When Gwen woke next she found herself back in the dorm, her alarm clock buzzing. She checked her watch to make sure no more time than one night had passed. She sighed in relief and started going about the general tasks of the morning. Showering, dressing, brushing her long ginger hair and finding a barrette to pull it back. She was ready for class, though hardly ready to explain the strange experience of the previous afternoon.
After class she scurried around to find her lunchtime pal Chris and when she finally discovered him reading some comic book while standing in line for food she begged him to listen to her story.
"Let me get eats first." He said pointing to his belly.
She laughed for the first time that day and grabbed herself a sandwich. They sat outside on the sweet grass enjoying the warm north country weather while it lasted as the fall semester was just beginning. Pretty soon the grass would be covered in leaves and soon after that snow. The wind would take on a bitter chill and bite at the students as they ran to class. Gwen really liked to sit outside when she had the opportunity.
Chris listened patiently in between bites as she relayed the dream to him. When she had finished:
"That's pretty fucked up Gwen."
"Yeah, I know." She replied.
"Not the dream, more that you still like Harry Potter."
"Chris."
"All right. So you had a really eerie dream. It wouldn't be the first time."
"I know, but it was so real. I really felt like I was there."
"You have a great imagination. If I had dreams like you I'd think I was really there too." He paused. "Did that make sense?"
"Yes."
"Listen, don't sweat it. It's just a dream."
She wasn't convinced. However, when two whole weeks passed without incident her worries began to subside. Maybe it was just a really vivid dream and now that she was buckling down into her school work she had no time for that sort of distraction.
She rubbed her eyes and drooped her head, standing in the shower and letting the hot water wash over her. She had been hoping it would wash away her troubles. All it really did was make her skin dry and turn her old scar into a glaring white outline of a jagged star on her left breast. She touched it feebly trying to remember a time when it didn�t grace her chest. She couldn�t remember a time without and so it must always have been there.
She closed her eyes and let the water pound out a rhythm in her head. It sounded familiar, like the ocean waves lapping the shore at high tide. Her head drooped further and she breathed heavy, not the first time she�d fallen asleep in the shower.
She jerked her head back, slapped the wall with her sopping hair. She had a chemistry test the next day and she hadn�t opened her book all semester.