The foamy waves of the Pacific Ocean rolled in and touched Courtney’s toes. She moved her legs, pulling them closer to her chest.
She glanced over at the sleeping Isaac. He had tear stains down his smooth cheeks, and she was sure she did too.
She lifted up her right arm to look at the watch on it. It was 7:26. She looked out over the ocean, at the rising sun, the start of a new day, everything that should fill her with happiness. But it didn’t. It just made her feel even more sad and even more lonely than before.
She slowly sighed as she looked back at Isaac. “Oh Isaac, if only you know who I really was...” She muttered as she tenderly touched his cheek. She yawned. She was getting tired. She slowly laid back on the cool sand, closed her eyes and fell into a restless, seemingly dreamless sleep.
Erica had a hard time, trying desperately not to laugh to loud. She glanced over at Courtney, who was still sleeping, but tossing and turning violently every once in awhile. She averted her gaze to Helen, who was making all of them laugh their heads off.
“So anyway, it was like, she didn’t know what to say, because he just came up to her, and you know he was joking, but he was like, ‘Will you go out with me?’ and HE was trying not to laugh, and she was just like so...” She broke off, laughing so hard that tears were in her eyes.
“Okay, so wait, lemme get this straight.....” Erica cut in. “Kyle Routson went up to Emily O’Keefe and asked her out?!”
“That’s hilarious!” Amanda said, laughing as hard as Helen.
“You guys, we are so mean!” Lori said, allthewhile laughing her head off.
“I know we are!” Helen said.
Jessica recovered from a giggle fit for a split second. She asked, “So why did Kyle do it anyway?”
“Oh, because it was a dare, and because she’s the dorkiest girl in the ENTIRE school, so.....”
“So it’d be a good joke.” Lori simply finished for Charish.
“Yeah, but, it was just so FUNNY! You shoulda been there! Oh my god! Emily was like, ‘YES!’, but Kyle was like, ‘get away, bitch’” Helen said, only seconds before another laughing fit started.
Erica looked around the room. “Hey, you guys? Where’s Dasha?”
“Oh, she’s in the bathroom.” Colleen told her.
“Oh okay. I knew that!.”
“Sure ya did.” Jess said sarcastically.
“I did!” Erica protested.
“Wait, wait, wait, here’s Emily; ‘Oh Kyle! I always knew you liked me! You know, ever since you looked at me and laughed, I knew we were meant to be! Oh!’” Nicki said, after striking a dramatic ‘hand-on-forehead-I’m-gonna-faint’ pose. Bethany threw a pillow at her. “Ow! Hey! Oh, you’re gonna get it now!” Nicki picked up the pillow and chucked it back at Bethany. Bethany let loose a shrill, high pitched squeal.
Taylor was still in the dream, in the girl’s body, blacked out. Slowly, the layers of sleep drifted away, letting the sounds of reality echo into his subconscious. He heard laughter, from all directions, as if it were all around him. The pictures started to match the sounds in his semi-reality.
They were skydiving, him and about 10 other girls. The moment they dropped from the plane, they started laughing, and hadn’t stopped since. Taylor couldn’t understand why they were laughing, because none of them had parachutes on. He tried desperately, over and over to warn them, but they couldn’t, or wouldn’t hear him. He began to cry as they neared the ground. ‘All because they can’t hear me..... they’re all gonna......die, but I’ll hit the ground with them.... I’ll die too..’ He thought, still trying desperately to make them hear him. He had had his eyes shut because of all the wind, as it would dry out his contacts. But as he opened them now, he realized he wasn’t wearing contacts. Then he saw the ground, rushing towards him at a phenomenal speed. He closed his eyes, the tears being pushed off his cheeks and into the air above him. He waited, and as he did he screamed.
He sat up straight in bed, tears running down his cheeks, his breathing and pulse increasing by the second.
“Courtney?” A worried voice called.
He looked in the direction from whence the voice came. He saw a familiar face, yet it was a person he’d never seen before. He blinked, trying to clear his mind.
“Court, are you okay?” A petite girl with short brown hair divided into pigtails and dark lipstick on came over and sat next to him on the floor.
“I.... I.... I, uh- I...” He tried to say something, but he couldn’t make any words come out.
“What happened?” Another girl asked. She stood behind the girl that was seated to his left.
Taylor looked around the room. According to a quick count, there were 10 girls there. And they were all calling him Courtney.
The familiar face turned to the pigtails-girl. “Erica, she doesn’t look so good.”
Pigtail-girl, or Erica, he assumed, looked at him closely, peering deep into his eyes. “Hmmm...... you‘re right Lori. She looks kinda pale.”
‘I feel kinda pale...’ Taylor thought. ‘Why are they saying she?’
The familiar face, Lori, put her hand on Taylor’s forehead. “Well, she doesn’t have a temperature. Maybe she had a bad dream or something. I dunno.”
Another girl came closer. “Why isn’t she talking?” She said, looking at Taylor, then turning to look at another girl, a dark-haired girl.
“I don’t know, Jessica. Maybe she just doesn’t want to.” The girl looked at the one who had questioned her, Jessica.
“Amanda, I don’t know either! I’m not a doctor.”
“Well neither am I, Jessica.” Amanda said, putting extra sarcasm and emphasis on ‘Jessica’.
“Hey, don’t start with me!” Jessica warned.
Taylor watched the fight erupt right in front of him through squinted eyes. He still wasn’t totally awake yet. He was debating with himself on whether or not this was another wacky dream-in-dream dream, of which he’d been having a lot lately.
He tuned out the yelling in front of him, and focused in on his own thoughts. ‘This HAS to be another dream! There’s just no way this is real.’ He rubbed his eyes, expecting to feel his contacts. He didn’t. His eyes flew open. ‘Wait a minute! In both of those dreams, I didn’t have contacts, and I was a girl. Man, I think I’m letting the anti-Hanson media get to me! Geez, Taylor, get a grip!’ He sighed, forgetting all about the contact thing. ‘Okay, so I’ll wake up soon, and I’ll be back in California. This dream thing is wacky!’ He closed his eyes, and fell back into a deep sleep, unknowingly going back to the place where he’d find the truth.
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