I awoke suddenly with a start, my head was pounding and I could still remember the dream I had that night with vivid clarity, I could still taste the fear, and hear the cries and pleading, even though, as far as I could tell, everything around me was one hundred percent normal. My walls were singing and chirping, there was the usual stream and flower filled meadow in sight, but something wasn't right, I knew that something like this was not normal. I hadn't even showered or changed but I knew I had to get out of my bedroom as soon as I possibly could. I quickly raced out the door, not even checking the time. The halls were still quiet, no students in sight, so I did the only thing I could think of to do. I knocked on the door of room twenty one. There was no answer. I knocked again, a little harder this time, and I could hear a slight mumbling before the door opened. "Mila, what is it, what is the matter?" Miss Smallwood was still in her night gown, her hair up in curlers and she looked surprisingly pretty without her glasses on and her hair pulled away from her face. "Miss Smallwood, I am so sorry to have woken you, I'm not sure what time it is, but by the look of it, it is not anywhere near morning, I'm so sorry, I will come back a bit later on." I said feeling rather embarrassed and angry with myself. "Nonsense Mila, why don't you come in, I will make us a cup of tea, and you can tell me what the matter is." Her room wasn't any different to mine, apart from the floral bedding and walls filled with the images of an orchestra playing the tunes of what I could only assume were Mozart or Beethoven. "Miss Smallwood, I am not really sure where to start." I said, "What is it Mila, there is no need for you to feel embarrassed, you can tell me anything, are you home sick? Maybe missing home and your family, there is no shame in that." She was saying through a look of genuine comfort and concern. "No Miss Smallwood, I do miss my family terribly, but it's not that, the thing is, I think I may have… I think I had a nightmare, but it was so, so real, it felt so real and I don't really know what to make of it." My head was bent into my chest, my eyes scanning the floor, the bed, anywhere but her eyes really, what was I doing here? I am twelve years old, I will be thirteen in two days, and I'm not a child anymore, only a child runs to the nearest adult when they have a bad dream. "Tell me exactly what happened, from beginning to end, do not leave anything out." Her previous look of comfort and concern had suddenly changed quite drastically into one of genuine worry and even more concern. "Um, well I had sat down on my lounger couch, I was reading my book, when… when I guess I must have fallen asleep, because the next minute I woke up and everything was dark, and my clock shone on 2.15am, and then there were images everywhere, on all the walls and the ceiling of my bedroom, but I couldn't make out any of the images, they were dark and fast and distorted, they made no sense, but then I could hear voices, I could hear so many voices, all calling to me, but there was one voice I recognised, my friend from school, Megan, I recognised her voice, it was almost as though she was standing right beside me, but I couldn't see her, I remember looking everywhere for her, but I just couldn't see her, and she sounded so scared, and sad, and she kept telling me to look for her, to find her, that they needed me, that I was the answer, but I just couldn't, I didn't know where her voice was coming from, and then… and then I felt light headed and the next thing I knew I woke up in my bed, and everything was just as it always is." I took a moment before I opened my eyes and lifted them to meet Miss Smallwood's, she hadn't said a single word throughout the duration of my story, and that made me feel even more stupid and embarrassed than I had initially. The look on her face was definitely one for the books, and definitely not the one I was expecting, I was half expecting her to be holding back a giggle, or a smirk because here I was, an almost thirteen year old girl, coming to her scared out of my wits over a silly little nightmare. But no… She was doing neither of those things. Her lips had pulled tightly together, and she was frowning, her eyes wide with worry, and her hands were trembling, I thought she was angry. "Um, Miss Smallwood, are you ok?" I asked, "I'm so sorry to have woken you because of this, I wasn't thinking, please don't be upset, It was just a silly dream, I will leave you to go back to sleep, please forgive me for the intrusion." Just then she grabbed hold of my hand, not in a forceful way, more in a sort of, urgent way? "Mila, your friend Megan?" she asked. "Where is she now? Do you feel like perhaps you and her have drifted apart, and that is why you are dreaming of her asking you to find her?" "Well no, not exactly Miss Smallwood" I said, "Megan passed away about three years ago in a car accident, her and her parents were killed." No sooner had I finished my sentence and Miss Smallwood was racing towards the door, my wrist caught in a vice-like grip by her hand, she quickly opened the door and was walking, or more like cantering down the corridor muttering under her breath, too quietly for me to make out what she was saying. We continued up the stairs, bypassing the next four levels of dormitories right to the very top, we walked to the end of the hall and she started banging loudly at the door of room 21 on the sixth floor, a big Golden Plaque reading PRINCIPAL ROSE was staring back at me. Oh my soul, I thought to myself. Was I really being sent directly to the Principals office? Was this honestly happening? I knew I should have just kept my mouth shut and stayed in my room, this cannot be happening right now. I felt like running all the way back to Oregon and just burying my head in my pillow, in my room, at my home, and never ever showing my face again. What was I going to tell everyone? Oh yes, I got detention this morning because I bothered Miss Smallwood with a silly little nightmare? I would never be able to look anyone in the eye again. "What is it!?" Principal Rose said as she opened her door. "Why on earth are you banging on my door so early in the morning, and so forcefully, you will wake the entire floor!" Miss Smallwood didn't even hesitate long enough to grace her with a reply instead she just pushed straight past Principal Rose, my arm still firmly in tow. "We have an Invoker" were the only words that she managed to muster.