“Maria, wake up. You’re going to be late for school. Maria, you need to get up now!”

  I jerked awake. “Wha…? Where am I?” I stammered.

  “You’re still in bed, young lady. You’ve only got about ten minutes until the bus is here.” Mom’s voice was stern.

  I groaned. “Aw, Mom, I really am not feeling that great today. What day is this anyway?”

  “It’s Monday,” she replied, reaching out a hand to feel my forehead. “You don’t have a fever. Are you sure you want to miss today? Isn’t your dream project for psychology class due today?” She had seen me working on it the night before.

  I gave a little laugh that sounded slightly hysterical. “You’re right. I guess I should get up.”

  I rushed to get ready, taking even less time than usual. I knew I would look terrible, but I didn’t really care. I pulled on a pair of jeans and a green hoodie and raked my fingers through my hair.

  As I rushed out the door, I called Keegan. It rang a few times before he picked up.

  “Hello.” Keegan’s voice sounded muffled, and I remembered that he drove himself to school and didn’t usually get up so early.

  “Are you okay?” I asked, tensely. After everything he had told me about the Captain, I was worried about him.

  Keegan groaned. “Yeah, I’m okay.”

  “See you at school?”

  “Yep, see you there.”

  I hung up as I rushed down the driveway. It had snowed a couple of inches in the night, and I sprinted down the tire tracks Dad had made when he left.

  Barb was already waiting for me when I got to the end of the driveway. She scowled as I climbed onto the bus but didn’t say anything.

  Jessica was waiting for me at the back of the bus, looking perfect as usual in her brown coat and boots. “Hey, Ria. You okay? You look…off.”

  I gave Jessica a huge hug as I sat down. “I’m fine. How have you been?”

  “Since last night when I talked to you? I’ve mostly been sleeping. Are you sure you’re okay?”

  “Sorry, I got up late,” I replied, trying to cover up my lapse. I felt like I hadn’t seen her in weeks. “I almost didn’t come today, but the dream journals are due.”

  Jessica nodded. “Do you have a lot in yours?”

  “Umm, somewhat. You?”

  Jessica answered, telling me about her dreams. I tried to pay attention, but mostly I was trying to remember everything that had been happening in town before I left for the dream world the night before.

  When we got to psychology class, I set my dream journal on Ms. Douglas’s desk. As I walked past Keegan, he brushed his hand against mine.

  “Coming, Maria?” Jess called from her desk.

  I smiled at Keegan and went back to my seat.

  “You two seem friendly,” Jessica said as I sat down.

  I shrugged. “We talked last night and worked a bunch of stuff out,” I said.

  “Maria Vaughn, you are blushing!! What else happened?”

  “He might have kissed me last night.”

  “What? Did you kiss him back?” Jessica exclaimed.

  “Maybe.” I could feel myself blushing even more.

  “I am not sure how to feel about this,” Jessica said.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going to do it again,” I said.

  “You sure?”

  “I’m sure. I… It’s just too soon.”

  Jessica nodded thoughtfully.

  When we got to the cafeteria, Jessica pointedly dragged Drew away, and Keegan and I sat down by ourselves.

  “Hey,” he said, reaching out to tuck my messy hair behind my ear.

  I pulled away.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked.

  “Nothing is wrong, but we can’t do stuff like we did last night, either.”

  “Why not?”

  “Keegan, you could barely breathe last night after we kissed. And who knows what the Captain will do the next time you go to the ship.”

  Keegan shrugged. “I don’t really care. It’s worth it to me.”

  “No more kisses,” I said. “I…I’m just not quite ready.”

  I could see a flicker of hurt in Keegan’s eyes, but it quickly vanished. He gave a quick nod. “I understand,” he said. He took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. “Maria, about last year. I know I hurt you, and I’m sorry. I wish we could go back and be what we were.”

  “Me too,” I whispered, “but I can’t make any promises.”

  A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.

  Keegan nodded.

  “I can’t do any ceremonies either,” I said, with a little grin, trying to break the tension.

  Keegan grinned. “Right. I will not ask you for a ceremony.”

  A while later, the bell rang for us to go back to class. As I stood up, Keegan asked, “Hey, do you mind if I come to your place tonight to work on my dream journal? I kind of slacked off on it. I’ve got a bunch to write. You can tell me what you have in yours, so I won’t put the exact same thing in.”

  I hesitated for a moment then nodded.

  Keegan smiled his infectious grin and headed for his class.

  Mom got to the door before I did when Keegan knocked.

  “Hey, Keegan, come on in,” she said a bit warily. “Ria told us you were coming by to work on some homework.”

  “Thanks, Mrs. Vaughn. I also need to talk to you and Mr. Vaughn if you don’t mind,” said Keegan, taking off his coat and revealing a blue turtleneck sweater underneath. He looked like he was applying for a job.

  “Keegan, what are you doing?” I hissed at him.

  He just grinned at me without answering.

  “Sure, he’s in here watching football.” Mom looked at me with raised eyebrows as she led Keegan into the living room.

  “Andrew, Keegan is here. He wants to talk with us.”

  Dad muted the television. “What’s up, Keegan?” he asked.

  “Well, sir, I just wanted to apologize for the last year. You and Mrs. Vaughn have always treated me like family, and I threw that all away. I’m sorry.”

  Dad glanced at Mom for a long moment, then looked at me. I gave him a tiny nod. Dad looked back at Keegan. “Thanks for that, Keegan. I hope we see you around more. If it’s okay with Maria. One word from her, and you clear out. Permanently.”

  “Yes, sir. Understood,” Keegan said.

  Dad turned the sound back on the television, and Keegan and I headed towards the basement.

  “I think I’m going to have to make some stuff up, or else it will all seem like I just copied off of yours,” Keegan said.

  “Keegan, don’t cheat on your homework,” Dad called as we left the room.

  I rolled my eyes at Keegan. “You could write about that futuristic place we went. I didn’t write about that one,” I said.

  “Ah, I’m going to miss Salivant,” said Keegan, referring to the city that was built inside a huge glass dome.

  “What do you mean you’re going to miss it? Can’t you just go back?” I asked, settling onto the couch in the basement.

  Keegan plopped down next to me. “You can't go back to a Dream you've died in. And I, uh, got executed there today,” he said sheepishly.

  “What? What for?”

  “I was trying to help one of the women escape the Schools with her baby.”

  “Oh,” I said. “How did they kill you?”

  Keegan pulled down the turtleneck of his sweater to show me a purple bruise circling his neck.

  “Good grief, Keegan. Why didn’t you just Shift out?”

  “They tied me to the dream, which is strange. It used to be that hardly anyone in the dreams knew how to do that, but now it seems like everyone knows.”

  “No kidding,” I muttered.

  “Well, I can definitely write about that dream,” said Keegan. “I’ll just say I dreamt about it a couple of days ago.”

  “Cheater,” I teased.

  “Well, if you didn’t crash my dreams right when this assignment came up, I wouldn’t be getting a late grade on this. It’s been a bit distracting.”

  “Sorry,” I said.

  “I’m not.” Keegan smiled.

  “How is your dad?” I asked.

  “Same as always,” Keegan muttered. “I told him about you, and he agrees that I can’t take you to the Captain.”

  “Hey guys, here’s some popcorn!” Zach came bouncing down the stairs in his batman pajamas holding a big bowl of popcorn. “Mom sent me down to make sure you’re not kissing, I think.”

  Keegan laughed. “We were not,” he said. Zach shrugged and went back up the stairs.

  I shook my head. “Sorry about that,” I said, but Keegan just laughed again. “Anyway, we should probably get to work. I want to go to bed early tonight so that we can spend a lot of time in Wendellia.”

  “I doubt you’ll go there tonight,” said Keegan. “Your mind needs some real rest.”

  “Are you going to go?” I asked.

  “Probably for a little while. I need some more practice. You seem to learn way faster than me.”

  “I think mine’s easier. Besides, you know what Emilia said, it will be a lot harder once there are more people there.”

  We worked on finishing Keegan’s journal. As he wrote, Keegan told me about some of the other places he had visited in the past months. I was amazed once again at how he had managed to live with his secret for so long without saying anything to us about it.

  When we were finished, we talked for a long time about what was going on in Wendellia before finally going upstairs. At the door, Keegan gave me a quick hug as my mom looked on.

  “If you’re there tonight, I’ll see you,” he whispered.

  I crossed my fingers that night as I fell asleep, but Keegan was right. I didn’t dream at all that night. Or the next. Or the next. I began to get anxious. Every day I checked with Keegan for news. He still went to Wendellia for a little while each night, just to practice his powers, but he needed true sleep as well, so he never stayed for long.

  Most of his news was about Cyrus. Since Emilia cast her images all over the whole of Wendellia, she usually had good information about what was going on. The group of soldiers who had captured Soren was heading north towards the city of Berul, where Cyrus was spending the winter in his fortress. There were rumors that once spring came, Cyrus was planning to push south against the rest of Wendellia that was not firmly under his rule.

  I took so many naps trying to dream that Mom started to worry about me. Keegan tried to keep my mind off of it. We hung out more and more often. His football season was drawing to a close. School dragged on. All of it seemed surreal. I couldn’t get myself to focus on real life.

  One day when I opened the door to Keegan’s knock, he handed me an envelope.

  “What’s this?” I asked.

  “It’s a scholarship offer.”

  “Keegan, I’m so happy for you!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him. “Come in and tell my parents.”

  Mom and Dad were both ecstatic about the news.

  “That’s great, Keegan!” Mom said. “We are really proud of you.”

  “Yeah, good job,” Dad said. “Do you think you are going to accept it?”

  “I’m not sure yet. I’m going to wait a little while, and see if any more options open up.”

  Later, after Keegan had gone, Dad asked me what I thought of his scholarship.

  “I think it’s great.”

  “You realize that he may end up living a long ways away from here?” Dad said seriously.

  “Yes. So?” I asked, a bit puzzled.

  “Are you planning to continue your relationship with him?”

  “Dad,” I complained. “We’re just friends.”

  “You spend a lot of time with him for being just friends.”

  I started to protest, but he interrupted, “I just know that going to college changes things. I don’t want you to be hurt by him. Again.”

  “I won’t be, Dad. He cares a lot about me. Him going to college is not going to change that,” I said.

  Dad looked skeptical. “I just care about you, Maria.”

  I got up and gave him a hug. “I’m going to be okay,” I said.

  Dad hugged me back. “Alright. Don’t stay up too late tonight.”

  “Dad, it’s Friday night.”

  “You could always get up early for pancakes.”

  “Not going to happen.”

  Dad kissed the top of my head, and disappeared upstairs. I went out to the kitchen and hugged Mom goodnight, and climbed the stairs to go to bed.