Five.

"What?" Claire searched her mother's face for a sign that she was joking, that this was all some sort of trick, but she couldn't find anything. 

"You don't remember? I cam down to the park a little late yesterday. You weren't where we agreed to meet, but I asked a couple people who said that they saw you walking further down the lake. I was looking for you for an hour. I finally found you sleeping on one of the benches. Are you sure you feel okay? Do you think you'll be up to babysitting the Parker kids tonight? I can call and cancel, if you want."

"No, mom, thanks. I'll be fine. Just needed a couple minutes, that's all. Thanks again for the food." 

Claire's mother took that as a hint to leave, so she did. Claire was once again left alone in her bed. She was confused. Had everything been a dream? The only thing that stopped her from believing it was the lucidity of the whole matter. You weren't supposed to remember small details of your dreams, and yet she could remember every detail. And the pain - that was definitely real too. 

She checked the time on the clock. It was already one in the afternoon. Claire jumped out of the bed. She never slept in this late before, and she had a lot she needed to do. She had only four hours before she needed to go to the Parkers' and she had still not finished a good deal of her homework. She rushed into the shower, and finished getting ready in twenty minutes. She went to the study, and by the time she finished her homework it was already four. Since she had the time, Claire decided to walk the mile it took to get to the Parkers' house. She took her license and a book to read. She almost walked out the door before she realized that she had forgotten something - her phone. Claire looked everywhere for it but couldn't find it. 

"Hey Jen," she yelled to her sister. "Have you seen my phone?" 

"No." The response was immediate. "Why should I know where your freaking phone is?" Claire sighed in frustration. She went down to the kitchen.

"Mom, have you seen my phone?"

"Uh, no," her mom replied, pursing her lips in thought. "You didn't have it yesterday when I picked you up, either. Are you leaving already? It's only four."

"Yeah, I just thought I'd walk over instead." 

"Alright. Be safe!"

"You know I will," she said, walking out the door.

Author's Note

okay, so this is more of transition chapter. technically, i don't know if you can even call it a chapter. i wanted to write something, but i didn't have much time, so this is basically what resulted. i think i'm starting to get a better idea of where i want to go with this. i won't tell you anything yet, but maybe further down the road i'll hint you in on what you should be expecting for claire =)

Reviews

[compositionc]

Yeah. This chapter was boring, but every book's gotta have a boring, transitional chapter. Yours at least explained a little.