The sobbing to her side was distant; she stared at the note as if it created its own separate universe just for the words it held.

“Catch me. I can’t help myself.”

The scream reverberated everywhere, filling the room with noise and drowning out the insignificant cries of sorrow. Such an awful noise....

But then the little girl realized it was her own.

~~~~~

Aderyn suddenly sat up, breaking herself from the dream. Her rather thick brown hair fell into her face from the momentum. She cleared it from in front of her eyes quickly, as if it would help clear her mind and allow her to figure out what she’d dreamed. She knew she’d had it before, but couldn’t remember what it was. The whole thing was already a blur. Something about a note....

Oh well. If it was really that important, she’d dream it again or eventually remember it.

Which was what she’d been telling herself for the past week. It hadn’t done any good.

“Addy!” someone yelled from the next room, breaking her out of her strange thoughts and wiping any contemplation of the dream completely from her mind.

“What?” she yelled back, thumping herself into the pillows to prepare to go back to sleep. No way was she letting some random dream keep her from the two hours she had before getting up for school.

The voice, sounding much closer and now accompanied by footsteps, said, “You screamed. Again. Are you sure you don’t remember any of it?” Devi’s blonde head popped into the doorframe upon the last part of the statement.

Aderyn just shook her head and closed her eyes, making full well sure that her sister knew they were done talking. She heard a sigh and more footsteps, meaning that her stubborn sister had actually decided to give in tonight.

~~~~~

The large amount of chaos nearly prevented her from hearing her sister. It was 7 in the morning, and both she and Devi were madly attempting to leave the house on time. Which was 5 minutes ago, but close enough. And it was more just her. Devi was calmly sipping her coffee and waiting for Aderyn to get dressed enough to leave the house without getting arrested. But again, beside the point. Upon her sister’s second time saying her name, she switched her mind from caring whether her shirt went with her pants and listened to Devi.

“Addy? You do know that you can’t go off to your friends and say you’re doing something this Saturday. I know you, and you will come home with plans regardless of what I say. But we’ve got to go to the funeral.”

Aderyn groaned. She hated funerals. And she hadn’t even known this person very well. It was some neighbor that hadn’t left the house in 10 years or something of the sort. Hell, she didn’t even remember what the name was.

But it was the death, not the inconvenience, that made her dislike them. She had issues with the death part after what happened to her mom. She couldn’t even bring herself to wear black anymore; it just reminded her of that day. She shuddered.

A slight touch on her arm caused her to jump, smacking her sister’s coffee from the hand that had tapped her.

“Addy!” she uttered, exasperated, and slightly irritated from the new need to change her clothes. And that coffee was HOT.

Her little sister spun around, grabbing a few paper towels to clean up the mess. “I’m really sorry....You just startled me a bit.”

“You wouldn’t have needed the tapping had you responded one of the three times I shouted your name!” Devi retorted, getting slightly louder towards the end as she left the room to go find a new shirt.

Aderyn stuck her tongue out at the now-empty kitchen where her sister had just stood. 7 in the morning was not an hour to try and be mature. Or rational, for that matter. After all, it was not the cabinets that were out to get her.

She sighed, shouted a quick good-bye to the general area of the second level where her sister was, and grabbed her backpack. She left quickly before Devi had time to come back down and lecture her about the coffee incident. The only reason she’d even been spared that long was because said coffee was in fact rather hot, and had slightly burned her sister’s skin.

~~~~~

Ugh. The ass. He never failed to make her feel like shit. Today, on the bus, he’d asked her if she had a cat on her head. Just because her hair was thick, he did NOT get the right to compare it to fluffy animals. But Chris, her boyfriend, was due show up soon to their little spot in the hallway and make it all better.

She only had to sit for a few minutes before he walked around the corner. She couldn’t help but smile. He was so damn sexy. He had bright blue eyes and wavy hair that hung in them just so....He was skinny, but not too skinny. And he was definitely shapely in the ass area. Not that she could see it at the moment, as he was moving towards her, but that’s what memories were for.

“Hey,” he said eloquently. Apparently he was not all for thinking of clever things to say early in the morning either.

“Hey,” she replied, motioning for him to sit down next to her.

“Anything new since we talked last night?” he asked once he had fulfilled her request.

“Just Jason being a bastard again.”

“Is he still doing that?” Chris asked angrily.

“Not much,” she replied. “But apparently the humidity today caused him to feel compelled to comment on what said humidity does to my hair.”

“But your hair is pretty,” Chris said playfully, fingering one of the brown locks.

Aderyn laughed. “Sure, whatever.”

“Hey, do you want me to go kick his ass for you? Because I will,” he said seriously.

She laughed again. “No, that’s okay. I wouldn’t want to you to hurt yourself–I mean, get in trouble,” she quickly corrected herself.

“Oh, so you think I couldn’t take him, huh?”

“Of course you could...”

“I don’t believe that you believe that. But it’s okay. I am good for other things.” After this statement, he placed his lips on her temple in a quick kiss. He then commenced to move them down towards her lips. With a smile, she tilted her head so he got there faster. Jason was officially completely forgotten.

~~~~

Addy ran into her spanish class just as the bell was ringing and plopped into her desk before it stopped.

“You’re late,” her teacher, who was the stereotypical old tweed type, stated plainly.

“No I’m not, Mr. Junker. I was in my seat before the bell finished ringing. I am therefore exactly on time, and not late,” she argued sweetly.

He just gave her an annoyed look, but one that still signified she’d won. This time.

“Hoy, vamos a aprender el imperfecto. Abren sus libros a página ciento ocho....”

As her teacher rambled on, Addy ignored him and scribbled a quick note to Sarah, one of her best friends, who happened to be sitting on her left. She was surprised Mr. Junker hadn’t moved them yet; they clearly never payed attention to him in favor of talking to each other.

Hey.

Why were you so late almost late? Sarah wrote back.

I met Chris before class, and we *ahem* talked a little too long.

You slag. Lol. It was a running joke between the two of them; they’d always enjoyed calling themselves sluts due to the utter irony that it presented. And partly because of that one year their english teacher had called them ‘saucy wenches’ when they’d laughed at her explanation of one of the dirty passages in ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Neither could remember which one it was; there were many. Shakespeare was a pervert. Regardless, all it had done was cause them to laugh harder.

I know. Go British sluts! Addy replied, grinning as she passed the note back.

You’re not British, you slag you.

Then why the hell are you calling me a slag?

Because I’M British. Duh.

Addy smiled. She loved their pointless conversations. They never failed to cheer her up. Not that seeing Chris hadn’t done that already, but one could never have enough of the happy.

Oh, Addy wrote, I almost forgot. I’m busy on Saturday so I can’t go to the movies anymore.

What for?

Some funeral.

Ugh. I’m sorry. I know you hate those. Have you even been to one since...

No....Hey, could you come with us?

Would the family mind having a random stranger show up?

Hell, I’M a random stranger. I don’t even know the person. Just that she was my neighbor. I’m sure it’d be okay. Please?

Alright. I shall come for moral support.

Thanks. Addy gave her a weak smile. She was still dreading this weekend. But at least she’d have Sarah with her. It would at least suck less.