A Dream Come True
by Lucinda

I was upstairs in our two story home, in my room; when I heard a wierd scuttering sort of sound, as if thousands of bugs were marching in an army. I peered outside of my window, afraid of what I might see but there was nothing there and yet the sound grew louder, like it was coming closer.

Making a decision to investigate, I grabbed my torch off of my desk and quietly crept downstairs, making sure not to wake anyone up. I unlocked th back door, turning on my torch and snuck out.

I could barely see through the eery light, but squinting my eyes a little, I could just make out the silhouettes of little figures. They looked a bit like cockroaches. Taking a second look I saw that they were!

I couldn't believe it! There were hundreds, no thousands of them all marching, marching towards...towards me!

I was so scared that I was paralyzed...unable to move...unable to run back inside and lock the door.

They kept marching, getting closer and closer. I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck prickle up. They were just a metre away now, and I still couldn't move!

Then, having reached me, they started crawling up my legs..up my body. Yuck! They kept crawling upwards, as if searching for something. Suddenly I realized, they were looking for an entrance to my brain!

The cockeroaches were on my face, they started crawling up my nostrils and through my ears....

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Arhhhhhh!" I screamed, sitting up in bed. I had sweat pouring down my face and for some reason I was gasping for air.

Mum came running into my room with a worried look on her face to see what had happened. Seeing me in bed, she relaxed immediately, "You had me scared there for a minute, Dee." Mum said, "What was your dream about this time?" After I related what had happened, I said, "Mum, the dream was more realistic than the others. I'm scared."
"There is nothing to be frightened of Dee. It was just a dream. Now lie down and try to get back to sleep."
"Okay, I'll try, but if I have another nightmare I'll blame you." I said smiling and snuggling under my covers.
"Alright. Goodnight and sleep tight." she replied, shutting the door behind her.

Before I closed my eyes, I thought back to a couple of years ago when the dreams had started..or should I say nightmares. I had had a terrible dream that night, aliens had disected me and attached pieces of dead animals to me, making me a freak. Ever since then, they'd been getting worse.

Having the dreams had earnt me the nickname Dreamer, or Dee for short. My real name is Abby but only my grandmother and one of my teachers, Miss Charleheimer (I swear she's like seventy years old and still a virgin) call me by my real name.

"Beep, beep, beep, beep." I opened my eyes sleepily and looked at my clock. "7.30am" it read, time to get up. "Whoever invented waking up early should be shot." I groaned, rolling out of bed and falling on the floor, "Ow!" I yelped, hastily standing up.

Walking down the stairs and into the kitchen I asked "What's for breakfast Mum?"
"Your big enough and ugly enough to make it yourself." she replied between sips of coffee.
"Gee, thanks Mum" I said sarcastically. We go through the same routine every morning. "Where's the Coco Pops then?"
"Bobby had them, they're on the bench." I got a bowl out of the cupboard and tipped the packet up but nothing came out.
"Bobby!" I yelled, "Get your butt in here now!" He came dawdling in playing his gameboy. "Did you eat all the Coco Pops again?"
"Yeah...so what. You don't own them." His comeback for everything.
"So, you could have left me some!" His reply waas a stuck out tongue, then still occupied by his gameboy he ran out the door.
"Why'd he have to be born, stupid little brat." I grumbled.
"Abigail Rose West do not speak that way about your brother." Mum replied crossly, a frown on her face.
"Okay, okay. Sheesh!" fed up, I grabed the only other cereal, All-Bran. Yuck. "I'll just eat this then, okay."
"Don't get smart with me young lady and make sure you leave some for Lisa."

I ate my breakfast in silence. Lisa came into the kitchen just as I had finished. She was all glammed up so of course I had to ask "Why are you so dressed up?" I questioned curiously.
"This is the new me, " she said in a really phoney voice, "and I've changed my name to Liza, so don't call me Lisa anymore, got it?!"
"Alright..." I replied uncertainly because I knew I'd forget, "But Lisa, oops I mean Liza, can I just say drop the voice, you sound like a receptionist."
"Thanks for the tip Abby." in her normal voice, "I'm going to call people by their real names, so if you don't mind, I'm going to call you Abby."
"S'pose so." I mumbled. 'She may call me by my real name, but don't expect me to answer to it if she wants me to do something for her, hehe' I thought.

She started to head out the door. "Oh yeah, I meant to ask you, do you want a lift to school? I'm borrowing the bug."
I cringed at the word bug, but said, "Sure." Well it's better than the half hour walk it usually takes me to get to school, bad thing was is that when I got lifts I had to get ready quickly, knowing Lisa, I mean Liza isn't a very patient person.

I jumped into the old bug car (Volkswagon Beetle), asking Liza, "We picking up Eddy?" refering to Lisa's best friend who lives down the street. "Not today, so you don't have to sit in the back."

When we got to school, Liza and I went our separate ways. I headed towards the lockers to meet Shelly Turner, my best friend.

When she saw me she yelled, "Hey Dee, what's new?"
"Besides Bobby eating all the Coco Pops as usual and Lisa changing her name to Liza, nothing much. You?"
"Just heard there is a new guy. I think his name is Nick. You want to go check him out?"
"Yeah...Okay. Nothing better to do." We walked to C Block, where Shelley heard he sat.
"That him over there?" I asked pointing to a boy with blondish-brown hair and blue eyes.
"Must be."
"Not bad, not bad at all. Let's go introduce ourselves." He was talking to David Hicksey as we walked over to him.
"Hi." I interrupted, "My name's Dee, Dee West. Are you new around here?"
"Hi Dee," he said with an accent, "Yeah, I just moved here from California, USA. My name's Nick Adams. What's your name?" he asked turning to Shelley.
"The names Turner, Shelley Turner." she replied, James Bond style, with a side-way wink at me. "Hi David, long time, no see." You couldn't half tell she had a thing for Hicksey.

While those two chatted, i got to know Nick better. He has one brother who is twenty-one and two sister, ten and seventeen. "Hey," I said, "I have a ten year old brother and a seventeen year old sister. What a coincidance."
"Yeah, I reckon." came the reply, "When's your birthday?" he asked
"September 21st. I'll be fourteen."
"You've got to be kidding Dee, mine's on September 22nd, maybe we were destined to meet."
"Maybe we were."

Shelley and I arranged to meet Nick and David at lunch, under a tree at C block. I should have trusted my instincts and never have talked to Nick again. There was something strange about all the coincidences, but he was just too cute and nice not to talk to....

to be continued...

--written in 1999--