A Nightmare at Dream World

Chapter Six - A Dream Field Trip

The next day at school Bull walked into homeroom with a powerful yawn. When his eyes opened back up he found Alora alone sitting at the back of the class reading her enormous book. Startled by the roar Alora peered up over her reading material to see who it was that had entered the room. Finding the source she immediately slammed the book shut and placed it upon her desk and looked at Bull a bit concerned.

"You look rough," Alora said as she watched Bull trudge his way to the back of the room and sit at his desk.

"Thanks. Who knew dreaming could take so much out of you?" he said.

"I still feel a little groggy myself," she concurred. "But it was so worth it. I can't believe how cool that was."

"I know right? I told you. But you didn't believe me."

"Yeah, yeah. The one time you're right."

"You called me crazy."

"I'm sorry. But you have to admit no one in their right mind would believe that ludicrous story. Wear a ticket to a mystical amusement park when you sleep and you'll be transported there. It's ridiculous?"

"Speaking of the tickets," Bull said, whispering even though there was no one else in the classroom. "Did you wake up with yours?"

"I did," Alora said, also whispering for no reason. "Eleven tickets. I was dumbfounded."

"Me too. Did you bring them? I brought mine."

"Yup. I brought ten and left one at home for tonight."

"So," Bull began with his eyebrows raised in excitement, "we're really going to give them away then?"

"We have to, right?" Alora answered, hesitantly. "I mean, we have to share this experience with as many people as we can. It was incredible."

"Good," Bull said, feeling validated. He felt exactly the same way. "The real question is, who do we share it with?"

"And how do we convince them to do it."

"True," Bull agreed, then smiled. "You were easy. So gullible. I barely had to convince you at all," he joked.

"Whatever," Alora laughed. "You just nagged me all day until I gave up. You were the gullible one. I still can't believe you took that ticket from Rem. He looks like the devil. I don't know if you're brave or just stupid."

"Why not both?" Bull answered with a grin. "People like you are always calling us risk takers stupid. It's how you convince yourselves to play it safe. Call me stupid all you want but if I didn't take a chance and take that ticket you wouldn't have had the time of your life. Sometimes it's a good thing to be stupid. At the very least it makes for a good story. No one that ever played it safe came back with an interesting story, that's for sure."

"I guess so," Alora said, her face full of skepticism. "But the cemetery is full of risk takers with awesome stories they'll never be able to tell. I'd rather be boring and alive than dead and interesting."

"Well, it's a good thing you have me then," Bull countered. "To trick you into having fun."

Alora shook her head. "You're going to be the death of me, aren't you?"

"Never. That's the good thing about us. I get us into trouble with my brave stupidity. And you get us out with your cowardly intelligence. It just works."

"Yeah, right," Alora laughed then rolled her eyes. "So, who are we going to give the tickets to?"

The start of homeroom was quickly approaching and kids were starting to fill up the room. Bull watched as all his diverse classmates entered one by one and tried to analyze who he thought would be worthy to experience the mysticism of Dream World. Looking around the class Bull realized he didn't really know his classmates all that well. At least not in his homeroom.