Year One
Dreams are a glimpse to another world
When we dream our dormant mind opens up to the possibilities not found awake
Nightmares even are valuable for they can foreshadow things to come
A human that cannot dream is dead to the world and to themselves
Most may scoff at this even make fun of this truth well hidden
This is fear that makes them shut off any possibilities of truth
Humans have become numb to dreams; magic; unknown
Hidden behind science and even religion
We ignore our ancestor's truths
I wonder is it because they lived with fear of survival everyday
That fear itself doesn't stop them like it does us
Humans forget Dreams they are snatched away as soon as we wake up
Or worse they are ignored and fall to oblivion
Our sense of wonder is gone only numbness exists
For all who dare to read this I pray that your dreams are not forgotten
That they will soar with you during your days
The wonder of Life is a precious gift that could be snatched away like a candle's light/ Michael Druin's manuscript page 4 year 1AA
Chapter One
What if…What if you dreamed a dream…you dreamed a dream that was better than reality? The day my life changed forever I dreamed. I can remember this dream vividly even now years later. I was in school and was surrounded by friends I have known since kindergarten. We were wearing uniforms. The guys were wearing black slacks with a black button up vest with the letter N on the left breast. The girls were wearing black skirts with panty hoses their shirts button up with also a black vest. The vest buttoned to their chests and the white shirt underneath showing. They were all gathered around me. Faces I knew yet could not really recognizable almost like I had lost their names somewhere in the back of my mind. In this dream I felt love and happiness from these friends of mine…Yes definitely friends. They all were trying to talk to me asking me to hang out with them after school, to study with them to go over to their houses and hang out. Even the teacher didn’t seem to mind us talking even though we were in school. I suddenly heard a voice, a female voice it sounded very familiar to me. But it was trying to make me leave. I fought this voice I didn’t want to leave this dream…dream? A dream, the voice grew louder. As my dream slowly faded and blackness was all I saw and I heard the voice of my best friend. I groan as I open my heavy eye lids and saw blues eyes staring at me. I startled and drew back with a start at how close those eyes were to my face. “What you doing in here Alyssa!” as I started rubbing the sleep out of my eyes looking up at her smiling face. Here blonde hair long and curly in the back with bangs that cover her forehead. All the guys from middle school started to really notice her in the last year. I couldn’t understand why.
Danny my other best friend from kindergarten always put his arms around us as we walked through the halls in school saying things like “Hey Michael how is it that you get the hottest girl in the school?” He smiles at me then turns his head towards Alyssa and smiles at her. “It’s not even close to like that!!” I complained to him flushing at even the thought as something like that. I looked over at Alyssa and she was blushing but smiling. “Oh no don’t smile at him you know that if you do he will believe he is right! Then he will never shut up!”
Alyssa had put make up on. I noticed as I was looking up at her…wait...up at her. I start looking down past her button nose and smiling white teeth and red lips very uncomfortably close to me. I noticed she was wearing the schools uniform of course she had the first couple of buttons undone, totally against regulations. Wait I could see down her shirt and her…bra!!! It was black and had laces I never really seen it before as my face grew red. Then I realized that she was straddling me her skirt laid around her legs which were squeezing my waist. I jumped back pushing her off me bumping my head on my head piece. “Owe owe owe! Wha...what are you doing!” She had fallen off the bed. “Alyssa! Are you ok? I quickly stood up on my bed and look over at where she had landed. She lay sprawled on the floor and I noticed her white panties. My face was as red as it was humanly possible. I was like a deer in head lights. I started to stutter. My tongue wouldn’t work correctly she groaned and opened her eyes. I watched as her eyes started to get bigger and bigger as she first looked at me then at herself. I looked down at myself and realized I only had my boxers on. At that moment I just wanted to die. I grabbed my blanket as Alyssa cried out and got up on her feet and slapped me in the face turned around and stomped out of my room muttering, the sting on my face ringing and I wished for a quick death. I was hoping for a new beginning for the start of high school I was 14 and my birthday was in September. I was a Virgo, with dark brown hair and large hazel eyes my skin was clear which I thanked God for every now and again. But that’s where my “good” looks end at least in my opinion; you see I was chubby, not fat but not in shape or skinny. I was just chubby.
Right now you’re wondering why read anymore. He is chubby and not great looking. Not a hero or anything that could win the hearts of girls around the world right. Chubby don’t sell as they say. But you see I don’t expect much to be honest. Maybe one day this story will be found and read and maybe just maybe it could help someone…maybe. This story though isn’t about just me…
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Alyssa pauses outside the door of Michael’s room catching her breath, her chest rising and falling heavily and her heart beating wildly. She puts her hands over her heart and starts to slump down the door, her legs together tucked under her. I’m such an idiot what was I thinking. He probably hates me now. I can’t believe that I actually slapped him! Maybe I should go and apologize. I reach up at the handle of the door and hesitate. No maybe it’s best if I go downstairs and wait for him there. Yes that is what I will do. I can’t believe he saw my underwear! How embarrassing and I wore plain white ones too they weren’t even cute!! Maybe he didn’t notice it’s bad enough that he doesn’t really notice me. What, what if he didn’t care that he did see them I mean maybe I'm really not cute enough for him or something. Wait what am I saying, who cares it’s not like I like him or anything I mean its Michael for crying out loud! I run my hand through my hair as I start walking down the steps.
Forget about this it’s the first day of high school!! I wonder who will be in my class! I wonder if I will make any new friends. I hope so; I spent an hour and a half this morning getting ready. I gotta look my best, gotta leave a good first impression right! I sit down in the chair in the kitchen imaging my first day of school.
Dan woke up totally alert. Today is the first day of the rest of my life! He stretches his long muscular body; straining with the stretch. He gets up and smiles. Time to get ready for school oh yeah! I walk to my bathroom which is right next to my room. My image comes into view after I turn on the lights and my sandy blond hair and deep blue eyes stare back at me. I know I am good looking but I always told myself that I wouldn’t flaunt it around and be conceited. But I can’t help but be really confident almost all the girls in middle school have asked me out in one form or another. Most guys suck up to me and want to be friend’s cause of my looks and the fact that I’m a star in track and football. I had already talked to the coach at the high school who already told me that I have a huge chance to start varsity as a freshman in conference A school in the state of New York. I make a pose in the mirror flexing my muscles. Not bad for a fifteen year old. I smile at myself and jump in the shower. After the shower I walk down stairs humming a tune. No one is home like usual. My mother probably spent the night with some guy again. In three months I must go to my always drunk father who lives only a couple blocks down the street. The town drunk; I frown and feeling of deep sadness tries to come over me, I suppress these feelings and force myself to smile again. Well I will go to Michael’s house and eat breakfast then. I put on my shoes and walk out the door shutting it as I exited. Michael’s house was only two houses down. We been friends for so long that him and Alyssa are like siblings I never had nor would ever have any better. Thinking about those two makes me smile even more. I reach Michael’s house and walk right in the door, because in Michael’s house Dan and Alyssa are family and welcome anytime. I see Alyssa in the kitchen waiting it looks like for Michael. “So even for the first day of high school he planned on being late huh and makes us wait for him.” Alyssa turns her head and smiles at me. That dazzling smile that makes guys weak in the knees that is all guys but Michael it seems. I don’t have feeling for her but even I can recognize beauty when I see it, a trace of sadness and a pang of loss of innocence. He remembers when beauty was just a flower or a rainbow…not his sister like best friend. She has grown too much so soon I will be fighting off the guys and watch her fall in love with someone. Whoever it would be better realize how lucky he is. I sit down next to her. I hear footsteps heavily coming down the stairs. I smile imaging Michael coming down the stairs still half asleep with rumpled uniform and hair. Sure enough that’s exactly what I see when Michael becomes visible. He smiles when he sees me and then he turns his head to look at Alyssa and turns red! What? I turn my head to her and see her turn red. My smile really turns big and I can’t wait to find out what happened to turn them both so red. “Ok spill it out why are you guys blushing at each other?” Michael looks at me “What do ya mean?” “Come now you guys are like red as lobsters for crying out loud! Alyssa tell me paplease!!”
Michael looks at Alyssa as she tells Dan what transpired in my room. The blood once again returns to my face as she sits in the chair grabbing her skirt in front of her and closes her fist and squeezes them together. I then walk to the fridge and notice the note on the fridge from my mother saying that she was proud of me and wished me and Alyssa and Dan luck on our first day and that breakfast was in the oven and just needed to be heated up. “Hey mom says luck on or first day of high school.” Alyssa and Dan looks at me and smiles. “Well that’s mom for ya even when she has to work early she still finds time to leave us a note of luck.” Dan says pointing towards the note. I roll my eyes a smile creeping onto my face. Something tells me that this year is going to be interesting.
Upstate New York near Syracuse our city was called Oswego. We were close enough to walk to school, which as I look back on it now was probably the most memorable thing about where we lived, that and we all lived in the same neighborhood. I was always on the right Alyssa in the middle and Dan to the left. That first day walking was full of laughs and excitement a day I will always remember. The private school we went to was really large and high tech. we had 3D imaging and took foreign language via web chat. The year was 2050 and people were more lazy then ever but thanks to science most were not like me and chubby. Breakthrough in medication to speed up everyone's metabolism had made fat people nearly nonexistent except for those unlucky few who don't react to the drug. The side effects usually include stomach aches, low fevers, occasional depression and rarely violent aggravation. The drug called Amfrex is taken only once a week. I took it for about six months when I was twelve. Nothing happen the doctors told me I was one of the unlucky ones, which was less than one percent of the population of earth. So I stopped taking it which made me point zero one percent of the world. Yeah me! I remember a few years ago there was an uprising in the United States and a lot of laws were tossed out. Life becomes easier for everyone. Crime was up but increased slower than ever before. We had a war with China that lasted till I was twelve and the after affects were still hurting. We technically won but not by much. The Middle East war was over six years ago after losing more men than ever in history. Now that war is called Death Bomb War. China was tough at least my parents tell me but we bombed a couple of military bases and they backed down. The government swears that we are now in good standings with China but my parents say it's a lie. Gas is down to one dollar due to them going bankrupt after oil rig after oil rig spilled into the oceans. Less than a third of the wildlife in the ocean weren't extinct. One on the brink of extinction was the Humpback whale the last one known to man is in a zoo. We are trying to clone it before it dies and the world loses one of its most magical creatures. Only the Atlantic Ocean is recommended to now swim in, with the gulf and pacific having waste washing up on shore years after the effect. Oh did I mention the school also had an indoor ice ring and an indoor and outdoor pool, a spiral library right dab in the middle. Other teenagers were showing up and loitering around in the school grounds. So many of them that I was shocked at first; then in awe as we soaked it all in.
We had an outside school assembly first thing. As the principal gave welcome speeches to the student body, we were separated by class. We were lucky all three of us got placed in the same class. That first day was a half day for us we didn’t really talk to anyone else, our excitement hardly contained; I didn’t know what to think of all of this. When lunch time came around we had decided to eat out at our favorite spot. The Italian restaurant named The Spiral, a classic restaurant environment. We were regulars; we even had our own bench. The Spiral was just opening for the day when we arrived. The manager smiles at us “ah first day at school today huh.” I smile back, “Yeah, first day of high school too!” “Good for you guys! Would you guys like your usual?” I look at both Alyssa and Danny; they both smirk knowingly at me. “Of course Mr. Lowell! We would love to have our usual!” “Good, now you young fellows go ahead and sit down enjoy yourselves.” We talked that afternoon all about our hopes and dreams of the coming year. Danny and I teasing Alyssa about the “hot” girls we gonna flirt with. After eating and hanging out for a couple hours we then went over to my house. No one was home yet so we sat down on the couch and watched TV.