Not So Perfect

Chapter 3: Prairie

I awoke with a start. I took my iPhone out from under the bed where I’d briefly stored it for the night. The time was three AM.

            I slowly started to lie back down, thinking of the dream I woke myself up from. A very, very strange dream.

            In the dream I was walking by the barn, just on a normal sunny day. I saw Ryan walking too, so I went up to him.

            “Hey,” I said. Except…it wasn’t my voice. It was much deeper than my normal girly voice. So, I cleared my throat. “Hey,” I said again, but it came out in the same, boyish manner.

            Ryan asked me who I was. I replied that I was Chloe, obviously. But he still acted confused like he didn’t know who I was. At that point, I got worried.

            See, when I’m nervous I tend to twist my finger in my hair. So, I went to grab one of my blonde lochs and…it wasn’t there. I put my hand on the top of my head and grabbed a piece of hair and trailed my finger over it until it ended – much too short. I didn’t cut my hair to my eyebrows!

            I looked down and saw I was wearing a pair of grass-stained baggy jeans. I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing those on any normal day. I also had on blue t-shirt, but my chest, was, well, flat. And I had muscles.

            Ryan asked me what kind of guys’ name Chloe was, and laughed. And then I realized – I was a boy! I screamed, and then I woke up.

When I woke I couldn’t fall back asleep. The gears in my mind were twisting – something quite unusual for me. What could that insane dream possibly mean?

            When the sun finally decided to rise, I got up. I brushed out my hair and quickly straightened it, and French braided the top of my head to form a braid headband. I slipped on a Juicy Couture hot pink short skirt with a white tank top with a Juicy pink cami underneath. I also slipped on my BCBG flip-flops with cute little bows on them.

            I flounced out of my room and walked into the kitchen. I flipped my hair back. Kyle smiled at me. I rolled my eyes.

            “Morning, Sunshine,” he said sarcastically.

            “Hah,” I fake-laughed back at him. “You’re cool,” I said mockingly.

            “Enough,” Uncle Joe said. “We don’t need an argument this early.” He took a crisp bite of his bacon, and then stood up. “But speaking of early, it’s time to start working.”

            “What?” I asked, with a sharp tone. “See, me and work don’t go together in the same sentence.”

            “Well, in Georgia they do, Peach,” he said, and chuckled at his own stupid pun.

            “Oh, and you might want to eat something before you start,” Kyle suggested.

            I started at him menacingly. “I’m not working.”

            “Ha, try telling that to Mom. She won’t go for it. Might as well save yourself the misery by grabbing yourself some toast and bacon and meeting us outside,” he told me, then him and Ryan walked out.

            I huffed extremely loudly and stomped my foot. Yes, childish, but sometimes it’s the only way to get rid of anger! I mean, they expected me to eat toast? Please! There’s like, a thousand carbs in one piece and it’s so not worth it.