Chapter 1 - A Flashback and Fear
Ten Years Later
Boom! Crash! Seventeen-year-old Becca woke up. Outside her bedroom window, a thunderstorm was occurring. The auburn-haired girl with copper eyes was dreaming when she woke up. In Becca's dream, she was sleeping in a meadow chock-full of white daisies and yellow dandelions. She wore her pair of glasses, a purple long-sleeved t-shirt, blue jeans, and brown hiking boots. Then all of sudden, a mysterious figure tapped her on the shoulder. "Come on," it whispered, "Are you ready?"
"Huh?" Becca asked in her dream.
"You know, the hike!" said the figure, who was her best friend Nicole. She was a girl with short blonde hair and blue eyes. She wore a blue short-sleeved shirt, a brown skirt that cut off at her knees, and gray shoes.
"Oh yeah!" said Becca, "Let's go, girlfriend!" So Becca and Nicole hiked down a familiar path into the forest. The two talked about school, their favorite activities, and their plans for college. Unknown to them, a hungry grizzly bear was watching its freshly killed deer – which was not far away from where Becca and Nicole were hiking! The Bear snuck up behind them, breathing very heavily. "Do you hear that?" Becca asked Nicole when she heard the breathing. Nicole turned around, and there – about five feet away – was the bear standing on two legs, growling and huffing!
The girls immediately stood broadly and said sternly, "Go away, Bear! Don't follow us! Go away!" The bear didn't budge. Instead, it got back down on all fours and charged at the girls! Becca immediately dropped face-down to the ground, playing dead… and woke up from her dream.
"Another flashback," Becca whispered to herself, and began crying silently. The dream reflected back to her, how the last summer, she lost her best and only friend to a grizzly bear attack. Nicole was the one who always listened to Becca's stories about her daydreaming in the local library, and always comforted her when she needed help. The two of them always did the same things together since they were twelve years old – swimming at the YMCA, reading their favorite books, and hiking in the great outdoors. "You two are like peas in a pod!" Becca's father would always say. But one day, everything changed; the girls decided to go hiking in the local state park with Nicole's family. So far, everything went smooth, but then came the attack; the bear swiped Nicole in the face with its front paw, bit her on the arm, and swiped her repeatedly until she couldn't move anymore. Becca survived with only a few scratches, because she was playing dead. When the bear went away, Becca ran to Nicole's parents, and called for paramedics. By the time Becca's friend reached the hospital, it was too late. Nicole had lost so much blood and had devastating bites and scratches all over her body that she died before reaching the emergency room. To that day, Becca was terrified of animals, especially large ones with sharp teeth and claws.
Becca stopped her tears, put on her glasses, and tiptoed to the bathroom to get a glass of water. But while she was in the hallway, she heard her parents talking in a bedroom. "Tasha," said her father, Mark, "every teenager is afraid of something."
"Becca's afraid of cracking an egg open!" replied Tasha.
"Getting deadly proteins from the egg yolk into her bloodstream," corrected Mark, "She says it's the same as getting bitten by a black mamba."
"Whatever."
"Tasha, ever since her best friend was killed, the animal kingdom has been a frightening place for her. I think you should be a little more supportive."
"Supportive? I'm about the most supportive mother in the world, and I'm running out of supportive things to do! I tried helping her volunteer at animal shelter, she drove the employees crazy about news stories focused on pit bulls attacking people! Did you know that when a pregnant woman cleans a cat's litter box, she may become sick with toxoplasmosis? Mark, she brought a first aid kit. Nobody wanted her volunteering after that! Now our neighbor and I are thinking about having Becca babysit a dog she refuses to even pet!"
"You know that she's still traumatized about the bear attack," said Mark in a comforting tone.
"I know," said Tasha, calming down, "But she can't just let it haunt her for the rest of her life."
Back in the hallway, Becca was still listening to her parents' conversation when their bedroom light turned off. "Okay, I'm fine!" Becca told herself. Just then, lightning flashed, with the light revealing a picture of a ferocious tiger in the hallway! Becca gasped and ran back into her room! "No, I'm not!" she said. The girl went back into her bed and pulled the covers over her face. She thought about what her mother said about letting Nicole's death haunt her forever. Mom's right, Becca thought, I need to move on. She took her glasses off, put them on her bedside table, and went back to sleep.
