Evelyn groaned internally as she groped around for her phone, trying to turn off her alarm. Eventually she found the right button, and the annoying music turned heavenly silent. Her arms felt filled with pins and needles as all of the blood rushed back into them. She stayed in her bed for a few moments longer, staring at the ceiling, wishing that her alarm would have gone off a few minutes later to allow her to finish her dream. But alas, she was awake, and there was no way to re-submerse herself into her own little world.

Somewhere deep inside herself, Evelyn found the motivation to roll out of bed. She stumbled into the bathroom and stared at her reflection. She was met with the sight of a pair of squinting green eyes and a frizzy brown mane that was sticking up in all directions. She shrugged. She'd deal with the monstrosity that was her hair later.

She put on some jeans and a Shrute farms T-shirt, then threw her hair into a slightly messy ponytail. She ran down the stairs and walked out to her kitchen, where Mr. Beck sat reading the paper. Most normal people just looked at the news on their phones, but Evelyn's dad was determined to read the paper until the day he died. It was one of his silly, stubborn traits that made Evelyn love him even more.

He looked up from the paper as she made her way to the pantry. "Morning Evie," he said. Brent Beck was almost always happy, at least when Evelyn saw him. He had deep smile lines around his blue eyes, but not very many other wrinkles. His thick hair and glasses, and he always reminded her of Kip from "Napoleon Dynamite" if he had had jet black hair. He was in his work clothes; a white button up shirt, blue tie, and dress pants.

"Morning dad," she replied, grabbing the Cinnamon Toast Crunch. She got a bowl from the cupboard and filled it almost to the brim.

"How'd you sleep?" Her dad asked her. She shrugged as she got out the milk.

"Pretty good. As well as you can sleep when you have to wake up at six thirty to catch the bus because your parents refuse to buy you a car," she said, glaring at her dad at the last part. He chuckled.

"Not gonna happen. Any weird dreams?" He asked, changing the subject before Evelyn could come up with a snarky response. Mr Beck always made it a part of his morning to ask Evelyn what dreams she had the night before. She could almost always recall what dreams she had had as soon as she opened her eyes and throughout the rest of the day. While most people's memories of their dreams were fuzzy or nonexistent when they woke up, Evelyn's seemed as clear as if they had really happened. Her dad always loved to hear her dreams, and she loved to tell about them, so it worked out perfectly.

"Actually yeah, this one was one of my stranger ones," she said, grabbing a spoon. "I was in a boat floating down a river going to a carnival, when all of a sudden I had to tie my shoe. So instead of doing it in the boat, like a normal person going to the carnival in a wooden canoe, I got out on a dock to tie it. But while I was tying it, I saw red lightning flashing behind me. I stood up and turned around, and there was a metal Medusa, although she was like fifty times larger than usual. So then-"

"Wait a second," her dad said. "Why were you thinking about Medusa?"

Evelyn huffed. "Maybe because I'm way too obsessed with Percy Jackson? So anyways," she started again, bringing her bowl of cereal and a pear to the table, "her eyes started glowing red and it was creepy and stuff. And then out of nowhere, this knight came and chopped off her head! And guess what was inside her?" She asked her dad.

"What?" He asked.

She waited a few moments for dramatic affect. "A plastic baby doll," she stage whispered. Her dads face morphed into a mix of amusement and surprise.

"A baby doll!" He said. "Did not see that one coming! So what happened next?" He asked her, cutting into his egg.

"So then the baby doll started throwing red Frisbees, which was the cause of the glowing eyes by the way, and then my dream changed and the baby was in outer space in a space ship with a bunch of girl aliens," she finished. Her dad was silent for a second, then he started laughing. Evelyn couldn't help but join in. Mr Beck finally found the ability to speak again.

"You're right, that is one of your stranger ones," he said, chuckling.

"Yes it is," she agreed.  Evelyn sucked in another breath to tell him about the last part, but something stopped her. She had a feeling in her gut to keep the boy with blond hair and brown eyes to herself. She quickly released the breath and hoped her dad hadn't noticed. Thankfully he was still reading about the new cockatoos at the zoo.

Evelyn glanced at the oven clock. "Shoot, I've got to go if I want to catch the bus. Unless you want to buy me a car..."

"Not happening!" He told her again as she went into the mud room to grab her backpack. She rolled her eyes but smiled, tugging on her Vans.

"Bye dad," she called, giving him a hug then running to the door.

"Bye Evie, remember not to kiss any boys!" He called after her.

"Dad!" She half yelled, half groaned. Evelyn had a boyfriend, but they had only been together for a month and a half, so they still hadn't kissed yet. Her dad made sure of that.

"Love you too," he said. As she swung open the door and raced after the bus that was pulling into her stop, she couldn't help but smile.

Hey everyone!  I hope you enjoyed the first (and super short) chapter of In Your Dreams. I probably won't be updating this very much, this is just something I'll be writing when I'm bored :) Thanks for giving this book a chance! 

-Anna