just a dream (camren)

five

Buckle up for a lot of Caminah aka the best 5h ship of all time (and yes i know it's been 3 months)

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September 16th, 2016

Getting ready for school – Camila will never be okay with that thought – is a lot easier than it has been for the past few weeks. After spending time with Lauren at the weekend, she hadn't woken up, but her wardrobe is a lot less childish, which makes her feel better.

(Granted, she'd mostly just bought hoodies and a few band tees Lauren had picked out for her.)

She hasn't seen Lauren since, or been in contact with her – she doesn't have her number, and they don't share any classes at school, since Lauren is in the grade above – but she's planning on tracking her down today. Lauren is always with Normani, and she'll be killing two birds with one stone by strengthening her bond with them.

So, the second Dinah parks her car, Camila jumps out, shouting something back about how she's got a meeting with a teacher before class.

She goes to Lauren's locker – where she'd first seen her – and thankfully, she's there, searching through for something. "Hey!"

Lauren turns around, and when she realises who it is, smiles brightly. "Hi. Where's your friend?"

"Dinah?" Camila asks, and when Lauren nods, she thinks up an excuse on the spot. "Oh, she was a little busy this morning, so I figured coming over and saying hi to you would make more sense than wandering around all alone."

Lauren smiles at her. "Well, I was going to go to art. I have a free period this morning, and I have a bunch of work to get done for my project."

"What's your project?" Camila asks, watching as Lauren gets a sketchbook from her locker and shuts it. She follows her down the hallway, deciding that this will help her. Art is personal, right? "If you don't mind me asking."

"It's portraiture," Lauren tells her, flipping open her sketchbook to show Camila a black and white pencil sketch of Normani. "I need to get more of these smaller ones done, to show development or something. And then I can do my final piece. I've got to do more portraits using different materials, like collaging or whatever. I'm going to paint my final piece, so... I don't really see the point."

Camila hums in thought, an amazing idea popping into her head. "Well, if you need someone else to paint, I'd be a willing volunteer."

Lauren laughs. "You want me to paint you?"

"Mhm," Camila hums, "like one of your French girls."

Lauren bursts out laughing, and Camila beams. If she's managed to get this Lauren laughing at her jokes, then she's definitely way closer to waking up. "Alright then. You can come over one night and we'll work something out."

Camila grins. "Cool. Also, thanks again for shopping with me and my sister. Sofi adores you."

"It's cool, Camila," Lauren replies, "actually, it's funny, you were in my dream that night. I guess it was us talking about the whole X Factor thing, because I had a dream that we were both on it. Mani and Dinah were there too, and someone else I didn't know. We were in a group, like you were joking about."

Camila freezes. There's no way that Lauren said that. "What?"

"Yeah," Lauren continues, not picking up on Camila's mood, "it was weird. I guess it was in my subconscious or something."

Camila stares at her in shock. Lauren is having dreams about The X Factor as if this is real, and that isn't. Camila's heart is racing, and she knows she's panicking, because that can't be the dream.