I just had an awful dream.

First of all, I was student teaching. That in itself is a nightmare. The teacher was a skinny, freckly woman named Mrs. Gray, and the class was a bunch of little kids mixed with a bunch of older people - my sister, Alyssa, Stephen, and two dudes I went to high school with. It was Valentine's Day, apparently, because everyone was giving out Valentines and assorted sugary treats. My sister was giving out Reese's peanut butter granola bars, and I remember vaguely thinking that it was a bad idea - what if someone had a peanut allergy?

At the end of the day, Mrs. Gray told me I had done a nice job and she would give me a good report. The only problem is that I had forgotten to ask about the kid's homework and review it, but she could tell I was nervous because after she prompted me, I had been fine, so she was just going to overlook it. My friends were waiting for me to be finished speaking with her so we could hang out. We talked about 'Love is a Mix-Tape' and how I had lent it to Stephen, who loved it, and how the author had another book out that mentioned Duran Duran in the title.

The classroom was in a castle of sorts - a damp, medieval-y place made of mossy stones and whatnot - and I was excited to wander around it. Except as soon as Mrs. Gray finished talking to me, one of the boys I went to high school with, a dark haired guy whom I had been close friends with when we were 19 but don't really talk to any more - he came up to me. I hugged him, exhilarated that I had had a successful day, and he held me really close and tightly, which surprised me, and told me he was scared for me. I asked why, and he said that he can just remember this time we were going to the movies a few years ago, and he had this vision in which we were in a castle and a mirror appeared, and we stood looking in it, and my reflection disappeared, and when he turned to look at me, I was gone. He said I should leave the castle because he was afraid this was going to happen to me. He wouldn't stop holding me.

When he finally did, the other dude I went to high school with, a blond guy who I haven't talked to since we were 14, I don't think, he started doing the same thing: holding me as though he was afraid I would disintegrate. He was being super poetic and Romantic and dramatic, and I have a feeling that he was supposed to be someone else, because in real life this guy had been all about math and science, not English. He held me and kept telling me I couldn't leave, I couldn't go away because he had this vision that I would never come back. I kept saying that it was for only a year, and I would of course come back, but as I said it, I had an uneasy feeling that it might not be true. He kept saying that he had this feeling that something was going to happen to me there, that it wasn't safe for me to go. He wouldn't let me go.

Finally I said I had to go outside and was going to get something that would reassure them that I would be safe and come back. I went outside and over to this big chest in the courtyard gardens that had all these locks, but there was a key in it. I opened it and there were seven different compartments. Each one was filled with Swarovski crystal charms and jewelry. This wasn't what I was looking for. I was about to go through the last compartment.

Then I woke up. And I almost immediately burst into tears.

And then my mom came in and told me I was supposed to wake up 3 hours ago, I have to pack, that it was just a dream and I wouldn't have had it if I had gotten out of bed 3 hours ago like I was supposed to, and if I didn't stop crying she was gonna turn on all my lights and open the blinds, and to get up because my aunt is on her way.

Awesome.