Jennifer walked over to one of the shards and picked it up. It was gray and very, very rough. Jennifer had a hard time keeping her grip on the shard.
" Jennifer, what are you doing? The shard told you not to hurt it," Jennifer's mom told Jennifer.
But Jennifer ignored her. She knew that the last time they used that trick on her, she hadn't let her parents burn them, well not until she had no choice but to burn them. But this time they had a choice. If they didn't want to burn the shards, they didn't have to. Since they had a choice, the sticks thought their trick would work this time.
" Ignore them," Jennifer replied, " trust me."
"Okay, Jennifer, if you say so," Jennifer's parents said.
Jennifer knew she had to burn them. She knew that the shards were the sources to the sticks' evil powers. So she shouted, " We have to burn them!"
" Okay!" Jennifer's dad yelled back, saluting her.
" Okay!" Jennifer's mom copied Jennifer's dad, saluting Jennifer as well.
" Mom, do that red one. Dad, do that orange one."
Everyone grunted as they struggled to get the shards into the bonfire, but Jennifer knew no one who could carry the black shard alone. Not even her parents. They had each gotten three shards into the bonfire when they realized that the only stick left was the black one. Jennifer knew that it was the source of the power to make people have terrible nightmares, because she and her parents already got nine shards into the bonfire. Besides, if she did get the shard that was the source of the power that got them into this nightmare, then she and her parents should have been awake already.
" How are we supposed to carry this shard?" Jennifer's dad asked.
Even Jennifer didn't really know. But suddenly, she thought about something. She knew what she had to do to carry the shard now. At her last parent conference at school, her teacher had said, " Jennifer is extremely smart, but she doesn't really know how to work together with her peers."
" Oh," Jennifer muttered. She walked over to the extremely gigantic shard.
" What?" Jennifer's mom had asked.
" We have to work together!" Jennifer exclaimed happily.
" Okay!" Jennifer's parents said in unison, both saluting Jennifer again.
" Can you help me carry this shard, please?" Jennifer asked her parents.
" Of course!" Jennifer's parents replied. They walked over to where Jennifer was standing.
" Ready?"
" Yes!"
" Lift it now!"
They all lifted the shard as the the flame got larger. The shard wasn't as rough as the first one Jennifer had carried. Their eyes teared up as they got closer to the fire. Their eyes teared up this time and only this time because they had been near the fire longer than they had when they were putting the other shards into the fire.
When they finally got the black shard into the fire, the flame, bonfire, forest, and ground disappeared. Suddenly, a vision of sparkles appeared in their dream as the nightmare vanished.