At DAG - I know, horrible acronym, right? - we studied Romeo and Juliet in Year Nine English. And then my drama class performed it in Year Ten. I could probably recite half the book off by heart, including all of Juliet's lines. So I only had to quickly revise it off my phone that night and I was all good. 

I sent a goodnight text to my mum - I haven't spoken to her in weeks, almost - and then put my phone on charge. I set my alarm for six in the morning so I'd have time for a shower before breakfast. 

I turned off the light, which Em had been groaning about, and slipped under my covers. Just as I was about to hit a deep sleep, my microchip gave out a sudden buzz in my stomach and I let out a small squeak of pain. I winced and lifted up my shirt to glance at it. It looked absolutely fine... I rolled over onto my other side and tried to get some sleep. 

***

"Park?" I looked around the empty classroom, "Park, are you hiding?"

My tone was light, but in all honesty, I was scared. It was nightfall outside and the classroom was dark. I could hear someone snoring deeply from upstairs, but that was it. 

"Park, stop it - you're freaking me out... where are you?" I called. 

I made my way to the doorway of the classroom and looked into the dark hallway. 

"Park?!" 

Just as I cried this out, my vision caught on a small white note. I picked it up and glanced through it: Meet me at my dorm - 11 o'clock. I shuddered. Because that note wasn't creepy at all...

I glanced at the clock on the wall. 10:56pm. I made my way to the stairs and walked up them extremely quietly. Why would Christian change his mind so suddenly? 

I knocked ever so quietly on his dorm room door and it swung open. I jumped up from the suddenness. He wrapped me in a hug, "Sorry... I didn't mean to scare you..."

He leaned back and pecked my lips, "Are you okay, Dove?"

I glanced up at him, shivering badly, "H-how did you know I was scared?"

"Just a guess..." he rubbed his hands up and down my arms, "You look pale."

"But why'd you want me here instead of the classroom? And at night too?"

Christian's eyebrows furrowed, "What do you mean?"

"You left me a note? Saying to meet you in the classroom? And then when I went down to the classroom, you'd left a note saying to meet you at your dorm..."

Christian shook his head slowly, "I didn't leave any notes..."

I looked up at him and couldn't help the terror coming over me - I had to scream. It had been years and I still hadn't gotten away from this madness. I tried to scream, but no sound would come out. I fell to the floor and hammered my fists on the tiles, but I couldn't escape the dream - and I couldn't scream. 

***

"NAT! Calm down! Please!" a voice shrieked.

"Get away from me!" I cried and thrashed around further, "I've had enough!"

I half-screamed, half-cried, "Just stop these dreams, already!"

"Natalie! I need you to calm down!" an older woman's voice said.

"Get out of here! You of all people!" I shouted, "Get out, Dr Demonico!"

Hands pushed my shoulders back onto my bed and pinned me there, "Natalie! Stop thrashing!"

"It doesn't make any sense!" I shouted, "Who would leave me such riddlesome notes?!"

"Natalie, what did the notes say?" a deep, man's voice asked.

I took a deep breath and stopped thrashing, but I continued to shake. Through my tears, I whispered, "The-the first one said to meet him in the classroom... but he wasn't there... The s-second one said to go to his dorm. But then he said he didn't leave any notes for me..."

"Is this Christian Park again?" Dr Demonico asked as she stood at the end of my bed with a notebook and pen.

I nodded slowly, "Who else?"

Emily wrapped her arms around me, "Hey... Nat... I don't know what's going on... but know that I'm here for you."

I let out another small sob, "No one can help me... I can't explain anything..."

"I had to get them, you wouldn't stop thrashing or screaming," Emily winced.

"Th-that's alright..."

Dr Weston finally ordered, "Get up. We have to do an immediate scan on your microchip."

I nodded slightly, "Alright."

We moved back to the small room and I was put back in the horrid dentist's chair. Dr Demonico took, from her side table, a thing that looked like one of those barcode scanners you'd see at the shops. She lifted my shirt so she could see the microchip. Dr Demonico murmured, "You might feel a little heat, Natalie."

A warm laser was pressed against the microchip and I actually found it quite relaxing. Dr Demonico placed the scanner a second later into a container by her computer. A few seconds later some code came up and along with the green was one red line. 

Dr Demonico muttered a curse under her breath, "It looks like your microchip has a bug... We're going to have to take it out. It could be affecting your pheromones and your hormones. We could tell it was affecting your dreamscape too..."

"Will this be painful?"

"Very," Dr Demonico sighed, "I'm going to have to give you an anesthetic, just to calm it down a little.

She applied a heavy cream to the area, and immediately my stomach went numb. 

I relaxed a little but jerked at the sharp jolt of pain. I cried out, "Fudge!"

I made the mistake of looking to where Dr Demonico had just insert tweezers into my skin and was in the act of pulling out the microchip. My blood was leaking onto the seat beneath me. 

Blood. Red, icky fluid from my insides. 

I tried to gulp for air, but I fainted instead.

***

"Is she okay?" a deep voice asked.

Shawn! 

My eyes flew open and I took in deep gasps of breath, "Oh. My. Lord."

Dr Demonico winced, "I'm sorry..."

I looked down to my stomach, "Is that a new microchip?"

Someone had taken off my white shirt - probably stained with blood - leaving me in just my sports bra and pyjama pants - a strange ensemble. 

Dr Weston nodded, "The old one was malfunctioning too heavy."

"Why was it malfunctioning?" I narrowed my eyes up at him.

He sighed, "Just a manufacturing problem. That's why your dream didn't match Christian's for once."

"How do you know that it didn't match his?"

"You've been sleeping for the past two days..." Dr Demonico winced, "We took the time to ask him a lot of questions."

Shawn interrupted, "So it's been proven that their dreams are the exact same?"

"Interestingly enough."

I chimed in, "So will you tell us yet why it's happening?"

"We still need to go through a few more stages."

I raised my eyebrows for her to continue. Dr Weston answered, though, "Obviously, from the samples we collected, we now have some data. We figure that the best way to judge who reacts well with one another is from a party."

"A party?" I raised an eyebrow.

Shawn grinned brightly, "Cool!"

"Well, you are all sixteen or seventeen," Dr Demonico went to explain, "No faculty members will be here - just all you students. We'll supply food, drinks, alcohol even. But we believe that examining how you all behave at the party will give us some more details to work with."

"You believe letting Year Elevens have free run with alcohol available is safe?" I flabbergasted.

Shawn, however, asked, "How are you going to examine us if you aren't there, though?"

I stared at him for a few seconds. 

Dr Weston mumbled, "Is he always this idiotic?"

"More so..." I answered.

"What?" he asked, confused.

"The microchips, you goof!"

"What'll they do?"

Dr Demonico sighed, "Jesus... they'll take in your heartrates, breathing rates, pheromonal statuses, hormonal statuses, alcoholic intake, etcetera, etcetera."

Dr Weston continued, "Oh, and we'll know if you break the number one school rule, as well."

I winced, "How would you know that?"

Shawn groaned, "Well, that's annoying."

"Matching breathing rates, heart rates and pheromonal statuses would usually indicate that something happened," Dr Weston informed, "Now run along, or you'll miss dinner."

"Food!" I shouted and leaped up from the chair, almost staggering it, before I ran for the elevators. 

Song: Cold Water - Justin Bieber, MØ and Major Lazer

(^^,)... xx Sharky