Alex lay his head on his arms that were crossed over his desk. The teacher's boring lectures faded out of his ears as he drifted off to sleep. He couldn't help it. The first period of the class was so boring that he had lost count of how many times he yawned.

I know what you thinking, why would a person count how many times they yawned? Well, for Alex, each time he yawned, he would count it so he could rate how boring something was. And if he drifted off to sleep, then the activity must really be boring.

It was his way of killing boredom, sleep! At least, he had a full world of adventure behind his closed eyelids. He didn't know why he had such dreams, but he liked them. Scientists say that dreams are just our minds putting up things from our reality into the same world. But the things he saw in his dreams, weren’t related to him in any way! If they were about a movie he watched during the day, he would understand. But what he had, weren’t even part of his memory. It made him feel like he was spectating someone else’s dreams. But who was he to make a hypothesis about his condition, he was just a mere dumb student in school? Nothing he said made sense, to him or whoever he chatted with.

Since he was always the last in class, he didn’t care about the consequences of sleeping during Madam Morgan’s period. No matter how hard he tried, he would never make it one position lower. The one time he performed better, was when he was the 79th out of 80. And it was all because the second last in class fell sick during the exam and couldn’t do the exam. He studied hard but when he looked at the examination paper, it was like all the answers evaporated from his head. With not even a single word from the textbook he read was present in his mind.

So why not have some fun in his dreams? At least he would get to escape the depressing feeling of being the dumbest student in class.

Darkness swept him up as his heavy eyelids closed shut. And almost immediately, he dove into the world of dreams he had been yearning for.

_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

“Finally, am here!” he exclaimed as he marvelled at the world, he had popped up in.

Lighting struck the dark skies as the heavy rain poured on the earth.

A beam of blue light shot into the sky before taking shape into a round vortex.

It flickered in and out of the air as it was unstable.

From where the beam shot from, stood an 18-storey building with the words “Pex Corp” Suddenly, Alex’s point of view shifted and now he was like he was watching tv and someone suddenly changed channels. And now he was he was standing on the roof of the Pex Corp building! Looking up to the dark nimbus clouds, he stretched out his hand to touch the rain drops that constantly fell in rhythm, but like as if he was just a hologram, they passed through his body without resistance. He wasn’t surprised a bit by the odd reaction. It was something that always happened in his dreams. He was completely unaffected by everything that happened here. Not even a fire could harm him in here. That was why he liked the place a lot. Though it was kind of boring that he couldn’t interact with people and items, the view a lone was much of a self-fulfilment for him! Ignoring the matter, he turned his gaze to the group of people on the roof along with him.

A scientist wearing a white lab coat held a joystick in distress; "I don't think it can hold on any longer." he wiped his face with his free hand as he was completely soaked. His wet black hair formed a small stream of water that flowed down his forehead, to his cheeks, and eventually dripping off his chin. The whole process very uncomfortable.

"Just a little longer. The boss won't be pleased if we stop the operation now." another scientist said raising his voice, calculating it at an angle it could be heard by his peers in the raging wind.

Another scientist tapping buttons and flicking switches on a control panel in anxiety suddenly said, "Uhhhh..... I don't know. It's very unstable." His hands trembling by the profusely making his actions sluggish.

"Take Cover!" he yelled seeing that the pointer on the meter had turned red before breaking. The panel sparked and smoke escaped through the cracks that formed on it. He ran tried distance himself from the machine but suddenly, the portal above Pex Corp exploded, sending a radiating shock wave of blue energy in all directions through the city!!! And a large cloud of dust into the air!

Glasses shuttered when the shock wave passed through tall buildings. Some of the closer buildings collapsing on to the streets with a hip of rubble below them.

The scene was so vivid and well defined that Alex felt his heart race in fear. Luckily, he wasn’t sent flying like the other scientists. He simply stood in the empty space Pex Corp occupied before collapsing.

_-_-_-_-_-_

" A L E X. Wake up. Alex."

The sudden elevated yell pulled Alex out of his land of dreams. He shot his eyes open in a panic and sat upright.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the dumb kid who was now in trouble with the teacher.

"How many times do I have to tell you to stop sleeping during my class," she said.

"I wasn’t sleeping.” He defended, innocently.

“B-ut I- You….” Madam Morgan stuttered in an annoyed and frustrated tone. Even words could not explain the headache and frustration Alex gave her.

"I don't have time to waste on you. Do what you feel like doing. It's your parents' money anyway. If you fail it won't affect me in any way. I'll still receive my salary." she turned around and went back to the interactive whiteboard at the front of the class.

Alex's expression turned grim at the teacher’s statement.

Such words coming from a teacher basically meant she had given up on a student and once that happens. Performing well in class becomes almost impossible! It would be like the teacher is intentionally trying to fail you.

When you raise your arm to ask a question, the teacher would ignore you without thinking twice. And if you fail something, the teacher won't even bother correcting you.

If you want to give an answer in class, the teacher will reject without batting an eye and you'd sit there wondering whether your answer was right or not. In the long ran, reducing the confidence in yourself. Both in class and during the examination. There would only be one word playing through your mind, “I’m not good enough.”

A student would have to rely on his intelligence and hard work put into reading books. Alex was hard working. And he often read his books. But the one thing he didn't have, was intelligence. What was the point of reading when you wouldn’t remember it in the first place!

Alex wasn’t bothered about being disowned by the teacher. Even if this didn’t happen, it wouldn’t help him in any way. But the disappointed faces his parents would have.

He sat there staring blankly at the scribble Madam Morgan had just done on the chalkboard, symbols he couldn’t never understand. He rested his folded hand on his cheek as he tapped his desk rhythmically with tip of his finger. Everything Madam Morgan was saying entered through one ear and left from the other as he didn’t understand one thing she was saying.

His eyes watered as Madam Morgan's words played in his head over and over again. "It's your parents' money, not mine. It won't affect me in any way!" A sad lump formed at the back of his throat as his tears threatened to fall down his cheeks.

His memories of his parents' disappointed faces when he returned home and presented them his report card with poor grades, felt like a million needles pierced into his heart.

And it was because of that that he no longer showed them his report cards. He would either throw them away or shred it to pieces, before returning home.

_0_

The bell finally rang, and it was now time for the students to head back home.

Alex pulled out from his sad daze when he heard the screeching of desks against the floor as students stood up from their stood and left the class.

He stretched out his hand and reached for his backpack that leaned at the side of his desk before sliding his arms through the straps and leaving the class.

He looked down at his sneakers as he walked through the halls, to avoid the gazes the other students through his way as they whispered something among themselves and giggled.

After reaching his locker, Alex stored away the books in his backpack to relieve himself from the excruciating weight his back had to suffer.

Just as he shut his locker, and hang his backpack across his right shoulder, he felt someone pat him at the top of the backpack strap on his shoulder. Subconsciously, he turned around to see who it was.

“Hey bro…. tough day today huh.” A chubby boy wearing a yellow striped shirt and a pair of black trousers greeted. His blond hair was all messy making him look like a blond Einstein with short hair. Crow’s feet formed at the bottom of his eyelids as he smiled at Alex, revealing a chubby lump below his chin. His skin was as smooth as that of a baby and his rosy thin lips looked so healthy and moist. Like as if he had never stepped under the sun from the time he was born. He didn’t even have a single damage on his skin. Not even a pimple! They were supposed to be at the age of puberty, yet he looked like he had defied biology.

The two boys chatted and merrily as they made their way home. The gloomy face on Alex had long since disappeared after he started listening to Calvin’s jokes.

“Hey bro, listen to this….” Calvin said patted Alex’s chest with the back of his hand as he still laughed from his previous joke, “Teacher’s all like ‘school is not a place for sleeping’ well, excuse her, home is not a place for schoolwork either.” He stated before bursting into another peal of laughter. Alex laughed so hard that his stomach hurt. When he thought of saying those words out loud at Madam Morgan. Her frustrated stammers always made his day.

_0_

Alex lay on his bed, in the confines of the four walls of his dark room. Blue light illuminated his face when he turned on his phone. He looked at his deserted WhatsApp contact list, at the five only contacts he had saved. His mom, dad, Calvin, his uncle Ralph, and David, his brother. Sighing at his miserable lack of friends, he turned the screen off. But then, almost immediately, it turned back on as a chirping sound of a notification filled the air in his room.

His face lit up when he saw a notification at the top of his screen. Tapping it, he opened his chat with Uncle Ralph to check on his message.

A wide grin formed on his face as he stared at the greeting.

'Hi there kid…..This weekend I wanna challenge you in fifa21 you up for it.' Read the message.

Alex moved his hands swiftly across the virtual keyboard to type in his reply; “Oh heck yeah……. get ready to lose.”

It didn't take long before the text he sent marked two blue ticks and the top of the contact’s name showed 'typing....'

'Hahaha. I beat you last time, what makes you think you can even try.' the text popped up after half a second of displaying 'typing....’

This was something Alex wasn't able the understand until now, Uncle Ralph’s typing speed was just out of this world. He regarded himself a fast typist but when he compared his speed to that of Uncle Ralph’s, he felt like a toddler.

'Just you wait……. Anyway, got to sleep early. School’s tomorrow. Just get ready.'

'Alright good night kid.'

‘Good night Uncle Ralph’ he replied before closing the chat.

Alex set an alarm on his phone and placed it on the side table before drifting off to sleep. Only a step further from the land of dreams he so much enjoyed!