Ah, the safe haven known as 'School. The place where learning, peer-pressure, and popularity were all that mattered. Dialla wasn't particularly fond of the homework load or the occasional bullies and snobs that the establishment housed but it kept her away from home and also allowed her to spend time with her two best friends. Her only friends, but who was counting?
"Hey, Dialla!" The topics of discussion called to her. She turned from her open locker and smiled. "Hey Polly, Hey Kitty! What's up?" She asked as Polly hugged her tightly.
When the girl let go she twirled. "Just finished making this masterpiece. What do you think?" She asked, batting her large blue eyes and flipped a corkscrewed pigtail with her hand. She was wearing a hot pink tank-top under a short cut white jacket with pink and baby blue gems on the collar and cuffs. A short washed out jean skirt came down just above the knees and the source of the clomping was from the beige leather boots.
"Wow, you look great, Polly." Dialla complemented the bubbly girl. Polly was always making some article of clothing and showing it off at school. Her friend's work would soon be in magazines and be worn by models, if not already. Since her parents were wealthy and connected it would be easy for them to publish their daughter's work.
Kitty stood at a slight distance to avoid getting swept up in the blonde girl's antics. "Hey Dialla, you look nice today." She said with little emotion to no emotion, Dialla smiled at the complement anyways, knowing that that was just how Kitty was.
"Yeah, Dialla, where's the dumpster you dug that outfit out of." A nasally voice chimed in. Standing there in all her puffed up vanity was Gigi Windsor and her posy giggling like morons. One of the followers stepped forward and without warning, tugged at Dialla's magenta locks with her hand. "Look at this! Such a bold color!" She cried.
Gigi sniffed and turned her nose up. "Cici, don't touch garbage, who knows where its been." She flipped her dyed blonde locks.
Cici let go like she had touched poo. "Eeeew! Now I like have to wash my hands!" she wined and her twin sister Mimi consoled her.
Gigi stepped up and glared down at Dialla, she had a few inches on the other girl. "It's bad enough to exist when no one wants you, your daddy left for a reason. Get a clue." She smirked as Dialla's eyes got wide and started to water, but wasn't counting on the girl she had picked on for so long to grow a backbone.
The pink haired girl bristled and shoved Gigi away from her as hard as she could, causing the bully to fall back on her butt. "Don't you dare talk bad about my dad, you... you... whore!" Living alone with her mother gave Dialla the special slut-detector.
Gigi's eyes flared and she got to her feet then swung her hand. Her manicured nails were out for blood. That was when Kitty's hand shot out and grabbed Gigi's wrist in a vice grip and then twisted her arm around making Gigi cried out in pain. "I don't think so." She said coldly, her dark blue hair fell past her shoulders in straight lock. Her ruby colored eyes narrowed at the twins that were about to gang up on her but froze in their steps.
It was never wise to cross paths with Kathryn Chase. One, the girl was freakishly tall and dressed like a rebel, with leather jackets, spiked collars and motorcycle gloves; all in black. This was just a surface warning; she was also a master at martial arts; but if that wasn't a big enough warning to stay away, her mother was a ruthless lawyer that had a reputation of shredding whoever had the guts to go against her. Her father had his own reputation as a brilliant scientist that swam with the big fishes.
"Leave." Kitty ordered, and released her hold on the blonde bimbo.
Gigi cradled her arm and shot a withering glare back at the trio. "I'll get you for this!" She growled.
Kitty just snorted, unimpressed by the threat. "I'd like to see how far she gets with a lawsuit for harassment." She mused running her fingers through her straight cut bangs.
Polly had taken out a comb and was fixing Dialla's hair. "Are you alright, sweetie?" She asked.
Dialla nodded. "I will be." She sighed and tugged on a lock of her own hair. It was an odd color but it was her natural hair color. Apparently, only in Twin Seeds, people were born with unnatural hair color. Blue, purple, hot rod red, green, and yes magenta.
"By the way," Polly decided to change the subject and take their minds off the unpleasantness of high school. "I finally got the last issue!" Polly cried excitedly, taking a comic book out of her pack and then shoving it in Dialla's face. "Sorry, I'm just so psyched that I have the complete set!"
"S'okay. Let me see!" Dialla, grateful for the change of topics, took the thin paperback out of her squealing friend's hands. "Oh my gosh! This is it! Nights into Dreams 6th issue!" she exclaimed flipping madly through the comic, squealing and blushing at every part that showed a picture of Nights.
"Did you bring the picture?" Polly asked as Dialla was flipping through her book.
"Huh?" Dialla said looking up, "Oh yeah…" she handed the comic to Kitty to rummage through her backpack till she pulled out a piece of paper. "I finished it last night." She handed her friend a drawing of Puffy the nightmaren and another figure on stage looking like they were preforming. The figure was suppose to be Polly if she ever became a nightmaren.
"Oh wow. Dialla, I love it!" she said holding her picture close to her but trying not to wrinkle it at the same time.
Kitty flipped through the comic then glanced at the picture. "That's very good Dialla. Could you do mine next? You know, the one with my character and Clawz?"
Dialla nodded. "Next one on my list." She never really boasted, but she had a talent in the art of drawing. With her insane imagination and daydreaming skills she loved taking the colorful scenes and freezing them on paper for the world to see. She wanted to expand, go into painting, sculpting maybe; she wanted to create something with her hands in hopes to maybe inspire someone else to dream of something great.
"Oh!" Polly exclaimed. "I have something for you." she sang, handing her a brown paper bag Dialla had failed to notice.
Dialla smiled and accepted the gift. "What is it?" she asked peeking in the bag and gasped. Quickly, she reached in and pulled out a soft tee-shirt and held it up. Polly held the bag for her so Dialla could hold it with two hands.
It was a dark indigo shirt with a picture of NiGHTS looking incredibly enticing lying on a starry bed, with a seductive look in his eyes. Written below the picture in a cursive script read: "In Your Dreams."
"Nosebleed." was all she could say. She held the shirt close to her as if she was hugging NiGHTS himself.
"It's pajamas!" Shouted Polly. "See? I put the ideya pattern on the pants and sleep jacket, and I took it upon myself to make you slippers as well. They match NiGHTS' shoes." Polly giggled, showing each of her masterpieces.
Dialla reached in the bag feeling each article of clothing. "They're so soft."
"Duh. You need to be comfortable when you sleep." She pointed out. "It's bamboo. It will keep you warm but is light enough to not make you sweaty at night."
Dialla grinned. "Thank you. I'll wear them tonight. I promise."
Polly put a hand on her hip. "Oh you better." she scolded, and then laugh to show she wasn't serious. It was then the school bell went off.
"Come on, or we'll be late for class!" Dialla cried rushing down the hall to her first class with her two friends rushing behind her.
Fast-forward through boring last day classes and summer study encouragement to lunch period.
"God, I'll be so glad when school is over." Polly moaned when entering the cafeteria.
"Heard that." Dialla said taking a tray and handing it to the lunch lady.
"You didn't bring your own lunch?" Polly asked.
"I'll have the chicken, the mashed potatoes with gravy, lots of gravy, and a bottled water." Dialla told the lunch lady, pointing to each of her own food groups. "Didn't have time to make It." she said to Polly, taking her tray of food. "Save me a seat okay?"
"Sure no prob." Polly winked as she and Kitty went to commandeer a table.
"That'll be seven, twenty-five." the lady at the cash-register told her. Dialla pulled out her wallet, paid for her meal and went to join her friends.
"I had that dream again." She said as she sat down.
Her friends looked at each other. "The missing page and the light?" Polly asked.
Kitty opened her authentic Japanese bento box complete with chopsticks and clapped her hands together in a prayer motion. "Itadakimasu. How long has it been?" she asked, popping an eel roll into her mouth.
Dialla made a volcano with her mashed potatoes. "Well... it started I guess on my 13th birthday."
"Wait, so we're talking around three years?" Polly stared. "That's like..." She tried to do the math in her head.
"1095 days." Kitty said quickly.
Polly nodded. "Right, 1095 nights of having the same dream over and over."
"How far did you get this time?"
"To the light?"
Kitty nodded.
Dialla sighed. "A lot farther this time. I was actually catching up to it. But..."
Both Kitty and Polly waited for her to finish, when she didn't they asked in unison. "But?"
Dialla started, and then looked back at her food. "Someone stopped me."
"Who?"
She shook her head. "I don't know. He, I think it was a guy anyways... He wore a cloak. I couldn't see the face."
"Did he say anything?" Polly asked, her own lunch left idle.
"Yeah, at first it told me I couldn't go any further. When I asked why not, he said "You are hardly the chosen one to wield its power.""
"Weird." Was all the bluenette said.
"Creepy! Now I have goose-bumps" Polly whined, rubbing her arms furiously.
Dialla leaned on her arm in thought. "But... there was something familiar about him or his voice. I've heard it before."
Kitty stood up. "Well, it will come to you. You guys better hurry. Lunch will be over in a few minutes." she said walking back to her locker.
In unison, both girls stared after her, at their untouched food and then at their watches. "Shoot!" they cursed, and started eating as fast as they could, trying their best not to choke.
"And remember class, that's SOH CHA TOA." Mr. Stott informed his class, underlining the initials with the white chalk.
Dialla was staring out the window at the clouds, daydreaming. She took pride in her ability to daydream. Unlike her night dreams which haven't changed and where she lacks control, she was in her element. Sometimes it became so intense that she couldn't see anything even though her eyes were open, she would fly, run, jump; but her body stayed still in her seat.
In this particular moment she was daydreaming about NiGHTS of course and she was flying with him through the clouds, laughing and smiling at each other. Suddenly, the nightmaren was in front of her. His marble blue eyes sparkled with love and untold secrets. She smiled back. Their faces drew closer and closer, he closed his eyes and she did the same.
Their lips-
Tap.
Dialla's eyes snapped open when something hit her temple and she looked down to see a tiny pink paper airplane on her desk. Stupid Polly.
Unwrapping the paper she read the sparklely blue ink. 'Dreaming about a certain purple horned cutie?' she glanced at the sender and gave a sheepish grin that made Polly giggle. The blonde went back to taking notes in her pink fuzzy notebook.
Unbeknown to Dialla, Kitty was staring at her from her desk behind her. The bluenette's eyes narrowed and she forced herself to look back at her sketchbook, where love poems written to NiGHTS took the place of math notes.
Students poured out of the school in a flood the moment the bell rang.
"School's out! I can't believe it!" Dialla cheered.
"Yeah, it's been a long school year." Kitty said popping her neck.
"So what are you doing this summer, Kitty?" Polly asked.
"I'm not doing much other than kung fu classes and guitar lessons. Why?"
"Well, this new karaoke club is opening up in two weeks and I thought that after my violin lessons we could go and rent a room and hang out!"
"Sounds like fun, Poll! We could make a Nights fan-club in a room!" Dialla suggested.
"Great idea D, Oh there's Sam, okay I gotta go home now. Bye!"
"Bye Poll!" Dialla called.
Polly waved as she got into her limo and Sam the driver drove off.
"Well I guess I'll see you around then, bye." Kitty said walking away.
"Okay bye KC!" Dialla waved her friend goodbye.
"Well time to head home." She told herself as she started walking home.
As she took the shortcut through the park a young boy ran past her toward the swings, laughing the whole way as a red ball of light chased after him.
Red ball of light? Her head whipped around, but whatever it was gone, as was the boy. Weird... Suddenly a strange feeling bubbled up in the pit of her stomach.
Something was going to happen tonight.
"Well, I better head home then." She told herself as she started walking home.