That night I felt like everything was perfect. Alex had kissed me, not once, not twice, but...actually, I forget how many times. Anyways, I went to bed for the first time in months not having a single care or worry. But, typically, that all had to come to a crash-and-burn end.

          I had a dream. Big deal, right? Everyone has them, they're normal. Except my dreams had never been anything but normal. This one was of Liz, which was pretty normal, I had been dreaming about her a lot lately. But she looked a lot older, possibly 17 or 18, but it was kind of hard to tell, because she was, well, DEAD. At least she looked that way. She was super pale, no color whatsoever in her skin, and I could tell that if I were able to touch her, she'd be cold as ice. I started sobbing again. "Why? Why did you have to do this to me?" I screamed at nothing. Then I realized the boy who was sitting there, holding her hand. He looked familiar, but I couldn't figure out from where. Maybe some random kid from school or something. Before I could think about it much more, the door opened, but before I could see who it was behind it, the dream faded out into nothingness...

          It faded into, ready for it, another dream! (yaaayyyy) As soon as the fogginess cleared, I realized that this was definitely NOT a normal dream, even by my standards. That's because the person in the dream, was me! A me with strange, glowing green eyes and smoke pouring out of my mouth. I was also speaking in a very strange triple voice, "The ancient lands. To Egypt and Greece, and then Rome and Scotland, you will build yourselves an army of your ancient roots. And then you will set up headquarters. This is not just a war against one enemy... Prepare for the worst. You will need to be ready above ground and in the seas and in the sky. Every nation must unite as one under the protector and her sister, and everyone must fight. Nowhere is safe. Nowhere will be safe until you've won..." and then I passed out.

I woke with a start, breathing heavy. It took me several seconds to realize my alarm was beeping. I leaned over to turn it off. 7:00!!! My bus leaves in 10 minutes! I ran around trying to get ready at 299,792,459 miles per second (that's one mi/s faster than the speed of light for all you non-geeks out there). Even so, I ended up missing it by 20 minutes or so. When questioning my mom, she said she tried to wake me, but couldn't, so she just let me sleep. She eventually drove me to school, but let me skip 1st period, so I could at least make myself look semi-presentable.

As I got to school, I remembered what I hadn't remembered before in all the craziness of the morning: my dream. I was looking all around before I realized what (or who) I was looking for: Liz. Thinking Alex was the next best thing, I decided to wait until 6th period Orchestra (which we luckily have together) to tell him. After class, we decided that since it was a nice day, we'd walk to the library. Along the way, I described my dream. I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting, but certainly not him laughing at me, telling me that I was crazy. Or thanking me for cheering him up. (Both of which he did, by the way) I tried to get him to understand, but he wouldn't listen. Fearing it would lead to an estrangement between us, I let it drop. But I knew that if I had more of those dreams, then maybe he'd believe me.

Well, that night I had more. And every night after for a week. I told Alex every day, but he kept laughing at me, then got really annoyed when I kept telling him about them.

"But, Alex, they're true, I swear!"

"Come on, Abigail, how dumb can I get? How dumb can you get? Oh, well, I bet it's just the blond coming out in you. THEY'RE JUST DREAMS, Abigail!" Now that got me annoyed. If there's anything any of my friends know, it's DON'T. MENTION. MY HAIR. You can call me dumb, or anything else, but NO ONE is allowed to mention it. He knew it perfectly well, but he also knew that that was the main thing that would get me mad.

                              At that point I pretty much blew up. I started yelling at him, he started yelling at me, the whole deal. It was pretty awful.And at that point, for some strange, odd reason, I knew what he was thinking. It came unbidden, but I didn't stop it. It was something about thinking how he should get me to an asylum.
"No! You can't!" I said.
"What are you talking about, Abigail? Maybe I should-"
"NO! I'm not crazy, Alex! Why won't you believe me?"
"How did you know I was thinking that?" Now, instead of the 'you're insane' look, it's 'Is she reading my mind?'
"I'm not sure," I said, replying to his unsaid words. "I really for know what's happening."
"Okay, that's enough joking around, Abb. It got old a looong time ago."
"If you don't believe me, fine. I'll just go." And with that, I left, not knowing that that would be the last time I spoke with him for a long time. Or forever. Who knows?

The next week during school I got to know my mind-reading powers a little better.
'Not mind-reading, Abby. Thought-sharing.'
At first, I couldn't remember why that thought always popped into my head whenever I used 'mind-reading', but then it hit me: Liz told me that. Many times in fact. That night I remembered the first time I had met her, my partner-in-crime, Lizzy Nelson.
Sarah brought a new girl to lunch. What's-her-name, the girl with blond hair. Liz. 'Make her go,' my brain thinks. 'She's trying to steal your best friend.' So for the first week I disliked her. I'm not sure how I could've for that long, but I did.

Flash forward a couple weeks...

Liz and I are talking about something, probably Percy Jackson. We both stop talking and look at each other. Even after we stop talking, we can still understand each other. When I look at her, I can hear what she's saying, and somehow I know the same is happening with her.

Yes, thought-sharing. That was it.

The next day I had karate and was thinking about the fight with Alex. He still wasn't talking to me, texting me, anything. Andrew noticed something was up, which was surprising in the first place. He normally didn't talk to me all that much unless I said something to the group as a whole or we were working together, which also wasn't too often. Anyways, he noticed and asked, "Abigail? Are you okay? You seem a little off."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

"Let me guess, boy problem? I might be able to help with that."

"Kinda. How'd you guess?"

"I don't know, I guess I just knew."

"Can you help?"

"Of course! Meet me after school tomorrow in the cafeteria, then we'll talk."

"Okay, thanks!"

The next day, right after school, there was Andrew, just as he promised, which was nice for once.

"Okay, now spill."

And I did. I told him everything about Alex and how he wouldn't talk to me or even look at me. I told him how worried and stressed out I was about the move and how I'd have to be saying good-byes really soon. I even managed to talk to him about Liz and how strange her death felt. But when I got to the part about thought-sharing, he didn't laugh. Instead, he said, "Wow, Abigail. I mean, I knew you were smart and everything, but I didn't think you had superpowers or anything."

That made me laugh. It felt nice, after not laughing for so long. I realized that even with Alex, I never laughed like this, with pure humor in it. I remembered what it was like to be happy. Then I asked him, "So you actually believe me?"

"Of course I do. I mean, sure, it's completely crazy and everything, but you said it and I believe you." Wow, to hear someone, especially Andrew, say he believes me, that's huge. Especially now when I need it most.

"Liz isn't dead. And Alex doesn't know that. He told me I lost my mind, Andrew. That he watched her die, but I know better because she appears in my dreams."

"I know, Abigail. And you will find her. I'm certain of it."

"The only thing I can do is to run away to... Anywhere. Where she's going to be. I'll just keep running."

"Okay, and I'll help you."

"You will? I don't need much, just food. And...don't tell my family, please. Just tell them...something. I know you can make up something."

"Okay. And Abigail?"

"Yeah?"

"Go find whoever caused you this much pain and kick them. HARD."

"Okay," I said. I walked away, laughing hard for the first time in months.