"Apparently life hates me," Dream decided.

"It's not sooo bad," Savannah said, trying to sound optimistic. She and Sawyer were visiting Dream at the hospital.

"Yeah, look on the bright side," Sawyer said.

"What's on the bright side?"

"Uh...ah...well...um..."

"Well, it is New Year's Eve right now," Savannah pointed out.

"Yeah! It's a holiday!"

Dream smiled grimly. "Thanks guys, but I'm not going to cheer up. I'm injured in more places than I can count, and I'm still grounded."

"Well," Savannah shrugged. "If you don't mind, we can invite Zac and Axel over and do the New Year's countdown together here."

"Axel is fine. My dad doesn't like Zac for whatever reason I don't even know why!"

"Yikes," Sawyer smirked slightly.

"Why don't I like Zac?" Dream's dad entered the room. "You stay at a boy's apartment for three days and ask me why I don't like him?"

Dream groaned. Not this again! "I already told you, he's with Savannah, and we're just friends. Emphasis on FRIENDS."

"Huh, what?" Savannah blinked. "Last time I checked, I wasn't with anyone."

"Dream, care to explain why you lied?" her dad asked, his eyes narrowing.

"For heaven's sake!" Dream grumbled.

"Come on," Sawyer interjected, "Even though Savannah and Zac say they aren't together, it's not like their wedding hasn't already been fully planned."

"Huh," Dream's dad said, looking confused.

"He's just a good friend of mine, okay?" Dream said.

"Fine, he can come over and visit tonight," her dad begrudgingly agreed.

"Yay," Savannah said, excited.

"Of course," Dream snickered.

"Well, we have to go now," Savannah looked at her mom's text. "See you tonight?"

"Yeah, sure."

"Okay great, can't wait," Savannah gave Dream a hug, resulting in Dream grunting.

"Bye, Dream," Sawyer waved, exiting the room.

"They're good friends," Dream's dad commented as they left.

"Yep," Dream agreed.

Bored, she lay back when she noticed an unfamiliar woman standing right outside the door of her hospital room. She squinted, her heart pounding. She had never looked at the woman closely before, but now that she had a chance to...

She had seen this woman exactly twice in her life. Once when she and Savannah rescued Lili Robinson, and they went to the police station, and the second time, right outside the bathrooms at the court case in France.

And now that she thought about it, the woman looked a tiny, just a tiny bit, like Zac.

Huh. Weird, she thought.

---

"So, are you ready for the countdown?" Savannah asked, sitting next to Dream on the hospital bed. It was afternoon, and she decided to stop by while the boys were at the park playing basketball.

"Yow, you could have warned me, I think you just crushed my leg," Dream complained, scooting over to make more room for her friend. "But yeah."

"You seem preoccupied, what's on your mind?"

"Stuff." Dream didn't exactly feel like talking.

"Hm," Savannah raised one eyebrow.

"So I fell down a ten story building and miraculously survived. Some of Mrs. Woods's victims had much worse happen to them and they didn't survive. Others, like Lili, did."

"I'm not exactly following here," Savannah frowned.

"Mrs. Woods isn't the only criminal out there. If we help win Lili's court case, then Mrs. Woods will probably go to jail for a long time, who knows. But still, there's people getting kidnapped, getting hurt, getting killed out there. Maybe there's other psychopathic teachers out there."

"And your point?"

"We agree that what Mrs. Woods is doing is wrong, right?"

"Well yeah, duh."

"There's other Mrs. Woods's out there. You just never encountered one before."

"Huh, interesting."

"We should help the kids, or teens, high schoolers, whatever."

"How?"

"I don't know. But education is important, and all kids should get an education without having to worry about...well this stuff that we're worrying about. And even getting school cancelled for who knows how long?"

"Hm. Well, what plans do you have in mind?"

"I don't know yet," Dream confessed. "But I really feel like we should do something. I'll figure something out," she vowed.

---

A/N

Okay, first of all, I am so, so, sorry I didn't update on time. I've been sick for almost three weeks now, and yesterday was really bad so I completely forgot to update! 

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this chapter lol :) Please vote and comment if you did!

Next update: Friday (I swear I'll get this one in on time!!!)

💙, Stella Rose