(A Problem)

When the three girls woke up, they felt weird—their muscles were sore and tense, their heads felt foggy, and they felt anxious for some reason. They all sat up and looked around. Ava and Sarah noticed that Sage was back and had been lying right next to them. She looked confused.

“When did you get here?” Ava asked, confused.

“I dunno...” Sage replied, equally confused. “At first, I was running, and then I was with you guys! I don’t even remember coming back!”

“Where did you run off to?” Sarah asked.

“I don’t really remember...” Sage replied again. “When my head started feeling foggy, I suddenly felt like I needed to get away. Something just felt...wrong...it was weird. I don’t remember running to any particular place or anything, I just started running. It was as if I didn’t even have control over my own body!”

“Hmm...weird...” Sarah contemplated.

They all sat there in silence, trying to figure out what the dream that they all had experienced had been about, and why they had even had it in the first place. After about ten minutes of awkward silence and thinking, they’d all had enough. Ava got up to stretch, and Sage and Sarah got up as well. Sage took a run around the field a couple hundred times, and Sarah just started to walk. She walked around the field, across the small pebbles that the school had used for the playground and out to the swings and slides. After everyone was done stretching and getting pent up energy and anxiety out, they went to go sit back down.

“So...” Sage started, “What should we do next?”

“Honestly, I don’t know...” Ava replied.

“Well...we could talk about that dream...” Sarah suggested. “Sure was weird, wasn’t it?”

“Yeah...” Ava replied, “Sure was...”

“Who do you think those people were? The ones made of shadow and light, I mean...” Sarah asked.

“I dunno...but I don’t think they mean well...” Ava replied, a hint of anxiety in her voice.

“And then what about the old guy that was made of static? And those three girls?” Sage interjected.

“I’m not sure on the old guy, but about those three girls...” Ava paused. She shuddered. “Something doesn’t feel right...they seem really familiar...and in a “not good” kind of way.”

“I agree...something doesn’t feel right...” Sarah replied.

“What about that other guy?” Ava questioned.

“The one made of that weird black stardust stuff?” Sage answered, slightly confused.

“That’s the one!” Ava replied.

“He kinda reminded me of someone...” Sarah added. “I just can’t put my finger on it.”

“Same here, I just don’t know who...” Ava stated.

They sat there for a few moments in silence thinking, until finally, Sarah said, “A-anyway...we should get back to the task at hand...” She paused. “Something is clearly going on, or something is going to happen that we need to put a stop to. We should probably figure out what we need to do.”

“What did you have in mind?” Sage asked, as she looked at both Ava and Sarah.

“Well...” Sarah started, “We should probably head downtown to see if anyone is there.”

“How are we going to get there? If something is going on, then we probably don’t have enough time to walk, and it would take way to much energy to run!” Ava questioned.

“Hmmm...there must be another way...” Sarah pondered.

“What if we use our powers?” Sage suggested.

“That might work, but we don’t really know how to control them yet...” Ava stated.

“Oh right...” Sage replied, slightly discouraged. “Then what are we gonna do?”

“I dunno, but we had better think of something fast...” Sarah added, suddenly feeling slightly anxious.

“Well, we could try to see what we can do with the powers we’ve already leaned...” Sage suggested, trying again.

“Okay, but besides coming up with a way to get downtown, we should also probably come up with a plan for once we’re down there.” Ava stated.

“Agreed.” Sarah replied.

“So, How should we do this?”