Wanderlust

Chapter 2

My face was still burning with embarrassment about what had just happened in Professor Avery's English class. I thought I had just fallen asleep, but I later learned that I had screamed when he has tried to wake me. He had asked me to stay after class to get the notes and the assignment I had missed while I was asleep; While I stood at his desk the rest of the class dismissed around me. They were all whispering about me when they left, they were always whispering about me. It had gotten to the point now where half of them didn't even bother to whisper anymore; they just talked about me like I wasn't even there, like I didn't exist. It didn't bother me now as much as it used to. When the whispers first started, I would go home crying every night; I would always ask myself why they didn't like me, what was so wrong with me that they needed to be so mean? Now I just don't care; I know I am different, I understand now that people just don't like things that are different.

"You understand?" Professor Avery's said, snapping me back into reality.

I nodded my head head and reached for the papers in his hand. He sighed and reluctantly handed them over to me.

"You're always in a daydream, aren't you, Charlotte?" he asked.

"Always," I replied.

After leaving the English Department, I started the long walk back to my dorm room. It was drizzling as I walked out the doors, of course. Usually I liked the rain, but today I just wasn't in the mood. The weather was beginning to get chilly, and mixed with the rain, it wasn't the greatest to walk in. To top it all off, I wasn't wearing the most weather appropriate clothing. Water was seeping through my shoes and my jacket was sticking to me. By the time I got back to my dorm room, I was going to be soaked.

I was about halfway to the dorms when I began to daydream again. Instead of Paris, I was now in London. I was just walking down the street, people were all around me. It was raining, but no one was rushing to get out of it. We were all walking in the same direction, a whole lot of us, all moving together down the street. I glanced over to my left and the same same man was there, the one from my dream earlier. He looked over at me and then looked straight ahead again. Confused,   I looked forward again, and walked straight into a light post.

I stumbled back and dropped the books I was carrying. My head was pounding and I knew I was going to get a knot on my forehead. I bent down to get my books off the ground and as I did, a little red drop fell to the ground in front of me. I gingerly touched my nose and felt warm liquid oozing from my nose. I pulled my hand away and saw the blood smeared across my fingers. I took a shaky breath and then quickly began to pick up my books. I straightened up and looked around me to see where I was; I hadn't been paying attention to to the direction I was going and I quickly realized I I wasn't even close to the dorms.

I was laying in bed, freshly showered and relatively dry, disregarding my hair. I had finally gotten back to the dorms after another 30 minutes of walking. I had a headache but it was going away and my nose had stopped bleeding by the time I got back. I sighed and rolled over onto my stomache; I reached under my bed and pulled out my laptop. I opened up the favorites file and clicked on the only website there. It was the airport website, I checked the prices every night just to see how the prices were. After all, I was always daydreaming about Europe so it didn't hurt to fantasize about buying a ticket and running away there. The ticket prices usually stay about the same, but sometimes they went down slightly. I was looking at ticket prices for Rome, Paris, and London. When I clicked on London, the prices seemed a bit off. I hit the refresh button several times and it still said the same thing. The one-way ticket was only $1,000; That was about $500 cheaper than they normally were. There were only 3 tickets left and the flight left at 7:30 p.m.. I looked over at my clock, it read 5:20. I bolted out of bed and began rummaging through my drawers, looking for my passport. I pulled it out and looked it over. It didn't expire for another couple years and it was good for Europe. I silently thanked my parents for forcing me to go on that trip to British Columbia with them and then I walked back over to my laptop. I grabbed my credit card and booked my one-way ticket to London. This was it, I was finally getting away.