i know i've posted this before but i've made a few changes. thanks to Emsta for giving me help...i've changed Jess to Jessie so it's not as confusing...and i've changed the dialogue too. hope you like it!
Jess
Title: Dreams Don't Come True
Author: Jessie
Summary: It is two days before Charlotte's 16th birthday. Everyone is working together to plan her a surprise party. They had planned for Tess to take Charlotte away to go shopping for a present whilst the rest of them organised the party. However things did not go according to plan…
"Ok that's it. You've got it now. Just pull a little on the reins. Good girl"
Charlotte was riding Claire's horse around near the stables. Claire was sitting back and watching her. Praising her every move. Charlotte felt as though she was on cloud nine. Everything was perfect.
"Ok Chars. Give it a rest for now. You did very well."
"Wow. That was so cool. I want to do it again." Charlotte cried.
"We'll do it again some other time. Right now you've got to get ready for your party. We've got a big surprise for you. I can't believe our little girl is turning 10 already."
"What is the surprise?"
"You'll have to wait and see. That's why it's called a surprise."
"But Mum."
"I told you it's a surprise. Besides if I told you your Dad would kill me. He's been trying so hard to keep it secret."
"I don't like secrets. I want my surprise!"
"Come on. We've got to get going. Or you wont get your surprise.
"Ok. Mummy"
"I'll just put Blaze away and then I'll meet you by the dam."
"Let me put him away please Mum."
"I don't know Charlie. I mean remember what happened last time?"
"I promise I'll be careful this time. Please Mum?"
"All right. But I'm coming with you."
"Okay. Come on Boy. Let's go"
Charlotte kicked the side of Blaze and he started trotting. Claire had to run to keep up. Charlotte began getting faster and faster. Leaving Claire behind. Then all of a sudden Blaze stopped and Charlotte went flying off. She hit her head on the ground. Claire ran up to her and started shaking her.
"Charlotte! Charlie? Wake up sweetie…"
"Wake up. Oi! It's time for school." Alex snapped Charlotte out of her dream. She had been having that dream for three weeks now. Every night it was the same.
"But Alex" She complained.
"No Buts. Come on. It's Friday. It's the last day of term. "
"But…"
"I said No Buts. Now get up!"
Alex grabbed the quilt and pulled it off Charlotte.
"Hey that's mine!" Charlotte cried. "Give it back!"
"Not anymore. Come on. Time to get up. I don't want to have to come back in here. Your sister is already dressed and ready."
"She's not my sister! She's not anything to me!"
"Hey. What have I told you about saying that?" Alex warned
"All I was doing is stating a fact."
"Enough. Now get up before I have to drag you out of bed!"
" All right already. I'm getting up."
Alex left the room and Charlotte slowly got out of bed. She grabbed a pair of jeans and a halter-top and headed for the bathroom.
10 minutes later she is dressed and ready to go to school. She headed down stairs for breakfast. In the kitchen she saw Alex's new girlfriend Jessie at the sink and Jessie's daughter Kimmy sitting at the table eating some toast.
"Hey Alex I'm heading over to Tess's place this morning. There's something I need to talk to her about."
"But you'll be late for school again."
"No I wont. I'll make sure she gets me there on time."
"How about I call her and get her to come over here and pick you up on her way."
"Do you have to? I was going to take Phoenix for a ride."
"You can ride her after school." Alex replied.
"But I want to ride her now."
"Alex, let her ride over and see her Auntie. Being five minutes late for school isn't going to matter much."
"Alright. Fine."
"So you listen to her but you don't listen to me, thanks Alex." Charlotte sighed, took a piece of toast from Kimmy's plate and left the house.
"Morning Tess."
"Charlotte. Alex called and told me you were on your way over. I'll just finish getting Annabelle's lunch organised and then we can leave."
"Is she coming with us?"
"No. Nick's taking her to school today." Tess replied. "I thought we could have a little bit of time alone."
"Great. Because there is something I want to talk to you about."
"Okay. Well I'll just wrap this sandwich and you can tell me all about it in the car."
"Thanks Tess."
"So what did you want to talk about?" Tess asked. They were in the car on their way into town.
"Well it's kind of strange actually. If I tell you have to promise not to laugh."
"I swear I wont laugh."
"Well I've been having some really strange dreams lately. "
"What sort of dreams?"
"About Mum…"
"Oh."
"Umm…Well I've been dreaming that she's here. I mean alive with me. And we're happy."
"That's normal. You miss your Mum. I think everyone does."
"But in these dreams I feel like I'm actually there with her. Like she's alive. And it's always the same dream. But I never get to see what the surprise is!"
"What surprise?"
"The dream I have is about me riding Blaze. And Mum is watching me."
"She loved that horse. She never went anywhere without him. She was always riding him everywhere."
"I know. Alex told me all about it. Anyway. In my dream it's my birthday. And Mum and Alex have a surprise for me."
"Then what happens?
"When I am finished on Blaze Mum goes to put him away. But I wont let her. I insist on putting him back in the stables. And then I fall off the horse and I wake up."
The car went silent.
"So what do you think it's about?"
"I'm not sure. Maybe it's just that you miss your Mum so much you want her to be here with you. It's perfectly normal. We all miss her. When she first died I was having dreams about her as well. I was talking to her and she was talking back. Just like normal. "
"Really? How come you've never told me that before?"
"I don't know. I guess I just never had a reason to."
"What were your dreams like?"
"They weren't really dreams. I was just living my life as if she hadn't gone. As if she was still there with me. I remember this one conversation I was having with Nick and Claire was sitting on the side of the bed talking to me at the same time. I was talking back and Nick thought I was going crazy."
"How did you get rid of them?"
"I guess I just let her go. I realised that she wasn't there anymore and I had to move on so that she could move on. So I said goodbye and then I went on from there."
"But how do I get rid of my dreams? I mean I never really knew her so there's not much point in me saying goodbye to her."
"I don't know. I can't help you there. Maybe if you talk to Jessie…"
"No way am I telling her. She'll think I've gone nuts."
"She does care about you. You know that right."
"She has a strange way of showing it."
"You'll get used to her. When I first met her I didn't know what to think. I took one look at her and thought she was going to be like Sandra. But then I got to know her and Kimmy and they aren't actually that bad."
"You thought she was going to be like Sandra? Oh man if Alex heard you say that…"
"He's not going to is he?"
"He won't hear it from me. As far as I'm concerned what happens between us stays between us. No body else knows about it."
"I agree."
"Well this is it. Last day of school for another year."
"I'll see you when you get home?
"I should be home by about 5. I'm going over to Nikki's place after school. Her Mum said she's going to drop me off afterwards."
"Ok we'll see you then."
"Bye Tess."
"Bye. And have fun."
"I will."
Charlie got out of the car and walked away. She found her friend Nicola and they walked to class together.
When Charlie got home that night Kimmy who was waving Charlie's diary around greeted her.
"Where did you get that? "
She leapt for it but Kimmy jumped back and Charlie fell to the floor.
"Give that back."
She got up and leapt for Kimmy again. She managed to grab Kimmy's foot and Kimmy ended up flat on her face on the floor. She accidentally knocked the table and a vase fell and smashed.
Alex came in and saw the two girls on the floor and the vase smashed near Kimmy's face. Kimmy sat up and blood started dripping down her face.
"What happened in here?"
"She tripped me up."
"You stole my diary."
"I did not. You're just making things up to get me into trouble."
"That's enough. Charlotte go to your room. Kimmy come with me and I'll clean that up."
Charlie got up red faced and stormed up to her room she locked the door and threw herself on the bed. She threw a pillow at the door.
'This stinks. He's always taking her side with everything. She's always the little angel. She never does anything wrong. I'm sick of it. He's supposed to be MY dad not hers. But no I'm the one that always causes trouble. He doesn't want anything to do with me cause I'm such a troublemaker. Well I've had enough of it. I'm getting out of here.' Charlotte said to herself.
She got off the bed and grabbed a backpack out of her cupboard. She grabbed the things that meant the most to her-clothes from Tess, pictures of Claire and her when she was a baby, her pink stuffed bear she got when she was born and her most prized possession of all her first ever horse riding trophy-and she shoved them all into the bag. She threw in her secret stash of food from under her bed and then she did the bag up. She walked over to the window, opened it and looked out to make sure the coast was clear. Then she put her bag on her back and climbed down the tree. She ran over to the stables making sure nobody saw her and she saddled up Blaze. She climbed on his back and rode away.
Later that night when Jessie had put dinner on the table Alex walked up to Charlotte's room and decided he had given her enough time to cool off.
"Charlie? Sweetie you can come out now. "
When she didn't answer he decided to take drastic measures and unlock the door. He used the spare key. When he opened the door he noticed that she wasn't in there and that the things he usually saw on her cupboards were gone. He knew straight away that she had gone. He ran downstairs and immediately ran to the stables. When he saw Blaze was gone he got worried.
He ran back inside.
"What's wrong Alex?" Jessie asked.
"It's Charlie. She's gone."
When Kimmy heard this she smirked.
"What do you mean gone?" Jessie asked.
"I mean gone. She's packed her bags and gone off on Blaze." Alex panicked.
"But it's going to get dark soon."
"I know. I'll call and see if she's gone to Tess and Nick's place."
"I'll call Meg and see if she's there."
"I'll just sit here and eat my dinner." Kimmy kept smiling.
Jessie grabbed her mobile and Alex used the landline to call everyone they knew but Charlotte was nowhere to be found.
"Where could she be? It's getting late." He was almost in tears. Tess shad rushed over as soon as she heard.
"I know where she could be." Kimmy said suddenly not looking up from her meal.
"Why didn't you say something before?" Jessie cried.
"You didn't ask." Kimmy replied.
"What do you know?" He cried.
"She's probably out in the South Paddock. She's always writing about it in her diary." She took another mouthful of her meal.
"Claire!"
"What did you just say?"
"She's gone to visit Claire!"
Alex quickly grabbed his coat and ran out the back door. He mounted his horse and rode off.
Charlotte sat at Claire's grave crying.
" I can't believe it he did it again. Why does he always have to take sides with her? It's not like she's his daughter or anything. But then again I suppose I'm not either." She sighed and wiped her eyes. "I don't belong anywhere Mum. I mean I don't have you because you're…well you're gone, I don't have Alex because he's too busy with Jessie and Kimmy to even notice me and Tess is too preoccupied preparing for the twins arrival and looking after Annabelle. I mean she does try and understand but it's just, well the only one that really understood me was Alex. And now that Jessie and Kimmy have moved in, I'm not wanted anymore. I'm going to the city. I'm going to see if I can figure out where I belong. I love you Mum."
Charlotte placed a single rose and a letter onto the grave. Then she stood and blew one last kiss before walking away.
When Alex arrived at the grave to see no Charlotte he sighed.
"I'm so sorry Claire. I let you down. I promised I would take care of her and I didn't. Now she's gone. I'm so sorry."
He bent down and ran his hand along her grave. Then he noticed the letter. He picked it up and read it.
Dear Alex,
If you're reading this then I guess you're too late. I've gone to find myself and to find the place I belong. Have a great life with your new daughter.
Charlie!
Well what did you think? It's pretty bad I know but feedback would be great!
Jess!