DREAMS AND PARANOIA
Me: I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!
Jet: What a pity.
Me: Um... sorry I was gone for... ever and ever. But here's the next chapter, where the plot almost thinckens.
Jet: Keyword being 'almost.'
Me: True. Perhaps it's more practice at looking at things through a different perspective...
Jet: You're practicing on the actual thing you're practicing for? That is kind of sad.
Me: That's a depressing statement... you need froot loops!
SHOUT OUTS!
triquetraperson: You'll find out in a few chapters. Thanks!
Persona the ITG: Thanks.
Jet: Yes, poor me. It took me hours to get out of there.
X00001: Thank you very much.
Evil-Bunny-Leader: Well, this is kind of soon... anyway, glad you like the candy wrapper idea. I've been dying to use that idea somewhere for ages.
DISCLAIMER: I don't own x-men. Or Froot Loops. Or any of the candy bars mentioned here. Get it? Got it? Good. (I don't own that either. Where is it from again?)
9999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999Sydney's P.O.V.
I sat up, panting and sweating. I took a deep breath, then reached around blindly until I found my lamp and turned it on. Then I took a pale violet book from off of my nightstand, a dream journal, as well as a red fuzzy pen, and quickly wrote down what I remembered.
I had been walking somewhere, at night. I had felt calm. Then I heard something behind me. I spun around, and saw a car speeding towards me. I screamed, and jumped to the side, but not far enough and the car hit me. It stopped, and a boy hopped out of the driver's seat, looking concerned. I looked behind him, and instead of the car I saw an old, run down building. A girl holding a battered looking bike was staring at the building too, and she and I both winced as someone inside screamed. A person with a gas mask on peered through a window at us, and then I woke up.
I then made a list of keywords from my dream, and used a dream dictionary I also had to see what they meant:
walk
To walk in the night hours brings with it much discontent
night
obstacles in reaching goals
car
The condition of the car reflects your health
boy
Boys in dreams are good omens
building
Run-down buildings means failure in love.
girl
learning to be acceptive
bike
an important decision
mask
Hiding something from yourself
window
Feelings of being watched
So, I was dicontented, had obstacles, my health was about to crash, I'm hiding something from myself, I feel that I'm being watched, I have an important decision to make, I'm going to have failure in love, and yet I will learn to be acceptive and this was supposed to be a good omen?
I put my dream journal and dictionary and pen back down with a sigh. This wasn't really working; none of my interpretations made any sense. I looked at the alarm clock; it was 3:00. I turned the light off and went back to bed.
At 6:50, I groaned, and got out of bed. Another day of school, as usual. I streched, then tilted my head as I looked into my closet. Who would I be today? I was gothic yesterday, and a preppy the day before. I considered valley girl, but I didn't feel like it. Nor did I feel like nerd. Surfer girl? No, my hawaiian shirt was in the laundry. How about nature lover? I was feeling kind of vegetarian today.
A few minutes later, I looked in the mirror. Normal jeans, green shirt that said 'Save the Trees.' With matching bracelet. Hair in a braid, and in it's natural shade of auburn, for lack of a better idea. No makeup, except for some fake but realistic looking freckles. Now I just needed a protest sign that said 'Save our Shrews(1)' or something, but I wouldn't be able to take that to school.The combination looked well; I was your stereotypical treehugger.
I stepped into the hallway, and looked at Gary, my chinchilla. I considered letting him go, but that was the outfit talking, not me. Besides, chinchillas didn't come from New York, so letting him go would be bad for Gary; not to mention stupid.
I barely got to school on time, because I decided to walk in order to cut down on pollution. When I arrived, I saw a huge group of people getting out of three cars, and recognized them as the people at Xavier's boarding school. Jennifer was there, hopping out of the car with a green guitar case slung over her shoulder. She was wearing jeans, a yellow and white tie-dye shirt, black gloves, and black socks. An interesting combination; perhaps I'd imitate her sometime if I got tired of doing stereotypes. I waved at her, and she grinned and ran up to meet me.
"Hi Sydney." I was a bit surprised by her reaction; this girl had seen me in three different outfits and hadn't even seemed to notice anything unusual.
"Hi." I said, in a higher pitched voice then I normally used.
"How's your chinchilla?"
"I think I might let him go."
"Oh. Why?" Jennifer raised her eyebrows.
"It's cruel to keep animals in cages."
"Ah. Are you going to let him go here, or where chinchillas live? Where do they live anyway?"
"I don't remember, so I'll do it here."
"Okay... well, see you in guitar class." As Jen left, I paused. She was still friendly, even though I was working pretty hard to freak her out. She seemed to be pretty accepting of strange people; perhaps I had made a friend.
I felt a prickling sensation on the back of my neck, and turned around. A woman was walking her dog, but had stopped to tie her shoe. Either that, or to stare at me, though she turned away when I looked. I was reminded of the two men yesterday afternoon, and the masked face in the dream. Maybe I was being watched. Or was it Jennifer? Or both? I shrugged, then ran to my next class, where I releaved my anxiety by complaining to the teacher about how he wasn't using recycled paper.
After school, I exchanged phone numbers and email addresses with Jen, then walked home. I then changed into my gothic clothes so that my urges to let Gary loose went away.
Jen's P.O.V
I leaned back to admire my work, grinning at my collage of candy wrappers. I had had stroke of genius this morning, and had created a map of the Institute on my bedroom wall, out of candy wrappers. Every room that I had been in was marked with wrappers to indicate furniture and the use of the room. My room had an X and the words 'You are here' made from skittles wrappers, over a M&M floor and beside a Reeses bed, complete with a starburst wrapper for the pillow. Who said this wasn't an art school? I had just made a masterpiece! This was as cool as tie-dye shirts!
Then, lacking a better source of entertainment now that my mural was complete, I went to the 'computer lab' and checked my email. I didn't expect anything, but I had gotten a letter.
To: daughterofprovo yahoo .com (2)
From: population30 aol .com (3)
Subject: Freaky
Hi Jen, it's Sydney. Is it just me, or have a lot of strangers been staring at either you, me, or both of us lately? There was a woman looking at us when we were talking before school this morning, and right now there's a guy across the street from my house smoking a cigarette and writing stuff down in a notebook. Every once in a while he looks at my house, and he's freaking me out. Am I just paranoid, or is something up?
Sydney
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Save the Humans!
I blinked, then glanced out the window. I didn't see anyone on the street. I shrugged, and wrote a reply.
To: population30 aol .com
From: daughterofprovo yahoo .com
Subject: Re:Freaky
Either you're paranoid, they're after you, or there's no one watching the Institute (Xavier's place) right now. Or they're on the other side of the building. Whatever. I haven't noticed anything, so I don't really know. By the way, would you like me to send a picture of my latest art project? I think you'll laugh.
Jen
-----------------------
This sentance is in Spanish when you're not looking at it.
Sydney's reply said okay, so I dug around in my bag until I found my camera, snapped a picture, then scanned it into the computer and emailed it to her. This was her reply:
To: daughterofprovo yahoo .com
From: population30 aol .com
Subject: Art Project
Lol!!! :)) Wicked!!!(4)
I still think that something strange is going on, and I'm going to figure it out. Of course, the paranoia could be a result from the nightmare I had last night. Something about being hit by a car, then seeing a building with someone inside screaming, and some girl with a bike. Oh well, gtg. See you tomorrow.
Sydney
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Save the Humans!
I sat bolt upright. The nightmare from yesterday night had been repeated this morning, only it ended with me pulling myself up with my bike as support, and seeing a guy with a gas mask in the window of the building. Okay, now I was feeling a bit paranoid too. (5)
999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999999
(1) On a TV show somewhere, a girl and her friends got arrested for protesting against cutting down a forest. They were looking for a good reason to protest it, and decided to claim it was the habitat of a fictituous 'elk shrew.' At one part, it showed the main character in a prison uniform, holding up a sign that said 'Save our Shrew.' And for some reason I found that funny. I can't remember where I saw it, but I did.
(2) Mormon/Utahn in joke. You see, there's a band named 'Sons of Provo.' It's not a real email adress, or if it is I don't know who has it so don't try it.
(3) Also a made up email address.
(4) I stole that remark from Evil-Bunny-Leader. Hope you don't mind.
(5) I just felt like putting another foot note.
Me: Oh, I think I advanced the plot a little! Yay!
Jet: What plot?
Me: The plot.
Jet: My point exactly.
Me: (is confused)