As the beautiful night sky lit up with the stars around it, the light pierced through a room. Sitting in the room was a girl, drinking some tea. She had a smile etched on her face that was being blocked with a hat as she took a sip. In front of her was a brown wooden table, with big dolls sitting around it. They all looked normal, but a weird smell pierced through them. It was strong, almost a rotting smell. As the girl looked around, her eyes gazed on the labeled names of each doll. Until she locked eyes on one doll that had the name Miles on it. Before anything else could happen, an alarm could be heard. The girl woke up from her slumber sweating and feeling her heart pound. She sighed in exhaustion.

  “Just the same dream again…” she muttered. The bright light hit her room, brightening everything up, except for the girl's mood. The tired girl turned off her alarm as she got off her bed begrudgingly and went to the bathroom. She looked at her mirror, taking in her appearance. Her eyes held grey bags that held a lot of weight, and her look was messy. She rubbed her eyes with her fists.

  “That same stupid dream keeps popping up every week. It’s getting really hard to sleep it off without fearing it will come back again.” She let out one last sigh before getting started with the day. She couldn't be late for class. She already had some lates thanks to this stupid dream after all. As she stepped out of her room, she looked more presentable. Sure, her eyebags weren't adding much flair, but wearing the standard school uniform, the brown shirt with the white collar and her red tie and the blue skirt, she looked better. Her pink bow flopped slightly on her hair that she had used to create a ponytail for her long brown hair, and her black ankle socks with her pink and white shoes made the floor echo as she walked through the dormitory. Once she made it out, she was greeted with loads of people outside the college campus scrambling to get inside. Seems like she wasn't the only one who woke up late this morning. That's when someone bumped into her, making her almost fall to the ground before they grabbed her and stopped her from falling and busting her face on the pavement.

  “Sorry about that, Emma; I was in such a hurry I didn't see you.” As the girl looked up to see who this person was, she saw one of her friends, Flare. The boy was a ginger who wore a red sweater and hat. He always chose to dress nowhere near the school's attire because he just lived for the attention and loved being the odd one out. At least he wore the blue pants and black shoes that were acceptable.

  “Hey Flare, did you oversleep too?” Emma asked, dusting her skirt. Flare rubbed his neck with a nervous grin.

  “Maybe a little bit. Why can’t a man get his beauty rest without school bugging his slumber?” he jokingly said. Emma rolled her eyes but couldn't help but smirk at his joke.

  “Hey, at least you got the energy to run here,” she remarked. Flare and Emma started to walk to school, casually talking about random things. Emma wanted to bring up the dream she had, but she bit her tongue, knowing Flare was going to make a joke about it and take nothing she said seriously, which did bug her slightly. As they made it to school and walked into their classroom, they felt multiple gazes stare at them as the students and the teacher panned their focus to the two. It was understandably pretty nerve-racking, especially for Emma since this isn't new, and she doesn't really like it when she feels judged.

  “What have you two been up to that you decided to come late to class?” the teacher asked sternly. Emma scratched her neck.

  “Overslept, sir…” she answered. The teacher shook his head in disapproval.

  “Oversleeping is not an excuse anymore, Ms. Love.” Emma sheepishly nodded and apologized for it. The teacher looked at Flare, expecting him to follow up.

  “Same story here, teach.” Flare said, shrugging.

  “Sure, likely story,” the teacher said, not believing him. Flare was bothered by that.

  “What? I was!” he said, crossing his arms. The teacher rolls his eyes.

  “We both know that’s not what you were doing, and if that's true, you were probably at a party all night,” he claimed. Before Flare could even make an alibi for himself, the teacher stopped him and told both Emma and Flare to sit at their tables. They both went to their seats as the teacher began to drink his coffee, but Flare couldn't help but mumble “Old bitch” to himself while Emma patted his back to make him feel better. As they made it towards their seats, that’s where they saw their friends.

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  “Really, guys, being late? That’s not very mature of you two.” The purple-eyed girl asked with her shoulders crossed, not amused. That was Valentina, wearing the regular school attire except with a blue bow tie on her neck. She had short black hair that reached her shoulders and the face of a beautiful girl.

  “Yeah, sorry about that, we just—” Before Flare could finish his sentence, Valentina cut him off.

  “You know there are no excuses; you guys know how important this science class is, and you guys could get kicked out if you're late this much, especially you, Emma.” Emma rolled her eyes, clearly not in the mood to listen to Valentina lecturing them.

  “Oh come on, lighten up on them; I’m sure they didn't intend this to happen,” the tall boy responded. That boy was Miles. His puffy hair moved slightly when he turned his head to the two late buddies. His hair was a sight to see, and those blue eyes complemented it. As Emma sat down in her seat next to Miles, there was such a big height difference it was cute, which made Miles kissing Emma on the top of her head even cuter. Flare sat in his seat and dabbed up his too-close pals, Nathaniel and Max. The nerdy, brown-eyed, freckled boy and the red-eyed, hardheaded boy that was built like Miles.

  “Well, I study that humans need 8 hours of sleep at least to function in the morning. Have any of you got any of that?” Nathaniel asked before getting Flare’s hand to his head, which made his glasses slouch down just a bit on his nose. “You know my sleeping schedule is pretty ass, bro.” Flare said, chuckling, as Nathaniel fixed his glasses, glaring at the menace.

  “Nah, I haven't slept well in a bit.” Emma admitted. Miles looked at her with concern sketched on his eyes and asked with some worry,

  “Are you ok, babe? That’s not good to hear.” Emma laid her head on Miles's arm and said,

  “I think I’ll be ok. It's the same dream I usually have. It’s pretty bad.” Miles nodded and patted her head.

  “Well, just remember what I said: if it doesn't touch you, it won't hurt you,” he said cheerfully. Max rolled his eyes at the stupid motto.

  “That’s got to be the worst motto I’ve ever heard of, dude. My grandmother can come up with something better, and she has dementia.” Max claimed, which ticked Miles off a bit.

  “Well, I bet your grandmother is capable of a lot of things, maybe even more than you, considering she can handle your annoying ass.” Miles said back, which made Max squint his eyes at him. Before he could say anything else, Valentina stopped the argument.

  “Alright boys, that's enough. We get it. Your rivals. Let's just focus on the task at hand. I want to make a scrapbook of all our things we like so that way when we get older, we can look upon this and laugh about all the things we liked. I want this to be perfect, so no screwing around,” she said.

  “Oh, that's easy for me. I like fire, guns, dogs, oranges, and girls with wide exteriors, if you know what I mean.” Flare said confidently. Everyone looked at the immature man with furrowed eyebrows.

  “Anyways, anybody else got anything else they like that’s actually good?” Valentina said, which earned a pretend hurt action by Flare. Everyone thought about it; that’s when Emma spoke up.

  “Well, to be honest, the main thing I like is you guys and the friends I have. So that’s something, right?” She said, sincerely. Max put his hand on his forehead and put a hand to his heart.

  “Oh Emma, you really are a woman with words.” He said, dramatically. Nathaniel chuckled and added,

  “Yeah, but we appreciate it though. You don’t usually get friends who are honest like you can be.” Emma nodded and smiled before slightly losing it for a second.

  “Yeah, of course. I don’t know, I feel like you’ve all changed my life. I don’t think I can live without you guys.” Emma admitted, which made everyone have a genuine smile; even Valentina of all people couldn't help but put up a smile from the warm gesture. Miles gave Emma a tight hug and said,

  “Well, you're in luck, because no one is leaving you any time soon.” Emma smiled and played with Miles's bushy hair.

  “Well, that’s good to hear.” She said, feeling all her stress melt away a bit. She thought that dream ruined her morning, but after talking with her friends, it didn't seem so bad. However, she really hoped that dream would stop. She didn’t know why she had it. As the teacher taught the class more, Emma couldn’t get rid of this strange feeling that the dream meant something; she had no clue, but it felt so real in that dream before she woke up, like she experienced it. She tried her best to let her work take her away from that dream, which was hard to do, but all she can do now is keep quiet about it. Maybe she can talk to more people about it; maybe then she’d get some sort of clarity.