Anger Management

Dream Within a Dream

                     My eyes flew open. I was standing in front of a school with worn looking bricks and a lawn full of dying grasses, the transparent two-paneled windows reflecting a horrendously bright glare of the sunlight directly into my eyes, forcing my vision to blur. I raised my hands in front of my eyes to block the glares from the windows, wiping the instinctive tears out of my eyes simultaneously.

                     “Where am I?” I said aloud to myself as I often do. I tried remembering how I got here but could only remember Michael giving me some sort of shot then passing out for a second time today. I didn’t recognize the school, the landscaping, anything. Wait…I passed out….strange place….

                     “Must be in someone’s dream again.” I mumbled with an annoyed tone. Well, I suppose someone else’s dream is better than mine would probably be anyways. I heard the many shrillings of children waft from behind the school and curiously walked over to investigate it. What people didn’t seem to realize is that when you have a dream, you only experience what you go through and where you’re at, but you’re actually in an entire world, another Earth that you created. Often times I would find myself in someone’s dream with no clue who’s dream it was or where I might be or what I was supposed to even do, so usually I just wandered about anyways. Teenager’s dreams were more constricting though, since a lot of their imagination seemed to have been sucked out of them by that point of their life: if I was in a teenager’s dream, it was very noticeable since there weren’t ever many places to go, if not more inventive than past the expansion of the house their dream took place in.

                     The dying grass crunching under my feet, I walked easily over to a looming, slightly rusted chain-link fence that kept the children in the schoolyard.  I watched the hundreds of children play, grades ranging from kindergarten to what must be high schoolers were in here, the small children bouncing balls, shouting songs, and playing jump rope while the older kids mostly just sat in their cliques chatting amongst themselves or the loners just wandering about, sitting down and staring into space, or listening to music.

                     Suddenly there came a sharp sob from my right and I jerked my head towards the noise. I noticed a girl, about my age, 15 or so, in a fetal position in the corner of the chain-link fence with a small group of other teenage girls crowding her. The poor girl was shaking, her chest heaving up and down while the other girl’s mouths moved in ways that suggested harshness, but I was out of hearing range. I slowly walked closer, stalking along the fence, hoping that I would go unnoticed. I got into hearing range and they still didn’t notice me, thankfully.

                     I had been right. The girl in the corner was sobbing, clenching into herself tightly in what I figured was a last-ditch effort to keep herself in one beaten piece. The other girls, there were only five of them, were strongly teasing and taunting her about anything and everything possible: her grades, her appearance, her clothing, her home life, name, books she liked, everything.

                     I felt something stirring inside of me at this sight, something red and hot, painful and raw on the edges. My face flushed, my eyes narrowed, my breathing quickened. I was so sick of it, so sick of having this happening to me, and to see this happen to another girl? I didn’t want this on anyone- I didn’t want anyone to have to become like me. I wasn’t a desired character: I was gross, scared, paranoid, jumpy, hideous, worthless, the list goes on and on. This poor girl…..poor poor girl….no….

                     Before I realized it I was already jumping down into the schoolyard from the top of the fence, having no clue how I got up there in the first pace. Did I already climb the thing? I didn’t even know I could climb! I landed like a cat, both feet planting on the ground gracefully, then I charged towards the vile girls. It took the hard pounding of my feet on the concrete ground for the girls to finally acknowledge my presence. They twisted around and stared at me like I was some freak or something. I skidded to a halt a foot or two from them, my eyes in slits and my mouth in a partial snarl.