Dream a Little Nightmare
By: Laney Sanchez

Note: Before anyone asks (if anyone is wondering), this character is not based upon myself. I wanted to write a character who was complex in that she was a little mentally unbalanced, but yet it was in a way that the readers could sympathize with her. As far as appearances go, she IS however based on a good friend of mine. So now you know. Let me know how I do.

( \/ ) Chapter Four ( \/ )
o Another World o

The girl stared out the window. It was a stupid thing to do, but nonetheless she did it more than she would've liked to. It wasn't like anything changed. Same bland, unchanging scenery. The dirty field across from her house was positively dull with dead weeds and random scraggly trees. It'd have been one thing if it was black, or even green, but brown was just so boring. It made her tired. What's worse, is that it made her long just that much more, for that which she couldn't have.

Beyond the small lot, she could easily see busy streets with ever changing stop lights and cars galore. From her window, at night, it even looked like a parade of lights.
She chuckled to herself. She really needed to get out more.

"Ah, easier said than done..." she mused, talking to herself as she was accustomed to doing lately. She had become her own best friend since she became home schooled.

She walked to the mirror and stared back at her reflection. She often found it funny. Many had called her "pretty." Even "beautiful" sometimes. She still failed to see it. She just couldn't see what everyone else did. To her, the geeky girl with character shirts and glasses, and a boy's haircut still looked back at her, sad and lonesome as ever. The only difference was now she had matured to that of a seventeen year old girl. She had traded in the glasses and stupid shirts for perfectly wavy hair that was both brown and red at once with blonde highlights. Also, she now had contacts. No more hideous glasses. However, she still saw the same face. No matter what. The same, desolate brown eyes (which everyone else said were striking), the same child like face.

While her face was okay, she was still rather short. Puberty had given her curves, a chest one size too big for her figure, and about five feet of height. She looked away from the mirror, tired of analyzing herself. "My, my isn't puberty kind...?" she muttered without enthusiasm.

She considered herself special in one way only. She had the imagination and demeanor of a six year old. She saw magic in things other people simply did not. Most teenagers, when they became bored, called up their friends and hung out, or partied, or went driving in their oh-so-fabulous cars. She had never bothered with that because she'd have rather played video games or watched movies, or read books. Anything that allowed her to escape to a reality that she so longed for, but was beyond her grasp.

However, that childlike demeanor had also been a bit of a curse. It was probably the same thing that always hindered her from getting done what she needed to (the need to play instead of work) and more importantly, it was the thing that had led to her disability to continue schooling among her peers. She simply didn't fit in. It had become so hard, day by day, pretending to be someone she wasn't. So much so, that eventually she gave up all together. It didn't matter what she'd do. She'd never be the social flower her parents wanted her to be.

A bitter stab hit her in the heart as she walked down the stairs. "Yep, that'd be me. The biggest disappointment," she said softly. The memory of the previous days events with her parents, left her cold, and happy that they had left for out of town business. She wouldn't have to deal with them for a whole week! "Happy happy joy joy!" she said with a snicker.

She hopped down one step and immediately spotted the item she was currently looking for. "Aha!" she cried triumphantly and ran over, seizing what appeared to be a small, slightly dirty, skull doll plushie.

"As long as I have you Creepers, I'll be just fine. Besides, you won't call me nuts...would you?"

The doll gave no response except for the same skeletal face he always made. She smiled and allowed a brief giggle to escape her lips. "Nope. Didn't think so..."

Her eyes eventually drifted to the stack of papers at the edge of the living room coffee table. The papers were different colors, with small writing on them. "I probably ought to do my homework..." she muttered, staring at it as if it were diseased with the worst plague the world had ever known.

She turned to the small little skull doll, which she had propped up against a vase on the coffee table. "I should, but you know me..." she said with a smirk. She crawled over, and promptly switched the TV to on. She'd disappear to another one of her fantasy worlds, just for a bit. Then as usual she'd lose track of time, and spend the whole night, from dusk until dawn, doing work which was due the next day. Wearing herself out.

"Ah..." she giggled to herself, almost laughing at the painstaking hours of work that were ahead. "Isn't life just grand?" she added with a snort of sarcasm.