The Final Dreamer

I had a weird dream

"Once upon a time, I dreamt I was a butterfly.

Fluttering hither and thither, to all intents and purposes a butterfly...

I was conscious only of my happiness as a butterfly, unaware that I was myself. 

Soon I awakened, and there I was, veritably myself again.

Now I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly, or whether I am now a butterfly, dreaming I am a man."

- Zhuangzi

. . .

September 7th, 2021

"Hey, Seb. It's almost time to leave. Finish packing your stuff." My dad said as he walked into my room. The sound of his voice jolted me out of my daydream. "Huh? Oh, yeah... I'll be right there." I groggily replied. My dad let out a sigh before walking up to me. "Hey, is everything okay?" My dad asked, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Not really..." "Listen. I know that leaving your hometown is a tough experience, but you gotta cheer up. Think of this as an opportunity for a fresh start. Besides, we... had no other choice." He silently let go of my shoulder and walked away.

Saying goodbye to my childhood home was certainly no easy task. As I made my final preparations for the long road trip ahead, I couldn't help but shed a few tears. I climbed into my dad's car and we both exchanged distressed glances before he started driving. As the car maneuvered through my neighborhood, I reflected on all the memories I had made while living there. Feeling mentally exhausted, I decided to close my eyes. Before I knew it, I was asleep.

"Please..." a voice uttered from somewhere. I looked around and tried to locate the source of the voice, but my vision was clouded by a thick fog. "Please... save the world..." The voice sounded similar to that of a helpless little girl. As the fog slowly began to fade away, I was finally able to view my surroundings. I seemed to be trapped in a corrupted, twisted version of the childhood home which I had just left. "Only you have the power to save the world..." the voice said, now sounding slightly clearer.

Before I could reply, I was abruptly woken up by my dad. "Hey, sleepyhead. Wake up. We've arrived." He said as he repeatedly tapped me. I slowly sat up and gazed at the small apartment complex that we were parked in front of. Overall, the exterior was pretty mediocre-looking; There were two floors, each with five apartments. The metal stairs that led to the second floor were covered in unattractive rust. The building itself looked old and dilapidated, as if it hadn't gotten a fresh paint job in decades.

My dad let out a deep sigh. "I know this place may seem a bit... inadequate, but it's only temporary. We'll move into a proper house as soon as I find a decent job and start making some money." My dad explained. We carried our luggages to our apartment, which was about as mediocre as I had predicted.

"Tomorrow's your first day at your new school. Are you ready?" My dad asked me as we were getting settled in. "Well, none of my friends are going to be there, so I'm not sure." I replied in an intentionally irritated tone. "Ugh... Sebastian, please... Stop being so negative. You're not the only one who's suffering right now."

Soon enough, the moving truck arrived. A few hours passed as we slowly unloaded our furniture. It was now fairly dark outside. "You know, all of this work is making me kind of hungry... C'mon. Let's go to a steakhouse or something. My treat." My dad suddenly said. For the first time in that entire day, I smiled. I guess I finally realized that I wasn't as alone in this situation as I thought I was.

. . .

September 8th, 2021

The constant beeping sound from my alarm clock managed to jolt me awake. I grunted as I sat upright and sloppily turned it off. Despite having most of the old furniture and decorations of my previous room, the atmosphere of my new room felt... off. This is most likely why I had such a hard time getting out of bed.

When I did manage to stumble out of my bed, I tried to begin my morning routine as normally as possible. After putting on a simple t-shirt and a pair of casual jeans, I made my way to the kitchen. My dad was nowhere to be seen. I briefly looked around and noticed a small sticky note resting on the table. "I'm at the grocery store right now. In the meantime, there's a single box of cereal in the cupboard and some milk in the fridge. As for your school, just put the following address into your phone's navigation app. It should take about 10 minutes to walk from here to the school." The note read. There was an address written on the bottom of the note, which I assumed was my school's location.

After eating some cereal, I was ready to start walking to school. I grabbed my backpack and other essentials and made my way out of the apartment complex. I put the address into my phone's navigation app, and then I began following it. Before I knew it, I was standing at the entrance of my school. "Grapevine Academy... Here it is." I said to myself, gazing at the large sign near the entrance. 

The building itself was large and intimidating, but the overall atmosphere felt pretty welcoming. I entered the building to see some students roaming the halls and chatting with each other. The interior of the building looked very similar to that of your average high school. Thankfully, it was only the second week of school, so a list of everyone's assigned homeroom was still taped to the wall. I briefly skimmed through the list until I found my name. I then memorized the room number.

I made my way to my homeroom and sat down at an empty desk. "Hey, you." The student sitting next to me said. I turned around to look at him. Judging from the tone of his voice, I was expecting to see a stereotypical jock or something, but instead he just looked like an average dude. "You're new here, right?" the boy asked. "Yup. I just moved here from my hometown." I replied. "Nice. Trust me, you'll like it here. Everyone who goes to this school is really chill, so you shouldn't have any problems making friends."

A few minutes later, the teacher rose from his desk and stood up in front of the class. "Alright everybody, quiet down. Before we begin today's lesson, I want to introduce a new student. It's only been two weeks since school started, so 'new' isn't really saying much, but still. Sebastian Smith, if you're in this room, please come to the front of the class." The teacher announced. I rose from my seat and made my way to where the teacher was standing.

"Everyone, this is Sebastian. He recently moved here from his hometown, and he's going to be attending our school from now on. Please give him a warm welcome." "Hey, he's kinda cute..." a few girls whispered to each other quite loudly, as if they wanted me to hear. I just rolled my eyes and sat back down at my seat. "Well, would you look at that? You're already popular with the ladies!" the boy whispered to me as he gently nudged me.

I chuckled as I realized that this school was already growing on me.