Everytime her nightmares tricked her by beginning off like a normal, casual dream.

 

It was daytime and she was outside her school — Calibri High School sitting in the middle of the the big, wide lawn that was next to the parking lot. 

Rowan looked all around her at the vacant campus. There were no cars parked in the parking lot or students on campus or teachers or anyone.

She didn't feel anything in the dream, the air around her was temperature-less. Huh? Was all that Rowan could think. When she made her way off the lawn and walked through the school’s double doors she instantly  looked all around her and could tell that it was empty. Stupid place

Rowan was sort of growing paranoid. Usually when she was in a dream, for her was like watching an already filmed movie with the inside of her eyelids serving as the white movie screen up against her eyeballs. THIS time it felt like her entire, whole physical body had been PLACED inside the movie, like it was happening live or something. 

She walked down the very empty hallways, past the main office, past the school’s trophy/award display, and up the steps to the top floor. As soon as she stepped foot on the top floor she felt a looming presence— or maybe that was just her expecting somebody to be there?

Stupid boring school.

When she turned down a hallway suddenly she knew where she was going. 

Mrs. Myers room.

 Room 216.

And the presence no longer felt uncertain, she knew there was someone or something waiting in that class. Rowan didn't know who and she didn't make that much assumptions either. 

Mrs. Myers?

She expected to walk in and see the French teacher doing something on her computer at her desk in the back of the class. But she enters a simply empty classroom 

Why this room? Rowan thought

Goosebumps raised on her arms.

Rowan blinked and everything around her disappeared and reappeared in 2 quick flickers. Quicker than you can snap your fingers.

Kids.

The classroom was full of students. And noisy.

It was like an average school day suddenly. Kids chatted loudly while sitting at their desks, some sitting on their desks. A dozen were on their phones while a few threw paper balls & airplanes across the classroom at each other. 

Rowan looked all around her.

Whaa 

 she felt surprised to see them along with a pinch of awkwardness 

Something that wasn't exactly a thought raced through her mind that went a little like 

Are these people real?

Not knowing what else to do, she slowly walked to the closest empty desk next to her and sat down very puzzled. That's when she noticed that she was dressed in her boring usual black and white school uniform. 

 

“Hey Row!” said a voice 

She brought her attention to the desk to the left across from her. Forestt sat there with a smile on his face and his hands clasped together in front of him on his desk. 

Okay this seemed cheesy to Rowan.

 He literally showed up out of no where she thought. How could she have not noticed Forrest, her best friend sitting down when she walked across the classroom a minute ago? She would've said hi. 

Rowan didn't say “hi” though, she just narrowed her eyes and stared. She believed everything that was happening around her just as much as you would believe that it was your grandmother lying in that bed if you were put in Little Red Riding Hood’s position in the fairy tale. If you had a brain of course. 

Eyes aren't enough obviously (take a look at little red riding hood!) 

Obviously not wanting to engage in conversation with Forestt she turned in her seat studying the students around her. She came to focus on a student dressed in all black standing to the side leaning against the wall. She had coal black hair and pale skin, a round chin and wore a lace string choker around her neck. Her expression was cold and her arms were crossed and her attention was torwards the other side of the room. 

For some reason she stood out to Rowan more than anyone else in the class. Could she have been the reason for that odd feeling Rowan felt before? 

There was no way of knowing but the girl did look cold-blooded. Rowan turned her attention to the students she was staring at behind her 

It was four boys who were insanely annoying and disruptive in French. 

To the teacher mostly anyway.

Carl, Rick, Jones & Blake all stood together by the table chatting their butts off and making each other laugh hysterically. 

Carl & Rick, best friends; were really popular for simply being super cool jokesters in class. They were naturally hilarious and constantly making everyone laugh. Everyone secretly appreciated having them in room 216 no matter how many times they rudely blurted out while the teacher was talking or disrupted the class. It was fun to have them in class for everybody except Mrs. Myers. The two boys gave the old lady headaches.

Ro simply knew this because she saw her taking aspirin at her desk several times a day like it was a lifestyle for her. 

Jones was also really popular and liked too. Not just for being a hottie but he always dressed like a million bucks 24/7. 

When he came to school his clothes were always neat and clean with his hair in the same sexy oiled back hairstyle (like Link from hairspray.) 

Ro watched him eating fries at lunch and always wondered how he could eat them all the time without making a mess and getting ketchup on himself (like she happened to do a lot). 

And he smells like hairspray and blueberries. (That's what the girls say anyways.) 

Jones’s smile was cute enough to light up a Christmas tree. 

Rowan, like anyone else heard the rumours about him kids spread 

“He comes from serious money”

“Dude I hear his grand parents are loaded”

“Probably spoil him down to the core”

“I hear he dips his candy apples in gold instead of chocolate” 

“Dude, shut up” 

“No, really dude my uncle has a friend who's a fisherman who said he sees him down at the docks on his old folks yacht every summer.” 

“What, no way”

Rowan found the gold candy apple thing ridiculous but couldn't help but imagine Jones posting a selfie of him with a golden candy apple on his instagram.

Blake, the last out of the crew was as equally popular as Jones and even cuter. He knew a lot of people around school. He was a super friendly guy and he had this hypnotic, dreamy smile that could make anyone feel super special; whether he was talking to you or simply just smiling at you in the hallway. He made friends super quickly and pretty much never gets any beef with anybody.

You'd have to be totally brain dead not to like him and go to Calibri. That was Rowan’s opinion atleast.

Ro had had her eyes on Blake since 5th grade. It was a crush, she just was too afraid to admit it because it downright annoyed her how much she was crazy for the guy. 

She couldn't help getting extremely shy around him and she hated it. Rowan was not a shy girl 

She gave him an attitude for some reason in school and she didn't even know why.

You’re so stubborn! You treat your crush like a big “AVOID ME” sign Ro sometimes said to herself without meaning to. 

It's not like she felt like he was too superior & popular compared to her. Maybe it's the other way around! 

You’re not special. You're not too good for him! Stop acting like it. 

 

Rowan noticed the girl in the corner of her eye move she turned to see that she had stopped leaning on the wall and watched her uncross her arms. 

She blew a strand of hair away from her face with a huffy breath if finally making a decision. Her cold expression never left her face. 

Ro wanted to know more about her so she grabbed her arm when she walked by her desk. It was clear she was on her way over to the group of chatting boys. 

Round chin paused and looked at Rowan’s hand on her arm as if it was the filthiest thing that could ever touch her on the planet. Her facial expression changed to a snarl. 

“Hey, what's your na—”. 

The enthusiastic voice Rowan tried at dropped. 

Rowan paused and stared at the girls shoes as the ends of her vision blurred mystically and her ears filled with the sound of whispery hisses and whispers that were words that weren't English that she could barely make out. 

Huh?

They seemed to be a warning; trying to give her info,  let her know something about the girl. She was definitely sure she could only hear them

 

The girl paused at first acknowledging Rowan then brutally head butted Rowan making her gain a dizzy headache. She fell to the ground on her knees, then to her side and laid down on the floor like she was going to sleep as she blacked out with the dream world she was in fading away all around her, she could feel it dismissing slowly along with the room full of talking kids. 

It made her glad the dream was over. 

It was surely telling her to watch out her the girl’s existence, right? Or just to not approach crabby, goth dressing girls.