C4 Dark Dreams

The alarm rang. It was time for him to wake up. He reflected that it was 6:30 in the morning. He wanted to snooze the alarm like he did the previous day but Clara would not hear of it. He rose from his bed and yawned, stretching his arms.

He was still in his pajamas. He knelt down by his bed to pray. He got himself ready for school and Clara also got ready to drive him. It had become customary for her to do so because he had objected to having the chauffeur to drive him.

During the drive, he kept thinking about the boy he met the previous day. Cody’s appearance was good. He looked nice and he just hoped he would be like his friends at St. Mark’s.

Suddenly, the car stopped. Clara expected him to get out of the car but he didn’t. Clara tapped him and he came back to reality.

“What were you thinking about?” She said with a suspicious look on her face.

“I must have trailed…. Off”. He said, reaching his hands for the door knob.

“Okay, be yourself and don’t forget to collect food from the cafeteria during lunchtime.

He frowned slightly. He was in the habit of doing that and he disliked it whenever Clara or anyone else teased him about it.

“Are you for real, Clara?" I think we talked about this”.

“Yeah, we did. Just have a nice time and enjoy yourself”.

“Okay”. He said and walked on.

…

It was lunchtime. Casey was in the class as usual, avoiding the cafeteria. The café was not a place he preferred. He brought out his Mathematics textbook to solve some questions.

“Hi. I like the way you work hard.” A voice said to him. He looked up and saw it was Cody

“Good morning, you showed up”. Casey said with a bright smile.

“Of course, I did. What if we leave Mathematics for now and go to the cafeteria?” Cody offered politely

“I would love to but visiting the cafeteria is not my thing”. Casey replied, declining the offer politely.

“That’s not bad. But can you please give a chance only for today, please”. Cody said with a look that was difficult to resist.

“Okay”. Casey said, finally obliging to his request.

As they walked towards the cafeteria, Casey decided to stir up a conversation.

“Where are your friends?” He asked, twiddling out of nervousness.

“I don’t have any friends here. I noticed you were exceptional and that was the reason I walked up to you to have a conversation that day”. Cody said.

“It was just yesterday”.

“Oh, pardon me. The fun fact is that I’m also kind of a new student”.

Casey was a bit surprised.

“What do you mean?” He asked out of surprise.

“I got here a term to the end of last session”

“Oh, that’s what you meant”. He said, heaving a sigh of relief.

“The reason I haven’t made any friends since then is that everyone here is too classy, unfriendly and hostile”.

“That’s exactly what I also thought”.

me between him and the man.

“Ah”. He screamed.

“That’s all you need.”The man said and vanished.

...

Cody jumped out of his sleep. He was scared and startled.

“Make peace with others, make peace”. He said, repeatedly making, heaving like someone who was about to have asthmatic seizure.

”Calm down. It’s okay. You are here and you are safe.”Casey assured him.

Cody came back to reality and reflected that he had nightmare. He was still heaving heavily. He finally regained calmness after two minutes and gulping two bottle s of water.

“What’s wrong man? You were sleeping this second and the next you shot up from your dream and kept shouting”. Casey asked.

“I’m glad it’s just a nightmare. I saw my life flashing right before me.” Cody said.

“What’s about making peace?” Casey asked inquisitively.

“Nothing, it’s nothing you understand”. Cody said, took his bag and ran off.

“Something’s fishy about this guy”. Casey said and stood up.

They had stayed back after school and Casey went to get them some snacks when he slept off. Casey came back but he decided not to wake him up. The next thing he knew was that Cody shouted from his sleep. He took his backpack and also headed home. His sister would have been waiting for him at home. He specifically told her not to come for him in the afternoon. He checked his wrist-watch and saw it was 4:02p.m.

...

Cody was troubled. He couldn’t get enough sleep throughout the night. He could not help rolling on his bed from end to end. The dream he had earlier had taken his thoughts. He was lucky they just finished their assessment test a week earlier or else he would not be able to tell Casey about it because he didn’t know how he would react. The dream was mysterious and that mystery needed to unraveled. He wanted to get to the root of the matter but he didn’t just know the manner of approach to tackle it.

The day soon visited and he got ready for school. As he got to the hallway that led to his classroom, he saw Casey. He exhaled and walked up to him.

“Good morning bro. how was your night?”

“It was fine although you walked out on me yesterday afternoon”. Casey replied.

“Yes, I’m sorry about that."It’s my bad”. Casey said with an indifferent look.

He made up his mind to tell about the dream

“I realized I’ve been a freak. Let me tell you the story”. He volunteered.

“Okay.”

He told him every part of the dream without withholding a bit from hm.

“This is crazy”. Casey said and exhaled.

“I am also confused. I can’t read any meaning to it.” Cody said, grimacing.

“Let’s figure it out.” Casey said, placing his hands on his chin. They stood for almost two minutes before Casey could snap his fingers to signify that he had gotten an idea.

“I have an idea. It’s telling you that you are going to need those petals sooner or later.

“How!"When? Why?” Cody asked in a troubled manner.

“I don’t have answers to all this questions but I think time will tell”. Casey said, patting his shoulders.

“Okay, it’s Tuesday and Mr. Harley’s going to distribute the test results.” Cody reminded him’

“That’s true. Let’s go before he makes us the topic for the day.” Casey said and they both giggled.

They sat down on their desks and not too long. Mr. Harley came in.

“Good morning sir”. The whole class echoed.

“It’s a good morning indeed”. He said sarcastically.

“Most of you performed woefully in the test so t here is nothing good about the morning. Just distribute your results after the class. He said, handing the scripts to the class president.

The results were distributed after the class. Casey was happy to discover that he made 19 out of 20 marks. He went to Cody

“What did you score in the test?” He asked.

“Not that bad, I made 15 out of 20. At least I didn’t get below a 10”.

“I made 19 out of 20”. Casey said. Cody was surprised.

“Wow, you are such a genius. Besides, thanks for helping me”. I could not have pulled it off without studying with you”.

“You are welcome. Well, I heard Felix also made 19.”

“Yeah, he’s the smartest here”. Cody commented.

Just then, Felix passed by.

“Enjoy it while it lasts, ‘Manuel”. He said with rage and walked away.

“The friends turned to him and back to each other.

“Cody, we just got ourselves a new contender”. Casey said, nudging him.

“Yes. I guess so. I guess”. He said, folding his arms.