Calum was now fourteen years old.
He had been going to high school for a solid two years. All thoughts of the girl with sunshine hair had been pushed out of his mind, replaced with homework, friends and school.
It was Christmas Eve, Calum had been forced to go to bed early after eating nearly twice his weight in food. It was a Christmas Tradition in the Hood home to go to bed extremely early, leaving his parents plenty of time to wrap all their presents and place them under the tree. Calum had discovered this around the same time he found out Santa wasn't real.
He could faintly hear Mali talking into her phone across the hall, making him screw his eyes shut in annoyance.
Despite Mali's voice crowding his head, the prospect of Christmas the next day and the large amount of food in his stomach, Calum went to sleep relatively fast.
They were sitting across from each other, a puddle sat between them.
The girl looked exactly the same as last time, wearing the same clothes and her sunshine hair pinned off her face.
She cocked her head to the side, looking confused.
'You look different,' she commented.
'You look the same,' Calum replied.
Her face split into a smile, filling Calum with relief. Her confused and almost concerned expression looked out of place on her face, enough to make Calum uncomfortable.
'Well it has been a while, hasn't it Calum?'
'How do you know my name?' Calum asked, surprise by how unafraid he felt.
She smiled sadly at Calum and shook her head.
'Probably because this isn't real?'
Calum sat up with a gasp, his hand flying to his chest. He was dimly aware that he was panting, his eyes were blown wide in shock.
He'd never had a more realistic dream before, it was enough to render him breathless at its clarity.
'Wake up Calum ITS CHRISTMAS!' Mali's voice carried into his room before his door was thrown open, his older sister pranced into the room but stopped when she saw he was awake.
'C'mon Calum, we've got presents to open!'
Calum sighed at his sisters enthusiasm and begrudgingly pushed his blankets off of himself and slowly got out of bed.
He shook his head, trying to rid himself of the images of the girl. But he couldn't seem to get her sad smile out his head