Keep Dreaming up Ways to Survive by Mitch Mueller (the reading strategies book .TXT) 📕

looked unconscious. Dawson watched with fear in his eyes as the monster lifted its hand, which had a strange gray slime ball in its clutch. Felix’s mouth fell open as the monster forced the ball down his throat, Felix gagged and retched on it. His body spasmed and the monster’s arm jammed its way in, Felix’s body being so unwilling caused more dry-heaving to erupt in the dark void. Dawson at this point had tears rolling down the side of his face, he felt like he just saw Felix’s body get violated and abused. The monster slowly turned his head to Dawson and spoke darkly. 

“This is his power.”

Dawson sat straight up immediately when he woke up, he saw his heart beating out of his chest. He looked at his alarm clock and saw it was only 6 am, school started at 7:40 but he was already dressed and running out of the house to school. Dawson felt his vein popping out of his neck, he has never been so scared for someone else's life. He doesn’t know what might happen to Felix, but his dreams never lied, they always came true. The dreams could look strange at first and then have a message behind them, Dawson had a feeling this was one of those times. He sat down on a rock in front of the school and waited, people looked at him weirdly but he never got up. The next time he looked up he saw Felix walking to the school.

“Felix!” Dawson ran up to him and grabbed his shoulders.

“Y...yes?” Felix stammered.

“Are.... are you ok? Did… anyone follow you?” Dawson hesitated to continue.

“I don’t think so… wait what are you talking about?” Felix questioned timidly.

“I had a dream that something happened to you. The monster put a gross ball thing in your mouth and you were coughing and…” Dawson stopped talking as he remembered what he had seen. “Oh! And it said that it was your power, but I have no clue what that means.”

“Like a superpower?” Felix asked, surprised. 

“I don’t know! That’s all it said before I woke up, maybe it meant-”  Dawson was cut off by the bell, they were about to be tardy for class.

“Oh, sorry I will see you during lunch?” Felix questioned, already running to class

“Yeah, I guess…” Dawson mumbled as Felix ran away. He realized he was also late so he started into the school building too.

When he walked in the teacher scolded him for being late, but his mind was too busy to think about anything but the dream. Dawson slouched in his chair and thought, “What is his power? Is it slime being put down his throat? Or… having it come back up? Maybe he can turn into slime… yeah, that one is dumb. I can’t stop thinking about it, it’s driving me crazy! I need closure.” Dawson left after the class to find Felix. He saw Felix leaving the bathroom, he stepped in front of him and said, “You… wanna skip class…? To talk about the dream I had of course.”

“ I guess, I have a free bell right now. Wait, don’t you have class?” Felix questioned as people started to disperse from the hall and enter their designated classrooms.

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter.” Dawson shrugged as he grabbed Felix’s hand and dragged him outside.

Chapter 4

 

Dawson and Felix laid down under a tree behind the school, they sat in comfortable silence as the cool wind blew past. Felix turned his head to see Dawson already staring at him, they stared at each other for a second then Felix hesitated and said, “Dream?”

“Yeah,” Dawson commented, but not making any movement to start talking, just staring. Felix decided to look away cause the staring was starting to make him uncomfortable.

“So, I’m not sure if the slime means you can turn into slime or puke it up,” Dawson replied scornfully, finally sitting up. 

“What should we do then?” asked Felix as he fidgeted with his fingers.

“Well, you are going to find out what you can do, of course,” Dawson growled as if it was obvious.

“Huh?! How am I supposed to do that alone! You need to help, you had the dream!” Felix whined.

“Ok! I’ll help! Um… let’s try turning in to slime, god this sounds so dumb…” Dawson pinched his temple.

“Well, how do I do that? Pray?” Felix chuckled. Dawson’s lips turned up slightly and he said, “Hm, I have an idea. Lay on the tree and… loosen all your muscles, like relax.”

Felix laid on the tree and shook his arms a little, then he closed his eyes. Dawson leaned closer to Felix and continued what he was saying in a slightly lower tone, to go along with the calming atmosphere, “Now think about turning into slime, really try to concentrate on the slime. Oh, think about those satisfying slime making videos”

Felix was trying to do this, he thought having power would be amazing. So he concentrated so deeply he didn’t hear any noise, except this is one.

Pfft!

Felix quickly put his hands up to cover his face. Then Dawson burst out laughing, he fell on the ground gripping his stomach for dear life. Even though it was embarrassing, Felix also started to giggle. 

“Man, you let loose didn’t you!” Dawson couldn’t help but chuckle.

“Yeah, let my cheeks loose…” Felix's eyes closed as he smiled. He felt so happy and giddy, he thought nothing could go wrong. Until Felix felt something at the bottom of his stomach, it made his stomach twist with discomfort. Dawson immediately noticed something happened and stopped laughing.

“Hey, are you ok!” Dawson shook Felix’s shoulder when he gripped his throat. Something slid up to Felix’s mouth and what left it was disturbing a gray slime ball. The slimeball flew from his mouth and landed on the ground in front of him. As the ball splattered on the ground, it started to smoke and melted through the Earth. Leaving the boys in awe and the grass charred black.

 “What… th-that came out of… me?!” Felix muttered scratchily.

“I… well, that must be your power…? Did you activate it with your fart or something?” Dawson shrugged.

“I don’t… know?” Felix's voice cracked as he coughed, “God, the burned like…”

“Like hell?” Dawson continued for Felix.

“Yeah.” Felix rubbed his throat, what just happened had drained him and all he wanted was sleep. Maybe some water too.

“How do you think it was activated? Could it be your fart? Want to try it again?” Dawson suggested.

“Nah, if I force it a fart won’t come out alone. Maybe we need to retrace our steps.” Felix said, slightly feeling like a detective. 

“Ok, starting from the beginning of your morning, what did you do?” Dawson asked as he handed Felix a bottle of water he had in his pocket. Felix greedily gulped it down, even though it was warm, it felt like heaven in his mouth. Felix wiped his mouth and started talking, “Well, I woke up….and my mom...was....nevermind. I came to school, saw you, and went to class. That's it. Nothing different happened today.”

“Hm… what did you have for breakfast? Maybe it has something to do with that.” Dawson hoped he was right.

“I don’t eat breakfast, never did,” Felix replied.

“You don’t eat breakfast? You need breakfast to keep your blood sugar up!” Dawson fumed.

“Why do you know so much about this?” Felix asked warily.

“Dads a dietitian. Eat this, now.” Dawson ordered as he threw two granola bars at Felix’s chest. Felix barely caught them as he questioned, “What else do you have in that pocket? Narnia?”

“Yes I do, now eat. We need to think…” Dawson talked but Felix heard none of it. He bit into one of the granola bars and thought to himself, “I’m surprised Dawson cared enough to give me food. Feels nice to have someone care for me for once, it makes me happy.”

Felix felt his face warm-up, but immediately after he felt a familiar something at the bottom of his stomach. His eyes widened as he realized what was happening.

“No...no...not again…” Felix trembled as his stomach turned inside out and did backflips.

“What’s wrong? Is another one going to come out?” Dawson exclaimed. Felix nodded frantically, his throat pulsating as he felt another repulsive ball slide its way up to his mouth. He retched when he threw it up, for a second time the gray ball fell to the ground and melted creating a replica of the hole next to it.

 

Chapter 5

Felix rested his head in his hands, as he sat in class he could feel Dawson’s eyes staring at the back of his head. But he could care less, Felix was beyond tired and when he went to the bathroom to wipe his mouth he saw even more eye bags forming. This was putting a real strain on his body, he now regrets ever wanting powers. All he wanted was super speed but instead, he has hot goo burning his throat whenever he gets happy.

“Everyone, I am very disappointed with you.” The teacher began, get the whole class's attention. “I was trying to be nice to you, letting you do a project and not do the quiz. But you all decided to slack off and not get your work done. The only one who got their work done was Felix! And I have to admit it was amazing.’’

Felix looked up when he heard his name, but he didn’t understand what the teacher meant, he didn’t put any effort into the project. He just looked up all the answers. He now wished he didn’t, because the teacher was just complimenting him over and over again, making him feel an emotion he has recently come to hate. Felix passed Dawson a note that said to meet him in the bathroom, he asked to go to the restroom as the bubbling of his stomach began. He dashed through the halls, hearing Dawson not too far behind him. Bursting through the door he flopped to the ground and started vomiting the globs into the toilet. Dawson almost ripped the stall door off its hinges when Felix didn’t open the door, he saw him passed out on the floor. The slimeball had melted through the toilet bowl and was making its way to Felix’s legs. Dawson gasped as he picked Felix up and threw him on his shoulders, he grabbed their bags, and without telling the teacher he just left the school building. Dawson bucked Felix up in his large blue Toyota Tacoma, he got in the driver seat and tried to wake Felix