Short Story - It Was All Just a Dream

And so we have arrived at the final short story I wrote in my creative writing class.

I'd had a concept idea for a while called "Dreamscape" in which a girl named Kyla went to a shared Dream Plane that was shared by others, but I never went anywhere with it and instead dumped the boring title and concept with Kyla being trapped in a dream the entire time. Which evolved into this idea.

The story starts out with Kyla Tran receiving an award at her school for being the most influential student. She gladly accepts her award from Keanu Reeves. She slowly yet still suddenly wakes up from her dream on a Thursday morning, turning off her alarm. Kyla does her makeup and checks her social media before she greets her mom. Her mother offers Kyla coffee, but Kyla declines, then drives off to Starbucks to get her customized order, annoyed that the girl behind the counter doesn't remember her.

Kyla sets her coffee on her desk in her first period class, annoyed when her partner Phinessa walks in, as she judges how the girl dresses herself. Phinessa accidentally knocks Kyla's coffee with her backpack, spilling it all over Kyla. Kyla yells at Phinessa, then heads off to her second period after class to her boyfriend Ty. She snaps at Ty for not being understanding that her clothes are ruined, and gets increasingly more annoyed when her offers her an extra shirt to her to change into.

In her third period, Kyla's best friend Noemi is horrified that Kyla is still wearing a coffee-stained shirt and "ruining her image." She drags Kyla to the bathroom and gives Kyla a new shirt. As Noemi goes through her spare clothing, Kyla mentions how she's thinking about breaking up with Ty. Noemi is horrified at the thought, as Ty is the star football player. Kyla explains that Ty "snapped" at her, and that she also believes Ty is planning to break up with her first. Noemi then decides that Ty breaking up with Kyla is worse, so Kyla should break up with Ty in a way that would ruin his credibility.

Kyla thinks about this for the rest of the day. She goes to bed that night, realizing that she doesn't want to sabotage Ty, but has to do something, when suddenly she finds herself posing in front of her mirror. Her mom pokes her head through the closet door, and Kyla suddenly realizes her closet door and the door leading to the hallway have been switched and that she doesn't have a mirror in her room. Then she realizes that she's wearing a hideous outfit. When she exits her room, she confesses to her mom that she's been going to Starbucks every morning for a customized order. Her mother gets angry at her that she's been using her money for college on coffee, and takes away her keys and tells Kyla she'll be driving her to school until Kyla can prove she can be trusted.

The entire time, Kyla feels a pang of guilt in her chest, but has had no control of her actions, and just found herself confessing everything. When she goes back to her room, she realizes that this has to be a dream. She gets into the shower fully clothed and turns the water on as cold as she can, hoping it would shock her awake, but it doesn't, and Kyla finds herself in her mom's car on the way to school.

At school, Kyla realizes that she's wearing an outfit Phinessa would wear and that Phinessa is wearing the outfit she'd worn the previous day. She calls Noemi in the bathroom and asks for spare clothes. However, Noemi refuses to give Kyla spare clothes unless she causes a scene to break up with Ty. When Kyla sees Ty, Ty is much softer with her than he'd been in months, which makes Kyla even more convinced that this is a dream, making her long for those days.

When Kyla gets home, she runs into her room and jumps under the covers, hoping that she will wake up if she goes to sleep in her dream. However, Kyla just finds herself in her first period class. She begins panicking, being stuck in a dream inside a dream, and looks down to find herself in the skirt she'd originally worn but with Ty's oversized shirt he'd offered to loan her. Phinessa asks Kyla if she's okay, but Kyla snaps at her that she has no friends and needs to stop bothering her. Kyla feels bad despite knowing she has no control over what she said due to being in a dream and knowing that Phinessa doesn't have friends, because she'd never say it to her face.

Then in second period, Ty confronts Kyla, telling her that she's a jerk. Kyla's only dating him due to his status. She's constantly blowing him off and refusing his kindness. She bullies Phinessa--it's not true that no one likes her, but Noemi doesn't like her and that's what matters. Ty accuses Noemi of manipulating everyone in the school, being strategic in who she befriends. Suddenly, the rest of her class, including the teacher, begin calling her Noemi's puppet.

Kyla runs out of the room and outside the school, where Noemi is standing. Kyla confronts Noemi to Ty's claims, but assures herself this is a dream. Noemi snaps her fingers and everything goes black except the two of them, and she says that this is all in Kyla's subconscious, therefore there must be some truth in it. Kyla ends up standing up to Noemi, telling her that she's sick of her manipulations--Ty and Phinessa are nice people and don't deserve ridicule. She screams and Noemi to get out of her head and finds herself bolting upward in her bed, snapping awake. Kyla runs to her closet once she regains her senses and finds her coffee-stained sweater.

She takes her mom's offer of coffee and tells Noemi to leave her alone when she arrives at school. In her first period, Kyla apologizes to Phinessa, but then when her teacher starts class, he introduces Keanu Reeves. Kyla, confused, suddenly finds herself waking up on her bed to her alarm.

Kyla begins to wake up, trying to figure out what happened. She checks her phone and realizes that it's Thursday--the day Phinessa spilled coffee on her. Kyla goes to her closet and finds the shirt, and it has no stain. Kyla thought about the first and final segments again, realizing that not everything added up, and were therefore also part of the dream.

Kyla goes through her routine of makeup and social media, but realizes that most of her makeup is from Noemi. The dream she realized upon reflection was an accurate portrayal of her friend, and decided to use only the makeup that was given to her by her mother. Kyla then decides to confess to her mother about spending her money on coffee and accepts her mother's coffee. To her surprise, her mother is not as upset as she was in the dream. She allows Kyla to keep her car, but she would have to have her phone tracked until she could be trusted. Kyla is understanding and agrees, but her mother is glad she told her the truth.

As Kyla drives to school, she thinks about her dream and reflects on her actual life. When she arrives at the school, Ty comes up to her, and Kyla apologizes with how she's been acting. Ty likes that Kyla's trying to change, but then Noemi charges up to Kyla, pissed that she's wearing "no makeup," posted a "bad" photo, and is wearing "hideous" clothing, when in reality Kyla just didn't any of those to Noemi's standards. Kyla snaps at Noemi for being so controlling of her life and walks away. Noemi screams after Kyla and Ty, threatening to ruin them, but they ignore her.

Ty walks Kyla to her class and gives her a kiss, leaving her flustered. Kyla walks in and compliments Phinessa on her outfit and apologizes for being a bully, assuring that she would stand against Noemi's control from now on. The short story ends with an implied friendship growing between the two.

This was so long because I didn't have a word limit! I got to set my own, and this story made it past 7 thousand words.

I really like this one. I had to lean on a few cliches and stereotypes to get the point across as efficiently as possible, so I could actually make the story a decent length, so when I go back to it, I'll definitely go more in depth with this. I love how it's written, and the first person narration really works for this one.

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