Zack’s perspective

My younger brother, Trent, is shaking me.

“Zack! Wake up!” He says.

“Alright! I get it! I’m awake!” I shout.

“Mom says you have to drive me to school,” He says.

I groan. “Fine,” I groan. “Why do I always have to take my demon of a brother to school?” I grumble.

“Mom! Zack called me a demon!” Trent shouts as he runs out of my bedroom.

“It’s not my fault you are a demon!” I shout.

“Zackary, that’s enough!” My mom yells.

I groan and get ready for school. I go to the door after getting everything. I look where my car keys belong and discover they aren’t there. “Where are my car keys?” I shout.

“They weren’t by the door last night, Zack,” my mom says.

“Oh, that’s right. I accidentally left them in my pocket last night,” I say and rush upstairs and look in my pajama pants pockets. The keys aren’t there. I search all over my room and don’t find them. “Mom! I can’t find them!” I shout and run back downstairs where Trent is waiting.

My mom sighs. “Of course you can’t. You can’t keep track of anything,” my mom says.

“That is unfortunately true,” I say.

“I guess I’ll have to drive you two to school. Zack, when you get home, you’re going to look for your keys after you do your homework, got it?” She says to me.

I nod as we walk out the door. I get in the front seat of my mom’s car. Trent gets in the back seat. The drive to school is pretty much uneventful. When I get to the high school, I see Isaac, my best friend since Kindergarten, waiting for me. I walk over to him.

“I thought you were going to drive yourself to school?” Isaac asks.

“Couldn’t find my keys. Also, I had this awful nightmare. You’ve gotta hear ‘bout it!” I say. I tell Isaac every little detail about my nightmare. Right down to the clink of metal and the soft thud that followed. Isaac listens intently.

“That’s some creepy stuff, Zack,” Isaac says.

“It was. I thought I was gonna die, man!” I say.

Isaac chuckles and shakes his head. “You can’t die in dreams, dude,” Isaac says.

Someone accidentally bumps into me and drops their stuff. I stop and help the guy pick up his stuff while smiling.

“S-sorry,” the guy says.

“You’re fine. No worries,” I reply.

“Thank y-you,” they say.

“You are very welcome…” I say.

“Uh, Michael. My name is Michael,” the guy, Michael, says.

“I’m Zackary. You can call me Zack, though,” I say.

Michael nods and disappears into the ocean of high school students. I go to my locker and get my stuff for my classes. At lunch, Michael is sitting by himself and I notice. I nudge Isaac. “Let’s go sit by Michael,” I say. Isaac nods. The pair of us sit with Michael. I tell Michael about my nightmare and also tell him that I lost my car keys.

“You said there was a sound of metal hitting metal and you don’t know where your keys are?” Michael asks. I nod. “Don’t get me wrong, but it sounds to me like you lost your keys in the nightmare,” Michael says, deep in thought.