I Must Be Dreaming

Saturday had finally arrived and most Stanford students would begin participating in all the game day festivities, like tail gating and partying in the frat houses. That is except for Rowan, who was preparing for whatever she would officially be assigned to do at the game. She hadn't been able to sleep a wink the night because she had spent the night studying the day's match up. It was funny how much she really did have to study and not just on San Jose State but on Stanford too. Player names, Stats, coaching staff, the works and she had to memorize it or be able to pull the information up on her iPhone, quickly. She wanted to find anything that she could that would help to make her postgame interviews better. It's a lot of prep work but everything she came back to led back to Andrew.

Meeting him had been a pleasant surprise, seeing him outside of the football field hadn’t been expected, and now all of her research always came back to him. She knew he couldn’t help that. He was a hot topic to many parties and would be for quite some time. But that didn’t stop her from feeling just a little bit annoyed by his presence everywhere she went. Especially, when she didn’t know what she wanted. Every time she saw his picture, she’d get those bubbly feeling welling up inside of her and then wouldn’t be able to stop thinking about him until she finally fell asleep. She hoped that giving him her name today would cure this bizarre illness that had suddenly struck her.

By three in the morning, Rowan laid her notebook and pen down on her desk and decided that she would listen to Stanford's fight song 'All Right Now' since it had been so long since she had been to a game. She was looking forward to the marching band's halftime show. She remembered that they were very eccentric and extremely fun to watch. Part of her wanted to experience the game as a spectator but the other part of her knew that those days for her were over.

Remember Ro, your assignment is to have a Post-game interview with both Coach Shaw and Andrew. I have to look somewhat professional...

Her thoughts began to drift away along with her consciousness as her exhaustion finally laid its claim on her body and she did not fight it. Instead, she welcomed the peaceful shroud of sleep with open arms and closed eyes before she finally succumbed to a dreamless sleep.

By six am, the morning sun had begun to grace the San Francisco Peninsula with its hues and tones of orange and yellow. It was one of the more breath taking sites, Rowan ever remembered seeing. Sure, it did not compare to the sights of Vancouver or the atmosphere of Boston, but this was her home for now and its impression would never leave her. She still had eight hours to prepare for the game, but ultimately decided that sleep was more important than continuing to self-sacrifice herself for a good interview. Groaning she flopped back in her blue, brown, and silvery white sheets, closing her tired eyes, and willing herself to get some sleep. She tossed back and forth until her mind finally gave in and allowed her to sleep.

Her dreams however pleasant they were had an eerie feeling of deja vu to them. Like they were going to happen. To begin with Stanford would end up winning but how they got there was all a blur. During the game she felt as though she had been lost in the crowd and that she had failed to her end of the deal with Andrew. That was until she would have to interview him after the game when he gave her the game-winning ball and asked her out on a date or something like that but she couldn't quite tell what his words began to morph together.

Soon Stanford Stadium and Andrew blurred in the violent white light that was now taking over as the outside voice continued talking. Rowan wished she stay in the dream and not face the day's reality because she didn't want to be let down by something that wouldn't happen. Why would someone like Andrew Luck who had the whole world at his fingertips want a girl like her who didn't have a clue? A gentle shaking over took her when she came to that conclusion and the familiar voice of her best friend called her into the waking world,

"Hey, Ro, it's time to get up and get ready for the game."

Groaning, Rowan blinked her eyes trying to adjust from the comforting darkness to the almost violently bright mid day sun. Her tired body ached in protested and need for more sleep. Instead of rising like Quinn wanted her to, Rowan threw her soft chocolate brown blanket over her head and rolled over to face the wall. She didn’t want to leave the comforting warmth of her bed to be let down because of some stupid and pointless dream she had.

Of course, Quinn was not going allow that kind of laziness when Rowan had important things to do. So she walked over to the foot of Rowan's bed and yanked off the covers before demanding,

"Rowan Jade, if you do not get the fuck up right now. I will call Dallas and have him bring over the purple ninja bunnies!"

Quinn smirked because she knew that once her words registered in Rowan's ears she would get out of bed faster than a bat trying to get out of hell. Sure, enough, she didn't even get a chance to count to 3 before Rowan leaped out of bed and latched onto her, shaking like a leaf on a windy day.

"No! No! ANYTHING but the bunnies!! Anything!" She shrieked, grabbing Quinn's shoulders

Quinn took a deep breath to prevent herself from laughing at her friend's hysteric state,

"Only if you go get ready for the game." Quinn warned and Rowan detached herself from Quinn and ran into their bathroom, slamming the door behind as she did so.

Quinn could help but shake her head and laugh at her. After all these years she still didn't understand what 'purple ninja bunnies' were about. She was amusing it came from Spring Break '09 when Rowan went to Hawaii with Dallas. She remembered that every time when he would tease Ro about it, she would go ape. Yet, neither of them would tell her what it meant. It was one of their strange secrets. Another good was the phrase: 'Dick to the face' but is a story for another day.

'Speaking of Dallas...' Quinn thought as her Black Berry Storm 2 viberated in her shorts pocket. Yep, it was Dallas right on que:

'Did the bunnies work?'

Quinn almost laughed but replied back, 'Like a charm :P'

Two seconds after sending her message Dallas replied, 'Good. Now wut do u think Ro was doing talking to Luck?'

This caught Quinn off guard. Flopping onto her bed she thought back. When had she seen Rowan with Andrew Luck? Oh wait, Ro had ran into a few days prior and had seemed to have a quick, friendly conversation with him. She hadn’t remembered when Ro had became friends with the quarterback or when they had met. For Quinn, this was news to her and she was irked because her roommate hadn’t told her first. But there was no possible way the two had met before, so Quinn decided to wave him off,

'I think she was just being Ro. U know how she can get when she is excited.'

'Ookkkayyy.' Dallas replied. Quinn rolled her eyes at him, knowing he wasn't going to let it go.

'Whatever. Just don't say anything to her about it. Okay?' She requested as she heard the shower turn off. She knew that Dallas was going to be the cameraman for Rowan's interviews this evening and hoped he wouldn't embarrass her. Rowan had been waiting for an opportunity like this to come along since freshman year and Quinn didn’t want Dallas to mess things up for Rowan.

Just as Rowan, who looked refreshed and revived for the day, stepped out of the bathroom in robe, hair wrapped up in a towel, Dallas replied back, 'Okay, fine, I won't.

Quinn blushed as Rowan's eyes flickered from Quinn's phone to back her face as she texted back 'Thanks, I owe you :)' Then she turned the phone on silent and tucked it under her rainbow pok-a-dot pillow. She hoped that she hadn’t too obvious that she had been texting Dallas.

As Quinn looked back up at Rowan, she knew that her friend knew her all too well because she was now wearing a rather smug look with an evil little smile and her arms folded across her chest.

"Who were you texting?"

"Oh, just Dallas.” Quinn shrugged, her face semi-flushed as she leaned, nonchalantly against the wall next to her and informed her roommate of what their friend had wanted, “He wanted to know if he needed to bring over those purple bunnies."

Quinn had expected a similar reaction to the one before at the mention of the bunnies, but there was no look of hysteria on Rowan’s face this time. No, this time there was only a look of anger, her eyes narrowed and lips curved down into a scowl. Before Quinn could react, Rowan lunged and moved to swat Quinn with her ConAir hairbrush. Quinn flinched as she felt the hard plastic hit her bicep and then once more for good measure. Looking rather pleased, Rowan folded her arms over her chest once more and then asked,

"Are you gonna help me find something to wear to the game or not?"

*********

1:30PM

Rowan walked down the tunnel of Stanford Stadium just as the guys started their warm ups. It was weird to see the bleachers so empty. She knew that they would fill up in no time because it was the first home game of the season and that was usually when the most students would show. Nerves had churned her stomach into knots, she was nervous and she wasn’t going to lie about it. This was her chance to shine and she didn’t want to screw it up. Her future was riding on this game and how she handled the interviews afterwards. But she was nonetheless relieved to see Dallas standing there waiting on her near the end of the tunnel. She was glad that he was going to be her cameraman. She wouldn’t have wanted anyone else there with her because even if there might’ve been more talented people to do the job none of them would be able to calm her down like Dallas knew how. He hadn't heard or noticed her approach yet he was too busy smiling down at his phone.
Stuffing her hands in her pocket, wandered over to her ginger friend. Rowan was surprised that he still hadn't looked up at her. He must've been really engrossed in the conversation he was having with whoever. She continued to walk up to him until her toes were almost touching his and peered down at his HTC Evo's screen.

"Whatcha doing?" Her voice was barely more than a whisper but Dallas jumped as if she had shouted in his ear. He calmed down when he saw that it was Rowan and locked his phone to prevent her from spying on his conversation.

"Nothing..." He informed her rather slowly, but he couldn't stop the smile that spread across his face. Rowan knew that smile, it was the smile that Dallas only got while he was talking with Quinn. For most people, it would’ve weird to know that their two best friends had huge crushes on the other and neither would do anything about it.

"You were texting Quinn, eh?" Rowan inquired, even if she already knew the answer. Dallas rolled his eyes and stuck his phone in his khaki shorts. He hated that petite girl before him knew him so well. She could read him like a book, but he could hardly ever read her.

"Don't look so smug, Ro, but yes, I was texting Quinn." He got this starry look in his eyes and a feint tint of pink his cheeks like he always did whenever her best friend was mentioned.

"Aw, you lik'er."

Rowan teased with a twang, flipping her brunette hair over her shoulder and began to dance around repeating her previous statement like a child, who had just learned their first word. Dallas loved Rowan and all that, but he wasn't going to take her teasing. Who would? She could get so irritating sometimes it almost made him insane. So he said something that he knew he was going to regret,

"So you like Luck!"

Rowan froze in her tracks and glared at him. If looks could kill, Dallas would be dead on arrival. But for Dallas, it was like he had just struck a gold mine. He had only guessed that Rowan had a crush on Andrew Luck, but he had decided to call her out on it anyway to possibly find out just what was going on between the two.

"No, I don't! I barely know him! He doesn't even know my name!" She denied, crossing her arms over her chest, "Don't ever tell me that I like someone when I have no clue what the situation is." As she lectured him, she began to wave her finger in a rather defensive manner. Dallas grabbed her finger and smirked,

“Looks like the shoes on the other foot, now and you don't like it. Do ya?"

She scoffed and shoved him away, "You are so lucky that you are my friend or I would punch you so that your balls would be bleedin’ and..."

Rowan didn't get the chance to finished her sentence because one of the event coordinators came around the corner holding two black polo shirts with the Stanford ‘S’ embroidered on the right clavicle.

"Kowalski! Compton!" He called, walking up to them, "If you're gonna cover the game then you're gonna wear our shirt. We have to look as uniform and professional as possible."

Rowan made a face, but accepted the polo shirt that was being offered to her with no protest. Dallas kept his face neutral and he also took his matching shirt.

"You know you guys can go enjoy warm up, right? You were given press passes, correct?" Both Rowan and Dallas nodded, flashing their passes as they did so.

"Ok, then you two are all set once you get those shirts on and are free to go check things out." The coordinator turned on one foot and walked away.

Dallas just threw the polo over the Tap Out shirt he had been wearing. Just because he was a guy didn’t mean that he got the easy way out, so Rowan decided to do the same because it was easier than changing.

"So how do I look?" She asked Dallas after she had finished straightening out the shirt. He gave her a once over and shrugged,

"Like yourself." Rowan pouted. "You know what I mean, Ro. You're always smokin' hot."

This made Rowan beam, happily and turn to grab his forearm, "Aw, thanks, Dally! Now let's go watch warm ups!" She exclaimed, tugging him.

"Woah, girl! You'll get to see plenty of Luck this afternoon." He teased her, only to be poked in the belly button, "Ok, ok, I'm just kidding. We can go now."

Rowan smiled and quit poking him to take her first steps onto Foster Field, but suddenly stopped and ran back behind Dallas. Her nerves were getting to her again and she wasn’t sure if she was going to be able to keep it together. What if she screwed up in front of everyone? They would all laugh at her and she would have transfer because she wouldn’t be able to show her face anymore.

"What is your problem now, Ro?" He questioned her with a slight chuckle. He knew this was a huge step for her but he was going to help her get through this because he knew that she had the talent to go places.

She looked up at him with slightly fearful eyes before she stepped out from behind him and spoke up, “Nothing... I just thought we'd you know walk out together..."

Dallas nodded and with that they both walked out together because he knew she needed him by her side for this one. Once she got used to doing this, she might not need him anymore and he would be just fine with that. He knew there would come a time when shy, little Rowan Kowalski would be no more, but today wasn’t that day.

No one seemed to notice them as they walked out onto the field. All of the players from both Stanford and San Jose State were busy with practice drills. It still blew her away how big they all were in person. Just imagine if she was at an NFL game! She would look like a midget even more than she did now!

Rowan looked to Dallas and he looked at her both of them unsure of where to go or what to do. There was a shout of warning as a stray football hurtling in their direction and without a second thought Rowan reached out and caught it. That was when all eyes were on her and as she brought the football down from her line of sight it was replaced by the figure of none other than Andrew Luck!

Rowan could only think of one thing to say at that moment and that was,

"Oh shit....”