The Girl Who Gave Life to her Dreams

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Oh Hey It's Domo

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"Are you ready, Michelle?"

"Yep! Let's go!"


Two playful voices were heard, scattered about as they flew. Michelle, a small girl with black hair and brown eyes, began zooming from one spot to another, as if signaling for the start of a game of tag. "Come on, Mark!" she yelled across the way.

The boy named Mark appeared a bit older than Michelle, and most likely represented a human version of a cartoon character. He had purple hair, blue eyes, a suit and to top it of...(pardon the pun) a top hat. Mark flew near Michelle but then Michelle dodged away. "...Oh that's mean!" he said with a grin, knowing that he was 'it' in this game of tag.

The two went about flying and tagging each other until...

"Hey, Michelle!" a voice whispered.

And suddenly, the girl named Michelle was back in the real world. On Earth. In a classroom. And she had just been daydreaming this whole time...

"You can't zone out in THIS class, It's Ms. Sharon!"

"O-Oh, yeah..."

Michelle looked back at the board and rapidly switched to her daydream for a second. "Sorry, Mark! I gotta go...I'll be back at lunch!" and then she snapped back to reality, not hearing what Mark had said.
 
Sharon was reading out of the text book, things about Mark Twain and his great works. She had noticed one of her students, Michelle, wasn't paying the least bit of attention to what she was saying. This girl, her student, did this a lot. Sharon was feeling that she would have to intervene at one point or another. And quite possibly soon.

A classmate brought her back to reality. "Okay, class, we're going to do some reading and writing today. We'll be reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The assignment will be writing down things that were different from today for reading comprehension. You'll need five points for this, naming what's different and if it's for the better. Explain your opinion. Then, there will be a writing assignment due next class." Most of the class groaned. She didn't really care.

She turned around and wrote questions on the board that the students would have to write about. "I want at least two paragraphs for each."

1. Huck Finn is a thirteen-year-old boy. Why do you think Twain use a child as the center of consciousness in this book?

2. What effect does Twain's usage of dialect have on you, the reader? Does it make the novel less of an artistic achievement?

3. What does the river symbolize in this book? Explain.


"As I said, I want two paragraphs for each question. Typed, double space, don't forget your name, the date, class name and period. Title it 'Huckleberry Finn Essay.' I'll accept it as an email or printed and hard copy." There was always the one boy who complained that he didn't have a printer at home or whatever. "If you can't print it or email it to me, use the school computers. It's only two paragraphs per question."

"Now, the rest of the period, I want you working on the first assignment. We have almost an hour left of class, that's plenty of time." Sharon sauntered back to her desk and sat down. "Also, Michelle, I need you to stay after class." There were the cliche 'Oooohs.' Sharon smiled a little, not getting mad only because she used to do it too.
 
Michelle looked at the board and then began to take out her planner, writing the assignments down. Once they were told to work on the first assignment, she was about to reach for paper when she heard her be called out. When told she needed to stay after class, she thought she needed to talk with Ms. Sharon about missing homework.

"Ye--" Michelle was about to reply but the reply turned into an inaudible growl towards the class. She wasn't one to hate immaturity, as she was immature herself at times. But cliche things like this made her angry, especially if directed at her. She noticed one of her friends joined in and began to grin, making an exception to her as she knew that she was only trying to annoy her. Michelle mouthed a "You shut up," to her and they both began to snicker. She then looked back to Sharon. "Yes ma'am!"
 
Sharon was pleased with the scratching of pencils on paper. She wasn't really going to grade the assignment she just gave them, it was going to be mostly participation points. She would only check to see if they did five points, and if each point had everything that she asked for. When Michelle growled at the rest of the class, she couldn't help but laugh a bit.

Thinking it would help, Sharon turned on some classical music. Pandora. What would she do without such a great website? She had pruned the station to only play classical music, nothing with guitars or modern instruments. It only took a few days to do, and it still pulled up the occasional modern song that wasn't very relaxing. Eventually, she knew it would be perfect.

For the rest of the class, Sharon just sat on her computer and edited grades that she had to get done. Grading papers that she had left over and entering the grades onto the computer. Worst part of the job, in her opinion. But that was almost all of the job. Closer to the end of the class, the students started getting louder. She looked up from her computer to see which students were causing trouble right as the bell rang. "You're dismissed. Except for Michelle."
 
Michelle continued to write on her paper. Or at least attempt to write. After a while she just sort of gave up as she was missing her "imaginary" buddy. She decided she would work at home and started to sink back into her daydream world. There, Mark was sitting next to her. Michelle looked up at Mark and Mark gave this look, surely about shoving the work aside until they got home.

"...What?"

Mark continued to look. Starting to give a teasing look.

"...Stop judging me! I can't concentrate!" she said with a slightly comical sad face.

"...Consider yourself judged.~" Mark said as he patted her head.

"...Mean." Michelle said with a slight giggle.

--

Once the bell rang, she suddenly snapped back to reality. For a split second, she closed her eyes and said goodbye to Mark again and then she opened her eyes, to Sharon. Michelle walked over to the desk and smiled. "Did you need anything from me? Like some missing work?"
 
Sharon sat there, considering Michelle. She had the test scores to be at least a 'B' student, but she didn't get that much work in. It was disheartening. She swung her leg back and forth, thinking of the work that she needed in. Maybe there was some extra credit work that she could put out that Michelle could get in to help her current grade. "That wasn't my biggest concern, but I do need some more work from you. If you have any work from last week or the week before, I'll take it up until Friday."

She leaned forward, feeling a bit more serious. Now she was going to get to the heart of the matter. "You keep leaving during class. Not the 'walking out the door' kind of leaving, you're constantly daydreaming. How you get most of the information, I'll never know. Where do you go?" She sat up straight, feeling a little relieved. "Wherever it is, it must be a lot funner than here. Maybe I'll book a flight. Look, I want to see you concentrating more on the subject. I'm getting worried. What is it going to be like when you're older and still doing this? Will you be leaving like this while you're working? While you're cooking? When you need to watch your kids? I'm not saying you should stop entirely, I'm just saying that you should keep a handle on it. You were concentrating pretty well today, but you drifted off again near the end of the class."

Hopefully Michelle wouldn't give her those saddened eyes of a scolded puppy. She hated seeing her students look at her that way, it almost always broke her heart. Sharon braced herself for whatever would come next.
 
"Oh? Ok!--" Michelle was about to get some of the missing work but then stopped when Sharon leaned in.

"...Oh...?" Michelle continued to listen to her, but then, wish denied for Sharon, looked away a little bit sad. Half under her breath, she began to try and justify herself.

"But...he's lonely...I created him...so he gets lonely..." The next part was for sure under breath. "Maybe I should create another character..."
 
Sharon couldn't stand it. The sad look on Michelle's face practically broke her heart. She was regretting saying anything about her habit. Then Michelle said something odd that caught her off guard.

"You.. what? You created who?" Was she talking about a book that she was writing? Maybe that's why she zoned out so much, she was writing the book in her head.

"Maybe I should create another character..."

What kind of book only had one character? Sharon barely heard that part, but tried to reply the best she could. "Maybe you should." There was a soft smile on her face. She had no idea if her input would help at all, she didn't know anything about this story. Or, even if it was a story. Maybe it was just this teenage girl's imagination.
 
Michelle looked back up to Sharon. "Oh?..." she then began to smile. "You're right! Mark won't be lonely if I make another character! Thank you Ms. Sharon!" she said with a happy smile. "Who should the character be?"
 
Sharon thought she had made a breakthrough with this girl. "Hmm... Well, let's try to make a contrast for Mark. Someone that isn't really like him but someone that wouldn't get on his nerves. Unless you think that Mark needs someone to fight. What do you think will keep him from being lonely more?"
 
"Hm...Maybe just someone that he could easily talk to?" Just then, Michelle thought she had heard a sort of smacking sound. Once it passed, she thought she had heard Mark smack his palm to his face, most likely at what they were talking about.

"Come on...This person doesn't know what you're talking about...she doesn't know the person is real!"
 
What an outburst. The only thing Sharon knew about psychology came from her Psych 101 class, which she had a hard time understanding anyways. The biggest thing it taught her was how to help people psychologically. "Huh... You said his name is Mark, right? What else do you know about him? Why don't we try to make someone that's quite a bit like he is? What are Mark's interests?"
 
"Well...he likes it when I imagine wings for the both of us and we play tag with that," she said as if that was the most normal thing to every come out of a 6th grader's mouth.

In the inside of Michelle's mind, Mark was placing his hands on his face as a groan was let out. "...What am I gonna do with you, Michelle..."
 
Sharon nodded politely, moving her thoughts away from her sounding a lot younger than she really was. She was here to help her, not to patronize her. "Maybe you should ask him. Because even I would love to have wings and play tag." Just the other night she had a dream like that. But it ended with the wings falling off and her plummeting to the Earth.
 
Michelle nodded. "O-Ok! I'll ask him now!"

And just like that, Michelle closed her eyes and fell into her daydream. Her expressions were happening in real life, except her eyes were closed.

Mark looked to Michelle and tapped her forehead lightly. "What. Were you THINKING?!"

"Hey! I'm trying to help you out here!" Michelle retorted.

Mark looked away and scoffed. "You best be careful. I don't want people trying to send you to a therapist or something, thinking your crazy."

"Well...Ms. Sharon is different. If she found out that I had this sort of power, she'd understand. Maybe I'd melt inside her dream and take her to meet you maybe!"

"..." Mark was silent, and then he sighed while patting Michelle's head. "Just...Say its all right for now and I like some solitude as of right now," he said. Michelle wasn't quite sure why he suddenly derailed to answering the question, but she shrugged and snapped back to reality.

"He says he's fine!"
 
Sharon tapped her foot, examining Michelle while she was 'gone.' Her expressions were reflecting what was going on in her world. There was a bit of frustration, maybe she was arguing with Mark. She seemed a bit distraught, but otherwise alright. Just a bit of a quarrel that people would have with friends when they were trying to help but the friend refused. Sharon had gone through that before.

When Michelle came back and exclaimed that he was fine, she was a bit startled at first. Then she looked worried. This was quite an interesting story. Michelle could probably use these happenings to write. "Sometimes people say things like that and mean other things. He's probably worried about you telling me all of this. How about we give it some time?"

Sharon thought about it for a second then pulled a business card out from the top drawer of her desk. "Here. That's my cellphone number. If you need to talk to me about this or anything else, you can call. I didn't know if you had a student directory or not, but you won't have to have one with my card." She gave Michelle a soft smile. "Have you told anyone else about this?"
 
Michelle looked at Sharon's startled face and her head tilted to the side in curiosity. She wondered what had happen, maybe Sharon just found out she had a meeting to go to? Michelle shrugged in her mind. "Oh...I see,"

Mark, having heard that, tilted his head back and sighed exasperatingly. "She get's it. The teacher gets. Thank. God."

Michelle took Sharon's business card and looked through it. "Oh? Ok then!" she said with a smile. Upon the next question, she shook her head for no.
 
"Hmm..." It was good that she hadn't told anyone. Sharon was pretty accepting. Most of the other teachers around the school would have made her go see the counselor. "Heh. Kind of funny that I learned this much about you when all I wanted to know was what keeps you from paying attention. Well, you can go to your next class now. Or do you have lunch? Would you like an excuse note saying that I had a talk with you?"

Something told Sharon that it was lunch period right now. Possibly the tightening feeling in her stomach. Her internal clock was telling her that it was time for food. "How about this, I'll make it out for a time after lunch period, that way you can have a bit of extra time for lunch. You can hide in here if you need to, I have a prep class next period. No students."
 
"Oh! Ok then, Thank you Ms. Sharon," Michelle said, wanting to talk to Ms. Sharon more. "I need to go get my lunch first, though. I'll be back!" Michelle said with a smile as she bolted from the room to her locker.

Michelle searched through her locker to find her lunch box. Realizing it was on the shelf at the bottom, she reached down to grab it. All of a sudden, something black seemed to have crawled onto her hand. Michelle froze and looked at it, then screaming and jumping back while waving her hand to get what she thought was a bug off. Once she thought it was off, she looked to her hand and saw it was still there. Michelle was about to shake her hand again, but then she looked closer at the black dot and noticed it was a bug, but a...mark from crayola marker? She didn't remember using markers today.

She continued to stare at it and then...it flew off her hand and onto the ground! From there, it grew bigger and then it began to slide across the floor, starting to go out the doors to outside.

Yes...Come closer little girl...Come to the giant circle...

Michelle, not hearing the voice, followed the circle until it reached outside. They passed Sharon's window and stood there for quite a while. The black circle circled Michelle and then ran off near the sidewalk that lead to town. "Hey! Wait up!" Michelle called out to it and followed the dot where it went.
 
As soon as Michelle walked out the door, Sharon's mind went kind of haywire. Should she have sent the girl to a counselor instead of trying to help herself? Maybe she needs some kind of medication to help regulate this that she didn't know about. If that were true, Sharon could possibly have made things worse. She leaned back in her chair and thought everything through.

It wasn't like Michelle had a mental condition. Well, not an apparent one. It was just her imagination, right? It couldn't be any more than that. Michelle seemed a bit naive, but there wasn't medication for that. She grabbed her lunch out of a drawer and set it on top of her desk. With a sigh she glanced out the window, just in time to hear a girl yell, "Hey! Wait up!" and see Michelle run past. She was headed off school grounds, following... something... Sharon could see something but couldn't really tell what it was.

"This doesn't seem right." Not five seconds later, Sharon had made her way outside and after Michelle. There was a clear expression of worry on her face as she hustled after the girl.
 
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