• I wake up breathing heavily; I can't remember anything about my dream except that it was bad. How many more sleepless nights will I have to go through before this stops? It's three am and all I can do is lay in my hot sticky bedroom and strain my memory for any piece of information on these nightmares.
    These nightmares have been haunting me since the last day of school. All I remember about that day is the strange way the English teacher watched me. Mr. Koltz was always laid pretty laid back, but pushed us to do our best. For some reason he changed his personality the last day.
    I lay in bed trying to remember that day.I walked into English second period of my last miserable day in Scootz Junior High. All the kids cared about here were reputations and the opposite gender. I mean yeah, I'm into guys in all, but I put my studies and family first. Thats the way I was brought up and that's how I plan to keep it.
    After I had walked in, I plopped down in a desk. Mr. Koltz just stared at me like I was a mutated alien or something. More students filed in, but Mr. Koltz completely ignored them and continued to stare at me. As I turned to get something from my bag, I could feel his cold stare boring into my back.
    The bell rang, and Mr. Koltz stood up. He handed each student a small slip of paper and asked us to read it to ourselves. On my slip was written,"Your discoveries of yourself never end even as you live longer, but one discovery will outshine them all." I stared at it blindly for a moment as my thoughts drifted.
    All of the sudden I was awoken from my daydream by Mr. Koltz standing over my desk.
    He said,"Miss Hoshi, would you so kindly read your slip aloud to the class first? Then give us your thoughts on it." He said it in that voice teachers use when they catch you passing notes and have you read them aloud.
    I said in the hoarsest voice I could muster,"I would but my throat is terribly ragged today."
    Mr. Koltz looked at me for a moment, then said,Then, why were you talking to Miss Kevins over there just fine in the hallway before class?"
    Rats! He had caught me. I thought hard and fast, but finally gave into him. I stood up slowly and headed the long walk to the front of the class. I slowly read my slip aloud.
    I said," I think it basically means that even as we grow older, we will always find some thing about ourselves that we didn't realize before. It's almost like finding a talent you didn't know you had. It also reminds me that as we grow older the more about our personality we realize."
    I walked back to my seat and sat down. Mr. Koltz called another student up and had them do the same thing. I pulled out my notebook and began to doodle, but I could feel Mr. Koltz staring at me the rest of the period.
    When the bell rang, Mr. Koltz dismissed the whole class, but me. I groaned in my mind and thought about what I did. I couldn't think of anything too bad.
    Mr. Koltz said," Karen, I want you to take what you read and said today to heart and think a little deeper on the subject."
    I stared at him blankly then answered," Okay I guess I have to have someting to do this summer."
    "I thought you were in Marching Band."
    "I am."
    "Oh, well have a nice summer."
    "Thanks." I headed out the door into the two-way street known as the hallway. I spent third period in the nurses office. I used the old hot water fever trick to get my mom to come pick me up.
    Lying in bed now, I strain my brain even harder to remember the dream. It's hopeless. I feel drained and roll over, but sleep avoids me after these sorts of nights. I hear the ticking of the Grandfather clock in the living room, but nothing else. Will this be the way I spend every night for the rest of my life?