"Nice," Hannah said, looking closely at it.
"I think I have an idea for my focus," Ralph boasted.
"What is the idea?" Beth asked, her voice indicating the trepidation she has at Ralph's sudden statement, which Charlie fully shared.
"You'll see tomorrow," Ralph said, his expression full of mischief.
"Well, what else is there to discuss?" Tim asked.
Charlie sighed, while she'd like a quiet afternoon after getting back from her family's camping trip after she got back from that horrendous camp, she couldn't say she was all that surprised at that not happening. It just seemed almost like it was going to be like this from now on, which Charlie was surprised to realize she didn't mind it as much as she had thought she would.
_
Charlie settled in her bed, pleasure enveloping her more than she would have expected at being in her own bed again. After the camp, they'd left for camping that day, so Charlie hadn't been able to relax in her bed. Normally she didn't mind it so much, but she wasn't sure what was different that it mattered more this time. Only that there had been a change and being in her bed somehow felt exhilarating.
She had to fight off the urge to go straight to sleep in order to work through what she needed to do in order to try the dream conference. She'd much rather just sleep but couldn't think of a reason she wouldn't be able to get more sleep later.
So, she took a deep breath and imagined taking her magic in her hands again and thought about talking with Beth first. She tried, but nothing happened. She stopped trying when she felt her hands starting to burn.
She wasn't sure what was being done differently, so after using the magic she'd already pulled to heal her hands, she had to pull a little more magic in order to do that even with her backup focus.
She tried again and had the same result. So, she got up and went into the bathroom. She ran her hands under cold water and tried thinking of what she was missing as her hands enjoyed the coolness of the water after the burns they'd had before she healed them. She stared at her reflection as she tried thinking what she was doing differently as opposed to when she got it to work when she wasn't trying.
Nothing came to her mind, so eventually she cupped her hands together, let a pool of water form then splashed her face with it. She repeated that a few more times, then dried her face and hands before she returned to her bed.
As she was entering her room, she heard her sister calling to her. "What were you doing?" Cherie asked from her doorway, her voice indicating that she had been asleep.
"Having trouble sleeping," she replied, not sure what else to say.
"Okay," Cherie replied, turning back into her room.
She didn't pay it much mind. Cherie sometimes was an enigma to her. This was one of those times she couldn't think of what Cherie's question had been about, but she knew she couldn't let it distract her from trying to connect with her friends through their dreams.
As she settled back into her bed again, she wondered if she needed to first figure out how to 'enter' her own mind rather than just imagining doing what she had done the last time in regards to drawing out her magic like she was drawing out water from a pool of it. The biggest problem with this, was she had no frame of reference to know how to go about doing it.
Eventually, she decided to try to imagine herself in her mind to see if that would have any effect. She couldn't see how it would hurt trying. As she did that, she couldn't help but giggle to herself. It hardly felt like she was in her mind now, than when she had just been lying in her bed. She certainly felt more than a little awkward doing it this way. If it was any different from her last attempts anyway. For some reason, she felt a wave of giddiness wash over her and she almost stopped from sheer embarrassment over that fact.
However, she was able to push past that aspect of herself. Though, she made a mental note to try and figure out why she felt that way in the first place.
As she continued, she again thought of herself dipping her hands in her magic that appeared to her as a liquid fire, then of Beth. Rather than her hands starting to burn this time, she again felt the sensation of moving without moving. She hoped that she'd been able to get it done correctly this time, though she still worried that she was going to mess it up somehow. This was still a new idea to her and she often didn't learn things as quickly as most others around her.
She soon found herself looking at Beth, but this time in the girl's locker room at school. Beth was also wearing a gym class tracksuit. Why they were there, she couldn't say, nor why Beth was in gym clothes. "Sorry about taking so long," she apologized, though as she thought about it, she wasn't sure how long she'd taken or how long Beth might have felt she'd been waiting.
"No problem, Charlie," Beth replied, walking over to her and hooking her left arm around Charlie's right arm.
"Why are you doing that?" she asked, unsure if she should be trying to extricate herself again, despite always failing at her attempts to do so.
"I have a feeling that if you move to bring in someone else, then you'll leave me behind if I'm not connected to you physically somehow," Beth replied. Then after a brief moment added as she laughed, "Or as physically as we can in a dream world."
Charlie sighed. She couldn't deny there was a bit of logic there. She just wished Beth would merely put her hand on Charlie's shoulder rather than this. Although, on the other hand, it could be worse.
"Were you just imagining me taking hold of your hand?" Beth asked, amusement clear in her voice.
"No," Charlie stated flatly, while seeing if she could get two people at once rather than just one at a time. Pushing out of her mind how Beth knew what had crossed her mind as quickly as she could. Amelia and Hannah was Charlie's focus at the moment.
"It certainly seemed like it," Beth started, but stopped for a brief moment when they started moving again. "Whoa, this is trippy." Beth started giggling, which Charlie felt the urge to join as well. Though, she was successfully able to fight the impulse.
When they stopped again, Charlie could see Amelia and Hannah before them. Amelia was wearing a bikini, laying on a beach towel with her eyes closed while Hannah was wearing a dress that made her look ready for a school dance. Their surroundings however, didn't match either outfit. They were in front of the entrance to Petals' forest.
"This is weird," Beth commented.
Amelia opened her eyes and Hannah turned towards them. "It certainly is," Hannah replied, "But it seems you were able to get here faster than I expected. I thought it'd take a while."
"Ummm, I can't say how long it took me," Charlie admitted, looking away from everyone as she felt her face heat up. "I wasn't paying attention, but it did take a few attempts."
"Don't worry about it, but why are you two like that?" Amelia asked, getting up from her towel.
"We can't be sure if all of us won't stay together when Charlie goes to the rest of us, so I thought physically touching her might help prevent that," Beth answered.
"That makes sense," Hannah said, coming over and putting her hand on Charlie's shoulder.
"Yeah, wish I thought of that," Amelia agreed, walking over and taking Charlie's hand in hers. Charlie couldn't help but feel her face heat up, though for some reason it Amelia holding her hand wasn't as bad as the thought of Beth holding it.
"How is it that it feels like I can hear your thoughts?" Hannah asked Charlie.
"Couldn't say," Charlie muttered, wondering why Amelia just had to take Charlie's hand in hers.
"Well, let's go then!" Amelia cried.
Charlie merely sighed. She couldn't think of what else to do to get out of this situation, and since she was able to get both Hanna and Amelia at the same time, she decided to try and get the rest of their group in one shot. If nothing else, it would allow her to physically separate herself from the others; or as physically as possible given it wasn't their real bodies.
"Wow," Amelia said as they started moving again. "It's like we're not going anywhere, yet you can still feel a breeze going by."
"This is weird," Hannah merely said.
"Maybe we'll get used to it," Beth suggested.
Charlie could only sigh. Maybe she should have tried getting all of them at the same time in the first place. Hindsight certainly would be nice to have before she looked back on it wistfully.
It took a long time yet only seconds at the same time, again. They were in the parking lot in front of the school now, Ralph was wearing his pajamas while holding a bicycle seat. Tim was wearing a giraffe costume, his face around 5 feet higher than it should given where his body was. Wes was wearing a uniform that looked like the military uniform from an anime poster he'd shown her a couple weeks before school ended called 'Attack on Titan.'
"Why're we in front of the school?" Ralph asked, tapping the bicycle seat against his shoulder absently.
"Why do you have a bicycle seat?" Hannah returned.
"Why do you look ready for Homecoming?" Ralph retorted.
"Why do you-" Hannah started.
"Guys!" Tim called out. "We're not going to get anywhere if we nitpick every detail." He paused for a moment to see if either were going to continue. When they didn't, he moved on. "Let's just assume that each of our outfits or what we're holding had something to do with any dream we were having before we got pulled into this dream conference."
"Well, if that's the case, then let's start with the first subject that came up after we decided on this dream conference," Wes said. "Which is: what is the deal with your crystal, Charlie? Why do you need to go get it when it probably shattered to pieces on impact?"
Charlie took a deep breath. She had a feeling it hadn't shattered, but she couldn't say for sure and she certainly hoped it hadn't. "First, I found that crystal on our first visit to Petals' forest and that crystal is what unsealed my magic, which allowed me to unseal all of yours," Charlie said. "The crystal has Petals' memories and some of her consciousness in it. The crystal told me that I wasn't to let Petals know about it, and after I got the Heart of the Forest back, I was to give Petals her memories back. That also has to be done in her forest."
"Why didn't you tell any of us about it before now?" Hannah asked, then her eyes widen as she realized something, which Charlie somehow felt she knew what it was going to be before Hannah said it. "Why did you use it as your focus in the first place?"
Charlie couldn't help but chuckle in embarrassment about that point. "It seemed like a good idea," she replied sheepishly.
"Back on topic," Beth said. "Give them the reason you didn't tell any of them about it."
"Wait, what do you mean 'tell any of them?" Tim asked. "Were you aware of this info about the crystal?"
"I may have become aware of it, but that's not the point," Beth replied. "Let's focus on one question at a time. Or we'll never get anywhere."
"She has a point," Amelia chimed in.
Charlie took a deep breath and decided to say something so they could move on. "The reason I didn't tell you guys was because the crystal told me not to, it only gave an exception for Beth so I'd have someone to vouch for me about unsealing your magic. Also, it needs Petals to remain oblivious to it. So, if I told any of you, then Petals might have learned about it, but since I lost it, I need you guys to understand how important it is to get it back," Charlie said, wondering if she'd pretty much have to search for it on her own. "I'm not sure if the crystal will be happy that I told you guys about it even now with how I think it's necessary."
"Did it say why it can't have Petals know about it?" Wes asked.
"Maybe, but I don't really remember," Charlie admitted. "If it did, I doubt I understood the reasons."
"Oh, Charlie, if you lost your focus," Hannah interjected, "what do you have for a focus now?"
"Ummm," Charlie wished she could be done with this altogether. "My butterfly pendent." Charlie wasn't sure what else she could say about it.
"Oh, that pendent that Al-" Amelia started before Hannah slapped a hand over her mouth.
Charlie's interest was piqued despite herself. "What were you going to say?" she asked but noticed the looks the others were giving Amelia and doubted she'd get an actual answer about it.
"Nothing," Amelia said, clearly not willing to say what she had been going to say anymore.
Charlie looked at Amelia levelly but eventually shook her head. Unless she was going to try and peek into Amelia's thoughts, there wasn't going to be any use in pushing the point.
"Anyway, back to the next point," Ralph said, turning to Beth. "You knew about this before and didn't say anything?"
"Yeah, Charlie got permission from the crystal to let me know about it, but all of you should know that I can keep a secret and I don't reveal sources either, but since Charlie is going along with it, there's no reason for me to keep it either," Beth answered.
"Why you?" Wes asked, his tone indicating he was merely curious rather than an accusation.
"Probably because I was the closest to a friend Charlie had at the time," Beth replied.
Charlie was glad Beth replied. She wasn't sure what she would have said if everyone looked to her for a response on that point. Though, she still felt she should say something anyway but really didn't want to. So, she forced herself to remain quiet and hope they moved on to another topic.
Fortunately for Charlie, Ralph was of the same mindset. "Well, anyway, in response to Hannah's question about what I'm doing with a bicycle seat earlier, I decided to use one as my focus. Not that I've used that bike for a while," Ralph said, though his last sentence seemed to be more to himself than anyone else.
Everyone stared at Ralph for what seemed like an hour to Charlie, but likely was a minute at most.
"Why?" Wes asked, voicing the question everyone but Ralph was wondering.
"Because I can," Ralph replied conversationally. "There wasn't anything that said what it could or couldn't be, so why not?"
"Because maybe it's stupid?" Hannah asked.
"Who says stupid ideas can't be genius ideas?" Ralph returned cheerfully.
"I'm not sure how to touch that," Hannah commented.
"Let's move on then," Beth replied. "Aside from us being able to meet like this, has anyone else figured out a new use for magic?"
"I'm still working on trying to figure out if I can use it to heal something," Amelia replied. "Even with my anatomy textbooks, it's slow going."
"I've been able to turn myself into a CD player," Wes commented smugly.
"Oooh, you'll have to do that for us tomorrow," Hannah said.
"Have you been able to use your magic to power your keyboard?" Tim asked Hannah.
Hannah stared at Tim for a minute. "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you guys, I figured that out a week or two ago," Hannah said. "Sorry."
"Any other ideas of what we might be able to try with our magic?" Beth asked.
"While I was at Heathcliff's camp, I learned a few magic tricks from another girl in the camp," Charlie said. As everyone turned to look at her, she was immediately alarmed. Should she not have said that?
"Why didn't you tell us this earlier?" Wes asked, his eyes eager.
"Yeah, you should have said something to us before, when we were in Petals' forest," Amelia added.
"Sorry," Charlie mumbled. Why did she have to mention this now? She wondered to herself.
Beth put her arm around Charlie's shoulders in side-hug. "Don't worry about it," she said. "Just tell us what you learned, and then more importantly," Beth started off in a conversational tone, but suddenly started yelling in Charlie's ear as she shook Charlie, "you met someone else who could use their magic!?"
"Yeah, I got the feeling that all the counselors at the camp were able to use their magic and that I was brought there because they knew of my connection with the Heart of the Forest and thought to use unsealing my magic as a way to get me to join them," Charlie said, inwardly withdrawing into herself.
"Oh, speaking of which," Tim commented, his expression giving Charlie hope that she might be able to get out from being the center of everyone's attention like this. "How exactly was the camp an 'unmitigated disaster?' I mean, how bad could it have been?"
Charlie sighed. While it wasn't as good as she had hoped, at least it wasn't something about her herself.
"Well, the campers were to work as a team. There were two boys teams and two girls teams. They were to design a catapult, build it, and use it to attack the other teams' territory. The only team that got past the design phase was someone who left his team behind and I wouldn't be surprised if one of the counselors drew up the plans for the catapult. I'm not really sure what Heathcliff had expected kids to accomplish in just one week," Charlie replied, hoping this would end their focus on her.
"Yeah, I can im-" Tim started to say but suddenly disappeared.
"What hap-" Ralph started when he disappeared at about the same time as Wes.
"Maybe they woke up?" Beth offered as an explanation of what happened to them.
"Could be the case," Hannah commented. "But-"
Then Hannah disappeared.