bethanyr32
New Member
This is the first in a series of loosely related short stories that I'm working on. Sci-fi / fantasy in nature. Any constructive feedback is great - even if you hated it, as long as you can say why! I'm especially interested in how quickly people figure out what's going on. Thanks!
Awakening
The weeks leading up to 15-year-old Ashley’s revelation were filled with little oddities.
To start, there was the day her friend Sarah at school told her she was thinking about having a costume party. “You could come as a bunny, Ashley; you’d make such a cute bunny!” Now, a costume party might not seem so strange around Halloween, but it was springtime. Something about what Sarah said nagged at the back of her mind, but Ashley supposed it must simply be that she’d mentioned a bunny costume, which reminded Ashley that it was almost Easter time. She would have to help her mom prepare her little brother and sister’s Easter baskets.
*****
A few days later, her friend Kim asked her how it felt to have her braces off finally. “But Kim, my braces don’t come off for 6 more months. I wish they were off, though. I dream about it all the time!”
Kim looked puzzled. “Ashley, I could have sworn you told me that you were getting your braces off yesterday… That’s so weird!”
They both laughed and forgot about the incident.
*****
The next week, Coach Myers, who taught the P.E. classes, kept getting on Ashley’s case during gym. Ashley had never been an exceptional athlete, and Coach Myers had always accepted that before, but on that day…
“Ashley! You can do better than that, I know you can!”
“Try that layup again! You can make that shot!”
“Put a little effort into it, Sanders! You aren’t trying hard enough!”
Ashley had never been good at basketball before, although she often wished she was better at it. She didn’t see why Coach was suddenly so insistent that she do better.
*****
Then the little strange things that had been happening started to get embarrassing. For example, there was the day that she caught her long-time crush, Nick, checking out her butt while she was getting something from her locker. Normally, Ashley would have been ecstatic over this, except…
“Sarah, I swear Nick back there keeps looking at my butt!” Ashley whispered.
“That’s great!” Sarah replied enthusiastically.
“No, he keeps… sniggering behind his hand when he looks at me. Is there something wrong? Is there a stain on my pants? Toilet paper?” Ashley moaned, horrified.
Sarah, being a good best friend, discreetly studied her friend’s behind, but saw nothing wrong. She took Ashley’s arm and whispered, “There’s nothing wrong. Come on, let’s ignore that jerk.”
*****
Things settled down for a few days, until that week’s “pop” quiz in math, which occurred every Friday in Mrs. Wilson’s class. Sarah was going over geometry with Ashley before class, when she exclaimed, “I just remembered, I had this crazy dream last night! We were cheating on the quiz together, but Mrs.Wilson caught us. It was mortifying!”
“That’s weird, I had a dream like that too,” Ashley replied slowly. Then she shrugged. “I guess we were both worried about this week’s quiz. We learned some hard stuff this week. Let’s get back to studying.”
Later, during the quiz, Ashley noticed that Mrs. Wilson kept frowning, and she was paying particular attention to Ashley and Sarah. It’s almost like she’s watching us to see if we’re cheating, Ashley thought. But we’ve never cheated on an exam, why should she think we would now? Weird.
*****
Then, finally, she walked into the choir room one day for chamber choir practice, smiling. The other choir members were there, and most of them were humming a piece they were working on to perform soon. One of the guys broke out laughing, and said, “I have to tell you guys, I dreamed up the silliest lyrics to this song last night. They went like this…”
After he’d spoken a couple lines, the amusement on everyone’s faces faded. “But, I dreamed that up last night.” “No, I did.” “Wait, I did too!” Everyone had dreamed the same thing. Ashley remembered dreaming it herself – they had all been in a concert, and had sung the silly lyrics instead of the real words. Then, as the realization hit her, the color drained from her face.
“I, uh, don’t feel so good. I’ve gotta go,” she said hurriedly, as she almost ran out of the room, down the hall, and into the girl’s bathroom. She burst into an empty stall and latched the door, thoroughly embarrassed, and tried to keep down her breakfast as she thought about what had been happening.
She had dreamed about her friend Sarah throwing a costume party, and showing up as a bunny –
She had dreamed, once again, about getting her braces off and showing her teeth off to her friend Kim –
She had dreamed about being a star basketball player for Coach Myers –
Worst of all, she had dreamed that Nick had finally asked her out – but she peed her pants when he talked to her –
Then there was the dream about cheating on her math test.
And the dream about the silly lyrics.
Ashley groaned and covered her face. She might die of embarrassment. She had heard of this phenomenon happening before. It was uncommon, but definitely heard of.
Ashley was broadcasting her dreams to the other people involved in them.
She was an awakening telepath.
Awakening
The weeks leading up to 15-year-old Ashley’s revelation were filled with little oddities.
To start, there was the day her friend Sarah at school told her she was thinking about having a costume party. “You could come as a bunny, Ashley; you’d make such a cute bunny!” Now, a costume party might not seem so strange around Halloween, but it was springtime. Something about what Sarah said nagged at the back of her mind, but Ashley supposed it must simply be that she’d mentioned a bunny costume, which reminded Ashley that it was almost Easter time. She would have to help her mom prepare her little brother and sister’s Easter baskets.
*****
A few days later, her friend Kim asked her how it felt to have her braces off finally. “But Kim, my braces don’t come off for 6 more months. I wish they were off, though. I dream about it all the time!”
Kim looked puzzled. “Ashley, I could have sworn you told me that you were getting your braces off yesterday… That’s so weird!”
They both laughed and forgot about the incident.
*****
The next week, Coach Myers, who taught the P.E. classes, kept getting on Ashley’s case during gym. Ashley had never been an exceptional athlete, and Coach Myers had always accepted that before, but on that day…
“Ashley! You can do better than that, I know you can!”
“Try that layup again! You can make that shot!”
“Put a little effort into it, Sanders! You aren’t trying hard enough!”
Ashley had never been good at basketball before, although she often wished she was better at it. She didn’t see why Coach was suddenly so insistent that she do better.
*****
Then the little strange things that had been happening started to get embarrassing. For example, there was the day that she caught her long-time crush, Nick, checking out her butt while she was getting something from her locker. Normally, Ashley would have been ecstatic over this, except…
“Sarah, I swear Nick back there keeps looking at my butt!” Ashley whispered.
“That’s great!” Sarah replied enthusiastically.
“No, he keeps… sniggering behind his hand when he looks at me. Is there something wrong? Is there a stain on my pants? Toilet paper?” Ashley moaned, horrified.
Sarah, being a good best friend, discreetly studied her friend’s behind, but saw nothing wrong. She took Ashley’s arm and whispered, “There’s nothing wrong. Come on, let’s ignore that jerk.”
*****
Things settled down for a few days, until that week’s “pop” quiz in math, which occurred every Friday in Mrs. Wilson’s class. Sarah was going over geometry with Ashley before class, when she exclaimed, “I just remembered, I had this crazy dream last night! We were cheating on the quiz together, but Mrs.Wilson caught us. It was mortifying!”
“That’s weird, I had a dream like that too,” Ashley replied slowly. Then she shrugged. “I guess we were both worried about this week’s quiz. We learned some hard stuff this week. Let’s get back to studying.”
Later, during the quiz, Ashley noticed that Mrs. Wilson kept frowning, and she was paying particular attention to Ashley and Sarah. It’s almost like she’s watching us to see if we’re cheating, Ashley thought. But we’ve never cheated on an exam, why should she think we would now? Weird.
*****
Then, finally, she walked into the choir room one day for chamber choir practice, smiling. The other choir members were there, and most of them were humming a piece they were working on to perform soon. One of the guys broke out laughing, and said, “I have to tell you guys, I dreamed up the silliest lyrics to this song last night. They went like this…”
After he’d spoken a couple lines, the amusement on everyone’s faces faded. “But, I dreamed that up last night.” “No, I did.” “Wait, I did too!” Everyone had dreamed the same thing. Ashley remembered dreaming it herself – they had all been in a concert, and had sung the silly lyrics instead of the real words. Then, as the realization hit her, the color drained from her face.
“I, uh, don’t feel so good. I’ve gotta go,” she said hurriedly, as she almost ran out of the room, down the hall, and into the girl’s bathroom. She burst into an empty stall and latched the door, thoroughly embarrassed, and tried to keep down her breakfast as she thought about what had been happening.
She had dreamed about her friend Sarah throwing a costume party, and showing up as a bunny –
She had dreamed, once again, about getting her braces off and showing her teeth off to her friend Kim –
She had dreamed about being a star basketball player for Coach Myers –
Worst of all, she had dreamed that Nick had finally asked her out – but she peed her pants when he talked to her –
Then there was the dream about cheating on her math test.
And the dream about the silly lyrics.
Ashley groaned and covered her face. She might die of embarrassment. She had heard of this phenomenon happening before. It was uncommon, but definitely heard of.
Ashley was broadcasting her dreams to the other people involved in them.
She was an awakening telepath.