"Siblings"

1

The water fills my lungs and I can feel my throat start to tighten shut. I'm dying. This is the end, I know it. I try to swim towards to surface but my weight is dragging me down to the bottom. Bottom of what? An ocean? River? I can't tell.

My vision starts to get blurred, with the water blinding me causing a burning sensation.

I can tell it's all about to-

......................

I gasp for air. It was a dream. The same dream I've been having for the past few months now. I don't know why I've been having this dream, but almost every night it comes to haunt me.

I look over to my alarm clock to see that it reads 3:35am. I have school tomorrow, and know that now that I am awake from having this nightmare it may be impossible to go back to sleep. I'll have to suffer the droopy morning eyes all day. Hopefully I won't fall asleep in class like last week.

I turn to my other side and wipe the small beads of sweat off my forehead. Maybe if I try hard enough I can actually get my eyes to close, and get my mind to drift off back to sleep.

But of course, nothing happens and I am still staring into the darkness of my room.

Hours pass, with an occasional glance at the clock, and it's finally morning.

I sit up with a loud yawn escaping my mouth, and squint my eyes from the bright sunlight pouring into my room.

I really don't want to get up, but I know that if I don't my father will just eventually come in and get me himself. So, I force myself to sit up and slip out from under the covers. I grab my favorite blanket and wrap it around myself as I walk down the stairs.

There are many reasons as to why this specific blanket is my favorite. My mom made it a few years ago when she was in the hospital. Yes, she sat there in an ugly green gown in the heart of a cancer research facility knitting a blanket.

She originally was making it for herself, but as she neared closer to her death, she made up her mind that she wanted it to be for me.

The last time I ever visited her at the hospital, she gave it to me. To be honest, it still smelt like the perfume she wore while staying there.

As soon as I reached the bottom of the stairs, my father noticed me.

"Good morning Melanie, sleep well?" he asked sipping his morning coffee. I shrugged, no expression on my face. "Did you have the dream again?"

I nodded as I took a seat next to him.

"Oh, I'm sorry pumpkin. Hopefully tonight you won't have to worry about it, hmm?" he asked.

I shrugged again, and sat there looking out the kitchen window.

For some reason, my mind was focused on this one tree that was outside. It was blowing in the wind, each leaf dancing with every breeze that passed by.

"....Melanie?" my father's words broke my train of thought. I looked up at him. "I said would you please run upstairs to get ready? I have to be at work early, so you will have to take the bus. Is that okay?" I nod and stand up making my way up to the second floor.

Once I was back in my room, I fold and place my blanket back at the foot of my full sized bed.

I never really got into getting ready for school. And by that, I mean I don't really care what I wear or how I look in just anyway.

So like the boring self I am, I just put on the first thing I saw lying around.

I was leaving my room when I had just remembered I hadn't taken my medicine. So, I quickly turn back around and run to my nightstand, making sure I grabbed both pills. One for my excruciating anxiety, and the other one for my nightmares. That one I had only gotten about two weeks ago. My doctor claiming that if I didn't have it I could have gotten close to insanity. Not exactly the most comforting phrase you want to here from your doctor.

Popping both in mouth, I swallow both dry, making my throat scratch.

Rushing back down stairs, I kiss my father goodbye and run out the door. Knowing I'll miss the bus (thanks to my stupid mind), I just start walking the other direction to school instead. Won't take me long, just a few blocks down.

Making it a little too close to the bell, I sneak into first quarter and wait like every other student for class to begin.

During school, I don't really pay attention much. I'm not failing or anything, but I also don't have the best grades a student could have.

Throughout the quarters, I mostly daydream. It's the only time I can actually trust my mind, without it going crazy and making me daydream the nightmare. It's the one time a day I actually have control over it.

Today my thoughts were on my future, and what I would do. Where I would be, who would I be with, etc.

In science there is a poster that reads "Let your mind travel" with a background of a city. The city background is what triggered the thought of future in my head. Reason why, is because what I want for my future, is the city. I want to be living in an amazing city.

In Colorado there is not much city, so I hope one day I can go see L.A., or New York City.

This is what was running through my mind all day. The thought of living an extraordinary life in an extraordinary city, having an extraordinary future. But, for now, I am stuck here; here in fourth quarter, staring at a screen full of vocabulary words that I have never heard before. It wasn't keeping my interest, hence my daydreaming.

I wait for the moment to leave, my eyes dead on the clock.

3...2...1.......

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so this is chapter one of many in my FOURTH book. The first three are completely unrelated but if you want you can go read them :) some are fanfiction and some aren't. I hope you enjoyed chapter one!! Leave me your thoughts in the comments and please vote! <3