The dream

"JEE! JEE!" Jiya heard someone call out to her, in a rather helpless way. She could not help but notice its funny accent, "Vel-come to our v-orld! You're a legend ofth yer kind. After yer greath-grandfather..."

The voice trailed off into a distance. Beyond her, there was only darkness as far as the eyes could see.

"HELLO!" Jiya called out desperately, "Anyone here?"

Her voice echoed with the splashing of water under her boots as she moved forward. She sighed.

"What's with this nonsense?" she wondered aloud.

"Dis iz no nonsense", the voice had returned, "Dis iz vhere ye belong..."

"What is that supposed to mean?" she called back but there was no response.

In the dark, she was unable to figure out what she was wearing. Her body felt that it was surrounded by a balloon.

Rather old-fashioned, she thought.

The only thing she realized was the pair of heavy boots she was wearing. It covered her knees rather well, protecting her from the strange jelly-like water underneath. Suddenly, she saw a white light flood in the darkness covering her and her surroundings. It was so bright that she had to squint to look ahead. But, she could see anything for she was blinded by the glaring white light.

SPLAT!

Something or someone shoved her and she fell into the strange water. Before, she could stand, she felt herself being pulled by a strange energy. And there she went down, down, down...

---

Jiya opened her eyes with an audible gasp. Her heart twanged like a stretched rubber band. She sighed. Just a dream, she thought. She was lying on her cozy little bed with Marshmellow, her fuzzy blanket on top of her. Then, the realization hit her.

Her clothes were all soaked with sweat and that she was stinking. That it was already morn and her Mom was glaring at her for waking up late yet again. Her eyeballs moved to her left on their own accord and saw Mom shooting lasers with her eyes.

"Mom...", she grunted and rolled to her side, "I saw a bad dream. Have some pity!"

"No excuses", Mom snapped from behind her, "Do you realize that you will be late for tuition?! It's already 5;45 a.m.!"

Oh no, Jiya thought. Like a frightened horse, she sat up and jumped down the bed from the other side. She ran out of her room while her dear Mom stormed in after her, lecturing her.

Jiya grabbed her cerulean toothbrush and dashed to the main bedroom where the mirror was. Her short bob cut hair was a mess as she pulled off the old ponytail holder from them. She combed it to a perfect ponytail, jabbed some hairpins and ran over to the basin to rinse her mouth and clean her morn face. The rather small mirror hanging above the washbasin reflected her caramel face dotted with freckles and her clear brown eyes.

In the meanwhile, Mom had arranged her uniform and was rushing her with a glass of milk and some cookies. Jiya hurriedly smashed the cookies in her mouth and washed it down with the glass of milk.

She took a look at the wall clock. 6:15 a.m.! She rushed to the bathroom and shut it behind her as she threw off her sweaty clothes. She snatched her blue loofah from the peg above, poured some body wash and rubbed herself as quickly as possible. Within a few moments, the warm water ran down her bare caramel skin, rather carefully. Jiya was afraid of messing her ponytail.

Jiya walked out of the bathroom in her undies and a towel wrapped around herself. Mom helped her with her white shirt and Jiya pulled up her grey skirt. In order, came her maroon tie and belt, followed by her red blazer. Within moments, Jiya was the perfect schoolgirl, every girl wanted to be.

Papa honked his scooter horn the very moment, Jiya had finished putting her ribbon around her ponytail. She quickly put on her wristwatch and her pink and white spectacles.

Jiya grabbed her violet school bag, or rather, her tuition bag, which she had arranged the night before. She kissed her Mom goodbye and dashed off the gate, and onto her Papa's scooter. Jiya glanced at her wristwatch and sighed. It was already 6:35 a.m. So much effort went into nothing.

On her way, Jiya saw a few people on the road and her nose picked up there various smells, carried by the chilly January wind. They ranged from sweet, tangy, coppery, bitter, nasty and blah blah blah. She jammed her nose with her palm to avoid plundering anyone's head. It was not like she was happy with her 'gift'. She was not sad either. She was rather clueless. Previously, she had stumbled upon various secrets without wanting it. It only gave her the heebie-jeebies and terrible kinds of headaches. And those secrets were useless to her.

The one time she had willingly plundered someone's head was when a kid at her school who was unable to tell her suffering. Her secret smelled coppery, like that of blood. Jiya realized that the kid had scratched her stomach after falling on the assembly ground. The kid was rather shy and was unable to show her scratch under her shirt.

While Jiya was lost in her thoughts, Papa had stopped the scooter in front of a shabby, little wooden house located inside a narrow alleyway. Jiya sighed as she jumped off and hurried past the short iron gate and inside the door. At 5'5'', she had to bow down a little to enter. Thankfully, their tutor had not arrived yet. All the students were present, and the only tube light illuminated the tiny room.

Jiya went up a sat on her seat which was near the whiteboard and a rack full of shabby looking books. She unzipped her bag, pulled out her notebook and Maths book and placed the bad down, leaning against the wooden wall. Beside her sat Maddie, her friend, and classmate. She had her head down on the desk, braced with her arms.

"Hey, Maddie!" she called out in a sarcastic voice.

Jiya expected her usual 'Hey Hottie!' reply. But, all Maddie did was a grunt to acknowledge her presence. She shrugged because she thought Maddie was just having a bad period. But then, the tangy, coppery scent hit her nostrils and Jiya realized that something was not quite right.