Dreams...part 2

Monday morning and the alarm was blaring, my most recent dream fresh on my mind. A young child, only 3 or 4, climbed up a book shelf, and it tipped. I was glad I usually woke up before I saw too many details of the tragedy, especially when it came to kids. I showered and got dressed for the day. The clean smell of the laundry seemed to comfort me, helping me feel a little better about my previous dream.
When I went down for breakfast mom was feeding my brother Jake breakfast. “Morning, Cici. Want some pancakes?” Mom was always an overachiever, making big breakfasts, and making certain that we had every opportunity available to us. Her face and hair already done, she looked more like my sister than my mother.
“I’m not hungry” I looked up at mom, concern crossing her face. “I’ll eat a good lunch, promise!” I grabbed my bag and headed out the door.
I had only lived in Arizona a couple months, and it still didn’t feel like home. The other students were nice enough, but I hadn’t made any real friends. They all seemed to keep to them selves and travel around in their own private communities. Year round summer was still an adjustment after Utah’s obvious changes in seasons. I had been angry with my parents at first over the move, but I was also old enough to realize it was a great opportunity for my father. My mom no longer worked, which was why she seemed too overdue it lately, and with the move I was able to increase my summer wardrobe out of necessity.
After the first day I walked to school, I was one of the few seniors who didn’t have a car, and walking was better than a mom who dropped you off. As I approached my gym class, the worst class to have first, I noticed one of the girls in my English class pointing in my direction. Trying not to take notice I simply walked faster. I learned it was easier to come already in my gym clothes and change after, one less change in the day I figured. I had always been fairly athletic, not the team captain of anything, but I did earn our team a few soccer trophies. I went into the gymnasium and ran a few laps before the first bell rang, when I joined the rest of my class coming out of the locker room. After enduring the lecture on weight lifting safety we paired up with a partner for spotting. I had helped my dad lift weights back home, but never did it my self, I preferred running, but I would go to the gym with dad, and help spot him after I ran my laps.
“Got a partner yet?” I jerked my head around to see who had asked me, slightly surprised to see the girl who had earlier been pointing and laughing at me.
“Nope, need one?” I walked toward the nearest vacant bench and began adding small weights on either end. “I’m Cici” I know I had heard her name in class before, but it never mattered until now, I hoped she would tell me her name.
“Lauren, Want to go first?” She stepped behind the bars I had just weighted, “So how long have you been in AZ?”
“A couple months” I sat on the seat, hoping I didn’t add too much weight for myself, I never did have great upper body strength. As I pushed up the bars I grunted, avoiding eye contact with Lauren. I would have felt better had I known why she had pointed at me.
As if reading my thoughts she spoke in between reps. “I am sorry if I made you uncomfortable this morning, Abby just laughed at you wearing Gym clothes to school, but now I see why.”
I tried to appear unaffected by this comment but it still bothered me, but not as much as the fact that I seemed to know her, from somewhere else. The rest of class we just talked about different classes, and she realized we had English next period together as well.
Lauren and I walked to class together; I changed out of my gym clothes quickly so I could blend. Lauren had been the closest thing to a friend I had.
English was boring as ever, I had read the assigned reading the year before back in Utah, but I didn’t bother telling the teacher, I just figured it would be less homework. I looked around the room, to see where Lauren was sitting; she was to the right and behind me.
“What to you think Austen means by this, Celine?”
I jumped snapping my head to the teacher. “Perhaps she is simply expressing the dire circumstances of single women in her time.”
“Very good”. I tried to suppress a grin; with Austen she was generally making some statement about the state of affairs for women in that time. “This week I want you to work in partners and expand on this”. With the plan of partners I sunk into my chair. I never did like partner work, especially when you don’t know anyone.
Lauren tapped my shoulder and her hand shot into the air. “Can I work with Cici?”
“You may choose on your own, or if you find you haven’t got a partner I will place you in a group.”
“Come home with me tonight and we can get it done.” It seemed more of an order than a request, but a friend was something I felt I was lacking, and didn’t want to turn down.
After school, Lauren found me. I had spent the last couple periods looking to see if she was in my other classes too, she just seemed too familiar.
As we walked home she filled me in on all the different people to know and avoid at the school. There were boys who had been wearing school tees; they were the basketball team, trying to promote team spirit for the first game. Then the cheerleaders were the ones in red, they always seemed to match for one cause or another. I had never been much of the cheering type, but I took mental notes in case I ever needed to know school pride information.
“So when are the soccer try-outs?” she stopped walking when I asked that. “You play soccer too? Oh we are going to have a great team this year, our freshman are better than ever so we have a good team to fall back on if needed. We lost last year simply because our goalkeeper last year got injured early on.”
We got to her house, a house I knew I had been in before. I knew where to hang my bag and take off my shoes; I even knew that her mom had just made cookies, chocolate oatmeal. Puzzled I asked to use the phone to let my mom know where I was. That is when it hit me how I knew where we were. As I walked to the phone I saw her, the little girl I dreamed about last night. “Who is that?” I asked without thinking and followed her into the den. I had never made myself so at home in a new friends house, but I knew what was going to happen, I was drawn to watching this child. As I followed her into the den she was already by that familiar bookcase, climbing towards the top shelf with movies. Before I knew it I was running towards the bookcase reaching for her. As I approached the case slowly seemed to pull away from the wall. I grabbed under her arms just as the movies clattered onto the hard floor seconds before the loud thud of the case.
Lauren and her mother rushed in seconds after I had pulled the girl from the tipping bookcase, screaming she reached for her mother.
“Oh, my , What happened? How did you get her?” Lauren’s mother was crying now too. Lauren just stood there starring at me. She was the only one who saw my curious behavior as I entered her house for the first time, but knowing where everything was.
But it was then I looked around and realized what had really just happened. I had entered my dream, the one from the night before. There would be no news story no tragedy of a girl killed by a falling bookcase. It was there I had seen Lauren so intimately in her own home. I had seen her mother push her strand of hair out of her face the night before, only moments before racing to the aid of her injured 3 year old.
“I better get home, can we do this tomorrow, then I can warn my mother where I will be, I bet she is worried about me.”
Lauren just stood there. “Thank you, but how did you know to follow her? There wasn’t even a phone in there. I was taking you into the kitchen, and then you were gone. “Suddenly she seemed to come back to the present, but she looked at me a little differently, like she wasn’t sure if she could trust me. “Sure tomorrow then. See you tomorrow.”