July 9th, 2011

I was at a party, most likely a holiday, at my grandma's house. I was in the basement; there were plants all over just like in real life. However, friends were there, and people from school, though the only people that stood out clearly were Chad and Jennifer. All of a sudden I knew that Dan had arrived (whether Chad told me or the knowledge just appeared in my mind, I'm not sure). He was in a room with his friends, a room that doesn't exist in my grandma's real house, though I think it was about where the laundry room really is.
Before I even figured out what was happening, Chad had gone into the room and returned with Dan. He presented Dan to me and made introductions and such, and I was my usual nervous, unable-to-speak self around him. (At this point, for some reason, an image of my cousin Rachael floats to mind; she might have been there.)
Dan moved awkwardly to a beanbag beside me, not meeting my eyes.
"I really have nothing to say to you..." he said. He was half laughing, but it was very apparent that he was slightly creeped out and wondering what was going on.
Suddenly I was at a baseball field, one I had never been to before with trees all around it. It was a cloudy, overcast day* and I was watching from behind the fence at center field. In other words, the players were very far away. I looked for Dan, but he wasn't playing. I couldn't find him in the dugout, either, but that was maybe because some other players were in the way. Chad told me (he was apparently either next to me, which I don't remember, or communicating telepathically) that he wasn't going to be playing much this season, which I of course thought was dumb. He also told me that Dan had a girlfriend. While my real self felt a sinking disappointment even in sleep, my dream self simply blinked and appeared unfazed.
Then the baseball and Chad were gone and I was at band. It was strange because it was spat camp, and therefore summer, but a lot of the seniors from last year were still there (unfortunately, this didn't include Dan Hoffman) I remember Rachel Auer, Jessica Anderson (who is actually a senior this year), and Morgen Egesdal, but not much else of what I did in band. Then I left, and for some reason was talking to Meaghan about Abby as I left. We moved to the subject of Hannah, her sister, and doesn't she go to our school, when we realized that Hannah was actually only a few steps behind us. I turned and started talking to her (I said, "That's so funny, we just saw Abby today and now we see you!" even though I'm not sure if we actually did see Abby at that point in the dream), but Hannah was distant and judgmental and slightly rude, so we quickly stopped talking to her. (We noticed that she was with Taylor Johnson, if that means anything.) Eventually we got to the small alcove part of the commons, which had gotten much bigger and also darker, possibly because of the overcast day. Even though it was summer and probably five or six o' clock in the evening, there were people all over, like it was three on a regular Tuesday afternoon. I remember seeing Tony Stauber and texting "tony stauber!" to Jennifer. I sat at a table with Meaghan and other faceless people to wait for a ride, and my backpack lay in front of me on the table. Meaghan was going on about how I had too much lip gloss.
"I do not; I barely have any!" I retorted, reaching my hand into the pocket of my bad that held lip gloss. I came out with a heaping handful, and looked in the bag to see perhaps thirty more.
"Plus you have all...this stuff." Meaghan held up a curling iron by the cord, as if disgusted, and I saw that a straightener lay next to it. In fact, it seemed that I had left very little of my morning routine at home.
All of a sudden one of the faceless people was Jodi, and she was with some people from the dance team (I'm not sure why they were sitting with us).
"Do you still like that Dan guy?" Jodi asked, and I nodded hesitantly. "Well, he's right over there." She motioned down to where the stairs to the buses were.
"Where?" I asked, and turned around in my seat to look for him. "I can't see him."
"Right there," a voice said, and I looked up at the table behind us to see Evan Severson looking up from him phone and nodding in the same direction as Jodi. I looked down the row of tables and saw Dan in his blue sweatshirt, but wasn't interested in that anymore.
"How did you know...?" I asked Evan in utter bewilderment, unable to believe that he knew that I liked Dan. Evan simply shrugged in his Evan way and went back to looking at his phone.
Suddenly everyone but Meaghan was gone, and Meaghan was asking me if I needed a ride home. I said yes, but first I had to go back to my room really fast and get my phone charger and something else. Meaghan was exasperated but said she'd wait.
I went to my room, but when I flicked on the light switch, the light that isn't above my bed went out.** Ignoring this, I to get my phone charger and the other nameless item that I had to grab. Unfortunately, something kept me much longer that it should have taken, and, frustrated, I texted Meaghan to just leave without me, though I suspected that she already had.
Realizing that for some reason I was dressed in several layers of tank tops and pants, I began taking a lot of them off, but just then Abby walked in. She started telling me about a report she did on how Chinese people eat grass. Not entirely apologetically, I told Abby that I had to go and hurried back downstairs to the commons. Then I went down the stairs and out the back bus doors, which then were the front doors of the school. As I was walking around to a different door to the school, which led to an area where most of the students still waiting for rides had gathered, someone called my name.
"Hey! How's it goin'?"
I looked around and saw, among other people I didn't know, a cheerfully waving, sunglasses-clad (even though it was still cloudy and 7:00 pm now) guy that looked vaguely like Damian from Mean Girls only more attractive and less gay. I waved back back even though I had no idea who he was, then continued on my way.
When I reached the doors, I walked in the first set of them and stayed in the little in-between area to call my dad. Which it was rining I saw dan and his friends walk past me at the doors, the stop and wait in the in-between area just like me. Briefly I contemplated the fact that it looked like i was only there because they were, then decided I didn't care.
My dad answered the phone then, and I asked him for a ride home, and when I was done I went back outside (where I noticed Dan and his friends had also gone), sat down, and started fishing around in my bag for my iPod. As I did, I saw Dan holding a longboard, which was weird because he doesn't really seem like the longboarding type. I found my iPod and turned on a D.R.U.G.S. song really loud. I noticed Dan look at me, probably because he recognized the song and though it weired that I was listening to it, but I realized that since he had a girlfriend it didn't really matter.
Then my dad came, out of the school rather than in a car. This regiestered as strange but I didn't think much of it.
"Your shorts are too short," he told me, and I looked down at my jeans and back at him in confusion. Then we started toward the parking lot and then I woke up.


*exactly like the weather on July 9th at 9 am when I woke up
**when I flicked on the light switch when I woke up that morning, that same light flickered out. creepy, I know.