Pirates!

"If something interesting doesn't happen in the next ten minutes I think I might actually scream."

I confided in my best friend Winnie (Gwen) Elizabeth Clarance, who I was sitting next to in our unbelievably dull Latin class. She giggled quietly at my remark and went back to doodling little caricatures in the margins of her Latin textbook.

"Ugh," I grumbled, marveling at the sheer idiocy of how completely boring the lecture my teacher was giving. I wasn't entirely sure what exactly it was about, because most of the time that he had been speaking, I had been daydreaming. Daydreams were something that I indulged in regularly. Mostly, they were just different stories that I would make up about random people. Usually they came about in my mind when I saw or heard something strange about someone. It was like my mind would hear something and run with it, creating an intricate tale from just hearing a few words.

This time it was about a girl in my class. Emily sat in the chair in front of me. I had heard the other day that her parents were splitting up. The roomer stated that they had been unhappy for a while, and that they finally realized that they should spend some time apart.

This however was not how I saw it.

In my mind, her parents had recently discovered that they were part of different secret societies. Her mom was in a special group of people who traveled in the sky, looking for thunder and lightning to steal from Zeus.

Her father however, was in a clan of men who sailed the seas, in search of the Kraken, to take from the sea god, Poseidon.

I was suddenly ripped away from my internal monologue by Winnie shaking my shoulder in attempt to get my attention. When I saw what she was looking at, I gasped so loudly I was pretty sure that people in the next room could hear me.

Outside the window my mom was standing in the parking lot, leaning on a cream and light blue convertible Mini Cooper, with a big purple bow on the hood.

I shrieked along with Winnie, and then raced out of the room, to meet my mom and my NEW CAR!!!!

It then dawned on me that my mom had actually been acting strange all day, and she kept making comments on how I was almost finished with Driver's Ed, and that I was turning sixteen soon.

"Ohmigosh!!!" I exclaimed to my mom, who was grinning at the ecstatic look on my face.

"So you like it, do you?" she asked teasingly.

I vigorously nodded my head, smiling so widely that my cheeks were beginning to hurt. She rolled her eyes at how crazy I was acting, and tossed me the keys.

I was so excited that I nearly dropped them. I quickly regained my composure, and climbed into the driver's seat of my new car. My mom then went around the front and got into the passenger seat.

"Okay, let's go," Said my mom, motioning with her hands at the road out front of Santa Barbara High School. I frowned at her, confused.

"...Uh, mom..." I let the sentence trail off, as I gestured towards the school that I had just rushed out of, because I wasn't supposed to be finished for another hour and a half.

My mom smiled and reassured me that she had already called in to tell them that I was going got be leaving school early, because, sadly, my cat had just passed away.

I laughed when she told me this, because I had a feeling that no one who had seen me or her was going to believe that. And besides, I didn't have a cat. I giggled a little bit more, and started the engine.

It was amazing how quiet the car was. I could hardly tell it was on, and when I looked at my mom, it was clear that she had already noticed what I was just then appreciating. I eased the gas peddle down slightly with my foot. The car started forwards a bit, and I turned the wheel so that I could make a loop around the parking lot before we left the school.

As the car rolled passed the window of my Latin class, I waved at Winnie, who practically had her nose pressed against the glass. I grinned at her and then we peeled out of the school's driveway, and out onto the open road.

After only thirty seconds or so, I switched on the radio, instantly falling in rhythm with the song, and singing to the words. My mom laughed at my quirk as always. Whenever I was in the car, I had to have music playing. I don't know why, but it just really irks me to have it silent.

"So, where are you taking me driver?" my mom asked me jokingly. It had always been our little joke that when I was finally able to drive I would be my mom's personal chauffeur.

"Haha, you're funny," I said sarcastically. She just laughed, but made no further comment, so I assumed that I could choose.

It only took about five minutes to reach the destination that I had picked out. We pulled into the Shake-a-Holic parking lot, and I pulled into a compact parking space, no backing out included.

"Great parking job sweetie. It's good to know that you're learning something in the Driver's Ed classes you're taking." My mom said, opening her door to make sure that her side of the car was in the lines. I laughed at her comment, and did the same on my side. We both got out, satisfied with the spacing, and I followed my mom into the milk shake shop.

When we finally got home after being out and about for almost five hours, it dawned on me that I still had home work to do for the next day of school. I told my mom goodnight, and went to my room.

I sighed as I opened my MacBook Air, anticipating all of the work that would be dumped on me from missing just an hour of school. I slumped my shoulders and dove in head first, focusing on getting to sleep just as soon as I finished.

~~~~~~

The dreams that came to me that night were nothing at all like the daydreams that I enjoyed during the day.

The actual dream that I had was filled with screams and loud noises, and flashing lights. I couldn't really tell what exactly was happening, but the one thing that I do remember was that I was trying desperately to get out.

Out of what, I didn't know, maybe out of the dream, or maybe out of the whole situation.

I woke up suddenly, sitting bolt-upright in bed, gasping for air. I was sticky with sweat, and my pillow was wet from the tears that had been streaming down my face moments before.

It took me a few minutes to stop gasping, and for my heart rate to to slow down, almost back to it's normal rhythm.

Even though I had calmed down my body, my mind was wide awake, and thinking already. I glanced at the clock, and saw that it was only three in the morning, I still had several hours until I needed to be up for school.

I closed my eyes and tried to quiet my thoughts, and relax mentally once again. It didn't really work, at all.

I just laid there for a while listening to the waves breaking on our house's private beach out back. The sound which was usually calming was starting to really irritate me, and make me even more awake than I had previously been. I sighed, and reached over to my night table next to my bed, and grabbed onto my iPod. Putting in my head phones, I turned on some quiet mellow music, winding down my mind in attempts to fall once again into a fitful slumber.

Like that plan worked.

I tossed and turned for at least an hour, trying to get the horrible sounds and images out of my mind.

Finally though, I started to drift off, relaxing once again into sleep.