Chatoyant College Book 7: Upon What Soil

Chapter 6: Dreams and Visions

When Corrie sat down with her soup, Annie and Rico were describing something that Professor Rook did differently than Professor Lal to Dawn, and she listened with interest. It seemed that he was a more engaging and gregarious professor, but from what Corrie heard, she thought she liked Professor Lal better. She encouraged and inspired her students to work hard—or at least it worked that way for Corrie. She didn't think she would try so much for Professor Rook.

Eventually the topic waned, and Corrie took the opportunity to ask Roe something she'd been wondering about. "How are your lessons with Professor Strega going?"

"Oh, really well!" Roe said enthusiastically, setting down her slice of pizza. "I've learned to remember my dreams better, and now I can tell the difference between regular dreams and actual visions."

"Really?" Annie asked, leaning over to look at Roe. "Any interesting ones lately?"

Roe shook her head and laughed. "Unfortunately, no. I have had a few visions in my sleep, but they're all really boring. Like, last night I dreamed that it was raining, and this morning I opened the window and a little spray of rain came in."

"You'd think you'd have known better after having the dream," observed Dawn.

"You'd think," Roe said with a shrug.

"If you ever have any visions about what's going to happen in magic class, let us know," said Corrie.

"I will. I'll probably let you guys know when I have any kind of interesting vision. Like, if it's going to snow or something."

"Are your visions usually for the next day?" Edie asked. "I mean, I know some of the other visions you've had were a few days before the actual event."

"The really simple dream ones all seem to refer to the same day or to the day after that. I'm still not good at figuring out when things are actually going to happen, but Professor Strega wants me to work on control first. I have a technique so next time I get a vision at an inconvenient time, I'll hopefully be able to save it for later, but I haven't gotten to try that out yet. I can't use it while I'm asleep, of course."

Corrie grinned. It was cool to see how excited Roe was about her visions. She was a little jealous, too; she wished she had some kind of special power, even if it was inconvenient. She didn't even know if she'd be able to do regular magic. "How do you remember your dreams? Is that something regular people can do?"

"Oh, totally," Roe said. "It's mostly just, like, training yourself to pay attention. I try to keep my mind doing stuff—thinking about homework or whatever—while I'm falling asleep, and I have to keep a dream journal by my bed and write down everything I can remember as soon as I wake up. It's kind of a pain in the ass because it takes a while but it's working."

"I should try that," said Annie. "I've been having a lot of weird dreams lately but after a while I can't remember any of the details."

"Really?" said Roe, turning to her and raising her eyebrows. "What do you remember?"

Annie shook her head, putting down her fork and looking at her plate. "Just that I'm scared and somebody's laughing at me. And I usually wake up with my sheets all weird, like I've been flailing around in my sleep. And sometimes it seems like the people in my poster are moving."

"Does Salome notice anything?" Dawn asked.

"No, but she's asleep at the same time I am."

"The poster thing might be worth keeping an eye on," Roe said. "Connie—Professor Strega—says that very few people have as much prophetic ability as I do, but some people have a little, and anybody around me who has some will notice more of it. Maybe your poster is weird or magical somehow."

"My poster is doing weird things too," Corrie said suddenly, the memory of moving the sticker suddenly flashing into her mind. "Remember, Edie? I didn't remember moving the sticker but it was reflecting my mood."

"That's right," said Edie. "It's done that before."

"You both have posters that seem to be doing weird things?" Rico asked, frowning. His forehead was all wrinkled in concentration.

"I guess so," said Corrie. "My David Bowie poster isn't doing anything weird. I wouldn't mind having him in my dreams, though."

Her attempt to lighten the mood didn't work. Annie was frowning hard, too. "I don't think it can be a coincidence, really. Do we know anyone else who got a poster at the sale last month?"

Corrie looked around at her friends. She couldn't think of anyone. "Troy has a poster on his wall," Dawn said. "I don't know where he got it, though."

"We should ask him about it," said Annie. "Tuesday, when we see him in class."

"Okay," said Corrie. She didn't think it was anything worth worrying about, but it couldn't hurt to ask.