That night Therese had a terrible dream. She dreamed she was back at her psychiatrist’s office, and she was sedated. The doctor was talking to her, counting backward from one-hundred, Therese was fighting it, they had not realized she had started drinking enough coffee to keep several people awake. She could see, but her eyelids were almost completely shut, so the image was dark. The doctor poked her with a pen, she did not move. “She is in dreamland,” the doctor said. The chair she was sitting it flipped back, and she was wheeled into a brightly lit room.

Wires were connected to her head, she felt people placing leads in her hair. Therese wanted to smile, but she fought it, she knew the weird dirt she found in her hair wasn’t from the garden. Therese fought the urge to jump when she heard a metal against metal clang, the sedation medications helped.

“Dr. Macarthur will be here to check the implant in a minute.” said a voice.

“Damn it, she should have never been qualified for Orion.” said an old man.

“Shut up doctor, your usefulness to the Greys is not unlimited.” Came a reply from a shadowed man in the corner. “How’s her progress in dealing with the effects of the implant?” the shadowy man asked.

“She seems convinced reality is her going to high school and working at a cafe or something.” Her psychiatrist said. “The boy, her friends are all named after rabbits. She is worsening, she is catatonic more and more often. I don’t think she knows which is reality anymore.”

“Did Cooper reach her before we stopped him in Eagar?” shadow man asked.

“No sir, we don’t think he ever made contact.” someone in a mask said.

“This thing was supposed to enhance her, not cause psychosis,” The old doctor said, reading the display on the monitor. “It hasn’t done this on the other subjects in her study, my only guess is it enhanced the illness that was already there.” He then added. “I think a decade of this is enough, we need to remove it.”

“We aren’t paying you to have opinions. We need to study her, just like everyone else if we are to perfect it.” the shadowy man said. “Sedate her and have her parents take her home.” There was more talking, but the effects of the medication took over, and Therese fully fell asleep.

Therese awoke in her room shaking, she climbed out of bed and pinched herself to see if she was asleep. She walked into her bathroom and washed her face. She checked her hair for debris and found none. Therese looked at the clock, it was 3:30 AM. She walked back to her room, stopping and looking at her stuffed animals, she took the rabbit wearing the coat off the shelf. “You are Peter Rabbit. You are not the Peter I love, my Peter is real.” Therese told the Rabbit. The rabbit stared back. “He is real, Peter is real, this is reality. I am not dreaming this, Peter is a real boy.” Therese said, throwing the rabbit across the room, crying, and sitting hard against the floor, she crawled back and up against her wall and sobbed.

Therese’s father heard her up, and had walked to her room. He knocked softly on the door. “Hey, are you Okay? Can I come in?” Rodger asked.

“You can come in.” Therese told him. Her tone was flat, but her body was shaking.

Rodger entered the room and saw his daughter crying on the floor. He sat down next to her. “Bad dream?” he asked softly.

“I dreamed Peter wasn’t real.” said Therese.

“Your boyfriend, or the rabbit?” asked Rodger, seeing Peter Rabbit laying on the floor.

“My boyfriend. I know the rabbit is fake.” said Therese. She struggled to explain, still tired from the medication she took before bed.

“He is real, I wouldn’t be afraid to lose my little girl to him if he wasn’t.” said Rodger.

“Dad, you won’t lose me. You just have to practice your sharing.” Therese said, snuggling up against her father like she was a little girl again. She just had to wedge him and shove him a little to get just right, it wasn’t as easy as when she was little.

“Well, it’s almost four in the morning, and you have school. Should we be responsible and try to catch a little bit of sleep, or should we stay up, watch some Space-Girl Michelle and drink some coffee?” Rodger asked.

“I do have school.” said Therese.

“How about we quit being responsible for a day, and you fire us up some coffee while I turn the TV on?” asked Rodger.

“I think that is a great idea.” said Therese. Getting up, and then helping her dad get up, and walking out to the kitchen. Therese started the coffee pot she had bought, and Rodger poured two bowls of cereal, one of chocolate puffs and one of flakes. In a few minutes, they were both sitting her on the couch, eating cereal and drinking coffee.

“Which episode did you put in?” asked Therese.

“The one where she fights the Recyclecons.” said Rodger.

“Good choice.” Therese said, she hated the Recyclecons, they were trying to destroy the universe by using up all the energy to unnecessarily reuse disposable materials. Therese was proud to support the lumberjack industry and always threw her paper cups in the garbage.

The episode ended just before Therese’s alarm went off in her room. “Time to wake up, and get ready for school.” Therese told her father.

“Have a good day, I guess I should wake up and go to work.” Rodger said as he stood up and took their bowls to the sink. He smiled, this was a great morning, even if it was an early morning.

The lack of sleep caught up to Therese as she readied herself for school. She was tired, but she got ready. Therese made three coffee’s, one for her, one for Peter and the last for Mr. Shank. She started walking out of the house, before she ran back in, remembering to take her medicine. She sighed relief that she remembered to do that. She very carefully left the house with her backpack on, and holding three drinks to go out front and wait for Peter to pick her up for school. She was glad she did not have to carry three cups of coffee and walk to school too. “Early morning.” Therese said to the rabbit that nibbled the grass next to where she was standing.

Peter pulled up in his car, and turned around so her door would be closest to Therese. She smiled, set the coffees on the top, then handed them to Peter. before she climbed in the car. For once, Therese seemed more exhausted than Peter. “Hey, you ok?” Peter asked her.

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“Just woke up early, and couldn’t go to sleep. Hey, do you think we could drive a different street to school today?” asked Therese.

“Sure, but why?” Peter asked.

“I just need to make sure there is more than just my street in this neighborhood right now.” Therese attempted to explain.

“Yeah, no problem.” Peter said, he didn’t really think out the request, but to him a longer drive was good enough, because it meant more time with just the two of them. Peter drove the long way out of Therese’s neighborhood, around several blocks and to the school. Therese sat tense in her sat, and Peter could tell she was tired.

“Thank you.” Therese told Peter as they reached the school. She was too embarrassed to explain, and he liked her enough to not ask. Peter took his cup of coffee and went around the car to open Therese’s door for her.

“You’re really nice to her, that is kind of you.” Kara said, stepping out of her car, she was parked on the driver's side of Peter’s car. Despite her history of rudeness to Therese, Peter could tell she was speaking sincerely.

“Kindness has nothing to do with it, I love her.” said Peter, as he opened Therese’s door. Kara took off quickly walking away, keeping her car between them. Therese had not seen the exchange, she was focused on not spilling the drinks.

“I am freaking tired.” Therese told Peter. Therese struggled to get up and keep her balance, she put her backpack on, and finally grabbed the coffee cups and started walking. Peter shut her car door, and then caught up with her.

“You know what will be funny?” Peter asked Therese.

“What?” She asked in a tired voice.

“If you are the one who gets in trouble for sleeping today.” said Peter, taking a sip of his coffee. They walked through the halls, most of the boys turned and watched Therese. Peter laughed, he was glad he had seen her first and had found her hiding in plain sight.

Peter opened the door and held it for Therese. She thanked him and went and took a cup of coffee to Mr. Shank. Kara came in after her, and Peter stopped himself and again held the door, but this time for Kara, who politely said “thank you.”

“Me holding the door for you, that was kindness.” said Peter as he went and sat down in front of Therese. Kara went and sat down across the room next to Megan, who was rambling something about some teen focused article on beauty. Kara looked at the empty chair next to Therese, no one ever sat there, then wondered if she was sitting there, what Therese would talk to her about. Hopefully, it would be something better than teen beauty magazines.

Therese caught herself dozing off several times. The medicines and the lack of sleep were giving her a double whammy today. She drank her coffee, waiting for the caffeine to fight back. Therese fought the battle to stay awake valiantly, but it was taxing her. She prayed she was not called on to answer questions, and as the bell rang, she thanked God for answering that simple request.

Therese walked with Peter as far as she could until they separated ways and she went to her second-hour class, English composition. “Out of the boring and into the stasis field.” Therese said to herself as she entered the room. Therese face palmed in embarrassment as she realized the teacher standing by the door heard her. “I’m sorry.” she said to the teacher.

“Don’t be, honesty is to be valued. Remember that when you write.” The teacher told her.

“See you later.” said Elijah to Kara, whom he normally sat next to in that class. She looked in surprise, curious what someone so randomly impulsive as Elijah might be doing. She wondered if he was going to dance on the teacher’s desk, but instead, he walked over to Therese and sat next to her.

“Let me guess, fourth-most awesome thing you ever heard?” Therese asked him.

“Oh no, I figured you just needed a friend after that.” He said, pulling out his notebook and hurrying to do the homework, he should have already done.

“How come you never do your homework?” Therese asked Elijah.

“I do, just kind of at the last minute?” He explained. Therese wouldn’t argue that. She was glad to have him sit next to her, and to declare himself a friend. Kara wished she had done that, but she hadn’t. Kara looked at Elijah, he seemed oblivious to his own courage as he scrambled to write another paragraph.

The bell rang. “Let’s pass your assignments forward.” The teacher stated, and all the students passed them forward, except Elijah, who kept writing. The teacher went and stood over him, and he kept scrambling with his pen. “I hope this is on the joys of doing things at the last minute.” said the teacher.

“Well, since you’ve already read it, you could just give me the A now.” Elijah said as he handed her the paper. The class giggled.

“Nice try, Elijah.” said the teacher, walking away with the papers. “John Keats, how would anyone describe him? (no hands were raised, Anyone want to describe is work? (no volunteers).” The teacher looked around the room, she looked at Elijah, thought he might answer the question, then looked over at Kara. “Kara, how would you describe Keats.”

“Dead, boring.” said Kara. The other girls next to Kara giggled.

“Alrighty then, anyone else?” The teacher asked, and Therese raised her hand. “Therese please, describe something about Keats or his work.”

“I like La Belle Dame Sans Merci. The knight is a brave man, he must have been to be called a knight and a man-at-arms, he met a beautiful girl, they made love, and he spends the rest of his life waiting for her again, because even if she isn’t real, the chance she is means more to him than anything else.” said Therese.

“And if she isn’t real?” asked Ms. Offley.

“That moment they were together was. You can’t weigh how people make you feel. You can’t pour happiness in a cup, except for maybe coffee, or pour sadness either. That moment they were together, that’s what he lived for. And everyone else that waited until they faded, they thought it was real too.” said Therese.

“Do you think she was real?” The teacher asked.

“Maybe the problem is she didn’t know herself. Maybe the knight wasn’t real, but the girl was, and when she forgot him, he only existed as a fading memory, but here we are all these years later, all we know is their love was real because we remember their romance, and the only thing left other than that is an empty lake where no birds sing.” said Therese.

All the kids and class sat silently staring at Therese, maybe or two people in the room had ever heard her explain anything in such length. The boys looked at her with curious lust, the girls as if she had explained something about themselves they didn’t understand.

“OK. That was the most awesome thing I have ever heard.” Elijah said, turning and giving a high five to Therese, and grinning at her.

“Respect the timeline.” Therese whispered at him.

After English Composition, Therese walked to art class. She loved art class, it was her true refuge from the world. She didn’t feel she was that great of an artist, but she was happy she was as good as she could be. The teacher, Rem Monty, was a great accomplished artist, who had a passion for creating, but respected Therese’s efforts to develop her own style. Progress, he told her was Therese feeling she was painting better, not Therese painting like Michelangelo or Da Vinci. Therese felt art comes from within, and she had a lot to express.

The other reason she liked independent study art, was it was impossible not to fit in because the students were as varied as life could let them be. Therese went and pulled out her pallet and squirted her paints out on it. She used a wet paper towel in a plastic cake container. It was cheap and it worked. Therese loved the sounds of the paints squirting.

Mr. Monty sat upfront, it was independent study, he was free to work on his project, but was still ultimately in charge of the class. Therese liked the teacher, he had always treated her as anyone else, and enjoyed viewing her work as much as any of the other students. She finished gathering the paints she needed, filled a cup of water to clean her brushes and sat back down at her art desk.

Therese quickly became lost in her work, as she painted her rabbits in her garden. She painted the sun rising in the morning, with the dark shadows that came in the early morning. She had painted rabbits many times before, and she hoped she would paint rabbits many times again. Nothing happened in art class, she simply felt her zen. Therese breathed slowly, relaxed and painted. The rest of the world did not exist, except the world in her painting.

Then all too soon, the bell rang, and it was time to move on to the next class. Therese hurried to put her paints away, clean her brushes, and put her painting away for the next day. She looked at the painting and smiled, this one she would give to Peter. Therese gathered her bag, and left as quickly as she could to the next class.