The Unicorn's Forest

Alex waited on pins and needles as the phone rang. She had told herself that she wasn't going to call Charlie this soon, as it would look desperate if not insecure or something. However, since Charlie had to leave early that day, she determined that calling her to see if she was alright would be acceptable. However, she still felt like she was treading on dangerous ground. Not that she really knew how this should go.

After all, the only other relationship she'd been in had been with another girl who always told her what she should do and shouldn't. Which she had always appreciated. She had never been a social butterfly, but at the same time, she wasn't always aware of what was going on around her. Her last girlfriend was at least willing to help her with that, though the only reason they'd broken up had been because her girlfriend had moved away.

Regardless, Allison told her that she needed to focus only on who she was interested in now. However, most of the time she wasn't sure what she should do about Charlie. If she hadn't gotten advice from Allison's best friend, Alex Williams, about putting the gift in Charlie's locker, she probably wouldn't have been able to get up the courage to have even decided to ask her to Homecoming in the first place.

Why is it taking so long? Alex wondered despairingly. It felt like the phone had been ringing for hours, but when she looked at her phone, it showed only five seconds had passed.

Swallowing a scream, Alex sat down on the floor at the foot of her bed, to keep from pacing around and possibly freaking out even more. Then when Alex got Charlie's voicemail, or what would be her voicemail, since apparently Charlie hadn't set that up yet, Alex just wanted to cry.

Was Charlie asleep and that's why she wasn't answering? Alex wondered. She didn't think Charlie should be, since it was the end of the school day and Alex had just barely gotten home. But at the same time, Charlie didn't answer. She couldn't help but wonder what this could mean.

Alex then almost jumped out of her skin when her phone rang suddenly. When she got over her fright, she saw it was Charlie calling her. Maybe she was in the shower and couldn't get to her phone in time, Alex thought to herself as she answered.

"Hello?" she said.

"Hi, I got a call from this number?" Charlie's voice replied.

"Yeah, Charlie, this is Alex," Alex said. "I- I, um, just wanted to see h- how you were doing." Lame, Alex wailed in her head.

"I'm doing better, thanks," came the reply. "But I'm glad you called." Alex suddenly felt her heart beating really fast. Charlie was happy she'd called her! "My mom asked who gave me that purse, and I told her a friend. So my mom told me to invite you to dinner tomorrow night, so she could meet you."

Alex was stunned. She suddenly found she had no voice and it even took her a minute for her brain to reboot. Meeting Charlie's parents would almost be like they really were already going out. Even before their first date, which Alex really wanted the Homecoming dance to be their first date.

"-lo? Are you still there?" Alex heard Charlie ask when she finally could think again.

"Yeah, sorry about that," Alex apologized. "I'll have to ask my grandma about that, but it should be fine."

"Great," Charlie said, causing Alex's sprits to soar. "I'll let my mom know she'll that you'll be there." Charlie paused and Alex thought that she was done, but then she added, amusement clear in her voice, "Now I don't have worry about remembering to ask you tomorrow."

"Okay, well, I hope you don't feel as bad as you did earlier tomorrow," Alex said, not sure what else to say. "Have a good day."

"Bye, Alex," Charlie replied.

As she heard the tone of the disconnected call, she sighed. While she had been elated that she was able to speak to Charlie and even had been invited to dinner, even though it was an invite from Charlie's mother, she couldn't help but feel anxious.

What she knew about Charlie was still bothering her. In regards to in what way did Charlie look at her. Did Charlie agree to go to the homecoming dance because of how she had accidentally revealed her feelings for Charlie or did she really want to go? Was there really a possible future where they could be a real couple or was that just in her fantasy?

She had wanted to ask about that when she'd called, but again, being the chicken she was, she couldn't even say anything about it. It was like when she spoke to Charlie just now, that all thoughts of what she was worried about and wanted to say completely left her mind. Which in a way wasn't a bad thing, but it still didn't help her out any.

Alex sighed as she laid on her bed, staring at the ceiling. Was what Amber told her true? That she herself was only worth anything when others needed her?

_

Charlie sighed as she hung up the phone. She couldn't put her finger on it, but it felt like Alex was being a little weird. Not that she had room to judge, with how weird she'd felt herself around Alex. On top of that all that, inviting Alex felt almost like they were in fact dating.

The very thought of that made Charlie's face begin to heat up. If Alex wanted to date Charlie, she'd have said something about it already, right? Charlie asked herself. After all, they still have a few weeks before the Homecoming dance was scheduled, the weekend after Labor Day weekend. So, of course Alex would want to see how that went before she thought of actually dating me.

Charlie sighed as she set her phone on her bed before moving over to her desk so she could at least finish up the little homework she had been able to keep her parents from learning about. It would give her something to do to get her mind off of the dinner her mother had her invite Alex to as well as everything else that it involved.

Charlie wasn't sure how long she'd been working on her homework when she heard the doorbell ring and shortly after Cherie called out to Charlie that her friends were there.

While she hadn't been able to finish her homework, she didn't mind the interruption, especially since her friends would be distraction enough from the dinner topic.

As Charlie came downstairs, Beth called out to her, "Feeling better?"

"Yeah, much better," she replied, not sure what else to say. Her friends were all standing outside the front door, even though she was pretty sure they knew they could enter at this point.

"Well, come on, we have things we need to discuss," Wes said. "Not much time left to get some details figured out."

"Yeah, the weekend is almost here," Amelia chimed in.

"Alright, alright," Charlie said as she reached the bottom of the stairs. "Let's go."

The plan wasn't to go to Petals' forest that day, instead they were heading over to Wes' house. Not for any specific reason, but it at least helped them keep their parents from being able to guess where they were going to be while at the same time, making it look like they were just friends hanging out. Although, Charlie had trouble following the explanation she'd been given as it sounded overly complicated and overthought. However, she didn't say anything because they seemed like they knew what they were talking about, even if she couldn't figure it out herself.

Things seemed normal to Charlie as they started out, usual topics that ranged from anime to subjects at school to music to regular TV shows. However, once they were out of sight of Charlie's house, Beth laid it on her.

"So, what about me dying in your dream had you so worked up, Charlie?" she asked casually, as if that's the kind of topic that comes up regularly.

It even took Charlie a moment to fully realize what exactly Beth had asked. When she did, she stopped cold, starting to wonder if she should run, but couldn't figure out why she suddenly felt that way. Then she jumped when Hannah merely put her hand on her shoulder.

"Are you okay?" Hannah asked, concern filling her eyes.

Charlie looked around at everyone and sighed. "I think so, but the dream I had last night felt so real. Almost like I should be expecting it to happen," she said, not sure what else to do.

"How did it feel real?" Tim asked, as they started walking again.

"Well, for one, the it didn't feel like I didn't show up somewhere without knowing where I was, but rather I knew what the purpose of being there was as well as how I got there," Charlie said, trying to figure out how to put it as she spoke.

"So, where were you? And also, why were you there?" Amelia asked.

Charlie sighed again. "I can't say I remember where or why, but I can say it isn't somewhere I've seen before. Then why I was there is I think I was expecting to meet up with someone for something, but I can't remember what that was," Charlie said, hoping the others understood what she was talking about.

"What other details were there?" Beth asked.

Charlie described what she could remember of the dream and was the same of what she could remember when she told her mother about the dream, which made Charlie wonder why that was. Even with other dreams, when she told others about them when she could remember them, the farther away from waking up usually meant fewer details, unless it was down to a very few details. While with this dream, a large number of details remained.

While she felt like she knew most of the people in the dream, even though she only saw a few of her friends, aside from Beth, in the dream, she certainly didn't recognize the face of whoever it was who killed Beth. She couldn't even be sure if it was a man or woman who killed her. All she saw of the person was their face briefly in what Charlie could only assume was torchlight. It wasn't bright enough to make many details out, but in the dream it was clear that her eyes had become accustomed to that level of lighting.

"Charlie!" Tim snapped, his tone one of pure frustration.

Charlie jumped and her mind was brought fully back to the present. She saw that they were almost to Wes' house. Yet, it felt like they'd just started out heading there.

"Charlie are you okay?" Amelia asked.

"I'm fine. Maybe a little dazed…" Charlie said, a little confused at the loss of time she just experienced. "Weren't we just starting out for Wes' house?"

Beth, Time, Ralph, and Wes sighed. "Charlie, after you finished describing your dream, you went silent. We let you be for a while, but then we needed your input on what to discuss in our hiking club and you weren't listening to us," Beth replied.

"But, I just finished describing my dream. It couldn't have taken that long," Charlie replied.

"Charlie, I think maybe after you talked about your dream, you got lost in thought," Hannah offered. "I've had times when I do that and when I come back to the real world, I find a lot more time passed than it felt like it should have."

Charlie shook her head, hoping to clear it. "Part of the dream felt so real, likke it was almost a memory of something that hasn't happened," Charlie said, starting to wonder if she'd really ever truly be all right again after that dream.

"Well, if you need anyone to talk to, just let us know. If you don't have anyone's number, let us know and we'll get you those numbers," Beth said, putting an arm around Charlie's shoulders.

Charlie smiled at Beth. "Thanks. Maybe I will need to talk with you guys about it more later on. I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to get past how real it felt," Charlie commented.

"No problem," Amelia said, as Beth removed her arm from Charlie's shoulders. "We'll be there for you whether you want us to or not!"