As usual, Dani was awake before the rest of the family. She liked to get in an early morning run before school and had set out this morning when it was still dark. But her run took her further than she intended to go. She had kind of zoned out for a while and moved on autopilot as she thought about that creepy dream she had last night. It had weirded her out. Being strapped to a table like some kind of medical experiment was weird enough but the fact that it felt so real made it even weirder. And the less said about the cast of her dream the better. She recognized a few of them from school. She remembered she had once seen a book in the library about the "secret meaning of dreams" or something. She had never really put much stock into things like that but this dream had freaked her out and she wondered if that book was still there. Maybe she'd stop by the library and check it out.

By the time Dani stopped thinking about the weird ass dream and snapped back to reality, she realized she was in the middle of the woods. Much further than she had intended to run. She didn't even really remember the journey here. "Crap!" she muttered to herself as she looked at her watch. Her eyebrows rose as she realized she must have been running faster than she had ever run to make it all the way out here in such a short time. All that time on the track must have been paying off. Pleasantly surprised with herself, Dani decided she had better head home. She took a moment to look at the rising sun through the trees before turning around and heading back.

When she arrived home, the rest of the family were still sleeping but she heard a rustle coming from her parents bedroom. Probably mom, who tended to wake earlier than dad who seemed to love his bed more than kis kids. Dani snuck past the door and into the bathroom. She took a quick shower...OK, maybe not such a quick shower because she heard her older brother, Scotty, banging on the door, telling her to stop hogging all the hot water. When she finally finished showering, she got dressed and quickly skipped downstairs where she found her mom waiting at the bottom step with a plate full of toast. "Good morning sweat-Hey!" said mom as Dani scooped up the toast and planted a kiss in her mother's cheek.
"Thanks mom!" she said with a smile as she quickly shuffled out the front door. She could practically hear her mom roll her eyes as the door closed behind her.

With a slice of toast lodged in her mouth, Dani walked towards her car, her beloved Dodge. She tried to balance her toast in one hand while trying to wrangle her keys from her pocket with the other and when she finally managed this most complex of tasks, she smiled. The smile was gone as quickly as it had appeared though once she spotted the flat tyre. "Oh come on!" she complained to no one but herself as she wrenched the toast from her mouth. She sighed and gave the tyre a quick kick. She didn't have time to change a tyre now. "Guess I'm walking." she grumbled as she took another bite of toast and shuffled off down the street. Mood thoroughly ruined.

The toast was all gone by the time she arrived at school, yet she was still hungry. Oddly so. Maybe she would stop by the cafe and get something else to eat. Maybe she'd even see Paul. He was cute, if a little weird. Speaking of weird, Dani noticed that weird goth kid, Tim, sitting by the school entrance. He had always been weird but the fact that he was in her creepy dream last night just made him even weirder to Dani. Now she would have to walk past him to get inside. She hiked her backpack further up onto her shoulder and headed towards the door, trying not to make eye contact in the process.