Chapter 10: Dream On!

Rockett let out a deep breath. This was it! She had done it all. She'd blown off the almost-heart-to-heart with Ruben, made it to the food court in time, and completed initiation...well, almost. But none of that really mattered right now. What mattered now was that Rockett was finally getting her chance to hang out with Cleve - that is, without any of the other Ones around to interrupt. She was definitely nervous, but also excited. She carefully made her way over to the fountain.

"Uh, hey, Cleve," Rockett said with a nervous grin. She swallowed, trying hard not to let her nerves show all over her face. "What's up?"

"Hey, Rockett," Cleve nodded. "I need to talk to you."

Rockett's heart skipped a beat. "Sure," she said shyly. "What's it about?"

"Ah," Cleve replied. "The game of love. So, listen, I thought I'd ask an expert. You've got an older sister, right?"

"Uh-huh," Rockett nodded.

"...Who's in highschool, right?"

Rockett nodded again.

"Anyway," Cleve blushed. "I was thinking that since you have a sister who's in highschool, that you'd know how highschool girls act when they, you know, like somebody?"

"Maybe," Rockett said, blushing herself. She wondered where Cleve was going with all of this.

"...'Cause there's this girl, Cindy. And she's pretty cute stuff, if you know what I mean. And I was wondering if she was into me, but I'm not totally sure how to tell or not."

"...Oh." Rockett's heart sank. From the corner of her eye, she could see Nicole at the opposite end of the food court, giving her a wicked grin. Clearly, Nicole already knew what Cleve was going to talk to her about in the first place.

'This must be some kind of punishment for not getting the CSG's Private Report Book. If there's anybody out there who's worse than Nicole, I'll be shocked.'

"Anyway, Cleve," Rockett said, trying to disguise the hurt in her voice. "I really wouldn't know much about that stuff, so maybe I'm not like, the best person to ask. Sorry."

"Really," Cleve said dryly. "Well, thanks anyway. And listen, let's just keep this between you and me, alright?"

"That you like a girl in high school?"

"No. That I couldn't really tell if she liked me or not. Max would go ballistic if he found out that I can't interpret girls. He's always ragging on me anyway, because he thinks he knows everything. Like, just because the little jerk's got sisters. Whatever."

Suddenly, an angry voice interrupted their conversation. Rockett wished the voice belonged to Nicole, because that would have been a thousand times better. But it didn't.

"Rockett!" Miko screamed across the food court.

"Well, I see you've got company," Cleve laughed as he pointed to Miko.

Rockett nodded, now fully aware that tears were welling up in her eyes. Before Cleve could have a chance to see them, she ran. She ran and ran until finally, she was sure that none of the Ones (or Miko), would be around to see her cry.

Rockett sighed and wiped at her face as she sat down on a nearby bench. This had been the worst day! She glanced down as she held her head in her hands. Not only had Nicole set her up by pretending to her that Cleve was interested, but she'd also clearly said something to Miko. At the moment, Rockett couldn't decide which was the cherry on top of her rotten ice cream sundae: Getting humiliated in front of Cleve or Miko's rage. She didn't even want to confront the girl now and tell her what had really went on; Miko wouldn't understand. At this point, Rockett thought, nobody would.

A second later, it all came back to her the reason why she was even hiding out on that bench in the first place. Rockett wasn't sure if it was her imagination or not, but it sounded like Whitney Weiss' voice was just around the corner...which meant Nicole wasn't far behind.

Rockett jolted up from the bench and started running again. Just as she was headed for the mall exit, a friendly, familiar face came into view - Ruben!

"Whoa! Watch out!" he called, trying to get to Rockett before it was too late.

Unfortunately, Rockett hadn't noticed the 'CAUTION: WET FLOOR' sign until she had already started slipping. She flailed her arms wildly, trying to balance herself as she continued to fall. Rockett hadn't made it to the ground yet, but she knew that when she did, it would definitely be painful.

Ruben started running himself, despite the wet floor. He was just inches away from Rockett, who still hadn't made contact with the ground...yet. He reached out just as Rockett came tumbling down and -

"Ow," Rockett moaned, rubbing her head.

She blinked. Ruben was right next to her. "That was some fall, chica! You okay?" he asked.

It took Rockett a while to answer. After all, where could she start? What could she say? To answer Ruben's question, in one word, she would have just said 'no'. Or in two, 'absolutely not'. But there was way too much bothering her for her to make it that short.

"Oh, Ruben," she blurted. "I messed up things with Sharla, like, so bad! I was so completely awful to her and I just acted so selfish! And then with the CSGs I almost completely got involved again just so I could pass initiation, and, by the way, I'm really sorry about ditching you to go to the mall with-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Ruben interrupted. "Back up. Un-confuse me, girl. When did all this happen?"

"Earlier today, when-" Rockett suddenly stopped as she looked around. Talk about total change of scenary! The wet floor, the sign, the stores, the mall, all of that had completely vanished before her eyes. She opened them wider to get a better look. They were back in the park. With Arrow and Wolf. "...Ohh," Rockett replied, a smile slowly spreading across her face.

'Yes! Finally everything's clear again!'

"What?" Ruben asked.

"I just," Rockett started. "I just had this totally weird dream."

"In the middle of the park?" Wolf asked.

"Yeah," Rockett laughed. "I mean, I think so. Did I get like, knocked out or something?"

"Yeah, but only for a few minutes," Wolf replied. "When you nearly crashed into that big tree."

"Wow, really?" Rockett said. "It felt like hours..."

"Nah, just for a few minutes," Ruben repeated. "Are you sure you're okay?" he asked worriedly.

"I'm fine," Rockett grinned.

"Good," replied Ruben. "And hey, what's with this major-loco dream you were having?"

Rockett shook her head. "It was just too weird. I mean, at the beginning of my dream, things were totally backwards. I kinda thought I was living in some sort of parallel universe-type thing or something...but actually, things weren't that different..."

'...That is, if you don't count the parts where Miko's totally over Mr. Rarebit, Dana is actually nice to me and where I have a crush on Cleve. Ew...'

"But, anyway," she continued. "It was like, pretty soon, I started to realize that, well, everyone else around me wasn't the problem, but that I was. And I was like, so selfish the entire time in my dream, and it was almost as if, I was aware of it, but I couldn't really do anything about it, like, it didn't bother me or something..."

Rockett looked up at Wolf, Arrow and Ruben. "I know," she said apologetically. "I guess it sounds pretty weird."

"Doesn't matter," Ruben said warmly. "As long as you're alright."

"I'm fine," Rockett replied. "I'm just glad to be back home is all."

"Whatever you say, Dorothy," Ruben said with a wink.

Rockett smiled as she looked from Ruben to Wolf to Arrow, and then back at Ruben again.

"Guys?" she said. "Not to get too goofy or whatever, but...I'm really thankful for you guys."

The gang smiled.

"Hey, you too, Rockett," Arrow said with a grin.

"Ditto," Wolf replied.

"Same for me, chica," said Ruben.

"So, you're feeling better?" Arrow asked Rockett.

"Much better," Rockett nodded.

"Alright! Then if you're up for it, let's get back to boarding business! I'm sure that even after your fall, Rockett, you're still better than Ruben and Wolf," Arrow teased.

"Hey, we'll just see about that, won't we?" Wolf laughed.

Ruben smiled. "Let's go," he said to Rockett.

As the group gathered their boards and prepared for their next big race, Rockett stopped Ruben and hugged him.

"Hey," she said softly. "Thanks for always being there."

"You bet," Ruben replied. "So hey, before we get back out there, I wanted to give you this..." As he spoke, Ruben turned and grabbed a paper bag out of his backpack. "It's wrapped and everything, but I had to keep it in the bag to keep from breaking."

"Wow, Ruben! What's this?" Rockett asked excitedly.

"Open it and find out."

Rockett took the paper bag in hand, which, she had to admit, looked awfully familiar.

"Deja vu," she blurted.

"What?" asked a confused Ruben.

"I mean," Rockett said. "I think I've seen this before."

Ruben laughed. "You been sneakin' around in my locker or somethin'?" he teased.

Rockett laughed, too. "Something like that."

"Hey, you lovebirds! Quit your yappin' and get over here and join the action!" Wolf hollered from across the park.

"Alright," Ruben replied as he hopped on his skateboard. "But this time, Wolfman, you're goin' down, hermano!"

Rockett and Ruben caught up with their friends. It felt great for everything to be back to normal. Still, Rockett wondered if it was a good idea for her to try skateboarding again...especially after what had happened earlier.

"Uh, guys?" she said. "Maybe we can do some boarding later. Anybody wanna go get ice cream or something?"

"I'm there!" Ruben replied.

"Of course Ruben's the first to want to give up on skateboarding," Arrow giggled.

Wolf burst out laughing. "Hahahahaha! Good one, Ms. Arrow!" he said, holding up his hand for a high-five. Arrow blushed and slapped his palm.

"But seriously," Wolf said. "If you guys want ice cream, we should go back to my house. I'll make it myself. I guarantee it'll be the best ice cream you've ever had!"

"Then, I'm definitely in!" said Ruben.

"Me too," Arrow agreed.

The foursome walked to the bus stop to hitch a ride to Wolf's. "So Rosales," Wolf replied. "Think you'll get any better on your skateboarding skills over the summer?"

"Nah," Ruben replied. "I've got better things to work on...like prank wars at Camp Luna!"

"I'm won't be such an easy target you know," Wolf said. "I'll be up all night howlin' at the moon! It's the girls you're not gonna have to worry much about," he winked.

Rockett and Arrow exchanged glances. "Dream on!"