Dreamchasers: The Gift of Visions

I'm Telling You, It Was the Windex

For the remainder of my day at school, all I could think about was what happened. Poor Ben just needed some good friends. Sure, he had his LARP guys, but they barely hung out with him. I often saw him eating lunch alone.

I wasn't exactly sure how, but before school ended for the day, word got out about what happened during lunch. All of us who were involved had to take a trip to the principal's office. We all had to go in one at a time and explain what we saw happen. After everyone told their side of the story, Ben, Jace, and Trevor had to meet with the principal again with their parents. Before leaving the school, I heard through the grapevine that the three were all suspended for a few weeks. Ben was also no longer allowed to bring any kind of weapons to the school, even fake ones.

I had been told that Trevor's arm was definitely broken, and he probably wouldn't be able to play baseball anytime soon. That was very bad news. He would make sure to never let Ben live it down for the rest of high his school years. There was going to be war over this.

After my last class, I ran into Presley in the hallway on my way to the parking lot.

"You doing okay?" I asked her as we made our way outside.

"Yeah," She replied sadly. "I feel so bad, you know, about what happened at lunch. Trevor and Jace are such dirtbags. Ben just needs a friend."

"Yeah, that's exactly what I was thinking."

"Well, we can try to be his friend when he gets back from his suspension."

"Sounds good. See ya tonight."

"See ya."

Presley walked away and I began searching for my mom's minivan amidst the chaos of students trying to escape their day prison. After a minute or so, I found the van and I hopped in.

"How was school?" Mom asked as usual.

"It was weird."

"Why is that?"

"It's a long story."

I sank back in my seat and reflected on the events of the day before falling asleep.

I woke up to one of my favorite sounds of us driving up the gravel driveway to our house. When I opened my eyes, I noticed Dad's car wasn't there. Hopefully he would be home soon. I headed inside the house and went straight to my room. Setting my backpack on the floor, I sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Hey, Chaz." I looked up to see my brother Garrett standing in the doorway. "Since it's your birthday, I don't think you need to do any homework. So, we should play a game." He smiled.

I laughed. "Okay, let's play a game."

I followed Garrett into our dark family room, turned on the T.V. and opened the blinds as Garrett set up the video game he wanted to play. The light of the bright sun shone through the windows and put a glare on the television.

Garrett and I played video games for about an hour or so, getting very competitive with one another and sometimes screaming at or punching each other. While Garrett and I were in the middle of an intense round of a fighting game, I heard the front door open and someone walked into the room.

"Happy birthday, Chaz," I heard my dad say from behind me.

"Thanks," I said without looking back. I couldn't let Garrett win another round because he was already getting too cocky.

"Smells like dinner is almost ready. You boys better finish your game and come to the kitchen."

After another minute, I finally beat Garrett on our last match, so we shut off the game and headed to eat.