Pepperland

"Hey, Brittany, did I tell you about the dream I had last night?" Laura was a firm believer of messages being sent in dreams and constantly discussed even the most random ones with her friends.

"No. The first period bell interrupted you," Brittany replied, opening two bottles of Coca~Cola. She handed one to Laura, then they both sat on the couch in front of the TV.

"Okay. I'll tell you tomorrow," Laura said as the most recent episode of Saturday Night Live appeared on the TV screen. Brittany had kindly recorded it on her DVR the previous Saturday, knowing that Laura would want to see it because Panic at the Disco was performing in it. Christopher Walken was in it too, so they didn't fast forward through all of the skits.
"I just got Panic's new album," Laura informed Brittany as the watched the credits roll. "I'll lend it to you sometime."

"That's the band with the Sgt. Pepper-y music video, right?"

Laura nodded. "Mm-hm. The rest of the songs sound Beatle inspired, too. Oh!" she exclaimed, her blue eyes wide as she suddenly remembered something. "Speaking of The Beatles, I had the trippiest dream last night." Right as she said that, Ashlie entered the room, splotches of paint covering nearly every inch of her pale skin.

"Ooh, discussing dreams, are we?" she said as she plucked a green apple from the basket on the table and took a seat there.

"Uh, yeah," said Laura. "I was just about to tell Brittany about the one I had last night. Do you wanna hear it?"

"Sure," Ashlie replied, biting into her fruit.

So Laura dived headfirst into telling her dream, everything she could remember as best as she could. As soon as she had finished, Ashlie leaped out of her chair and dashed to her room. Laura exchanged a confused look with Brittany, who just shrugged her shoulders at her sister's actions. A loud thump made them jump. They ran to Ashlie's room to see what was going on.

Ashlie was flipping madly through a sketchbook. Her face seemed to light up as she found the picture she was looking for.

"Is this it?" she asked, handing them the sketchbook.
It was a drawing that she had done. It contained all three of the girls in various poses.
Ashlie was leaping over a rock, a smile on her face and a sketchbook in her hand.
Brittany, also smiling, was playing on a large piano. The swirls on the instrument hinted that if the artist had used color pencil instead of a number two the piano would be multicolored.

Laura appeared to be just frolicking about. Right above her outstretched fingers was a yellow butterfly.

But the strangest thing was the outfits they wore. They resembled a marching band uniform.
Laura looked up at Ashlie, her face numb with shock.

"Oh, cool!" Brittany said, taking the sketchbook in both hands. She excitedly scanned her sister's artwork.

"Brittany," Laura said slowly. "Don't you recognize anything?"

"Us," she said. She looked at it for one more moment. Then she got up and went to the "Music Room". Laura and Ashlie stared at each other for a while.

"Maybe it was just a coincidence," Ashlie said. Laura nodded and followed Brittany. She had just taken a seat at the table to look through the magazine that had been lying there when Brittany started to play "Octopus' Garden" on the piano. Laura grinned and got behind Brittany's drum set, drumming out the simple beat that Brittany had shown her. When they finished the song they were both grinning from ear to ear. Brittany frowned.

"What's wrong?" Laura asked, confusion splashed across her face.

"There's a song stuck in my head," she explained, "but I don't know what it is. I've never heard it before. She cocked her head to the side, as if she was listening to an invisible metronome, and began to play another song.

The song was also unknown to Laura, and it drew Ashlie out of her room.

"That's it!" Laura exclaimed. "That's the music from my dream."

"Mine too," Ashlie said.

"I think that this was in my dream last night," Brittany mumbled, trying to recall. "Yeah, I'm positive it was, because I can never remember my dreams. That's why it stands out so much."

The three girls stood in the room together, gathering their thoughts.
"I've heard of siblings having the same dreams," Laura said doubtfully, one finger under her full lips.

"Yeah, but two sisters and a friend?" Ashlie shook her head firmly. "This isn't normal. Something is up."