t's dark.

Not pitch black dark, just dark. Maybe night blue dark.

I feel like I'm flying or floating. Definitely floating. I feel as light as a feather. I look around trying to figure out where I am and it dawns upon me.

I'm in the water.

It's happening. Again.

I move my arms, trying to swim up, but it's like I'm stuck or frozen. I try once again, but I fail at swimming up.

I start squirming as I feel my lungs being squeezed. I kick my legs and paddle. Nothing happens. And all of a sudden, my body starts to sink.

The dark navy blue colour fades into sapphire then royal blue then midnight blue. I start running out of breath and a striking pain shoots in my head, like a bullet through the glass. My eyesight hazes and blurs out and black dots my vision. Loud ringing chimes in my ears.

All of the air gets knocked out of me and my eyes flutter close. Darkness surrounds my vision.

I shoot up, gasping for air and breathing heavily. My eyes start stinging and a lump grows in the bottom of my throat, nagging me. I look at my alarm clock.

Monday, 20th of January.

2:56 AM.

The bedroom door opens and my mum comes rushing in with a worried look on her face. I know she heard me screaming. And she knows that this happens to me every time that day comes nearer.

"Anna," she wraps her arms around me, sitting down on my bed.

I start hyperventilating, breathing heavily and trying to catch on gasps of air until I feel my breathing evening out and I slowly breath normally again.

"It's okay. Everything will be okay," she cooes.

"Mum?" A groggy voice calls and I look up to find Liam standing by the door, rubbing his eyes.

Liam's eyes widen, "What happened?"

"Nightmare," mum replies.

"It's happening again, right?" He asks and I nod.

Liam walks to the other side of my bed and he hugs me tightly.

"Don't worry, Anna. You'll be okay," he assures me.

"Thanks, Lee," I smile at him tiredly.

Mum and Liam stay with me for awhile. I tell them to go sleep because mum has work the next day and Liam has school. Mum gives me some sleeping pills; to help me with the nightmares and everything. I pop two inside my mouth and swallow them dry, then I lay down on my bed and stare at the ceiling until the pills do their thing.

I have to deal with this for the next five days and there's no doubt, I'll start having panic attacks in public too. And I'll have to go with the she-didn't-eat-anything-from-the-morning lie that the girls come up with every year. Then there's Luke and the guys-

Oh, my Lord. What am I going to do with Luke?

What if he already knows? What if he already suspected it? With the bracelet and the fact that he saw my sister before, it would be so obvious for him.

But what if he doesn't even remember her? After Anastasia passed away, almost everybody forgot about her.

Finally feeling the pills kicking in, I turn on my side and stare out of the window as my eyelids start growing heavy.

I hope this week passes by quickly.

| | | |

"Hey, Lyn," Sophie's familiar voice comes from beside me and I turn my head towards her.

"Hey, Soph," I greet her, grabbing my backpack from my locker and closing the locker.

"What is wrong with you?" Colette asks me as soon as she and Riley approach us.

"Yeah, what she said," Sophie gestures to Colette with her head.

"I didn't sleep last night," I reply, slinging the backpack on my shoulder.

"Why–wait, it's because of the nightmares again, isn't it?" Riley says.

"Yeah," I sigh, rubbing my forehead. I've had a migraine since the morning and it feels like someone is smashing the front part of my head with a hammer.

"Did you take any sleeping pills last night?" Sophie questions.

"I did, but they weren't that much of a great help."

"You'll be okay, Anna. Don't worry," Riley reaches out and squeezes my hand in sympathy.

"The next week will go by quickly and you'll be fine," Sophie soothes me.

"And we'll be right there for you if you need anything," Colette adds.

"Thanks, guys," I smile at them.

"Group hug," Riley announces.

The four of us join in our small group hug, then we pull away after awhile as the bell rings.

"We'll meet at Sophie's locker after class," Riley says and the rest of us nod.

We separate our ways, each one heading to their classes. I walk to my first class–History–and plop down in my usual seat. Since Mr. Miller is the type of teacher who doesn't care about the students, he always enters the lesson ten minutes after the bell rings. I don't blame him though. With a class like this, I'd do the same thing.

I get out my earphones and the last Sci-Fi book I was reading, then connect the earphones to my phone and play my playlist. I open the book at where I stopped and start reading from there. I don't last five minutes, until something catches my eye and I look up to find Luke entering the classroom and taking a seat behind me.

I turn around. "Hey, you," I address him, pausing the song and taking the earphones out of my ears.

"You look like shit," he says truthfully, crossing his arms.

"Thanks, Luke," I reply sarcastically, giving him a dry look.

"You're welcome, Anna," he gives me one of his grins.

For some stupid reason, my heart actually leapt when he called me by my name. I seriously need to contain myself. I don't like Luke. I don't like Luke. I'm not falling for that crap again.

"Is that what I get for greeting you?" I raise an eyebrow.

"Right. Sorry," he holds up his hands in defense. "Hey, Cherries."

"Thank you," I grin widely.

"Seriously, what's up with you?"

"I didn't get much sleep last night," I shrug.

"Did a dodgeball chase you in your dreams or something?" He smirks.

"Oh, ha ha ha. Aren't you hilarious?" I deadpan.

"I try."

"No, you idiot," I roll my eyes. "I had a nightmare last night and I couldn't sleep after it."

"Sleeping pills do exist, you know?"

"They didn't work," I reply.

"Just stay awake and live on coffee," he pitches in.

"Maybe that's how you do it, but I need sleep to function," I prop my elbow on the desk and rest my head on my palm.

"Go for a walk. That helps sometimes," he suggests, his eyes flickering to the right for a moment. "Walking takes a shit ton of energy though, it's pretty much useless."

"You are such a lazy bum," I tell him, tugging my beanie down on my head.

"I'm not wasting my life on walking and running. I'm not a damn water strider," he points out and I burst out laughing.

I hear the classroom door closing and I turn my head to find Mr. Miller standing by the chalkboard.

"To be continued," I tell Luke and turn my whole body around, facing forward.

"By the way, I like that flower tattoo on your arm," Luke whispers, his warm breath hitting my ear and the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. My eyes widen and my cheeks fire up as I sink in my seat.

Contain yourself, woman.

| | | |

"...and that's why Diana, princess of Wales is considered one of the greatest women in history," Mr. Miller ends the lesson just as the bell rings.

"Class dismissed."

Everybody rushes to pack their things and exit the classroom. I put my textbook and my other things in the backpack. For some reason, I always take my sweet time packing my things, maybe it's because I don't like getting involved in the whole shove-people-to-get-the-heck-out-of-this-Avernus-pit-they-call-a-classroom crowd.

Also, let's not forget that I'm claustrophobic. If I get involved in that crowd, I'll faint and everybody will just step and walk on me. And I'm not flexible. I'll be a mat in seconds. Actually, more of a carpet, like that long red carpet in premieres.

When the classroom completely empties, I drape the strap of the backpack on my shoulder and walk out of the class. I find Abby waiting outside and as soon as she spots me, she smiles and strolls to me.

"Hey, Anna."

"Hey, Abbs," I send her a smile back. "How are you?"

"Great. How are you doing?" She asks.

"Good," I lie. It doesn't hurt to lie about how you're doing. It never does.

She frowns, "you don't look good though."

"I'm just stressed about a few things like, you know what," I tell her.

"Yeah. I can't believe it has been eight years since she passed away," she mumbles sadly.

"Time really passes fast," I say.

"It does," she nods. It stays quiet between us for awhile.

Abby speaks up, "anyways, I wanted to talk to you earlier to check up on you, but you seemed occupied." She gives me a teasing smile, trying to lighten up the mood.

My eyes widen. "You saw that?"

"Girl, everyone did."

"We weren't doing anything wrong. We were just talking," I explain.

"And what about what happened when Mr. Miller walked in?" She questions, arching an eyebrow.

"What happened when Mr. Miller walked in?" I ask in fake dumbness.

"He told you something and you got all red like a cranberry," she grins.

"It was just Luke being his usual self," I answer nervously.

"Seriously, after all of this, you still think that you don't like him?" She crosses her arms persistently.

"Yes, I don't like him. Is it wrong to be friends with a guy?" I say stubbornly.

"I never said that, but friends don't flirt with each other, do they?" She says. "That's unless you have some kind of agreement," she quickly adds, her eyes widening and she gasps dramatically.

"What? No!" I exclaim. "We weren't flirting."

"Okay then," she responds.

"For the last time, we aren't-" I pause, coming to realization of what Abby said. "Wait...'okay'?"

"Yeah. I mean, it's obvious that you're just friends like you tend to claim," she says in a convinced way and I eye her, not believing what she said.

It's Abby we're talking about here. No matter what happens or who says what, she's pretty persistent about herself. Her confidence amazes me so much.

"I don't believe you, but okay," I tell her.

*Ting*

A phone buzz sounds and Abby gets her phone out of her pocket, turning it on and glancing at it before sighing out loud. "I gotta go," she says. "Zoey is waiting for me and she is blowing my phone. Although, I muted her the first time."

"How can she still text you then?" I wonder.

"I found out that she put her second number on my phone and she texted me through it."

I chuckle, "it's fine. I have to meet up with the girls anyways."

"Right. I'll see you in that carnival meeting later?"

"Yup," I affirm.

"Okay. See you later, Lyn," she salutes me, then turns around and walks down the hallway, disappearing around the corner.

Now to meet up with the other three nutsos.

| | | |

"Hello, everyone," Jewel starts, smiling in a greeting way. "Welcome to this year's fundraiser meeting. This year, we decided to change the fundraiser's idea. We have thought about it and we think a fun fair would be better as a fundraising event."

I can't believe they're actually doing Colette's fake-but-not-really-fake-that-was-made-to-get-my-notebook-back idea.

"We made sure that the carnival contains all sorts of fun for all ages as people from all grades will be coming," Scarlett Park, one of the cheerleaders and members of the student body, adds on. "This fundraiser, as we all know, will be collecting money for one of the very famous organizations, the UNICEF organization and our school trip."

"Our goal this year is to collect at least twenty five thousand dollars for UNICEF and fifteen thousand for our trip. Last year's class collected thirty thousand dollars and they used the money for charity and a good trip. We have already calculated the profit of the carnival and we came up with forty thousand dollars," Carmen Tyler explains.

That's a serious amount of money for one event.

"Principal Collins has already contacted a planning group and they will be helping with setting up the fun fair and the booths and everything," Jewel speaks.

"We decided to charge people five dollars for entrance, but all of the senior grade and the teachers are allowed to enter without paying."

"Now for the tasks, we have already chosen who is going to handle each booth with Principal Collins' approval. There will be four people working in each booth, except for the food stands which will be already handled."

I wanted to work in a food booth though.

Jewel announces the booths and the people who will be working in them. When Jewel says that the girls and I will be working in the same booth, we automatically grin at each other.

However, the guys aren't so lucky. Luke, Alex and Zach got stuck with Seth and judging from Luke's reaction, he is not happy about it. After the whole Fiona cheating on Luke with Seth thing, they couldn't stand to be in each other's presence for ten seconds. Scratch that. Ten seconds would be a record number.

"The carnival will be held on the twentieth of February which will give us a whole month to work on it," Carmen informs us.

"The only thing left is the music. We've been discussing this and we decided to get a live band," Jewel says, looking down at the paper on the podium.

A live band? That's the first good thing that the school does after the food and the free period.

"I'm pretty sure you all know TNC or The Night Chicks, as they're called," Scarlett assumes and almost ninety seven percent of the people sitting in the conference room nod.

What the heck?

Sophie, Riley, Colette and I gape at each other with wide eyes. Our reactions are a perfect example of those people in YouTube videos who find out that their boyfriends/girlfriends are actually looking for sugar daddies.

"We thought about it and we agreed on letting them play at the carnival," Jewel smiles enthusiastically.

Back the glittery sprinkly fudge up...what?

People start hollering and cheering. I'm really flattered that all these people like us and actually enjoy our music, but I would like to keep my identity safe. I know that sounds Hannah Montana-ish, but I don't want the unneeded attention. Attention just gives me anxiety and makes me nervous and fidgety. That's why I tend to avoid eye contact whenever I'm singing. Actually, I tend to avoid eye contact all the time for my sake.

"Yes, Jennie?" Carmen gestures with her hand and I turn my head towards Jennie's direction.

"Shouldn't we, like get a professional band instead?" She asks, her arms crossing against her chest.

Colette and Riley roll their eyes. Then Sophie kisses her teeth in annoyance and mutters, "kiss my ass."

Jennie must have heard her because she whips her head around to face us. "Is there something wrong?" Jennie raises her eyebrows.

"Only you, honey," Sophie smiles sweetly at her.

Jennie just rolls her eyes and turns back to Carmen.

Carmen clears her throat loudly, "We think that TNC is a good choice because it's famous around the town and it's a great band. A professional band is not necessary."

"That's all for today," Scarlett announces. "Thank you all for being here today. You may leave."

Fi-flipping-nally.

All the people in the conference room start exiting it and we follow outside. The bell rings, declaring the end of lunch break.

"Are you freaking serious?" Riley whines.

"I didn't even eat anything yet," I mutter. Rude poodles.

"Forget about that now," Sophie says. "Wait...don't. Food is essential. Hold that thought and focus on another one."

"Which is?" Colette asks.

"Which is: what are we going to do about the carnival thing?"

"Fun fair," Colette corrects her, mumbling.

"We're just going to perform in the fun fair. People didn't recognize us in the diner. They won't recognize us in the fun fair," I shrug.

"What about our booth? How are we going to do both?"

"I can ask Abby for help. She'll definitely know a solution for that," I tell her.

"Let's hope that carnival passes by smoothly," Sophie sighs.

"Fun fair," Colette corrects again.

"Lottie."

| | | |

❀