• Closing the door behind me, I sighed. "So who's your new friend?" My mom asked coming from the kitchen, dishrag, and plate in hand for drying.

    "It was a new student , named A.J. While I was walking home he wanted to give me a lift back," I said watching her face to see if she was gonna say something about him liking me. There it was the smirk.

    "Aw Tera, he's got a crush, and by the way his car looks, like his parents are rich," She told me raising an eyebrow, thenrubbing hermiddle, idex finger, and thumb together to describe money.

    "Mom!" I yelled at her.

    "What?" She asked quizzacly. "It's only a natural part of life. I've had crushes, and you have too," I hated when she got like this. It just made me more embarrassed, but I gave in, and gave up.

    "Okay I get the idea now. What's for dinner then?" I tried to change the subject. My mom smirked at this and told me.

    "We're having Chinese tonight. By the way we're having guests over," She left going back into the kitchen. A guest? We never have guests. Now I was suspicious.

    "What's the catch mom?" Seeing my suspicious curiousity, she told me after sighing.

    "Just like you, almost, I have a new co-worker. I've decided to invite him over and his family over for dinner. So they should be here around seven o'clock." Looking at the clock on the wall behind me it was only five.

    "Fine then, what's his name?" I was interested to learn about them before they got here. Seeing as the only people who ever came over here were our relatives, and Romeo, these people intrigued me.

    "Well his name his Mark Oneiro," Wow neat last name, I thought. " He's one of the new managing employees to help with sales. He's really nice also, so you'll like him," My mom continued on. "I don't know his wifes name yet, but I know he has a son close to your age," This made me think it might be A.J. but I just thought it was nothing.. That had been enough explaining for me, so I left

    *2 hours later*

    The doorbell rang sending the chimming sound through the house. That's when my mom yelled," Tera get that please!" She was almost done with her cooking . Getting up from the coach, opening the door I came face to chest with a tall dark haired man. There was a woman behind him, but I couldn't find their son.

    Looking back at them my mouth was gapping like a fishes. I couldn't think of anything to say. I could hear my mom's eager footsteps coming from the kitchen. "Tera you gonna let them in?" I nodded feeling my mom's hand on my shoulder.

    I moved aside to let him in.

    "Thank you," he said, " As you probabaly know I'm Mark, and this is my wife," Mark moved his arm to let a petitewoman by him. "Her names Rachel. Also you might know my son," Moving his head towards the door he yelled to get his sons attention, "Adam James come here!" I soon heard a muffled yell come from outside.

    My eyes widened at what I saw next. The black, red hair, and smiling face of A.J. I was speachless I had been dropt off by him earlier.

    "Hey I didn't know your mom invited us," he told me coming in, then tripping over our doorway.

    " Oh goodness," Rachel, A.J.'s mom said.

    "I am okay!" A.J. exclaimed popping back up. My face was blank even to my that he had did this. That's when my mom changed the subject.

    "So dinners ready! You told me Mark that your family likes Chinese," Both of A.J.'s parents smile. Rachel spoke first.

    " Yes thank you," Smiling still she led my mom to the kitchen. "I'm sure it will be delicious," I then noticd that I saw her not wink at me, but at A.J. and Mark. I turned around to see nothing, then felt a hand gfo across my mouth to keep me queit. I saw A.J. next. He began to speak.

    "Please don't scream we just wanted to talk to you," A.J. spoke.

    ' Why would I scream when you were invited over," I thought.

    "We're not like regular people," I rose my eyebrow at this. Then I heard Mark to tell me to go outside. "We are Guardians of the Dream Realm. We were told to come and find the Oneiropolos. The Dreamerm, but you kbnow this person as the Protector," This caught my interest he was telling me parts of the story that I was told for bedtime stories.

    I wanted to ask questions, now! Ibut Mark's hand, and heard him yelp in pain.

    "Sorry," I told him. "How do you know all of this? My mother only told me about this as a bedtime story." I began to corner A.J. into the tiny ficus growing near our front doorstep. Mark was still tending to his hand not worrying about his son.

    "They're not stories they are actually real. Only a certain handful of people can go there, like me and my parents. Your mother may have been raised on the legends, but she didn't have the genes to go there," A.J. told me quickly. If my mom doesn't have the genes to do this, why do I?

    "How come I can go then? And how can I make sure you're not just trying to fool me?"

    "We can show you but we need to go back inside," I heard Mark say. I saw him walk back inside.

    "Okay then let's go have dinner," I told A.J. letting him get away from the ficus. He seemed relieved while following me back insid thta I had stopped the questioning. Our mothers had been in the kitchen putting the food, on the table, and they were now sitting down having a boisterous laugh when we walked in.

    "Oh look they're back," My mom said. "So how was your tour of the house?" Tour, I didn't give a tour?

    "It was nice you have a lovely house Emily," Mark said while seating himself. A.J. saw my look , and told me what wanted.

    "My mom told your that you gave us a tour, while we were explaining, us being Guardians," A.J. told me while grabbing some rice. I just kind of went with it, since I've never met another family that knew of the stories. My mom began to talk.

    "So Mark where did you move from?" She set down her fork to speek.

    "Oh we'ver actuallymover about two times before," Mark annouced. I noticed he wasn;t being specific about where, but my mom would never asked since she was happy with such short answers.

    "Yes the other places were wuite nice, but it just wasn't us," Rachel said smiling, while eyeing the aggrolls. Probably trying to figure out how many calories they had. Deciding it'd be fine she took one. There was small conversation inbetween everyone.

    Everything tasted great, and everyone was enjoying the meal. When it came time for A.J. and his parents to leave, I went to go show them out, while my mom did the dishes. Once we were out of hearing range of my om I asked the family something.

    "So you know the stories legends?" They nodded at me. But how are you suppose to show me that this place is real?" That's twhenI saw it, A.J. smirking.

    "You'll know hen your in the Dream Realm," A.J.'s parents had already went to their car. I wanted to aske him how I would know when I there, but the next time I blinked he was gone. I could hear their cars engine, and it was already at the end of my driveway.