"AH!" I woke with a scream for the fifth time that night. I looked desperately around my room, not sure what I was even looking for. My brother came crashing in the room this time.

"Annie, for hell's sake, what is going on with you?" He asked, trying to be as calm as he could at four in the morning.

"I'm sorry Ryan, I swear to you, I don't know what's going on." I sighed as I tangled my hands in the blankets.

He sat on the edge of my bed and put his firm hand on my shoulder. He sighed. "Just.. try to go back to sleep, kay A?"

"Don't call me 'A' you know I don't like it. But yeah, I'll try." I smirked. Before he shuffled back to bed, he gave me a quick hug. Throwing my body back into the warmth of my bed, I willed myself back to sleep. When I woke in the morning, I wasn't tired at all. "That's odd..." I thought aloud.

I walked over to my desk, and ripped a sheet of paper from my notebook. Digging through on my my drawers, I wrapped my fingers around my pencil case. From the case, I took out three colors: Dark blue, yellow, and a creamy white color. Half an hour later my mom called me down for breakfast.

"Annie Grace Ross, get down here, your food is getting cold!" She yelled impatiently.

"Coming!" I grabbed my drawing and ran down the stairs. When I reached the kitchen table, I shoved my drawing in the front pocket of my backpack. Unfortunately, my mom caught a quick peek at what I had drawn.

She sighed deeply. "Annie." She warned. "Show me that drawing."

"Damn it." I muttered under my breath so no one could hear. I handed her my drawing for the night sky, scattered with brilliant colored stars.

"Oh for the love of God, you know there are no such things as stars! Their a fairy tale, you need to learn that Annie." My dad snapped at me.

"They're real I tell you! That's what my dream last night was about, and it was amazing. Somewhere out there, there ARE stars!"

"A, calm down." My brother touched my arm gently.

"No, I will not calm down! Quit calling me A." I snapped at Ryan. Instantly I regretted it. My brother and I were best friends, even though he was four years older than me. But we could tell each other anything, plus, he was the only one who would listen and not make fun of my star fantasies.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to snap." I told him.

"Whatever, I have to run to school." He mumbled, got up from the table, grabbed his keys and left without another word. Shaking his head, my dad got up and followed.

My mom came up behind me. "You should be ashamed Annie. Your school bus will be here soon." She scolded, and left for work as well.

When I heard the door to the garage close, I got up from my seat and walked behind the kitchen counter. On it, I saw my picture ripped in two. This isn't the first time one of my parents has ripped a drawing. Taking a half in each hand, I walked out to the backyard while waiting for my bus.

I sat down and leaned against our apple tree. Closing my eyes, I hoped and prayed. "I wish there were such things as stars." I repeated countless times, while running my fingers over my drawing. All of a sudden, there was a noise. It sounded like the whirring of engines. I looked behind me, and a blue police box appeared. "What the hell?" I jumped up and walked over to the box.

A man with floppy brown hair came dashing out of the box, and he ran right into me. With him on top of me, we collapsed on the ground. "Oi watch it!" I yelled.

"Sorry bout that!" He yelped. He held out his hand to me and helped me up. "And you are?" The man asked.

"Annie Ross. But I should be the one asking who you are, considering this is my yard." I replied sarcastically.

He laughed. "I'm the Doctor. Oh this is your yard eh? I must be intruding then."

"The Doctor? Interesting name. How did you just... appear? That blue box of yours, what is it?"

He spun around and let the door slowly swing open. I must of looked like an idiot with the look I had plastered on my face. "This is my time machine. Care for a look?" The Doctor asked.

"Time machine." I whispered to myself.

The Doctor laughed. "Yup, time machine. Saying it probably isn't going to change anything." He took my hand and led me inside. "Welcome to my TARDIS. That's time and relative dimension in space." He gestured to the room with his hand.

"Wow. This is... absolutely amazing. Breathtaking." I said in complete awe.

The Doctor reached down and took my drawing from my hand. "What's this?" He said while examining it.

"That's my picture. But please don't start about how, 'There's no such thing as stars' and how I've completely lost it. Trust me, I get enough of that at home, and school." I ranted.

"Oh Annie. Annie Ross. You have no idea how brilliant you are. Stars are just the beginning. All of time and space is out there, you just have to look."

I smiled until it hurt. "So what you're saying is, there's such a thing as stars?"

"Of course." He smiled. "Would you want to see one?"

"Is that possible?"

The Doctor ran up to a big control panel in the middle of the room and pulled a couple levers, then spun back towards me and flashed a devilish smile. "Are you ready to see your first star?"

He ran over and pulled the doors open. There we were, floating in the middle of space, face to face with millions upon millions of stars.