Do you dream of me in the next life?

Chapter 1: Dreams

Joseph was asleep, until he was not. His alarm went off emphasizing the fact that it was indeed morning already.

 "Alright, alright. Shut up alarm; I'm up already," said Joseph to himself as he shut the alarm off.

  He got up and put his flip-flops on before proceeding to stretch. Exiting his bedroom, he checked to see if his mom was still asleep. She was not apparently, which was not what she normally did. Probably couldn't sleep well because of all the late-night work that she did last night. Joseph went downstairs and found his mom making breakfast in the kitchen.

"Mornin', Mom."

 "Mornin', Honey! Did you sleep well?" 

"Well, I tried. What about you?"

 "Nope." She yawned after saying this. "Breakfast will be ready soon, so get ready." Joseph took his seat and patiently waited for his blueberry pancakes.

His mother hummed to herself as she flipped the pancakes. Her hair that was as brown as Joseph's swayed back and forth with her movements. She turned around and smiled with her hazel eyes.

"Alright, Breakfast is ready!" she said as she placed his meal in front of him. While Joseph was eating, she sat down on her side of the table. 

"So, are you commuting with Kalah this morning like usual?"

He took a moment to swallow a piece of pancake. "Of course! We take the same bus to school; it just makes sense to go together."

Mom smiled and then asked, "Are you two going home together as well?"

Talking with his mouth full of a piece of pancake, Joseph said, "Yeah, she has book club today, so she'll be leaving School at the same time as I do..." Then swallowing the piece of pancake, he continued, "I have Vice President duties today at the Student Council, so she'll be waiting for me to finish up."

Mom followed up my statement with a "hmm", and said, "you sure you don't have feelings for Kalah? I mean, she would make for a great wife if you got married."

For a moment, Joseph could only stare at her. "Mom!" he complained. "I don't feel that way towards Kalah! And I'm pretty sure she doesn't feel that way towards me either."

She then stared at him with a look of doubt. "Well, I think you two actually like each other, besides I'm not getting any younger you know!" which she says in a teasing sing-song voice as she gets up to make her own meal.

Once Joseph readied himself to go to High School, he left to Kalah's house to meet up with her. But she was already outside. It looked like she was about to ring the doorbell. "Oh, morning Joseph! Ready for school?"

Joseph blinked twice before he responded in kind. "As ready as I'll ever be, Kalah. Also, morning." He said while laughing at the convenience of Kalah being here first for once.

Kalah also returned a smile. "I thought I should get ready earlier for once, so I did." They walked along the dirt path to the bus stop and waited for the bus to arrive.

Kalah, a slender eighteen-year old girl with long, blonde hair. She was wearing a white shirt with a dark blue skirt, as well as Mary Jane shoes matched with white stockings. She always dressed nice for as long as Joseph's memory could recall. She broke the silence and said, "Did you study for the math test today?"

He closed his eyes for a moment to think about what he did yesterday. "Yeah, I studied for it, which is why I said I'm ready as I'll ever be. I assume you're ready for the test?"

"Yep. As you know, I'm always ready to tackle math tests. They all fear my mighty math powers!" she said as she waved her hands up and down while wiggling her fingers. Kalah has always been good at math, which is a lifesaver for Joseph since he loathes math with a passion. He understands the importance of math to society, but sometimes he wonders if he really needs to know this stuff.