Take a Nap

It's my turn next, and I'm nervous as hell.

I get up slowly from my seat near the front row in my Speech 110 class (Communications), and stride to the front of the classroom slowly, planning my every move.

Pretending I know Zen, I take a few deep breaths, trying to calm every nerve in my body that feels as if they are about to explode. My notecards are shaking in my hand, but I know that today is the day that I will finally get my speech over and done with.

This is it.

I start to speak, and all of a suddenly a girl flashes into my mind and she is laughing at me.

As I pull back to my senses, I realize that she is laughing at me here in this classroom as well. Her belly-shaking laughter is contagious, and soon the entire class is laughing at me. My face keeps getting a deeper shade of puce every minute that passes.

"Stop, please...stop laughing...what's wrong?" I say anxiously, staring around at everyone in the classroom.

Now there are flashing in my mind of people as I watch their faces go by, they are all laughing at me, and I haven't even started my speech at this time.

Now I'm getting mad.

"What's so funny?" I snap at a girl in the front row. She just continues to howl with laughter, tears running down her face at something so extremely entertaining that I am doing.

"Stop...STOP IT!!!" I yell at the top of my lungs, and these very words burst from my mouth. I sit straight up on the couch, staring around wildly.

Suddenly, I realize where I am.

I'm at the library -- on the sixth floor.

"Whoops." I say softly. Now everyone at the tables is staring at me. My chest is heaving like I had just run the mile in about 2 minutes. Suddenly, a girl gets up, and I jump a little.

"Shhhh...it's okay," She whispers, bending down to pick up my papers. I notice that I fell asleep with my books on my chest, and now they are spread out all over the floor.
"Was I snoring?" I say jokingly, trying to keep the conversation light while I also bend down to pick up papers. I realize that my face is all sweaty, and I quickly wipe it clean.
"No," She says, and I look up at other people around me; they are all watching me cautiously. "Just...turning and twisting a lot."
"Oh."
"You're okay now though, right?" She says anxiously, staring up at my face.
"What? Oh yeah, just fine thanks." I say, the girl's laughter from my dream still echoing in my mind.

I gather all of my books up and stuff them into my bookbag.

"Get back to work!" I say loud enough for the people to stop staring at me. The girl who helped me gave me a faint smile before going back to her table.

Note to Self: Don't go to sleep in the library. ;-)