In Your Dreams (In Your Dreams #1)

Chapter 15

I do eventually leave Kieran's house with my birthday presents-a copy of The Portable Dorothy Parker from Kayla and a silver charm bracelet from Kieran. Back home after Kayla drops me off, I fall asleep with the bracelet still on my left wrist, my thumb rubbing across the flower-shaped beads with my birthstone in the center spaced evenly amongst the plain round beads, the pattern only broken up by one bead with a "Z" etched on its surface and by a silver dangle with a tiny basketball at the end. Sometime in the night, I start dreaming of the sunbursts Kieran always draws, only my sunbursts are a brilliant orange outlined in black instead of the pure black they are when doodled with Kieran's pens. When I wake up, I type out the details in the same file on my laptop as the other dream I recorded yesterday morning, a little disappointed I didn't dream about Kieran and me kissing in the art studio. But I guess we don't control our dreams.

My dreams Friday night don't mean much, but Saturday night, after coming home from my rescheduled movie outing with Kieran, Kayla, and Brad Wallace, I fall asleep once again twirling the beads on my wrist, but this time, I dream about Prom. During study breaks on Sunday, I read and re-read the dream description on my computer, looking for clues, trying to force my brain to remember something else with more meaning than the words already on the screen:

My head on Kieran's shoulder as we dance. Some slow song I don't recognize. White Christmas lights hang from the gym ceiling like a canopy and lit-up clouds line the gym walls. Other couples dance in front of us. The room is a swirl of colors-all the girls' dresses. Everything goes black.

Everything goes black-I remember waking up and feeling vaguely creeped out, but beyond the fact that my description suggests I suddenly stopped seeing the lights and the colors as if someone dropped a curtain in front of my eyes, I have no idea why the dream scares me so much.

And if there's one thing I don't want to be freaking out about with a little over a month to go, it's Prom. I walk into school Monday morning and am instantly greeted by a large banner hanging over the gym doors, giant sparkly blue bubble letters telling me Prom tickets will start going on sale Friday. If I'm remembering correctly from previous years how this works, we'll have three weeks of signs around school reminding us to buy our tickets, accompanied by more signs encouraging us to sign up for the parent-chaperoned After-Party at the Stanley Farm, followed by a week during which only the Prom committee is allowed in the gym for decorating purposes. From now until the first Saturday in May, Titusville Senior High will be all-Prom, all the time, the mania only broken up by boring classes. As a freshman and sophomore, I considered the month of April to be the seventh level of hell because I was so not interested in the whole thing, but there it was in your face every day. Now, as a junior with a real live date and a disturbing dream about the event hidden at home on my computer, I don't know what to think.

"In Your Dreams," Cassie spits from behind me, reading the Prom theme off the banner. "Sooo lame. How do you even decorate that?"

I'd forgotten Cassie was on the Prom Committee, something she also tried to drag me into until I mentioned I'd rather file my fingernails off with a cheese grater than sit around after school discussing themes and color schemes. Judging by her attitude, In Your Dreams wasn't anywhere near the top of her list of ideas for the evening.

"How to decorate dreams," I muse aloud, as we start walking up the stairs to our lockers. "I'm picturing lots of those kind of white Christmas lights all over the place-on the ceiling, the walls..."

"Sure you don't want to join the Prom Committee?" Cass elbows me. "There's still time."

"No, thanks."

I retreat into my head for a minute and think about my dream as the hallway noise of conversation and slamming locker doors vibrates around me. What did I just do here? Did I change the future? Or did I report a future that's going to happen anyway? Is the Prom Committee going to choose white Christmas lights now because I made a suggestion to Cassie, and she'll take the idea to them? Would they choose white Christmas lights anyway, even if I hadn't said anything?