The City of Dreams -- Part 12

[My sister-in-law, Ammie, has challenged me to provide reading material for her to read aloud with my brother.  I guess there's a national read-aloud event, but I couldn't quite tell if it's for all of March, or just for tomorrow--which happens to be my wonderful wife's birthday.  (Also, the birthday of Dr. Seuss.  Not that that is relevant.)

[Since I don't know whether it's a one day thing or an every day thing, maybe I'll just have to provide new material every day this month....]



School was school.
It wasn't as bad as it could have been, and, in fact, was quite a bit better.  I made the entire class laugh--on purpose--during world history, and I was nice to be with.  I even remembered three names I didn't think I knew.  Unfortunately, none of them belonged to the drama girl I'd met the day before, and she said 'hi' to me in the hall, so I said 'hi' back, pulled my backpack off my shoulder, and started digging around in it like I had something I needed to find.  I don't know if she would have stopped to talk to me anyway, but if she'd wanted to then I put her off by being busy, and we went on our way.  Safe from embarrassment.  For the moment.
I knew fourth period was coming, but I had a plan for English.  I was going to get there early.  I was going to find Brie and apologize.  I was going to do it.  I'd even practiced five different ways of saying it in my head.  None of them sounded very good, but somewhere in my second bowl of breakfast I'd decided that didn't matter.  Sure, I'd probably screw it up, but I couldn't make it worse, I might even be funny, and at least I would have tried.
Fact was, all the time I'd been talking with Tamara, I wanted to be talking with Brie.  I knew it was stupid, just a fresh crush, but I couldn't convince myself that was such a bad thing.  She was funny, and clever, and seemed plenty smart to me.  It also didn't hurt that she was cute.  I had spent most of yesterday, not to mention a good chunk of the night, trying to convince myself that she didn't want to be with me and I didn't want to be with her.  I also knew that half of that was a lie.  I did want to be with her, so I was going to try it.
It also didn't hurt my courage that Tamara teased me about Brie the entire way to school.  It seemed like that was the only part of our conversation that she remembered, the way she kept bringing it up through the entire car ride.  Cindy, sitting in the back, of course had to know what was going on, and that led to lots and lots of questions about what, exactly, Brie was like, and how we met, and did I seriously dream about her, and she dreamed about ME?  The result of all that teasing was that I was looking for exactly one through the entire morning.  I might go down in flames, but I would at least try to fly.  I would apologize to Brie.
She found me while I was walking to English.
"Hey, Perry," she said, stepping up next to me and bumping into my shoulder.
"Catch you in a bit," said Mike.  He broke away, headed to some lockers, and started fiddling with one of the combination locks.
"Is that his locker?" asked Brie as we walked on.
"No," I said.
Brie smiled.  "I like Mike," she said.
"Me, too."
Brie's smile went away.  "Perry," she started.
"Brie," I said, "I--"
"--need to apologize," we finished together.
"What?" I said.
"I need to apologize," she said again.  "I overreacted yesterday."
"No you didn't."
"Yes, I did."
"I was a jerk."
"Not really."
"Yes, really.  I ignored you for almost the entire class."
"But it's not like we could have talked, or passed each other notes, or anything like that."
"I guess we could have texted," I said.
"And have our teacher snag our phones and read the messages to the entire class?  No thank you."
"But I screwed it up," I insisted.
"Well...kinda," she admitted, "but it wasn't a big screw up.  I was still kind of...keyed up from the night before.  I had a lot of fun."
"I did, too," I said.
"But you didn't look like it when you looked at me in English."
"I know.  Like I said, I screwed up."
"Stop it," said Brie.
"Stop what?"
"Stop beating yourself up.  I knew what you were like in the waking world.  I knew you were different in the City, but I expected you to be the sleeping Perry, and I got the awake Perry, and it surprised me, but you don't have to blame yourself for that." "I'm sorry you were disappointed," I said.  I felt my shoulders hunching up under my backpack straps.
"No!  I wasn't disappointed.  It just caught me off guard.  The waking you is okay, too."
"Okay?"
She hit me on the shoulder.  "Stop that."
"So I can't beat myself up, but you can beat me up?"
"Exactly."
We walked quietly for a few seconds.
"I tried to find you yesterday," I said.
"I know.  Carrie told me."
"Who's Carrie?"
"Are you serious?" asked Brie, laughing.
"I told you I don't remember names very well.  Or people."
"Carrie was the girl in the drama room that you talked to."
"Oh.  Carrie.  Is she your friend?"
Brie gave a half shrug.  "Sure.  We've been in plays together."
"You don't sound very sure," I said.
"We've definitely been in plays together," said Brie with confidence.
Mike scooted around us.  "Walk faster, guys.  Bell's about to ring."
"After you," I said to Brie, motioning her ahead.
"Why not together?" she asked.
"Okay."
We walked faster together.


Our teacher didn't let us out early, but my conversation with Brie went much better than the day before.  I walked back to her after the bell rang, and she was smiling.
"You didn't do the wave," I said.
"Which wave?"
"This one."  I did it, and I must say that my finger curling looked very smooth.
"Careful with that," said Brie.  "People might think you're flirting with me."
"You tricked me into doing that," I said.
Her smile got a bit bigger.  "I'm a clever, clever woman."
I found myself smiling with her.  I didn't feel like a scum bag and I didn't feel particularly heavy.  I was starting to feel rather light, actually.
"Want to come eat lunch with us?" I asked before I could stop myself.  "We usually eat in the choir room--Sook, Mike, and I.  It's not like it's private or anything.  They don't check for a choir membership card at the door or anything like that.  Or I could come eat in the drama room."
"Really?" asked Brie, looking genuinely surprised.
"Why not?"
"Carrie said that you looked terrified just walking into the place.  I figured you'd never go into the drama room again."
"I'm learning to face my fears."
"Really?"
"No."
"We can eat in the choir room," said Brie.  "I'm cool with that.  I don't really hang out with anybody in the drama room anyway.  Will Mike and Sook mind?"
"No," said Mike, walking up to join us.  "We won't mind, though I will start to mind if we don't start walking.  I'm hungry."
"Let's go, then," said Brie.
We walked.  Nobody said anything.  I felt the awkwardness, but I didn't know how to fix it.  I wanted to talk about the City, but that would leave Mike out.  I suppose I could have talked about anything else, but I couldn't think of anything.  What did Mike and I usually talk about?  I was drawing a blank.
Mike helped me out.  "Where did you move from, Brie?"
"You've never heard of it," she said.
"Try me."
"Points Crossing?"
Mike's lips pressed into a thin line.  "Nope.  Never heard of it."
"I'm not from Points Crossing.  I'm from a little town that's just outside of Points Crossing.  You zoom in on Google Earth and we're the smudge next to the dot."
"That small?"
"Everyone knew the names of everyone else's pets.  Even the goldfish and Tommy's pet rock, Chuckles."
I looked at her carefully.  "I think you're making that up," I said.
She almost smiled.  "Maybe.  But I did come from a really small town."
"Why did you move here?" asked Mike.
"Dad's work and Mom's art.  Mostly Mom's art.  The gallery wanted her around to promote her work more actively, and traveling all the way here all the time was getting on her nerves.  So, when Dad got a job offer here, we took it."
"Do you like it?" I asked.  Yeah, that was me, asking a question.  I was pretty impressed with myself.
Brie shrugged.  "It's okay.  I like the drama program.  Way better than what we had in Points Crossing."
"Did you have a drama program?" asked Mike.
"No."
"That does sound like an improvement."
"How did you learn to act, then?"
"Who says I did?"
"But you were great!" I said.  "I mean, as the witch."
She shrugged again.  "That didn't take acting.  I just had to cackle a lot."
"That's not true," I said.  "You were great.  Really great."
Mike was grinning at me.  I could see what he was about to do.  I started to shake my head at him, but he said it anyway.
"Perry didn't know that was you," he said.
"Mike!"
"Perry!" said Brie.
"But that means that my compliment is even more sincere," I said.  "I didn't know it was you, and I still thought you were great."
Brie looked at me with narrowed eyes.  "I'll accept that.  I guess."
We kept walking, I glared at Mike, and he smiled at me.  I couldn't tell if I was happy with the way things were going or not.


The rest of lunch had exactly the same flavor.  Mike and Sook and Brie were all nice to each other, and we laughed some, and they did most of the talking, and I couldn't tell if I was happy with how things were going.  Every smooth moment had a seriously awkward moment to go with it.  By the time the lunch bell rang, I just wanted to go home and go to sleep.  Being awake was such hard work.
Instead I said 'see ya' to Brie and went to class with Sook.
"She seems really nice," said Sook.
"She is," I said.
"You did okay, Perry."
"Yeah," I said.
"You're just getting to know her.  Everything doesn't have to go right the first time."
"Unless the first time makes sure there isn't a second time," I muttered.
"What was that?" asked Sook.
I shook my head.  Sook sighed.
"You make everything harder than it needs to be," she said.
No kidding, I thought.


I went to bed early that night.  For one thing, I didn't have any particular reason to be awake--not even the promise of cake and ice cream, since I figured I'd just wake up and have some in the middle of the night--and I wanted to get into the City.  I wanted to see Brie there.  I could make things better, I knew, if I could see her where I felt good and where things worked for me.  She wouldn't have to put up with the daytime me.  She could see the happy me.
I could tell I woke up in the City because a small herd of potted plants were looking at me curiously.  I was lying on my back in someone's little city garden, raised planters and hanging pots all around me.
"I'm okay," I said, trying to reassure them, though I wasn't sure they needed reassuring.  I'd mostly gotten over my suspicions of plants in the City--I'd decided they wanted me to give them food, not to be their food--but I also didn't want them thinking I was either sick or elderly and needing to be culled from the herd.  "I'll get up now," I added, rising to my feet slowly.  The mobile pots around me scooted back, giving me space, and some of the hanging plants waved at me shyly.  They were all looking at me expectantly.
"I don't have any food," I said finally.  "Sorry."
They lost interest in me immediately.
I looked around, able to pay more attention to my surroundings now that I had more breathing room.  I was on a roof garden, plants packed into pretty much every square foot of roof that wasn't occupied by the door to a stairwell and fans for air circulation.  Even a satellite dish had plants hanging from it, though I couldn't quite figure out how there could be satellites in the City.  Was there even enough of a world here for something to orbit?  Would it crash into the moon?  The moon was so large above me I almost felt I could reach out and touch it.
The door to the stairwell opened.  A woman with oversized glasses pushed her way out, carrying a bread bag.  She was stooped at her shoulders and wore a floral-print shirt that hadn't been seen in the real world for twenty years--at least not that I'd seen.  She didn't seem to see me, but instead made her way to a bench that I hadn't noticed and sat down.  The plants crowded around her expectantly as she undid the twist-tie on the bread bag.  I stood awkwardly, not sure how to get her attention.
"Well?" she said.  She was looking down at her hands, so I couldn't tell if she was talking to me or not.  "Well?" she said again.  "Are you going to stand up all night, or are you going to sit down?  There's room enough on this bench for two, and I don't bite."