a mantra in his head. "It's just a dream. You do not like Charlotte. She's your best friend."

He repeats this to himself the whole way to school and when he gets there he repeats it one last time as he takes a deep breath, a smile on his face as he starts to grow more confident about his situation. He walks into school with a pep in his step that he hasn't had in a while since the dreams started. He heads towards his locker and he sees Charlotte and Jasper waiting by it, talking amongst themselves. He reaches them and greets them with a smile.

"You seem particularly happy this morning" Jasper notes. "Yeah I'm feeling pretty goood" Henry says in that weird Henry way of his. "You're not usually a morning person. What's up with you?" Charlotte says, a slight raise to her eyebrow. Henry shrugs. "Can't a guy just be happy to be sharing this fine morning with his two best friends?" Henry asks. Charlotte and Jasper share an incredulous look and Jasper just shakes his head. "Whatever you say buddy," Jasper says looking at Henry. Henry just smiles and they decide to just change the topic.

They start talking about the latest Kid Danger and Captain Man mission. Kid Danger and Captian Man had to stop Dr. Minyak from taking over the world yet again. This time he had created some kind of mind control machine and was going to send a signal through satellite to all the TV's in the world and make everyone his minions and takedown Kid Danger and Captain Man once all for all.

"And he was all like 'Ahh you punched my face!' And I was all like " Yeah I did, watch me do it again, oh wait you can't cause I got Hyper Motility!" Henry laughs and the other two join him, Jasper giving him a high five. " And then Ray he-" Henry starts saying between laughs but stops short when he glances at Charlotte. Charlotte had reached into her bag and pulled out her lipgloss while they were talking and was now applying it on her lips. Henry watches as she swipes the gloss across her lips and then starts to gently press her lips together to make sure her lips were perfectly glossed. Henry thinks his brain has short-circuited and now all he can think of is lips.

"What about lips?" Henry came back down to earth to see Jasper and Charlotte looking at him. "Huh, what?" Henry asks confused. "You randomly just said 'Lips'." Jasper says as Charlotte nods. Did he say that out loud?!

"Uh..." Is all Henry can muster. "Hen, are you okay?" Charlotte asks. Henry goes to open his mouth, but nothing is coming out.

"Henry?" Charlotte goes to touch his arm, but he jumps back before her hand even makes contact. Charlotte looks at him for a second, hurt and confused as Jasper speaks up.

"Dude, what is wrong with you?" Henry just shakes his head and starts backing up quickly.

"Nothing, I, uh, I gotta go, I'll see you guys later." He rushes out as he turns on his heels and starts practically running towards his next class. "Henry!" Jasper and Charlotte shout.

"Byeeeee!" Henry yells over his shoulder as he continues to hurry away. Jasper and Charlotte keep shouting, but Henry just keeps walking. When he finally reaches the classroom he flops onto his chair, letting his head fall on his desk as he groans. So much for not letting it get any weirder.